Legal Time Tracking Software Compared: Timers, Apps and Cost per Timekeeper

Legal time tracking software records the hours each lawyer and paralegal works on a matter and turns them into invoice lines at the right rate. For five timekeepers, the lowest published cost is LawPay’s, $228 a year for 5 users on LawPay Monthly Pricing [1–4], a flat fee for unlimited users, and the lowest per-user plan is TimeSolv’s, $2,580 a year for 5 users on TimeSolv Pro [5, 6].

Every product here bills from the time it records. The choice turns on how time gets captured (timer, phone, desktop tracker or automatic capture) and on how cost grows with each timekeeper.

Legal time tracking software: cost a year for 5 users

Legal time tracking software: cost a year for 5 users

Vendor	Cost a year, 5 users	Label	Plan and price	General ledger	Best for
LawPay	$228 [1–4]	Published	LawPay Monthly Pricing $19 per firm per month, billed monthly	Via QuickBooks Online	Firms that take card or eCheck payments into a client trust (IOLTA) account and need processing fees kept out of that account. [3, 7]
TimeSolv	$2,580 [5, 6]	Published	TimeSolv Pro $43 per user per month, billed annually; or $45 billed monthly	Via QuickBooks Online; or Via Xero	Solo and small firms that want hourly time tracking and billing with trust accounting, LEDES and ABA task codes on the Legal plan, at a published per-user price, while keeping their books in QuickBooks or Xero. [5]
CosmoLex	$2,940 [8, 9]	Published	CosmoLex Launch $49 per user per month, billed annually; or $59 billed monthly	Via QuickBooks Online	Firms that want trust accounting and their own books (general ledger, payables, financial statements) in the same system as billing, without a separate QuickBooks file. This needs the Pro plan. [8, 10]
PracticePanther	$2,940 [11–13]	Published	PracticePanther Solo $49 per user per month, billed annually; or $59 billed monthly	Via QuickBooks Online	Small firms that want practice management, time tracking, billing and a trust ledger in one subscription with a published per-user price on every plan; full operating accounting (general ledger, bank feeds, bill payment) needs Business Pro, and lower plans rely on the QuickBooks Online sync for the firm's books. [11, 14]
Clio	from $2,940 [15, 16] a	Published	Clio Manage Starter from $49 per user per month, billing term not stated	Built in	Firms that want practice management, billing, trust accounting and bookkeeping in one subscription instead of pairing a billing tool with QuickBooks or Xero. [15, 17]
MyCase	$3,000 [18–20]	Published	MyCase Basic $50 per user per month, billed annually; or $60 billed monthly	None	Solo, small and mid-sized US firms that want case management, billing, trust ledgers and card or eCheck payments in one subscription, with published per-user prices [18, 21]
LeanLaw	from $3,756 [22–32] a,b	Published	LeanLaw Core + QuickBooks Online Simple Start (1 accounting user) from $55 per user per month, billing term not stated + QuickBooks Online Simple Start $38 per firm per month, billed monthly	Via QuickBooks Online Simple Start (1 accounting user), included in the cost	Firms that already keep their books in QuickBooks Online (or want to) and need legal time tracking, billing and client trust ledgers added on top, with their bookkeeper continuing to work in QuickBooks Online. [27, 33]
Smokeball		Not published	Smokeball Bill [34, 35]	Via QuickBooks Online	Small firms that want billing and trust accounting with three-way reconciliation and keep their general ledger in QuickBooks Online. [36, 37]

LawPay is first because its fee is per firm, not per timekeeper.

How each product captures time

LawPay

LawPay’s timers are tied to matters [38], and its one monthly fee covers time tracking and invoicing for unlimited users [1]. It has no practice management of its own: it connects to the system a firm already runs [38]. See LawPay fees and rates.

TimeSolv

Both TimeSolv plans include time and expense tracking, matter budgets, and project and task management [5]. Pro has no trust accounting or conflict checks; those come with Legal [5]. See TimeSolv pricing.

CosmoLex

Every CosmoLex plan has timesheet entry [9]. Time is billed in the same system that keeps the trust ledgers and, on Pro, the firm’s own books [9]. See CosmoLex pricing.

PracticePanther

PracticePanther lists billable time and expense tracking as included on every plan, and batch time entries start at Essential [11]. Time is billed in the same system as its matters, client portal and trust ledger. See PracticePanther pricing.

Clio

Clio Manage has a timer and time entries on every current plan [39]. Time is billed in the same system that holds the trust accounts and, through Clio Accounting, the general ledger [15]. See the Clio pricing breakdown.

MyCase

Time and expense entry is on every MyCase plan, and Smart Time Finder is on Pro and Advanced only [18]. Clients pay billed time through LawPay inside MyCase, with no LawPay monthly fee [18]. See MyCase pricing and the Clio and MyCase comparison.

LeanLaw

LeanLaw records time by timer or manual entry [25]. Its desktop tracker app syncs entries in real time, but entries made offline in the tracker do not sync [40]. On phones and tablets it runs as a web app with nothing to install [41]. See LeanLaw pricing.

