This Week In Legal Tech: Practice Management Pricing Gets Murky
If you are in the market for a PM system, don’t just jump at the first one that seems to offer a good deal.
One of the advantages of cloud-based practice management software is supposed to be pricing that is simple and predictable. Pay a set monthly subscription price and get a suite of tools for managing your matters and clients.
Increasingly, however, practice management (PM) pricing is getting murkier. In fairness, I do not believe this is due to malevolence or subterfuge by PM vendors. Rather, it is the result of competitive forces that are driving vendors to offer increasingly varied menus of packages, options, and integrations. Overall, this increasing variety is good news for lawyers. But it is adding complexity to pricing.
Even excluding pricing, shopping for a PM suite is difficult. Different platforms’ features rarely align in a way that makes comparing them easy and their websites often lack sufficiently detailed descriptions. Pricing, at least, should be one element that is transparent and straightforward.
Happy Lawyers, Better Results The Key To Thriving In Tough Times
To their credit, most PM vendors list their pricing openly on their websites. Frustratingly, a handful do not. Instead they direct the prospective customer to contact a sales representative for a price quote. That should not be required for a SaaS (software as a service) product.
But even when companies list their pricing, comparing competing products can still be confusing. This is because the price of the PM product is only part of the story. Add-ons and integrations often push the total cost beyond the product’s monthly subscription price.
This makes it all the more important, when shopping for a PM suite, to figure out in advance which features are important to you and then price each platform based on that feature set.
Example: Credit Card Processing
Sponsored
Law Firm Business Development Is More Than Relationship Building
AI Presents Both Opportunities And Risks For Lawyers. Are You Prepared?
Curbing Client And Talent Loss With Productivity Tech
AI Presents Both Opportunities And Risks For Lawyers. Are You Prepared?
Let’s say, for example, that you want a PM platform that will allow you to accept credit card payments online. Several PM platforms offer credit card processing of one sort or another. But what you pay can differ quite a bit.
Some platforms offer this through integrations with LawPay, a popular credit-card processing service for lawyers. Both CosmoLex and PracticePanther offer LawPay integrations, for example. But the price of LawPay is not included in their subscriptions. That means that on top of CosmoLex’s $49 and PracticePanther’s $39 monthly subscription prices, you would also need a separate LawPay subscription, which costs from $5 to $20 a month, plus per-transaction fees.
Clio also offers LawPay integration and, like CosmoLex and PracticePanther, its basic $39 monthly subscription does not include the cost of LawPay. However, Clio’s middle-tier plan for $59 a month does include LawPay. So if you’re interested in Clio and want credit card processing, it may be worth skipping the lower-tier plan – although even that may depend on how often and how you’ll use LawPay.
MyCase, which costs $39/month per user, provides its own, integrated credit card and e-check processing service. You pay no extra subscription fee for these services. Instead, MyCase charges a flat 3 percent transaction fee for credit card payments. E-check payments are free.
Other Examples
Sponsored
Happy Lawyers, Better Results The Key To Thriving In Tough Times
How The New Lexis+ AI App Empowers Lawyers On The Go
Another example of a feature for which pricing varies widely is client relationship management (CRM), for managing the pre-retainer process of communicating with prospective clients and leads. Here again, Clio offers this through integrations with Intake123, for an extra $9 to $79 a month, and Lexicata, which no longer lists prices on its website but instead requires a “custom price quote.” Rocket Matter has its own CRM product, Rocket Matter Intake, but it requires an extra cost of $52 to $65 a month. PracticePanther includes CRM as part of its base subscription cost.
Still another feature that creates price confusion is accounting. Some PM platforms list accounting as a feature, but what they actually do is integrate with a third-party accounting system. Clio, Rocket Matter and MyCase have no built-in accounting function, but instead integrate with QuickBooks Online. Clio also integrates with Xero. You’ll need a separate subscription to the accounting system. Plus, with Clio, you’ll need the $59 middle-tier subscription option to enable the accounting integration.
Others provide integrated accounting that is included in their subscription price. These include CosmoLex and Zola.
In some cases, only one platform may offer an integration you consider essential. Take legal research. If you are a Westlaw user, only Thomson Reuters Firm Central provides direct Westlaw integration. For Fastcase users, only Clio provides direct integration. And CosmoLex is the only platform that integrates with Casemaker.
Do Your Homework
Further adding to the overall price confusion is that companies can frequently change their prices, as companies are wont to do. Take Clio. Prior to 2014, it cost $49 per month per attorney and $24 a month for support staff. In February 2014, it raised its monthly subscription price by 47 percent, to $72 per attorney (or $65 a month if paid annually) and eliminated support-staff pricing. Then, a year later, it changed its pricing again, this time to the three-tier structure that remains in effect today.
In writing this column, my intent is not to criticize the PM vendors. To the contrary, it is a good thing for lawyers that these vendors are constantly expanding the capabilities of their platforms through new features and third-party integrations. Law practices vary widely and so do the products and services they need.
It appears to me that Clio leads the pack in this regard, offering integrations with some 45 third-party apps, ranging from AgileLaw for managing litigation exhibits to WebMerge for document automation. And it also integrates with Zapier to connect Clio to hundreds of other web apps. Those integrations are one of Clio’s strengths in the market.
Rather, my point is simply to do your due diligence on pricing. If you are in the market for a PM system, don’t just jump at the first one that seems to offer a good deal. Before you buy, make a list of the features that are important to your firm. Then price out these platforms based on your list of features. Often, you’ll find, a platform’s basic subscription price is only part of the story.
