Top 17 In-house Legal Software To Save You Time and Money

Ever wished working with legal documents was easier and took less time? Is your company growing fast but feel like the contracts and legal hassle are holding you back?

Contracts are the lifeline of every business and the most common challenge faced by both growing and established companies. IACCM studies show that the average cost of a standard contract is around $6,900. Average cycle times to create, negotiate, and approve contracts range between 7-18 days, as found by the Aberdeen Group.

With these statistics, it’s no wonder that more and more companies are adopting technology to automate in-house legal operations. Gartner research estimates that by 2024, legal departments will have automated 50% of legal work related to major corporate transactions.

But with a growing number of in-house tools available, deciding which tools are best for your department is a challenging path to navigate. So in this article, we’re outlining the top 17 in-house legal software to help you overcome legal challenges, automate processes, and save you time and money.

What is a Legal Software System?

A legal software system is a piece of technology designed to help you with your legal operations. Whether it’s to automate legal workflow, help you draft and manage contracts, store documents, document collaboration, or e-signing, legal software can truly benefit your business.

Not only will the software save you tons of time and money, but automation also helps to mitigate risks that human error can make.

What Legal Software Systems do legal teams use?

Before diving deep into the top 17 in-house legal software, let’s highlight the main categories in which these technologies come in handy.

1. Contract Lifecycle Management (CLMs)

Contract Lifecycle Management is an all-around software system for managing an organization’s contracts. The main benefit of contract lifecycle management software is having all contract-related data and workflows in one place without a need to install a bunch of other tools for drafting, editing, collaborating, signing, storing separately and for additional costs. All to help you significantly cut down time and money spent on working with contracts.

2. Document Management

Document management is a system used for organizing, categorizing, storing, and finding documents. Document management software eliminates the problem of documents getting lost and keeping all your data in one place.

3. Document Automation

Document automation systems are designed to assist people and companies in the creation of electronic documents. Most software in document automation offer pre-made templates and conditional text to minimize data entry and reduce time spent per document.

4. Task Management Systems

Task management system aims to help individuals, teams, and businesses organize, prioritize, visualize and analyze different tasks. They are the perfect solution for team collaboration. Legal teams usually use task management systems to manage ongoing workflows, prioritize cases, and keep track of all deadlines.

5. e-Signing

E-Signing software is a breakthrough tool that allows parties to ask for signatures and sign documents electronically, eliminating the need for physical signatures. It speeds up the time to sign the contract and it also removes many of the risks associated with sending a highly confidential contract via regular mail.

6. Legal Spend Management Software

Legal spend management software provides an easy solution for legal operations to report on legal spending and offers invaluable insights and data to make better decisions throughout the company. Features include e-billing, spending dashboards, reports, and analytics.

7. e-Discovery

e-Discovery software automates the electronic discovery process. It helps legal professionals process, review, and produce electronic documents as part of an investigation or a lawsuit.

Now that you have an overview of the different in-house legal software system categories, let's dive into the comparison of individual software and find out which are the best ones for you.

The 17 best in-house legal software

Contract Lifecycle Management

1. Avokaado

Capterra score: 4.9/5

Avokaado is an all-in-one contract lifecycle management tool so you can create, collaborate, sign, and store documents in one single platform. Its clean design and pre-made templates help legal teams save hundreds of hours of their valuable time.

Top 3 features:

  • Entire contract lifecycle management with built-in user collaboration for all stages
  • Assign different levels and user groups for your team or external collaborators
  • Electronic signing and secure storing

Pricing:

  • Freemium (1 user)
  • Starter €29 per month
  • Standard €49 per month
  • Premium €60 per month

Free trial: 7-day free trial for all paid plans.

2. Contractbook

Capterra score: 4.7/5

Contractbook is an enterprise contract lifecycle management software that enables businesses to manage the entire lifecycle of their contracts in a single automated flow.

Top 3 features:

  • All-in-one contract flow
  • Seamless collaboration and negotiation
  • Integration with 3,000+ apps

Pricing:

  • Foundation: $400/month
  • Custom: On quotation

Free trial: They offer a free demo call.

