MyCase vs Smokeball

MyCase

Start here when: Solo and small-to-midsize firms wanting an all-in-one cloud platform with native trust accounting

MyCase fits generalist small firms that want case management, billing, native IOLTA/trust accounting, intake, and client communication in one system without stitching together add-ons. It scores well on ease of use and support, and trust accounting is a genuine built-in strength. Before buying, verify current per-user pricing and annual-commitment terms directly (third-party trackers still show outdated figures), confirm that LEDES/e-billing and court-rules calendaring depth match your practice area, weigh the extra-cost MyCase Accounting add-on for full business accounting, and note the weak mobile-app ratings and the export gap where documents and invoices are excluded from the self-serve backup.

Smokeball

Start here when: Word-heavy solo and small firms wanting automatic time capture and deep document automation

A strong fit for document- and billing-intensive small firms — especially family, estate and other form-heavy practices — that live in Microsoft Word and want billable time captured automatically. Before buying, verify current per-tier pricing and annual-contract terms directly with the vendor, since the vendor's own page shows only a generic "From $149/mo" display while public per-user figures ($49/$89) come from Capterra's feed and conflict with it. Also confirm your practice areas' court-rule deadlines are covered by the paid LawToolBox add-on, and test data export/portability given documented migration friction and the Windows-only, non-Mac-native architecture.