Best Legal Software 2021

Bill4Time vs. Clio Manage

Is Bill4Time or Clio Manage the better solution for you? This in-depth, feature-by-feature breakdown will help you select the best legal practice management software to help grow your law firm.

Legal software helps legal professionals maximize billable hours and automate operations. There are a variety of legal software offerings available today, and choosing the best one for your law firm can be a difficult process.

To help simplify the purchasing process, we created a guide comparing Bill4Time versus Clio Manage. We highlight the differences between these products, and offer a head-to-head comparison of their unique features, to help you choose the best solution for you.

Comparison Summary

Bill4Time and Clio Manage are both popular legal solutions with thousands of customers each. Both solutions offer features that help law firms maximize billable hours and grow their businesses. These features include a dashboard, calendar, time tracking, billing, online payments, and reporting.

Bill4Time is a time tracking and billing solution that offers basic legal practice management functionality. Clio Manage is a robust legal practice management solution that offers the core set of features that you would expect in this type of software.

When comparing the two, it's important to focus on the specific tools offered by each vendor, and the corresponding subscription price. Here's a quick test to determine which solution is best for you:

You'll prefer Bill4Time if:

  • You desire the more affordable solution that specializes in time tracking and billing
  • You desire a solution that integrates with Paypal and Stripe
  • Custom reporting is a must-have feature for you

Try Bill4Time Today

You'll prefer Clio Manage if:

  • You desire the more advanced and fully-featured legal practice management solution
  • You desire robust document management and communication features
  • You desire a solution that offers more third-party integrations

Try Clio Manage Today


Table of Contents

Bill4Time & Clio Manage Price Comparison

Bill4Time and Clio Manage are both subscription-based services that charge a monthly fee to access their platforms. Bill4Time pricing ranges from $29 to $89 per user per month. Clio Manage pricing ranges from at $49 to $125 per user per month.

Bill4Time Pricing Details

Bill4Time pricing ranges from $29 to $89 per month. The company offers a 7% to 10% discount for annual contracts that are paid upfront. Here’s an overview of Bill4Time’s pricing plans:

  • Time and billing plan: $29 per user per month
  • Legal pro plan: $49 per user per month
  • Legal enterprise plan: $89 per user per month

Clio Manage Pricing Details

Clio Manage pricing ranges from $49 to $125 per user per month. The company offers a 8% to 22% discount for annual contracts that are paid upfront. Here’s an overview of Clio Manage’s pricing plans:

  • Starter plan: $49 per user per month
  • Boutique plan: $69 per user per month
  • Elite plan: $109 per user per month
  • Suite plan: $125 per user per month

Bill4Time & Clio Manage Feature Comparison

Bill4Time and Clio Manage both offer a variety of features that help legal professionals grow their law firms. These features include a dashboard, calendar, time tracking, billing, online payments, and reporting.

Bill4Time specializes in time tracking and billing features, and offers several basic legal practice management features. Clio Manage is the far more robust solution that offers the core set of legal practice management features.

For a full analysis of their features, read our Bill4Time and Clio Manage reviews.

FeatureBill4TimeClio Manage
DashboardYesYes
Contact managementYesYes
CalendarYesYes
Task managementYesYes
Document managementLimitedYes
Time and expense trackingYesYes
Billing and invoicingYesYes
Online paymentsYesYes
ReportingYesYes
IntegrationsYesYes

Bill4Time's Unique Features

Bill4Time offers several features not found in Clio Manage. It's important to understand the features below to determine if Bill4Time is ideal for your business.

Payment Processing Integrations

Bill4Time and Clio Manage offer online payment processing that allows you to receive payments from your clients electronically. Both solutions integrate with LawPay, but only Bill4Time offers integrations with PayPal and Stripe.

Custom Reporting

Bill4Time and Clio Manage both allow you to generate reports to gain visibility into your law firm’s performance. However, only Bill4Time allows you to create custom reports that are tailored to your law firm’s needs. For example, Bill4Time allows you to configure how time and hourly billing data is displayed, and add extra columns of calculated data in your reports

Also, Bill4Time offers filters to help you create reports that only show the data you desire. The types of filters found in Bill4Time include task code, client type, matter type, and billing status. You can save your filter options, and apply them to reports you generate in the future.

Bill4Time also accepts custom report requests. You can request changes to existing built-in reports, or request brand new reports based on custom fields you add to Bill4Time. Typically, turn-around time for custom reports takes 4 to 6 business weeks.

Clio Manage's Unique Features

Clio Manage offers several features not found in Bill4Time. It's important to understand the features below to determine if Clio Manage is ideal for your business.

Document Management

Both Bill4Time and Clio Manage offer unlimited document storage. However, Clio Manage offers several additional document management features not found in Bill4Time. A few of these features include:

  • Document automation and templates
  • Document version control
  • Electronic signature
  • Time tracking

Communication Management

Clio Manage includes communication management tools that allow law firms to track client interactions and store relevant information in one centralized location. You can save emails in Clio Manage, and associate them to specific matters and clients. Clio also offers plugins for Gmail and Office 365, which allows you to save emails to a matter directly from the third-party solutions.

Integrations

Clio Manage offers over 200 integrations with third-party solutions on its platform. In comparison, Bill4Time offers less than 15 integrations. You should strongly consider choosing Clio Manage, if you desire a solution that integrates with the follow solutions:

Bottom Line

Bill4Time and Clio Manage are both widely-used legal solutions that cater to solo to medium sized law firms. Features found in these solutions include a dashboard, calendar, time tracking, billing, online payments, and reporting.

Although there is overlap between these two solutions, the best choice for your law firm will depend on your feature preferences and budget.

  • If you are searching for a lightweight and affordable solution that specializes in time tracking and billing, then consider testing Bill4Time.
  • If you need a fully-featured legal practice management solution that includes robust document management and communication features, then we strongly recommend Clio Manage for you.

If you’re interested, visit Bill4Time or Clio Manage today to get started.

Lloyd Park

Lloyd Park is a Research Analyst at SoftwarePundit, where he conducts in-depth analyses of software markets and products. Lloyd also has experience managing the development of software platforms and is an expert in content production & media software. You can connect with Lloyd on LinkedIn.

Lloyd is an expert in several software categories including:

  • Dental software
  • Email marketing software
  • Field service management software
  • Legal software
  • Property management software

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