PracticePanther vs CosmoLex

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Our analysts compared PracticePanther vs CosmoLex based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Legal Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Product Basics

PracticePanther is a cloud-based platform that helps manage cases, documents, client communications, time tracking and billing for law firms. It acts as a centralized hub for handling client information, cases and documents. Its reporting tools let you track your firm’s financial health and performance.

The platform allows you to create detailed case files, including evergreen retainers, deadlines, billable hours and specific tasks associated with each case. It offers document management tools, enabling attorneys to edit, track changes, eSign and share files with concerned clients and internal departments.

Additionally, you can track time spent on each case, generate detailed invoices and automate trust account management. Practices of all sizes can automate invoicing, time-tracking and payments while remaining compliant with IOLTA, ABA and state bar guidelines.

The software also allows firms to store client contact information, communication history and matter details in one place. It provides tools for client intake and onboarding, including custom intake forms, checklists and client portals. Its intuitive mobile app helps you stay connected with your firm and communicate with staff and clients remotely.

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CosmoLex is an end-to-end practice management solution that combines CRM, case management and accounting workflows. It helps maintain complete visibility over legal matters by connecting active cases to associated calendar entries, documents, contacts and emails. Businesses can automatically track time and expenses and create digital invoices with a single click. Uncover missed payments and commissions with purpose-built reports. It can manage trust and operating accounts in compliance with state and federal regulations.

Other capabilities include task management, a legal calendar with automated notifications, and a public calendar to send out firm-wide notifications, meeting announcements and alerts.
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$49/User, Monthly
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Tailored to your specific needs
$89/User, Monthly
Get a free price quote
Tailored to your specific needs
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Windows
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Linux
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Chromebook
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Linux
Android
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On-Premise
Mobile
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On-Premise
Mobile

