The Best CRM Systems for Law Firms

best crm systems for law firms

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Revolutionise your firm with a better way of managing your cases, staff, and client relationships. Contrast suppliers, crunch prices, and compare quotes from top law firm CRM providers with us


SalesforceOsprey ApproachActionstepClioLegallyCRM
✔ ProWide range of third-party app integrationsVery user-friendlyFlexible, affordable pricing plans24/5 customer supportIdeal for single practice and solo firms
X ConTough to get to grips withExpensiveNot easy to customiseUser experience can be clunkyNo phone-based customer support
Best forAnalytics and reportingData securityWorkflow automationPractice area versatilityShoestring budgets
Price (per user, per month)From £20From £120From £39From £49From £30

No matter what kind of law you practice, people will always be at the heart of what you do. Whether it’s keeping your staff on the same page, winning new clients, or maintaining those important business connections, it’s your relationships that determine your success.

But with so many leads, clients, and cases to keep track of, staying on top of things – and staying compliant – can be a real headache. That’s where a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system comes in.

CRM software provides your law firm with a central hub for all your crucial contact and client data. No big ring binders, no spreadsheets – just slick, straightforward software that streamlines your workflow. Sound good? We agree.

That’s why we're taking a look at the best CRM systems for law firms in the UK. Jump to a supplier in the table above, or skip straight to our law firm CRM system FAQs. Alternatively, take 30 seconds to provide us with your firm's specific CRM requirements, via our free quote-finding questionnaire. We'll then match you with leading CRM software suppliers, who'll be in touch with you directly to provide tailored quotes.


Best CRM systems for law firms

How does Salesforce acquit itself as a top CRM provider? Can Actionstep do your firm justice? Is Clio all it’s cracked up to be?

We reviewed the big CRM names in the legal industry, putting each supplier's software on trial. Our top five picks for UK law firms are Salesforce, Osprey Approach, Actionstep, and Clio – but we’ll let you be the judge!

Top five CRM systems for UK law firms:


Salesforce

Best for analytics and reporting

Salesforce comes with some serious pedigree. As the world’s number one CRM, it boosts the business of over 150,000 companies around the world. Its cloud-based software lets your team collaborate on cases and projects – you’ll know exactly who’s dealing with who, and what progress has been made so far. As well as letting you run your firm from your smartphone, Salesforce also offers the most advanced business analytics on the market. It lets you drill down into how people find your services, how they tick, and – crucially – how to turn them into clients.

Overall Rating :

Read more: Top Analytical CRM Software for UK Businesses

Salesforce pricing

Salesforce EssentialsLightning ProfessionalLightning EnterpriseLightning Unlimited
Sales Cloud£20 per user, per month£60 per user, per month£120 per user, per month£240 per user, 

per month

Service Cloud£20 per user, per month£60 per user, per month£120 per user, per month£240 per user, per month
Sales and Service CloudNot available£80 per user, per month£140 per user, per month£260 per user, per month

With additional rates for its various marketing modules and feature-enhancing add-ons, Salesforce's pricing is too complex to unpack here. Plus, we do that much better in our dedicated Salesforce review, where we explore the CRM behemoth's latest rates, features, packages, and user-submitted opinions.

And, for more information about how much you can expect to pay for your CRM system in general, we have you covered. Head on over to our CRM software costs article for everything you need to know.

Pros

  • Basic package offers excellent value for money
  • Enormous range of integrations with the software and applications your firm uses every day
  • Coaching and goal-setting features help drive increased performance from your legal team

Cons

  • Salesforce's more advanced features can be difficult to get the hang of

Osprey Approach

Best for data security and GDPR compliance

Osprey Approach is high-flying legal software that’s tailor-made for the industry. And you don’t just get CRM – there are several more feathers to the cap of this smart solution. Besides CRM, Osprey Approach also offers practice and case management functions, budget planning, and simple email integration. Better still, it boasts some of the highest levels of data security out there. That means your contact data is safe, and fretting about your GDPR obligations becomes a thing of the past.