3. Precisely

Capterra score: 4.7/5

Precisely is an in-house legal software made to optimize your contract management lifecycle. It allows you to ensure compliance and automate manual tasks.

Top 3 features:

  • Online contract management system
  • End-user permission levels
  • Easy to navigate online central archive

Pricing:

  • Professional: $62 per user per month
  • Enterprise: $89 per user per month

Free trial: 14-day free trial for Professional.

Document management

4. Microsoft SharePoint

Capterra score: 4.2/5

Microsoft SharePoint is an enterprise document management system that empowers teamwork. Share and manage content, quickly find information, and seamlessly collaborate across the organization.

Top 3 features:

  • Simple sharing and seamless collaboration
  • Powerful search tool
  • Create customized workflows

Pricing:

  • SharePoint Online (Plan 1) - $5.00 per user per month
  • SharePoint Online (Plan 2) - $10.00 per user per month
  • Office 365 E3 - $20.00 per user per month

Free trial: 30 days free trial for Office 365 E3 plan.

5. Rubex by eFileCabinet

Capterra score: 4.4/5

Rubex by eFileCabinet is a highly customizable and advanced document management software that can be used for all industries. It provides intelligent organization, workflow automation, secure file-sharing, and more.

Top 3 features:

  • Full-text searching and mobile accessibility
  • Very powerful platform customization
  • Enhanced security

Pricing:

  • Advantage - $55 per user per month
  • Business - $99 per user per month
  • Unlimited - $199 per user per month

Free trial: You can book a free demo.

6. iManage

Capterra score: 4.6/5

iManage is a cloud-based legal software that helps you collaborate with clients, partner firms, and outside consultants. Share files, store files, and sort all the necessary information into one place using AI technology.

Top 3 features:

  • Secure file sharing
  • Comprehensive search and knowledge management
  • Access critical information online and offline

Pricing:

  • Book a free demo with their team to learn more about their pricing.

Document automation

7. Documate

Capterra score: 5.0/5

Documate is a no-code document automation software that enables you to create custom web forms that populate data straight into your documents.

Top 3 features:

  • Automatically generate documents based on questionnaires
  • Build complex workflows
  • Build client-facing apps

Pricing:

  • Lite - $83 per month
  • Standard - $165 per month
  • Enterprise - custom pricing

Free trial: Free 7-day trial.

8. Legito

Capterra score: 5.0/5

Legito is a smart document workspace where you can build workflows for documents that almost draft themselves. They have a lot of integrations and are suitable for a variety of different industries.

Top 3 features:

  • Advanced document drafting
  • Incomparable number of automation features
  • Document timeline

Pricing:

  • Single User - $360 for 3 months, or $1,200 when paid annually
  • Small Business (10 users) - $2,880 for 3 months, or $9,600 when paid annually
  • Custom (20+ users) - Contact them to get a personalized rate

Free trial: 30-day free trial.

9. HotDocs

Capterra score: 4.0/5

HotDocs is a document automation software made to reduce compliance risk and save time. This in-house legal software turns your frequently used documents and forms into reusable templates and streamlines your workflow.

Top 3 features:

  • Convert any document into a template
  • Turn interview forms into documents
  • Apply rules and guidelines to all templates

Pricing:

  • Starting at $25 per user per month, with a minimum of 5 seats ($125).
  • Contact HotDocs for pricing on 6+ users.

Free trial: 14-day free trial.

10. Clause Base

Capterra score: 4.8/5

Clause Base is an advanced document automation platform and contract management software for in-house counsel and lawyers. Draft documents in minutes, build clause libraries, and automate high-volume documents.

Top 3 features:

  • Clause libraries for easy management of clauses and documents
  • Draft complex documents
  • Interactively fine-tune the automation of documents.

Pricing:

  • Solo - €300 per month for 3 users
  • Team - €750 per month for 15 users
  • Office - €1500 per month for 50 users
  • Enterprise - contact them for a custom rate

Free trial: You can try a free interactive demo or book a demo call with their team.

