Legal intake software is three different products sold under one name: an intake module inside a practice management suite, a triage tool built for in-house corporate legal departments, and pre-qualification software that decides which inquiries are worth a firm's time. Two of the products most often recommended for law firms are not sold to law firms at all.
The Three Products Sold as Legal Intake Software
Each of the three solves a different problem, and only one of them is about winning cases.
Practice-Management Intake
A module you get by buying a suite, where Clio Grow and MyCase both sit. Suite-based intake is built around the client a firm has already decided to sign, so it is strongest at capture, storage, and handoff into matter management.
Corporate Legal-Ops Intake
Routes internal requests from a business unit to an in-house legal team, where Checkbox.ai sits. Corporate intake involves no prospective client, no conversion, and no revenue event, because the requester already works at the company.
Pre-Qualification Intake
Decides, before a human touches the lead, which matters meet the firm's criteria, where Lawbrokr sits. Pre-qualification is the only one of the three whose output is a decision rather than a record, which is the difference between qualifying and responding.
Buying the wrong one of the three is the expensive mistake, because all three describe themselves as intake.
Two Products Recommended for Legal Intake Are Not Built for Law Firms
Checkbox.ai and Perspective AI both rank prominently for the term, and neither says on the page a law firm lands on that its buyer is not a law firm.
Checkbox.ai titles and describes its intake and triage product as software for in-house legal teams, and the page sells it as a way to "Centralize requests, reduce manual work, and deliver faster support to the business." The customer logos there include BMW, SAP, PepsiCo, and Deloitte, all large corporations with internal legal departments. Checkbox.ai raised a $23 million Series A in January 2026 on that positioning, announcing itself as "the AI-powered Legal Front Door for in-house legal teams."
Perspective AI ranks and gets cited for the same term. Its published verticals are "SaaS / Tech," "Financial Services," and "Insurance." Law firms are not among them.
Neither Checkbox.ai nor Perspective AI is a poor product, but both serve a different buyer, and a law firm evaluating them is comparing tools that were never designed to convert a prospective client.
How Much Legal Intake Software Costs, and What Comparison Lists Get Wrong
Of six products commonly listed as legal intake software, only one publishes a price, and it is the one not sold to law firms.
Clio Grow publishes no figure, being included in the Elite tier and quoted as an add-on elsewhere. Lawmatics pricing shows three tiers and no price on any of them, with a three-user minimum. Law Ruler and Checkbox.ai publish nothing either, and Intaker's pricing page loads with no plans shown. Perspective AI publishes a Pro Subscription that "Starts at $99/month," and Perspective AI is not a legal product.
One correction is worth making, because it is repeated across most comparison articles. The $49 per user figure widely attributed to Clio Grow is the Starter practice management price, not the price of Grow, which carries no published standalone figure at all. Any list quoting exact prices for both vendors is not reading their own pages.
What to Check Before Shortlisting an Intake Product
Four checks, in this order, will remove most of the wrong products before you book a demo.
- Is it sold to law firms or to in-house teams? A vendor's own customer list answers this fastest, and Fortune 500 logos rather than firm names indicate a tool that routes internal work.
- Is the price published? Five of the six products above publish nothing, which tells you the sales cycle is part of the purchase.
- Does it integrate with what you own? The 2025 Legal Industry Report, surveying more than 2,800 legal professionals, found 43% prioritized integration with trusted software when weighing legal-specific AI tools.
- Does it decide anything? Checkbox.ai describes its own product as one that will "instantly capture, understand, and route requests," and a product that captures and routes has moved the work rather than removed it. Lawbrokr sits in the pre-qualification category instead, where screening before contact changes what reaches the intake team.
The first three checks narrow the list. The fourth decides whether you are buying a record or a decision.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is legal intake software?
Legal intake software is three products under one label: an intake module inside a practice management suite, a triage tool for in-house corporate legal teams, and pre-qualification software that screens inquiries against a firm's criteria. Only the third decides which prospective clients are worth pursuing.
How much does legal intake software cost?
Most vendors do not say. Of six products commonly listed as legal intake software, five publish no price at all. Perspective AI publishes $99 per month, though its stated verticals are SaaS, financial services, and insurance rather than legal.
What is the difference between intake software and pre-qualification software?
Intake software captures and routes an inquiry. Pre-qualification software decides whether the inquiry meets your criteria before a person spends time on it. Capture produces a record, while pre-qualification produces a disposition, which is what reduces intake workload.
Is Checkbox legal intake software for law firms?
No. Checkbox.ai presents its product as software for in-house legal teams, and the customer logos on its intake page are large corporations including BMW, SAP, and PepsiCo. Checkbox routes internal requests to a company's own lawyers, so there is no prospective client and no conversion step.
Does legal intake software handle conflict checks?
Some products do and many do not, and the answer is rarely stated on a marketing page. Ask whether conflict and jurisdiction screening happens at capture or after a human reviews the file, because that difference determines whether the check is repeatable.
Work Out Which Type of Intake Software You Own
Lawbrokr is the third category, not the first two. It does not store your matters and it does not route internal requests, so a firm that needs a practice management suite should buy one. What the Storefront does is decide which inquiries meet your criteria before anyone opens them.
If capture is already handled and the grading is what eats your intake hours, book a walkthrough. Or contact us and describe your current setup, and we will say if the answer is a different product.