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Osprey Approach pricing

Osprey Approach offers three pricing plans. All include:

  • Case and practice management features
  • Integrated legal accounting
  • Workflow automation
  • Document and form production with inclusive precedents
  • Time recording and reporting capabilities
  • Tools for sales teams, as well as email marketing functionality
ProfessionalEnterpriseQuantum
From £120 per user, per monthFrom £140 per user, per monthFrom £180 per user, per month

However, Osprey Approach's cheapest plan, ‘Professional' – though it still clocks in at a hefty £120 per user, per month – is only offered as an app for desktop only, compatible solely with Windows. To use the legal CRM software on mobile apps for iOS and Android, you'll need to be on the ‘Enterprise' plan, or above.

Upgrading to Osprey Approach's ‘Quantum' plan adds a host of impressive features, including voice-activated case management, and AI support. Your firm will also benefit from ‘Approach2Quote' – an AI-powered chatbot that allows you to provide conveyancing quotes directly through your website.

Pros

  • Extremely user-friendly
  • The team is highly responsive on social media sites such as Twitter
  • Offers a range of bespoke packages to fit the unique needs of your law firm

Cons

  • One of the more expensive legal CRM systems out there
  • Can be slow to load and prone to freezes

Actionstep

Best for workflow automation

Built solely for the legal industry, Actionstep offers a complete, cloud-based practice management system. Its intelligent workflow technology breaks your workload down into decision trees and manageable, bite-sized chunks. That keeps you from getting bogged down in the repetitive admin stuff, while freeing you up to get stuck into cases – and to grow your firm! Actionstep's CRM for law firms also offers an easy-to-use ‘Client Portal’ - a secure space where you can chat with your clients, and collaborate on documents in real time.

Overall Rating :

Actionstep pricing

ExpressPractice ProEnterprise
Paid annually£39 per user, per month£69 per user, per monthOn enquiry
Paid monthly£49 per user, per month£79 per user, per monthOn enquiry

Of Actionstep's three pricing tiers, ‘Express' is only for single practice and solo firms. If you've outgrown the small business CRM stage, though, we recommend plumping for ‘Practice Pro'. At a reasonable £69 per user, per month, it's ideal for boutique and multi-practice firms looking to scale. The plan provides everything you get with Actionstep's basic plan, plus:

  • A client portal
  • Customisable workflows
  • Consolidated billing
  • External data reporting
  • Advanced calendar synchronisation

An extra £10 per user, per month buys you Actionstep's ‘Enterprise' plan – ideal for multi-divisional firms. For the additional outlay, you'll score multi-currency, integrated general ledger accounting, plus banking, financial reporting, dashboards, and access to an online knowledge base.

Pros

  • Fantastic customer support
  • Presents case notes in a digestible ‘newsfeed’ style
  • Pricing plans offer flexibility, as well as value

Cons

  • Can be difficult to set up and customise to your liking

You're just over halfway through our list of the top CRM software for law firms… time to start comparing quotes?

Simply hit one of the buttons below to start our quick questionnaire. It takes just 30 seconds to do, and by telling us more about your firm's specific requirements, we can help ensure that you receive the best, most personalised rates on legal CRM software.

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Clio

Best for lawyers across all practice areas

Already trusted by thousands of law firms worldwide, Clio (which acquired prominent law firm CRM provider Lexicata in 2018, and subsequently rebranded it) is a scalable CRM that’s designed to grow with your practice. Through its colourful, intuitive interface, you’ll get all the insights you need to drive more value for you and your clients – no matter which area of law you ply your trade in.

Overall Rating :

With a CRM service catering to practice areas from criminal law and conveyancing to immigration and intellectual property, you can be confident that the team behind Clio understands the unique pressures and pain points of your practice.

Clio pricing

Atypically for CRM software, Clio comes at a single per user, per month cost, rather than offering several ascending pricing plans. Clio will cost you £49 per user, per month (or £56 per user, per month if you select monthly, rather than annual, billing).

And you get plenty of features for your money, too, including:

  • Matter management
  • Online payments and billing
  • Xero, QuickBooks, and Microsoft Office 365 integration
  • Unlimited data storage
  • Legal calendaring

Pros

  • Integrates seamlessly with G Suite, Outlook, Mailchimp and more
  • Highly-rated customer support
  • Tailor-made for law firms

Cons

  • Online reviews suggest that elements of the user experience (UX) could be improved

LegallyCRM

Best for firms on a shoestring budget

Riffing off the title of the 2001 megahit film Legally Blonde, LegallyCRM likely won’t provide as many laughs (or cringes) as the Reese Witherspoon vehicle. But what the up-and-coming Polish-based CRM provider will offer is affordable, no-frills CRM that – as the name suggests – is tailored solely to the requirements of the legal industry.

