Clio vs PracticePanther

Clio is the broad default, with an app directory running to dozens of pages and add-ons for intake and personal injury. PracticePanther is a narrower first system: time, billing, matters and workflows. Both start at $49 per user a month. Firms connecting many tools choose Clio; two to ten hourly fee earners who dislike configuration choose PracticePanther.

Vendors can pay for visibility on this site; it never changes what we say about a product. How that works.

Both are reviewed in full in our legal practice management ranking: Clio and PracticePanther.

1. 01

   Integration list

   Clio's app directory runs to 41 pages of listings across categories from accounting to e-filing, so nearly any tool a small firm relies on can be connected. PracticePanther's pitch is the opposite: a compact system with a shorter list that includes QuickBooks, Zapier, Docketwise and LawToolBox. If the firm's way of working depends on several outside applications, Clio has the clear advantage.

   Edge: Clio

2. 02

   Routine work handled by built-in rules

   PracticePanther includes task and event workflows and document templates on its Solo plan, with intake forms and e-signature from Business. Clio's Starter covers matters, time, payments and accounting, while automation arrives on Core, where AI drafts bills on schedule and turns documents into calendar events and tasks, and matter stages wait for Signature. For rules-based routine at the entry price, PracticePanther gives more.

   Edge: PracticePanther

3. 03

   Where each one runs out

   PracticePanther thins out as matters gain stages, deadlines and handovers: reporting, workflow and document assembly stop earlier than Actionstep, and staff drift back to spreadsheets. Clio's limit is commercial: custom fields, matter stages and unlimited roles sit on higher plans, and Clio Grow for intake is an add-on below Elite. One constrains complex work, the other the budget, so the verdict depends on the firm.

   Depends on the buyer

4. 04

   Client money rules

   Clio builds legal accounting into its Starter plan, reconciling trust and operating accounts without separate bookkeeping software. PracticePanther reserves its full accounting suite, with trust and operating accounting and enhanced reconciliation, for Business Pro at $114 per user a month on annual billing. Both follow North American trust conventions, so a European firm gets billing without the client ledger its regulator expects.

   Edge: Clio

Is PracticePanther simpler to set up than Clio?

Both are quick. PracticePanther is installed in days, not commissioned over months, and needs no configuration project. Clio lets a firm sign up, import matters, record time and send a bill within a day, without a consultant. Setup speed alone will not separate them.

Do Clio and PracticePanther publish their prices?

Yes. Clio's plans start at $49 per user per month across Starter, Core, Signature and Elite, with Clio Grow and Clio for Personal Injury as add-ons.

PracticePanther lists Solo at $49, Essential at $69, Business at $89 and Business Pro at $114 per user a month on annual billing, or $10 more monthly.

Which suits an hourly-billing firm better, Clio or PracticePanther?

PracticePanther is aimed squarely at two to ten fee earners who bill hourly and whose work is repetitive but not procedural.

Clio also records time and produces bills from day one, and adds a far larger integration list. A small hourly firm can sensibly trial both.

• Clio pricing page: starting price, plan names, features per plan, add-ons, accounting in Starter.
• Clio app directory: size and categories of the integration list.
• PracticePanther pricing page: plan prices and features per plan.
• PracticePanther integrations page: named integrations.