Smokeball alternatives

Leaving Smokeball?
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.

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Encrypted at rest and in transit Australian data residency Hosted on AWS No lock-in contracts Guided setup available Your data exportable on request

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

The main alternatives to Smokeball for an Australian law firm are LEAP, Clio, Actionstep, 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 data hosted in the AWS region the firm chooses.

Alternatives to Smokeball, and what each one suits
Platform Origin Best suited to
MatterFirst Australia Australian firms up to about twenty seats wanting document extraction and visual workflows, with data in a region you choose
LEAP Australia Firms whose work is precedent-heavy and who want the vendor with the longest Australian track record.
Clio Canada Firms that need a wide integration ecosystem or operate in more than one jurisdiction.
Actionstep New Zealand Mid-size firms with someone whose job includes maintaining the configuration.
Practice Evolve Australia and United Kingdom Mid-size firms with a specific need for on-premise deployment.
Law App Australia Small firms with high file throughput that want general accounting in the same system.

Checked 29 July 2026 against each vendor's public pages. Where we have not verified something we say so rather than estimating, which is why some cells read 'not published'.

Before you shortlist

Why firms leave Smokeball, and when they should not.

Reasons firms give for moving

  • Published pricing is per user per month on 36-month contracts
  • AutoTime, its best-known feature, is an add-on below the top tier

Reasons to stay where you are

  • You bill hourly and want time captured in the background rather than from memory
  • You want the largest library of automated Australian legal forms
  • Deep Microsoft Office integration is central to how your team works

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 a legal practice management platform for Australian law firms, built by NorthCape Technology, covering matters, documents, trust accounting, billing and a client portal, with data hosted in the AWS region the firm chooses.

MatterFirst suits Australian firms up to about twenty seats leaving Smokeball who want AI document extraction, visual workflow design and onshore processing. It is the weaker fit if you need the largest third-party integration ecosystem, which is Clio, or a decades-deep Australian precedent library, which is LEAP.

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.

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Reviewed by Liam Killingback

Co-founder and Technical Director, NorthCape Technology

Builds the MatterFirst platform. 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 Smokeball in Australia?
There is no single best one. Smokeball suits some firms well, and the table above sets out what each alternative is actually for. For a small or mid-size Australian firm wanting document extraction and workflows it can design itself, MatterFirst is worth a look. For the widest integration ecosystem it is Clio, and for precedent depth it is LEAP.
How long does it take to move off Smokeball?
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?
In the AWS region your firm chooses. Sydney (ap-southeast-2) is the default for Australian firms. Matter data, documents and Document AI processing all stay in that region: documents are not moved to another region to be OCRed or analysed.
How much does MatterFirst cost?
Pricing is per workspace rather than per seat, starting at $149 per month for Solo. Each plan includes a set number of users, a monthly pool of Document AI credits, 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 seven-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, which is why trust accounting and Xero are first-class rather than regional add-ons, and why PEXA and InfoTrack are on the roadmap rather than absent from it.
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 Smokeball?

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.

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