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Legal software#6 of 12 in legal

Smokeball

Practice management built around documents and automatic time — Bill → Boost → Grow → Prosper+ plans. Client portal and case management from Boost; lead/intake depth concentrates on Prosper+ or Intake add-ons. No public dollar rate card.

Best for
Document-heavy firms that want matter templates, AutoTime, and Microsoft 365 workflows
Price
Contact for pricing
HQ
United States (also Australia/UK footprint)
Profile updated
September 26, 2026

Worth it for your operation?

Pros

  • Strong document automation and practice-area templates on Grow+
  • AutoTime automatic time capture on Prosper+ (add-on on Grow)
  • Client portal, eSignature path, and Microsoft 365 integration story
  • Prosper+ includes lead management and advanced intake

Watch-outs

  • Pricing is quote-only — hurts transparency score
  • Intake is an add-on on lower plans; full lead CRM is Prosper+
  • No Meta WhatsApp inbox
  • Heavier Microsoft-centric shape than lightweight cloud CRMs

Score by criterion

The dark mark on each bar is the average of the 12 systems in this ranking. Criteria with higher weight pull the overall score more.

Matters and deadlinesweight 1.4×
8.8

Matter intake, case status, and deadline or court-rules calendaring without a parallel spreadsheet.

Fees and billingweight 1.2×
8.0

Time, invoices, trust or client accounting, and collections in the same system as the matter — not a parallel bookkeeping tool.

Relationship and intakeweight 1.1×
7.6

Client portal, post-engagement updates, and a native path from lead to hired matter — not only a “won” stage.

Native messagingweight 0.8×
6.8

Native SMS or messaging inbox on the matter or contact card, with team history. WhatsApp Business API also counts. Portal-only chat and marketplace apps do not.

Price and transparencyweight 0.9×
4.2

Public plan in USD or GBP, trial, and what sits outside the monthly fee. Mandatory add-ons for day-to-day work lower the score.

Learning curveweight 0.8×
6.8

English UI, matter and billing vocabulary, and time until a fee earner can work without a long implementation project.

What ships natively

We only mark “yes” when the feature is part of the product — marketplace integrations or third-party apps do not count.

  • Yes

    Matters & case tracking

    Matter intake and case-status tracking inside the product

  • Yes

    Deadlines & dockets

    Deadlines, publications, and notices captured automatically, without a parallel spreadsheet

  • Yes

    Fees & billing

    Fees, invoices, cash, and collections in the same system as the matter

  • Yes

    Documents & filings

    Filing templates, DMS, or document generation in the product, not another editor

  • Yes

    Client portal

    The client follows the case in a vendor-owned login, not only by email

  • Yes

    Native messaging

    Native SMS or messaging inbox on the lead/contact card (history preserved). WhatsApp Business API also counts. Marketplace apps, Zapier, browser extensions, website chat buttons, and sibling-SKU modules do not

  • Yes

    Intake CRM

    Native intake or sales pipeline, from lead to engagement letter

  • Yes

    Vendor mobile app

    App published by the vendor itself

Editorial analysis

Smokeball in detail

Smokeball wins demos when Word, forms, and automatic time are the bottleneck. It loses comparison shoppers who refuse to talk to sales for a number.

Who it is for

Transactional and document-heavy US (and allied) practices that will trade price opacity for AutoTime and templates.

What drives the score

Matters/documents excellent. Fees strong. Price weak by design. Messaging scores for native SMS/inbox on the record. Intake true because Prosper+ publishes lead/intake as product (profile assumes the full platform buyers actually shortlist).

How we read the sources

Based on smokeball.com/pricing plan and FAQ copy.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the price score low if Smokeball is popular?

The official pricing page lists Bill/Boost/Grow/Prosper+ features but tells firms to request a personalized quote. Opacity lowers the price axis — it is not a claim that Smokeball is “expensive.”

Which plan includes intake?

Prosper+ lists lead management and intake included. Boost/Grow show Intake as an add-on on the public comparison.

Sources consulted

Everything on this profile comes from the pages below. We did not lab-test the platform.

Profile updated September 26, 2026. Found something outdated? Corrections are welcome.