The Best Cloud-Based Legal Software for Small and Mid-Sized Firms

8 min read

Here are some of the premier software suites your small to mid-sized practice will love. 

The legal landscape has forever changed. The introduction of modern legal technology has made legal and administrative work faster and easier than ever, while simultaneously reducing errors and cutting costs. Forward-thinking BigLaw firms across all practice areas are embracing these tech solutions in droves, leveraging them to boost profits and gain a competitive edge.

But while BigLaw is pushing ahead with legal technology, smaller firms risk falling behind as a result of budget limitations and other practical considerations that make adopting legaltech more challenging. Small to mid-sized firms often lack the time to properly source and vet new software solutions, let alone the funds to spend on enterprise-level tools.

That’s why emerging legaltech providers are creating easy-to-implement and cost-effective software suites designed specifically for the needs of smaller firms. The previous gap in the market has now been filled with a vast array of tech solutions for everything from document management to litigation software and more. Here are some of our top preferred software suites designed with small to mid-sized firms in mind.

Document Management Systems: Keep Your Documents in Order

Lawyers and paraprofessionals deal with an impressive volume of documents – even at small and mid-sized firms. If your firm is still using paper documents (or if you’re managing documents through a standard file navigation system), then chances are, your files aren’t organized well enough for you to make good use of them. You’re likely manually searching your documents for key terms and sharing documents with colleagues via email as needed. This manual document processing is slow, inefficient, and creates extra work, as well as extra risk (ever had a Law Society audit?).

That’s where document management systems like NetDocuments come into play. These digital tools make your documents and emails searchable, shareable, and organized – all within a secure, cloud-based platform. Better yet, you can use these document management systems to collaborate on documents in real time with your colleagues and even use AI-powered search to find what you’re looking for faster..

While NetDocuments doesn’t publish its prices on its website, users have reported that their prices are based on the number of users, making it easy for your firm to scale your subscription up or down based on your needs.

Trust Accounting Solutions for Estate Matters

Trust accounting is a key activity for legal professionals handling anything from real estate to estate administration files. When it comes to managing your real estate transactions or your clients’ estate funds and other assets, you need robust and secure software with strong compliance measures in place. More importantly, you need software that makes it easy to catch and correct errors, without breaking the bank.

Two of the top trust accounting providers on the market are Soluno and Cosmolex. Both of these solutions provide trust-compliant accounting features that enable custom trust configurations and permit easy transfers of assets between accounts. They also make it easy to separate trust accounts from operating accounts, so you and your clients can track expenses from each account with ease.

Best of all, both solutions are available at small practice-friendly pricing. Cosmolex offers plans starting at $99 USD per user per month with discounts available for membership with things like the CBA, while Soluno offers licenses around $100 CAD  per user per month, with discounts available.

Document Automation Engines to Accelerate Legal Work

Document creation takes up a significant part of any legal professional’s day. Whether it’s a real estate conveyance, business incorporation, a will, a contract, or something else entirely, drafting documents by hand is time-consuming and mentally intensive.

Now, though, emerging technology solutions are making it easy to create almost any type of legal document in seconds. These document automation apps can help your firm save time, cut costs, and reduce errors in your documents. Solutions in this space vary from simple generic tools like HotDocs, Avvoka, to more practice area specific tools like DivorceMate, and Appara (that’s us!).

HotDocs by Mitratech is a document automation and assembly solution equipped with dashboards and reports, document templates, and enterprise-level integrations. HotDocs removes manual data entry from your workflow, generating documents in multiple languages in a user-friendly way.

Avvoka is an AI-powered, no-code document automation platform that makes it easy to draft documents like contracts and procedural forms, plus know-your-customer documentation and even questionnaires.

DivorceMate is a cloud-based software suite for divorce lawyers that makes it easy to calculate child and spousal support, create professional-looking court forms, and draft domestic agreements like separation agreements and marriage contracts. DivorceMate is priced at $200 USD per user per month.

But what if you’re looking for a document automation platform for a different practice area, like real estate or estate planning? Or what if you need a document automation platform that can talk to your entity management system?

That’s where Appara comes in. Appara (that’s us!) is an entity management, document automation, and workflow automation suite designed for use by corporate, real estate, estate planning, and estate administration legal professionals. With Appara, you can access enterprise-level automation and entity management features on a pay-as-you-go basis. Appara is also the first ISO-accredited product on the market, and we undergo annual third-party audits to maintain our ISO accreditation, so you can have confidence that all of your data is secure.