Task Management System

11. Trello

Capterra score: 4.5/5

Trello is one of the most well-known task management systems. Use it individually, with a team, or for an entire company, and outline and manage all the tasks and projects you can think of.

Top 3 features:

  • Easy drag-and-drop editing and link sharing
  • Unlimited customization with 100s of integrations
  • No-code automation

Pricing:

  • Free - free forever for your whole team
  • Standard - $5 per month per user
  • Premium - $10 per month per user
  • Enterprise - $17.50 per month per user

Free trial: Trello offers an unlimited Free plan, but it lacks some of the advanced features other plans have.

12. Asana

Capterra score: 4.4/5

Asana is a project management tool that helps teams orchestrate and organize their work. Take your tasks to the next level with easy collaboration and customization.

Top 3 features:

  • Create interactive project plans
  • Collaborate in all project stages
  • See and control everything in one place

Pricing:

  • Basic - free forever for teams up to 15 people
  • Premium - €10.99 per user per month
  • Business - €24.99 per user per month
  • Enterprise - contact their team for custom pricing

Free trial: Their Basic plan is free forever but lacks some of the advanced features other plans have

e-Signing

13. DocuSign

Capterra score: 4.7/5

DocuSign is an e-signing software that enables users to send, sign, and manage agreements anytime, anywhere, on any device with confidence.

Top 3 features:

  • Straightforward document creation and easy data fields customization
  • Globally adopted e-signature
  • The highest level of information security assurance

Pricing:

  • Personal - $10 per month
  • Standard - $25 per user per month
  • Business Pro - $40 per user per month

Free trial: 30-day free trial.

14. SignNow

Capterra score: 4.6/5

SignNow is a secure and reliable e-signing software that allows users to sign, send, and manage documents on any device. They also have a straightforward API to embed e-signatures into your website or app.

Top 3 features:

  • Easily send and sign documents
  • Cross-platform e-signature solution
  • Powerful API and integrations

Pricing:

  • Business - $8 per user per month
  • Business Premium - $15 per user per month
  • Enterprise - $30 per user per month

Free trial: 30-day free trial.

Legal Spend Management Software

15. SimpleLegal’s spend management and e-Billing

Capterra score: 5.0/5

SimpleLegal is a corporate legal management software that combines e-billing, spend management, vendor management, matter management, and knowledge management. It also provides great business insights through reporting and analytics.

Top 3 features:

  • Streamline the invoice process
  • Track everything related to internal and external matters
  • Evaluate the firm’s performance and quality

Pricing:

  • Standard - $12,000 per year + variable pricing
  • Enterprise - $36,000 per year  + variable pricing

Free trial: You can book a free demo through their website.

e-Discovery

16. Logikcull

Capterra score: 4.6/5

Logikcull is an easy-to-use e-discovery software that helps you find the data you need. This in-house legal software features a drag-n-drop interface that automates discovery and saves thousands in legal spend.

Top 3 features:

  • Upload any document in seconds
  • Powerful search to quickly find the information you need
  • Share docs with other parties

Pricing:

  • Pay as you go - $395 per matter per month
  • Subscription - contact their team for committed-use plans with premium features

Free trial: Includes up to 10 GB of uploads.

17. Everlaw

Capterra score: 4.8/5

Everlaw empowers law firms, corporations, and government agencies to discover the information they need and solve complex legal challenges.

Top 3 features:

  • Automate duplicative and complex legal work
  • Collaborate across teams
  • Uncover key insights buried in data

Pricing:

  • Custom pricing starting from $250 per month.

Free trial: You can request a free demo from their website.

Wrap Up: Which In-House Legal Software Should Your Team Use?

The key to choosing the best contract management tool for your business is to first identify the specific areas in which you want to improve and then search for a tool that targets these improvements.

We recommend you get started with the free trial for Avokaado because it’s a one-stop-shop solution to entire contract workflow management. With Avokaado, you can create, edit, collaborate, sign, and store your documents with ease fulfilling all your contract lifecycle management needs.

So there you have it — the top 17 in-house legal software to streamline your work, produce greater results, and help you save time and money.

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