Smokeball

Smokeball sells automatic time capture, called AutoTime. It is included in Prosper+ and sold as an add-on for Grow, while Boost and Grow on their own record time manually [34]. Smokeball publishes no plan or add-on prices. See Smokeball pricing.

Legal time tracking features compared

Legal time tracking software: what each product includes

Legal time tracking software: what each product includes

Feature	LawPay	TimeSolv	CosmoLex	PracticePanther	Clio	MyCase	LeanLaw	Smokeball
Time tracking	Yes [1, 38]	Yes [5]	Yes [8]	Yes [11]	Yes [15, 39]	Yes [18]	Yes: Core, Pro, Elite [22, 40]	Yes [34]
Mobile app	Yes [38]	Yes [5, 42]	Yes: Core, Pro [9]	Yes [11]	Yes [15, 43]	Yes: MyCase Pro, MyCase Advanced [18, 20]	Partly [40, 41, 44]	Yes: Boost, Grow, Prosper+ [34]
Billing	Yes [2, 45]	Yes [5]	Yes [8]	Yes [11]	Yes [15]	Yes [18]	Yes: Core, Pro, Elite [27, 46]	Yes [34, 47]
LEDES billing	Not stated [38]	Yes: TimeSolv Legal [5]	Yes: Core, Pro [8]	Yes: Business, Business Pro [11]	Yes [15, 39]	Yes: MyCase Pro, MyCase Advanced [18]	Yes: Pro, Elite [22, 48]	Yes [47]
Trust accounting	Partly [7]	Yes: TimeSolv Legal [5, 49]	Yes [8, 9]	Yes [11, 50]	Yes [15, 51]	Yes [18]	Yes [22, 52]	Yes [34, 53]
QuickBooks Online integration	Yes [2]	Yes [5, 54]	Yes [8–10, 55, 56]	Yes [11, 57, 58]	Yes: Core, Signature, Elite [15, 59, 60]	Yes: MyCase Pro, MyCase Advanced [18, 61]	Yes [25, 26]	Yes [34, 37]
Xero integration	Partly [38, 62, 63]	Yes [5]	Not stated [64]	No [65]	Yes: Core, Signature, Elite [15, 66]	Not stated [67]	Not stated [26, 68]	Not stated [37]
Free trial	Not stated [69]	Yes [5]	Yes [8, 70]	Yes [11, 71]	Yes [15, 72]	Yes [18]	Yes [22, 73]	Yes: Bill, Boost [35, 74, 75]

From time entry to invoice

Billing rates decide what each hour is worth on the bill. LawPay sets a default hourly rate per staff member [38], TimeSolv offers flexible billing rates on both plans [5], and MyCase keeps rate plans for Advanced [18].

Firms that send LEDES invoices also need each entry coded by task. Clio includes UTBMS coding on every plan [15]; PracticePanther adds it at Business [11], and TimeSolv’s ABA task codes need Legal [5].

Once time is billed, the invoice moves on to the books. LeanLaw posts every invoice to QuickBooks Online as a receivable [27], and LawPay syncs its transactions to QuickBooks Online by the following day [2].

What drives the cost of legal time tracking software

Every timekeeper is a paid user

Six of the seven products with published prices charge per user, so each lawyer or paralegal who records time adds a seat. TimeSolv charges per active user and offers volume discounts from five users, without publishing them [5]. MyCase puts every user in a firm on the same plan [76], so one person who needs a Pro feature moves the whole firm up. LawPay’s flat fee does not change with headcount.

Mobile and automatic capture sit on higher plans

MyCase Basic and CosmoLex Launch, the plans in the main table, have no mobile app; it starts at Pro and Core. Smokeball’s AutoTime needs Prosper+ or a paid add-on. The table below shows the cheapest plan with a mobile app from each vendor that publishes one.

Cheapest plan with a mobile app: cost a year for 1, 5 and 20 users

Cheapest plan with a mobile app: cost a year for 1, 5 and 20 users

Plan	Cost a year, 1 user	Cost a year, 5 users	Cost a year, 20 users
TimeSolv Pro, billed annually Published a,b	$516 [5, 6]	$2,580 [5, 6]	$10,320 [5, 6]
TimeSolv Pro, billed monthly Published a,b	$540 [5, 6]	$2,700 [5, 6]	$10,800 [5, 6]
PracticePanther Solo, billed annually Published c	$588 [11–13]	$2,940 [11–13]	$11,760 [11–13]
PracticePanther Solo, billed monthly Published c	$708 [11–13]	$3,540 [11–13]	$14,160 [11–13]
Clio Manage Starter Published d,e	from $588 [15, 16]	from $2,940 [15, 16]	from $11,760 [15, 16]
CosmoLex Core, billed annually Published f	$1,188 [8, 9]	$5,940 [8, 9]	$23,760 [8, 9]
CosmoLex Core, billed monthly Published f	$1,308 [8, 9]	$6,540 [8, 9]	$26,160 [8, 9]
MyCase Pro, billed annually Published g	$1,200 [18, 19, 83]	$6,000 [18, 19, 83]	$24,000 [18, 19, 83]
MyCase Pro, billed monthly Published g	$1,440 [18, 19, 83]	$7,200 [18, 19, 83]	$28,800 [18, 19, 83]

Smokeball’s plans with an app are not priced.