Clio alternatives

Leaving Clio?
Here is the whole field.

We build one of the platforms below, so read this accordingly. It is still the most useful version of this page we know how to write: every real option, what each one suits, and the situations where we are not the answer.

Book a demo Read the full buyer's guide
Encrypted in transit Documents and AI in Australia No lock-in contracts Guided setup available Your data exportable on request

Last reviewed

What are the best alternatives to Clio for an Australian law firm?

The main alternatives to Clio for an Australian law firm are LEAP, Smokeball, Actionstep, Affinity, Practice Evolve, Law App and MatterFirst. Which one suits depends on firm size, practice area and how much configuration you want to own. MatterFirst is the Australian-built option, with configurable workflows, automatic time capture for review and AI document work. Documents are stored in Sydney and document AI is processed in Australia.

Alternatives to Clio, and what each one suits
Platform Origin Best suited to
MatterFirst Australia Small Australian firms of up to about 20 users wanting configurable workflows, automatic time capture for review and AI document work
LEAP Australia Firms whose work is precedent-heavy and who want the vendor with the longest Australian track record.
Smokeball Australia and United States Firms requiring Word and Outlook activity tracking or a supplied Australian forms library.
Actionstep New Zealand Firms wanting configurable matter progression and step-based automation.
Affinity Australia Firms evaluating Affinity’s integrated accounting and configurable workflows.
Practice Evolve Australia and United Kingdom Mid-size firms evaluating connected matter, document and legal accounting requirements.
Law App Australia Small firms with high file throughput that want general accounting in the same system.

Competitor claims use the linked sources and their recorded verification dates. Confirm current plan coverage and terms with the provider before signing.

Before you shortlist

Why firms leave Clio, and when they should not.

Reasons firms give for moving

  • Check the selected Australian plan and each required integration
  • Agree hosting, AI processing and export requirements in your procurement review

Reasons to stay where you are

  • You operate in more than one country
  • You need specific third-party integrations offered in its marketplace
  • A long public review history and reference list matter to your selection process

A migration costs money and months. If the reasons above still describe your firm, staying is a legitimate answer and we would rather say so.

What a move actually costs

The four things that decide whether this is worth it.

Nobody leaves a practice management system because of a feature list. They leave when the cost of staying exceeds these four, and that is the sum worth doing before you book a single demo.

  1. 01

    Trust ledger history

    Seven years of it, and the obligation follows the records rather than the software. Settle where it lands before anything else.

  2. 02

    Precedents and templates

    Rebuilt rather than migrated in almost every case. Usually the longest task in the project and rarely on the first plan.

  3. 03

    Retraining the team

    Weeks of reduced output while people relearn a daily tool. Larger than the licence difference for most firms.

  4. 04

    The parallel run

    A month with both systems live is the cheapest insurance available, and the first thing cut when a timeline slips.

Our own position on the first of these: MatterFirst imports contacts, matters, documents, time entries, invoices, billing codes and leads today. The importer for historical trust ledger data is in active development. Ask us where it is up to, and ask every other vendor on this page the same question, because the answers vary far more than the marketing does.

MatterFirst is an AI-native legal practice management platform for Australian law firms, built for small and boutique practices by NorthCape Technology.

MatterFirst suits small Australian firms of up to about 20 users evaluating alternatives to Clio, with configurable workflows, automatic time capture for review and AI document work. Evaluate the same sources, branches and approval requirements in both platforms. If a supplied Australian precedent library is essential, verify its coverage separately; MatterFirst supports your own templates.

Evaluation checklist

Compare them properly, not just against us

Every platform on this page deserves the same questions. This is the list we would use, including the ones where our own answer is the weak one. No form and no email required, and it downloads as markdown you can paste into whatever you are already keeping.

Read the checklist Download it

Reviewed by Liam Killingback

Co-founder and Technical Director, NorthCape Technology

Full-stack engineer with deep experience in Elixir, private AI systems and secure infrastructure. Builds the MatterFirst platform and reviews the comparison and migration pages on this site. Engineer rather than lawyer, which is why the pages he reviews cite sources instead of asserting legal positions.

Last reviewed

How we check this

  • Every claim about another platform comes from that platform's own public documentation or pricing page, linked from the page it appears on.
  • Where a vendor does not publish something, the page says 'not published' rather than estimating it. A guess that reads as a fact is the failure mode this rule exists to prevent.
  • Every page carries the date its competitor facts were last checked, so you can see how fresh they are rather than assuming.
  • We sell one of the products being compared. Every page says so, and every page states the cases where the competitor is the better choice.
  • If you find something here that is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it and re-date the page.

FAQ

Questions firms ask when they leave

What is the best alternative to Clio in Australia?
Choose against your firm’s requirements. MatterFirst combines configurable workflows, automatic time capture for review and AI document work for small Australian firms. Compare activity sources, review controls, workflow branches and approval requirements in demonstrations. If you require a supplied Australian precedent library or a particular external integration, verify that coverage separately for each platform.
How long does it take to move off Clio?
Plan three to six months from decision to live for a small firm, covering extraction, mapping, a parallel run and training. Larger practices take longer. The variable that moves this most is how much trust ledger history has to come with you.
Will we lose our data if we switch?
Not if the extraction is done while the old system still works. Ask any vendor for a written statement of what their export does not include, since the useful answer is the list of things that do not come out, and nobody volunteers it.
Is it worth switching at all?
Often not. A migration costs money and months, and the four costs listed above usually exceed any licence saving. Switching makes sense when the current system is blocking how you want to work, not when it is merely irritating.
Where is my data stored?
The application runs on Fly.io in Sydney. Database and backups are hosted on Fly.io Managed high-availability PostgreSQL clusters in Sydney. Documents are stored in Amazon Web Services S3 in Sydney. Document extraction and matter questions run on Amazon Web Services Bedrock in Australia, and reading a scanned document runs in Microsoft Azure's Australia East region. These locations describe the application, document storage, database, backups and document AI services. The trust evidence page at /trust records the scope and dated evidence for each published control.
How much does MatterFirst cost?
Pricing is per workspace rather than per seat, starting at $199 per month for Solo. Each plan includes a set number of users, a monthly AI balance in Australian dollars, the client portal and automations. Extra users are billed only past the included seats. Full plan inclusions are on the pricing page.
Can I get my data out if I leave?
Yes. Your matters, contacts, documents and time records are exportable on request, and there is no lock-in contract. We would rather you were able to leave and chose not to.
Is there a free trial?
Yes, a 14 day guided trial on Solo, Practice or Firm. It is guided rather than self-serve because a practice management system tells you very little until it has your real matters in it, and we would rather help you load them than leave you looking at an empty workspace.
Who builds MatterFirst?
NorthCape Technology, a Melbourne-based software company. MatterFirst is built in Australia for Australian legal practice, with trust accounting and Xero as first-class capabilities. Available through coordinated setup: PEXA, InfoTrack. Coordinated manual setup is arranged with MatterFirst and the provider.
Is MatterFirst suitable for a firm of my size?
It is designed for solo practitioners up to firms of roughly twenty seats. Below that, Solo carries the full platform for one user. Above it, the platform works but you should expect to talk to us about migration and rollout rather than signing up online.

Weighing your options after Clio?

Bring your export and your timeline. We will tell you what lands, what needs a decision, and where another platform on this page would serve you better.

Book a demo Compare us head to head