Legal · head to head
iManage vs Westlaw
iManage
Legal
Document and email management for law firms and professional services
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Westlaw
Legal
Thomson Reuters legal research platform, priced per seat with tiers from Edge to Advantage and negotiated enterprise contracts above 10 attorneys
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: iManage it manages documents and email but not matters, billing or accounting, so it is an addition to a practice management system rather than a replacement for one.; Westlaw firms of 11 or more attorneys, which is most firms actually spending serious money on Westlaw, get no published price at all and negotiate blind against a sales team that sees every prior deal.
- They diverge on capability: iManage covers iManage Work, Westlaw covers Case law and statute database.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which iManage and Westlaw actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Legal).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in iManage
- iManage Work
- Outlook email filing
- Security Policy Manager
- Records Manager
- Full text and metadata search
Only in Westlaw
- Case law and statute database
- KeyCite
- Practical Law
- CoCounsel Legal
- Litigation analytics
- West Key Number System
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
iManage
- Corporate firms whose matter record lives largely in email and must be filed and searchablenot Westlaw
- Firms with client confidentiality obligations requiring need-to-know access per matternot Westlaw
- Practices with records retention obligations spanning electronic and physical filesnot Westlaw
- Financial services, accounting and government teams with the same matter-centric document problemnot Westlaw
Westlaw
- A solo attorney or small firm wanting published, self-service pricing rather than a sales negotiationnot iManage
- A firm evaluating whether Practical Law and secondary sources justify moving from Edge to Advantagenot iManage
- A litigation team wanting KeyCite and litigation analytics in the same research platformnot iManage
- A firm that previously used Casetext and needs to understand that it must now buy CoCounsel Legal inside Westlaw insteadnot iManage
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
iManage
- It manages documents and email but not matters, billing or accounting, so it is an addition to a practice management system rather than a replacement for one.
- Administration requires specialist skills, and organisations without a dedicated document management administrator tend to run it badly configured.
- Its value depends on fee earners filing email consistently, which is a behaviour change firms routinely fail to enforce.
- Nothing about pricing is published and the surrounding modules are licensed separately, so the gap between the core product and a working configuration is discovered late.
- The market-share figures it cites, such as 81 per cent of the Am Law 200, are vendor published and not independently audited.
Westlaw
- Firms of 11 or more attorneys, which is most firms actually spending serious money on Westlaw, get no published price at all and negotiate blind against a sales team that sees every prior deal.
- Casetext no longer exists as an independent, cheaper self-serve product; anyone who liked its pricing and simplicity now has to buy into the Westlaw ecosystem, typically at a higher, seat-based cost.
- Multi-year contracts are structurally rewarded with the biggest discounts, which pressures firms into 2 or 3 year commitments before they know if usage will justify the tier chosen.
- Content and features vary meaningfully between Edge and Advantage, so an apparently small monthly price difference can hide the absence of Practical Law, which many firms end up needing anyway.
- Switching away from Westlaw means retraining staff on Lexis search syntax and the Key Number System has no direct Lexis equivalent, which is a genuine cost that suppresses competitive shopping at renewal.
Pricing, plan by plan
iManage
On request- iManage Work$undefined/year
- Per user licensing quoted per organisation
- Cloud or on-premises deployment
- Security, records and analytics modules licensed separately
Westlaw
On request- Westlaw Edge (solo and small firm, up to 10 attorneys)$undefined/month
- Single-circuit coverage from roughly $107 to $155 a month
- All-states-plus-federal coverage roughly $266 a month
- 2-year contracts around 12% off list, 3-year around 18% off
- Westlaw Advantage (firms of 11+ attorneys)$undefined/year
- Bundles Practical Law and secondary sources
- No published price, quote via sales representative
- CoCounsel Legal available as a seat add-on, reported around $639 per seat per month
Which should you pick?
Choose iManage if
- You need imanage work.
- You work on Windows, Web, macOS, iOS, Android.
- You also want outlook email filing.
Choose Westlaw if
- You need case law and statute database.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want keycite.
Questions people ask
- Is iManage or Westlaw better?
- Neither clearly leads. iManage starts at On request and Westlaw at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, iManage or Westlaw?
- iManage starts at On request and Westlaw at On request.
- Does iManage or Westlaw run on more platforms?
- iManage runs on Windows, Web, macOS, iOS, Android. Westlaw runs on Web, iOS, Android.
- What is iManage best used for?
- iManage is most often used for corporate firms whose matter record lives largely in email and must be filed and searchable, firms with client confidentiality obligations requiring need-to-know access per matter, practices with records retention obligations spanning electronic and physical files, financial services, accounting and government teams with the same matter-centric document problem. Of those, corporate firms whose matter record lives largely in email and must be filed and searchable and firms with client confidentiality obligations requiring need-to-know access per matter are not what Westlaw is typically brought in for.
- What can iManage do that Westlaw cannot?
- iManage covers iManage Work, Outlook email filing, Security Policy Manager, Records Manager. Westlaw covers Case law and statute database, KeyCite, Practical Law, CoCounsel Legal.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
iManage: Does iManage replace practice management software?
No. It handles documents and email. Firms run it alongside a practice management and billing system such as Aderant or Elite 3E.
Westlaw: Can I still buy Casetext?
No. Casetext was retired on 1 April 2025. Its AI functionality continues as CoCounsel Legal, sold only as part of the Westlaw ecosystem.
iManage: Who owns iManage?
It has been independent since a management buyout from Hewlett-Packard completed in July 2015. Bain Capital Tech Opportunities made a minority growth investment in April 2023, with management retaining control.
Westlaw: Why does Westlaw publish some prices but not others?
Self-service online pricing exists only for solo practitioners and firms up to 10 attorneys; larger firms are routed to a sales representative with no public rate.
iManage: Is iManage worth it for a small firm?
It is sold to small firms as well as large ones, but the licensing and administrative overhead usually outweighs the benefit over a well organised document store below roughly twenty fee earners.
Westlaw: What does CoCounsel Legal cost on top of Westlaw?
Reported figures put it around $639 per seat per month as an add-on, though this is not an official published rate and varies by contract.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- iManage vs NetDocuments
- iManage vs Clio
- iManage vs Relativity
- iManage vs Smokeball
- iManage vs CASEpeer
- iManage vs Tabs3
- iManage vs Aderant
- iManage vs Luminance
- iManage vs Intapp
- iManage vs Everlaw
- iManage vs Spellbook
- iManage vs CosmoLex
- iManage vs Logikcull
- iManage vs Cookiebot
- iManage vs Docketwise
- iManage vs Harvey
- iManage vs LexisNexis
- iManage vs Ironclad
- iManage vs Didomi
- iManage vs Lawmatics
- iManage vs Rocket Matter
- iManage vs Secure Privacy
- iManage vs Actionstep
- iManage vs DISCO
- Westlaw vs NetDocuments
- Westlaw vs Clio
- Westlaw vs Relativity
- Westlaw vs Smokeball
- Westlaw vs CASEpeer
- Westlaw vs Tabs3
- Westlaw vs Aderant
- Westlaw vs Luminance
- Westlaw vs Intapp
- Westlaw vs Everlaw
- Westlaw vs Spellbook
- Westlaw vs CosmoLex
- Westlaw vs Logikcull
- Westlaw vs Cookiebot
- Westlaw vs Docketwise
- Westlaw vs Harvey
- Westlaw vs LexisNexis
- Westlaw vs Ironclad
- Westlaw vs Didomi
- Westlaw vs Lawmatics
- Westlaw vs Rocket Matter
- Westlaw vs Secure Privacy
- Westlaw vs Actionstep
- Westlaw vs DISCO