Product Assistance

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars
Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
Email
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FAQ
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Never Miss Billable Hours: PracticePanther excels in time and expense management, with our data showing that it offers 96% of all key requirements out of the box. You can manage retainers and set custom hourly rates, item prices and contingency rates. It supports multiple time clocks and helps you log billable and non-billable hours accurately. You can also add uniform task-based management (UTBM) codes while creating time and expense entries to set benchmarks.
  • Improve Client Experiences: Another strong suite is the platform’s client and contact management module, which has received an 89 rating from our analysts. You can design unique client intake funnels to capture all required information. Clients get individual portals to submit documents, track cases and pay invoices. You can use the built-in two-way messaging system or send emails and text messages from the software interface. The platform maintains a communication log and enhances client outreach with email campaigns and lead-tracking tools.
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  • Flexible Contracts: Avoid long-term contracts and cancel subscriptions without any hassle. 
  • In-House Accounting: Offers robust accounting capabilities, and subscribers don’t need to integrate additional services. 
  • Seamless Accessibility: Access the cloud-based platform from any device with an internet connection. 
  • Prompt Customer Support: Get almost instantaneous live chat responses during support hours. 
  • Data Security: Safeguard the firm from potential malpractice suits with a secure and centralized data repository. 
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  • Case Management: Store detailed user information with ease, along with tags and follow-up updates, making it easy and organized.
    • Remote Access: Get quick overviews of all case-related information, including contacts, tasks, calendar entries, documentation and more. Automatically sync firm databases for unobstructed remote access from any device with an internet connection.
    • Contacts and Matter Management: Keep legal matters organized and up-to-date by adding relevant contacts, notes and bills. Limit access to sensitive matter information with controlled permissions. Securely collaborate with team members and share and recall data.
    • Conflict Search: Link contacts to matters for checking on conflicts of interest and parties represented by the lawyer.
  • Document Management: Manage all your documents in one place and set up automation to reduce repetitive tasks.
    • Centralized Repository: Store and manage all legal documents and files securely in a single location. Enhance efficiency by electronically sending documents for signatures, auto-populating client information, and creating custom templates to streamline document creation workflows.
    • Organized Access: Avoid wasting time searching for documents. Organize files by client and matter for easy retrieval. Use custom tags to categorize and filter your firm's legal documents.
    • E-Signatures: Expedite the document approval process by offering electronic signatures via email, text message or the client portal. Create and send multiple documents for eSignature in batches simultaneously.
    • Cloud Integration: Connect with leading cloud storage platforms like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive and Box.com. This eliminates the need to switch between platforms and helps you sync all document changes automatically.
    • Customizable Templates: Boost document creation speed by uploading and using pre-defined templates. Automatically populate templates with your firm's information and client data. Track document progress through a dashboard with status indicators (incomplete, completed, in progress, overdue) and assign conditional tasks as needed.
  • Legal Billing: Never miss a billable hour with automated time and expense tracking tools.
    • Customizable Invoicing: Create professional invoices tailored to your firm's branding. Include client information, activity logs, notes and more. Assign specific billable rates based on user, activity, matter or contact for accurate fee calculations.
    • Integrated Payment Processing: Accept payments through various methods, including custom payment links, the client portal, phone or in-person transactions using Panther Payments, the native payment processor.
    • Billing Reports: Gain insights into your firm’s performance by generating detailed reports. Analyze billing trends and collections data, identify top-billed practice areas, and filter reports by custom tags, bank accounts, payment methods, contacts or matters.
  • Trust Accounting: Manage trust and operating accounts while automating compliance with IOLTA, ABA and all 50 state bar regulations. Stay informed about retainer balances by setting up automatic alerts. Receive notifications when trust account balances fall below pre-defined thresholds and perform daily three-way reconciliations for oversight of your trust account activity.
  • Legal CRM: Organize client data, gain a holistic view of cases, automate client onboarding and sync new client data from automated intake forms.
    • Custom Tags: Categorize contacts by client type (existing, potential etc.), professional contact or any other relevant category using custom tags. Use these tags to filter data and gain insights into your client base.
    • Client Portals: Provide clients with a secure online portal. They can access uploaded documents, communicate with your firm, review invoice balances and make online payments. The platform automatically populates client information from their intake forms to create accurate profiles.
    • Workflow Automation: Streamline client follow-up with automated workflows that trigger tasks and events based on pre-defined conditions. Automate appointment scheduling and send automatic reminders to clients, ensuring timely communication.
  • Calendaring: Create time entries, confirm client meetings, manage tasks and stay on top of court rule deadlines using a centralized calendar system.
    • Visualized Deadlines: Use color-coded tags to visually identify deadlines and events associated with specific contacts, matters and tasks.
    • Automated Time Capture: Convert appointments and events into time entries with a single click, ensuring all billable hours are captured and accurately allocated to the appropriate client.
    • Court Rule Integration: Connect with LawToolBox to sync pre-set and custom court rule deadlines with your PracticePanther calendar and workflows, keeping you ahead of important legal dates.
  • Integrations: Connect to a host of essential applications to improve the firm’s productivity and automation standards. Some popular applications it supports integrations with include Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Exchange, Box, Dropbox, Outlook, Google Calendar, Apptoto and many more.
  • Security: Protect firm data against vulnerabilities with 256-bit military-grade encryption. Limit platform access to authorized IP addresses and enable two-step authentication. Maintain client confidentiality and HIPAA compliance with Box.com’s secure storage capabilities.
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  • Time and Expense Capture: Add timecards to relevant activities and automatically scan case records of unbilled events. Use a single timesheet to track daily billable tasks and activities. Instantly log direct and indirect expenses in compliance with regulations. 
  • Legal Billing: Create and mail bulk invoices. Customize built-in invoice templates with relevant information, including last payment, billing cycle, legal services, the total balance due, firm’s logo and additional financial information. Supports UTBMS codes and actions. 
  • Payments: The CosmoLexPay portal facilitates credit card processing for online invoice and trust retainer payments. Send automated reminders when the retainer balance falls below the minimum amount and add replenishment amount to invoices. 
  • Law Office Accounting: General ledger accounting supports direct and indirect matter expenses. Automatically assign invoice payments to related general ledger accounts and create custom charts of receivables. Import bank statements and track accounts payable and write-offs. Generate preconfigured management and financial reports. 
  • Credit Card Processing: Process payments for a flat fee. Offers bookkeeping services associated with credit card transactions. Allow clients to pay via credit card for trust retainers, fee prepayments and ongoing invoice payments. 
  • Bank Reconciliations: Get real-time access to bank feeds and automatically match new transactions with book transactions. Automatically import and log credit card statements. Leverage adaptive mapping rules to correct payee names and post matter-cost related transactions. 
  • Accounts Payable: A central dashboard tracks all payees, including office bills and vendor credits. Set up recurring payments for rents and utilities and differentiate client-related expenses from firm bills. Link vendor bills to associated client matters. 
  • Fee Collection and Revenue Distribution: Specify the distribution percentage to automate payments to billers, matter owners, working attorneys and originating attorneys. Run finance productivity reports based on billing and collection data. 
  • Calendar and Task Management: Create custom workflows with specific due dates and assign them to new or existing legal matters. Delegate tasks to team members and connect calendar entries to associated cases. 
  • Email Management: Automatically file emails in respective client-matter folders. Set up permission-based access to safeguard sensitive information. Group billable emails into relevant categories to declutter the inbox. 
  • Document Management: Securely store case-related documents in compliance with data protection laws. Assign role-based permissions at the matter level to protect confidential documents. Create folders with custom labels to aid document searching capabilities. 
  • Integrations: Featured integrations include OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, NetDocuments and Dropbox. 
  • Client Portal: Provide clients with a secure two-way communication channel. Request specific documents and get automated notifications when a document is uploaded. Send digital invoices and accept credit card payments. Add, edit and revoke viewing permissions based on requirements. 
  • Trust Accounting: Use the built-in trust accounting feature to manage individual client ledgers and bulk invoice payments. Automatically import bank statements and perform three-way reconciliations. Run in-depth accounting reports and track third-party payments. Transfer funds from trust to general accounts and print disbursement checks. 
  • Audit-Ready Reconciliations: Run monthly reconciliations. Maintain complete oversight over bank statements and transactions. 
  • Trust Reports: Access numerous trust reports, including trust ledger balance, trust activity, trust client balance and more. 
  • Security: Employs bank-grade 256-bit SSL encryption for data during transit and at rest. Secures user accounts with username and password and two-factor authentication. Assign security levels and roles at the user level. 
    • Data Backups: Backs up firm data every few hours. Encrypts and stores information in multiple physical locations. 
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Product Ranking