Overall Rating :

We'll admit – feature-wise, it's much more basic than the other CRM systems for law firms on this list. However, LegallyCRM negates this with generous data storage limits (you'll get a whopping 50GB with its most basic plan), as well as zero limits on the amount of users you can have accessing the system – a rarity when it comes to CRM.

LegallyCRM pricing

When it comes to pricing, only the very smallest of firms should think about opting for ‘LegallyBasic' –as the name implies, it'll be too simplistic for the needs of most lawyers.

That said, most small law firms should be well served by LegallyCRM's mid-range plan, LegallyMLM (£49 per month), which includes invoicing and billing, as well as specific modules for solicitors, consultants, and agents.

LegallyBasicLegallyMLMLegallyMLM and Marketing
$39 (£30) per month$65 (£49) per month$116 (£88) per month

Pros

  • Sports a colourful interface reminiscent of monday.com's project management software
  • Easy to use

Cons

  • Marketing modules are only available with LegallyCRM's most expensive plan (£88 per month)
  • Customer support isn't UK-based (or phone-based)
  • Not as proven or as established in the CRM space as its competitors
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Next steps

It doesn’t matter whether you’re a partner, an associate, or a paralegal – CRM software will improve the speed and efficiency of your work.

It’ll bring your remote teams closer together, and promote better, more open communication with your clients. And, by automating and simplifying key processes, it’ll free you up for what you’d rather be doing (which, presumably, is winning cases).

So let us help you find the best CRM solution for your law firm. Simply provide us with some details about your firm's requirements via our free quote-finding form. We’ll ask a couple of basic questions about the size of your team and practice, and match you with CRM suppliers that fit your needs. They'll then be in touch with you over the phone to offer their legal CRM expertise, and provide tailored quotes.


FAQs

What are the benefits of CRM for my law firm?

Prepare for those big meetings

CRM provides intelligent contact management, pulling records of all your client interactions into one place. Whether you last spoke on the phone, in a meeting, or via social media, it’s all there. Tap into your conversation history with ease, and never enter that meeting without everything you need to know (quite literally!) at your fingertips.

Prioritise client interactions

When you’ve got so much on your plate on a day-to-day basis, it’s easy to let big portions of your to-do list fall by the wayside.

A CRM system provides automatic reminders to help keep you on track – and lets you sort tasks by their immediate priority. This helps your customer service team handle issues with pace and professionalism, and ensures that you get more of the important stuff done, today.

Work from anywhere

Most CRM systems for law firms are cloud-based. That means that you – or anyone else in your team – can access the software from anywhere with an internet connection. You can log in and start work with ease, from your smartphone, tablet, or Apple Watch. This makes CRM software a great way to improve your team’s collaboration, while working from a beach in Mexico!*

*Or your home office.

Read more: The Best Cloud-Based CRM Software

Build better marketing campaigns

CRM systems enable you to craft good-looking, engaging emails. Using a CRM database, you can construct targeted bulk email marketing campaigns to get more out of your audience. With the right approach, you can re-engage those lapsed clients, bring in a whole new generation of business, and boost your bottom line to boot.

Read more: The Best Marketing CRM Software

Is there free CRM software for law firms?

Free CRM software is available. Freshworks CRM, Zoho, Insightly, and Bitrix24 all offer CRM pricing plans, completely gratis. However, there is a catch – that these plans come largely stripped of their best features.

Plus, you’ll almost always have to pay for any CRM system that comes as an industry-specific solution. And it makes sense, too – time has gone into creating an intelligent product that's designed to understand your business’ needs. Companies aren’t going to be giving it away!

Written by:
Rob Binns
Rob writes mainly about the payments industry, but also brings to the table industry-specific knowledge of CRM software, business loans, fulfilment, and invoice finance. When not exasperating his editor with bad puns, he can be found relaxing in a sunny (socially-distanced) corner, with a beer and a battered copy of Dostoevsky.
Reviewed by:
James thinks all businesses can improve if they use the right technology. At Expert Market, he utilises his 4+ years experience as a researcher to offer specialised advice on a wide range of categories from CRM to Fleet Management.