In some cases, Appara users have cut down time-per-file by as much as 75%, while other Appara users have doubled their output and averted staffing shortages. For more information or to book a demonstration of Appara, visit https://appara.ai/contact. 

Case Management Software for Trial Lawyers

Trial lawyers tend to have a vast number of cases at any one time, and keeping them all straight can be time-consuming. Even more tedious is managing all of the documents generated by all of those cases.

Enter: MyCase. MyCase is a case management suite that incorporates a client communications portal with a billing and payment system so that you can give clients real-time updates, share documents, track time, and take payments all within the same tool you use to keep your case details and documents straight.

With MyCase, you can also leverage a variety of tools like client intake forms, eSignatures, time entry and expense tracking, and a built-in text messaging service so you can talk to your clients over text. MyCase boasts that its users increase their caseload by 38% on average, gaining at least 3 billable hours per day.

MyCase offers a basic plan starting at an affordable $39 USD per user per month, while its more expensive Pro plan comes in at $89 USD per user per month. For power users who also need full-text search capabilities and an open API, MyCase offers an Advanced subscription at $109 USD per user per month.

Transaction Management Tools to Make Transactions a Breeze

For corporate firms, managing transactions is a core day-to-day task. Whether it’s an incorporation, a merger or an acquisition, or something else entirely, conducting corporate transaction work often involves multiple parties and actions that all need to be meticulously tracked. This is especially complex when you’re dealing with large companies that have multiple subsidiaries, or when you need to conduct multi-step transactions.

Thankfully, there exists a variety of transaction management tools that corporate lawyers and paraprofessionals can use to quickly execute transactions, manage entities, and track matters and deals over time.

With a visualization tool like StructureFlow, for instance, your small to mid-sized firm can develop in-depth org charts, timelines, and maps to streamline your workflow and keep on top of all the minute details. StructureFlow is a great tool for deal visualization, rendering complex information in an easy-to-understand way.

Another great tool for small and mid-sized corporate firms is DealCloser. DealCloser makes it possible to track documents, checklists, signature pages and packets, closing books, and more. With DealCloser, you can stay up-to-date with real-time information on your deals while simultaneously eliminating errors.

Finally, with Appara, you can visualize, plan, and complete transactions in the same platform you use to store your entity information. Appara makes it easy to conduct complex corporate legal transactions like mergers and acquisitions, debt repayments, loans, and more. Plus, you can also use Appara to file more incorporations in less time and conduct annual & ongoing maintenance. Since Appara is a platform, it seamlessly connects all our Solutions (Corporate, Real Estate, Estate Planning, and Estate Administration), enabling your firm to conduct multi-step, multi-entity transactions across practice areas from within a single platform.

Firm & Practice Management Apps to Keep Your Whole Company Running Smoothly

Even if you’re only running a small or mid-sized practice, firm management is still an important priority to ensure your practice’s continued growth and to keep your team organized. Practice management software offers a variety of advantages for small and mid-sized firms, with features like automated workflows to reduce administrative burden and custom reporting to gain visibility over your practice as a business.

Some of the most popular practice management apps on the market include Clio, LEAP, and PracticePanther. These software suites share a variety of important features like lead management tools, time tracking apps, data reporting, billing, and case management.

Clio founder Jack Newton made the case at Web Summit Vancouver in May 2025 that vertical SaaS will own the future. Vertical SaaS solutions are those that meet the needs of specific industries rather than trying to be all things to all people. When choosing cloud-based software for your small to mid-sized firm, you’ll want to ensure you opt for a vertical solution, as vertical solutions often offer the deep industry expertise that horizontal solutions lack.

Small and mid-sized law firms have many of the same needs as BigLaw firms: Robust software that helps lawyers and paraprofessionals save time, cut costs, and reduce errors. While the enterprise software market is quite expensive, emerging legaltech solutions have cropped up to specifically address the needs of small and mid-sized firms at a price that you can afford. With many of these new legaltech providers offering flexible and pay-as-you-go pricing, there’s no longer any need for smaller firms to suffer with manual processes. Legal technology is leveling the playing field of the legal industry, giving small and mid-sized firms the same efficiency advantages as BigLaw for the first time ever.

Does your small to mid-sized firm need a flexible but reliable entity management, document automation, or workflow automation system? We can help. Book a demo to unlock your FREE trial of Appara today and discover how much extra revenue your firm can make.