#14

among all
Legal Software

#16

among all
Legal Software

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Analyst Rating Summary

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83
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90
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55
75
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Time and Expense Management
Client and Contact Management
Integrations and Extensibility
Platform, Security, and Compliances
Billing and Payments
Time and Expense Management
Platform, Security, and Compliances
Mobile Capabilities

Analyst Ratings for Functional Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

PracticePanther
CosmoLex
+ Add Product + Add Product
Billing And Payments Calendaring And Legal Docketing Client And Contact Management Dashboard And Reporting Document Management Matter/Case Management Mobile Capabilities Task Management Time And Expense Management 84 90 55 18 75 76 82 97 100 80 75 54 69 89 82 100 0 25 50 75 100
82%
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83%
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17%
75%
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21%
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79%
54%
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46%
78%
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22%
67%
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33%
78%
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89%
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83%
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100%
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Analyst Ratings for Technical Requirements Customize This Data Customize This Data

100%
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71%
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29%
100%
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92%
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8%

User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 613 reviews
Excellent User Sentiment 620 reviews
92%
of users recommend this product

PracticePanther has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 92% when considering 613 user reviews from 3 recognized software review sites.

94%
of users recommend this product

CosmoLex has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 94% when considering 620 user reviews from 4 recognized software review sites.

n/a
4.2 (7)
4.2 (100)
n/a
n/a
4.71 (305)
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4.7 (293)
4.7 (508)
3.8 (15)
4.6 (5)
n/a

Awards

PracticePanther stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

SelectHub research analysts have evaluated CosmoLex and concluded it earns best-in-class honors for Billing and Payments and Platform, Security, and Compliances. CosmoLex stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award
Billing and Payments Award
Platform, Security, and Compliances Award

