Amicus Attorney by CARET vs. Clio

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Amicus Attorney by CARET
Score 9.6 out of 10
N/A
Amicus Attorney is a legal practice management platform which focuses on growth and business development, from AbacusNext in San Diego.
$49
Per User Per Month
Clio
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
Clio is web-based legal practice management software for solo practitioners and small firms. It is designed to replace multiple different systems (like document management, case management, and accounting software) to streamline the amount of technology that small firms need to manage.
$49
per user/per month
Pricing
Amicus Attorney by CARETClio
Editions & Modules
Amicus Cloud
$49.00
Per User Per Month
Starter
$49
per user/per month
Clio Grow
$59
per user/per month
Boutique
$69
per user/per month
Elite
$109
per user/per month
Enterprise
Contact sales team
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Amicus Attorney by CARETClio
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details—All pricing tiers have a 7-day free trial.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Amicus Attorney by CARETClio
Considered Both Products
Amicus Attorney by CARET
Chose Amicus Attorney by CARET
Amicus Attorney has been a solid competitor for at least a decade. LexisNexis does not seem to invest a lot of time into new features for Time Matters, but the same can be said for Amicus Attorney in recent years. ProLaw is in a category of it's own (especially in regards to …
Chose Amicus Attorney by CARET
Actionstep is a true cloud-based Practice Management system. Actionstep is superior to Amicus in every aspect, more customizable, more fully featured and better sales/support resources. It is unfortunate what has happened to Amicus, which appears to be based on someone's greed …
Clio
Chose Clio
The law offices I worked at used Amicus Attorney and their own homebrew system created by one of the managing partners. I will focus on Amicus mostly, as the homebrew system is not available to anyone else, though I will note that many things that Clio does right is also done …
Chose Clio
I used Amicus Attorney before switching to Clio over 6 years ago. At the time, I generally liked Amicus; it was powerful but I had to run a server on one of my computers and it was much more complex than Clio as a business owner. Clio is web-based and fairly easy to use. A key …
Chose Clio
As a consultant that has used many different software, Clio is among the best. But anyone considering software needs to think about their needs and requirements in order to find the best fit. Simply buying good software will not necessarily fix any issues. The issues need to be …
Top Pros
Top Cons
User Ratings
Amicus Attorney by CARETClio
Likelihood to Recommend
7.0
(3 ratings)
1.2
(24 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
2.0
(2 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
5.5
(4 ratings)
User Testimonials
Amicus Attorney by CARETClio
Likelihood to Recommend
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
Amicus Attorney can probably be deployed very well in a law office that has a manager specifically dedicated to making it run smoothly, and who can keep track of the contacts, etc. In our firm, no one can spend the time to do this, so the information stored by Amicus gets a little disorganized, which has the effect of slowing us down
Read full review
Clio
Clio is a wonderful practice management solution for small firms that do billable work. The Clio manage software is excellent for tracking your time at different rates, tracking matter budgets, and tracking expenses. Clio is also great for firms that want to implement and use tech in their offices. If clients are at least somewhat tech-savvy (have and know how to use email), they will also benefit and enjoy the implementation of Clio.
Read full review
Pros
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
  • Very efficient calendaring with sync to Outlook calendar (option of Exchange or Outlook level synchronization).
  • Case management including contacts, emails, documents, etc. to keep everything in one consolidated place.
  • Document automation including Word merging or HotDocs (third party). Take case data including custom pages and fields and instantly create documents based on templates with ease.
Read full review
Clio
  • Provides an interface with NextChapter Bankruptcy.
  • Provides an interface with the forms on our website and landing pages to allow for easy transmission of potential clients into our Clio system from these sources with little human intervention.
  • Its billing, invoicing and payment integration makes the billing cycle for clients easier.
Read full review
Cons
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
  • Partner channel doesn't really exist anymore
  • Support of the product is extremely poor
  • License agreement states you can only run it in their data center (not Azure or AWS, really Amicus?)
Read full review
Clio
  • Document management. It's still far easier for me to create Word templates and just use Word.
  • Centralized filing of client files. Like I said, I use Word. I work on a Mac and use Mac's tag structure. Clio should find a way to gather all files that have a certain tag and allow me to access them through Clio. Instead, I use Hazel and DropBox.
  • Case planning and budgeting. I use OmniFocus for project management, a self-created Excel spreadsheet for project budgeting and a cloud-based service for Gantt charts. How hard would it be to add robust project management tools to Clio?
  • Search feature for stored documents and information. Evernote has Clio beat hands-down, but I don't put client-sensitive information (only caselaw) on Evernote.
  • Case notes. This feature may be useful for high-volume practices, but I never use it.
Read full review
Usability
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
No answers on this topic
Clio
You really have to get creative to make Clio work well. Support suggested tonight that I use other products instead since Clio can't even do simple things it promises like notify clients of their court dates. Insane.
Read full review
Support Rating
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
No answers on this topic
Clio
Rather than talk in generalities, I'll give two specific examples. First, after updating my OS, I got locked out of Clio. I was back in, up and running, with no loss of data, within an hour thanks to Clio customer support. Second, I made some specific recommendation for features that I thought would be useful. Those recommendations fell in a black hole, with the suggestion that I try a very buggy third party integration app. Clio is making lots of money from lawyers using its software. Why can't Clio create the integrations and test them if Clio is not willing to build them into its platform?
Read full review
Alternatives Considered
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
In the time that I have been with my firm, we have not used any other comparable software. As a result I can't compare it to anything else that is out there
Read full review
Clio
CLIO Grow is custom-tailored for law firms to use off the shelf with some advanced customization options. CLIO Grow has some superior API integration options that integrate with answering services, online chatbot, website contact forms to capture new leads and automatically include them in the intake pipeline. As mentioned previously it integrates with HelloSign for no additional costs. CLIO Grow also offers API integrations with Mailchimp to add prospects to email drip campaigns in addition to built-in automated email campaigns within its own software. These features make it far more user friendly, automated, and robust compared with MyCase's CRM feature, and Pipedrive (a non-legal specific CRM).
Read full review
Return on Investment
CARET (Abacus Data Systems, Inc. )
  • Large software investment, if not properly configured and utilized this can be a time and money vacuum.
  • If law firm does not have a consistent personality among employees, buy-in may be difficult as it's a significant workflow change for users.
  • Can greatly benefit law firm if used properly and across board for all employees. Uniform data organization for cases and custom pages add to personalizing software for firm.
Read full review
Clio
  • Hard to judge ROI, but it saves us money compared to our old server based system (ProLaw)
  • More accessible from more places. I was able to continue working during a two week trip to the beach.
  • The Client Portal (Clio Connect) is a positive way to send clients document securely, avoids the forwarded email / forwarded attachment problem.
Read full review
ScreenShots