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Ease of Use: Many users find PracticePanther easy to use, with an intuitive interface that makes it accessible for beginners without extensive coding experience.
Comprehensive Features: The software addresses critical legal practice management needs, offering tools for billing, invoicing, time tracking, case management, document handling and client portals.
Efficient Automation: PracticePanther offers automation for client onboarding, billing and document handling, streamlining workflows and saving time on repetitive tasks.
Easy Accessibility: The cloud-based platform, along with its mobile app, helps users access tasks and stay in touch with their operations from anywhere.
Streamlined Client Experiences: The platform offers client onboarding automation, unique portals and internal messaging tools that help simplify and streamline client-attorney interactions.
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Billing & Invoicing: CosmoLex streamlines the billing process, allowing users to easily generate invoices, track payments, and manage trust accounts. It also offers integrations with popular payment processors, making it easy for clients to pay their bills online.
Client Management: CosmoLex provides a centralized location for managing client information, including contact details, case files, and billing records. This can help law firms stay organized and efficient.
Time Tracking & Expense Management: CosmoLex makes it easy for lawyers to track their time and expenses, ensuring that they are accurately billing clients for their services. The software also offers features for managing reimbursements and generating reports.
Reporting & Analytics: CosmoLex provides a variety of reports that can help law firms track their performance and identify areas for improvement. These reports can be customized to meet the specific needs of each firm.
Business Accounting: CosmoLex includes features for managing a law firm's finances, such as accounts payable, accounts receivable, and general ledger. This can help firms save time and money by eliminating the need for separate accounting software.
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Performance Issues: Some users report the software being slow and unresponsive, particularly during peak usage times.
Bugs and Errors: A few users reported calculation errors in trust accounting and time tracking due to bugs and cookie issues.
Documentation Quality: The software’s documentation could be clearer and more user-friendly, particularly for new users.
Limited Reporting: The solution offers limited pre-built reporting templates and dashboard visualizations. However, the vendor offers assistance in designing custom ones.
Integration Challenges: Users have reported faulty integrations with third-party tools, especially with Zapier, Jubilee and Record Grabber.
Billing Limitations: The platform offers limited billing customizations and requires users to manually open each bill to see its content, making the review process slow and cumbersome.
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Billing Issues: Some users report problems with generating bills, particularly with LEDES billing, which can cause delays and frustration.
Customer Support Concerns: There are reports of slow response times from customer support, leaving users feeling stuck with unresolved issues.
Learning Curve: The software's interface and features can be complex, requiring a significant investment of time and effort to learn effectively.
Limited Integrations: CosmoLex may not integrate seamlessly with all the tools and services a law firm uses, potentially leading to workflow disruptions.
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During testing, I found PracticePanther relatively straightforward to set up. Customizing the platform with my firm’s logo and name was a breeze. Creating matters, assigning tasks and syncing calendars felt intuitive. Even integrating Panther Payments for online payments was smooth sailing. While the interface could use a design refresh, it’s functional and easy to navigate.One standout feature is the matter creation process. The ability to categorize matters with tags and custom fields is beneficial. PracticePanther’s flexibility in handling different billing structures, including flat rates, hourly rates and retainers, is a major plus. The platform's automatic alerts for depleted retainer funds are a time-saver.I'm also impressed with its document management capabilities. The integration with cloud storage and the version history feature is invaluable for maintaining document control. Creating custom templates for different document types is a convenient touch.While PracticePanther offers a solid foundation for legal practice management, it presents some notable limitations. The billing process is particularly cumbersome. The absence of a streamlined review function, forcing users to open each invoice individually, significantly hampers efficiency. This contrasts sharply with other platforms that offer more intuitive billing and reviewing navigation.Additionally, the lack of advanced features, such as integrated legal research tools, is a drawback for firms that rely heavily on online research. Although the software can track time, the absence of connections with research websites and tools means manual timekeeping, which can be error-prone and time-consuming.Despite these shortcomings, PracticePanther is well-suited for solo practitioners and small law firms with relatively straightforward caseloads. Its ease of use and core features, such as matter management and document handling, make it a viable option for firms that prioritize these functions. However, for larger firms with complex caseloads or those that require advanced features like robust reporting and analytics, PracticePanther may fall short.

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Is your law firm stuck in a legal black hole, struggling to keep up with the demands of modern practice? CosmoLex might just be the legal tech savior you've been searching for. CosmoLex has garnered a reputation as a comprehensive, cloud-based legal practice management solution that streamlines operations for law firms of all sizes. Users frequently praise its robust features, including time tracking, billing, accounting, calendaring, task management, and document management, all seamlessly integrated into one platform. This eliminates the need for multiple, disparate systems, saving time and reducing errors. However, some users find the extensive functionality overwhelming, especially during the initial setup and learning curve. The interface, while generally considered user-friendly, can feel cluttered at times due to the sheer number of features. Additionally, several users have expressed a desire for more customization options to tailor the software to their specific workflows. CosmoLex stands out from its competitors by offering built-in accounting features, a rarity in the legal practice management software market. This integration simplifies financial management for law firms, eliminating the need for separate accounting software and ensuring compliance with trust accounting regulations. CosmoLex is best suited for small to mid-sized law firms seeking an all-in-one solution to manage their practice efficiently. Its comprehensive features, ease of use, and competitive pricing make it an attractive option for firms looking to streamline operations and improve productivity.

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