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Legal · head to head

Luminance vs Smokeball

Luminance logo

Luminance

Legal

Machine learning contract analysis for review, negotiation and compliance

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Smokeball logo

Smokeball

Legal

Practice management for small law firms with automatic time capture

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Luminance no independent evaluation of its accuracy has been published, and it did not take part in the Vals Legal AI Report, so buyers have only vendor-produced evidence to work from.; Smokeball requires a Windows desktop component for automatic time capture, so it is not browser-only like its competitors
  • They diverge on capability: Luminance covers Anomaly detection, Smokeball covers Automatic time capture.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Luminance and Smokeball actually diverge.

Attributes where Luminance and Smokeball differ
AttributeLuminanceSmokeball
PlatformsWeb, WindowsWindows, Web, iOS, Android

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 Luminance

  • Anomaly detection
  • Contract negotiation
  • Due diligence review
  • Multi-language analysis
  • Document comparison

Only in Smokeball

  • Automatic time capture
  • Matter management
  • Document automation
  • Billing and trust accounting

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Luminance

  • In-house teams auditing a contract estate for a specific exposure such as change of controlnot Smokeball
  • Procurement and compliance functions reviewing supplier agreements at scalenot Smokeball
  • Transaction teams reviewing large contract populations against a deal deadlinenot Smokeball
  • Negotiation teams applying a standard playbook consistently across many counterpartiesnot Smokeball

Smokeball

  • Firms billing hourly that lose revenue to unrecorded timenot Luminance
  • Small practices replacing paper matter files and spreadsheetsnot Luminance
  • Firms needing court form automation for high-volume matter typesnot Luminance

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Luminance

  • No independent evaluation of its accuracy has been published, and it did not take part in the Vals Legal AI Report, so buyers have only vendor-produced evidence to work from.
  • The one named accuracy benchmark, ContractIQ Bench, was built, run and scored by Luminance on a dataset it has not released, against comparison models it does not name.
  • Value scales with document volume, so an organisation reviewing tens rather than thousands of contracts will not recover the licence cost.
  • Output still requires qualified review, so it reduces reading time rather than removing the lawyer, and staffing plans that assume otherwise fail.
  • Pricing is not published, so cost per matter cannot be modelled until after a sales process and a proof of concept.

Smokeball

  • Requires a Windows desktop component for automatic time capture, so it is not browser-only like its competitors
  • Quote-only pricing with no published rates
  • Aimed at small firms; larger practices with complex billing arrangements generally outgrow it

Pricing, plan by plan

Luminance

On request
  • Luminance$undefined/year
    • Enterprise licensing quoted per organisation
    • Scoped by user count and document volume
    • Proof of concept normally run before contracting

Smokeball

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Smokeball review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Luminance if

  • You need anomaly detection.
  • You work on Web, Windows.
  • You also want contract negotiation.
Luminance review

Choose Smokeball if

  • You need automatic time capture.
  • You work on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want matter management.
Smokeball review

Questions people ask

Is Luminance or Smokeball better?
Neither clearly leads. Luminance starts at On request and Smokeball at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Luminance or Smokeball?
Luminance starts at On request and Smokeball at On request.
Does Luminance or Smokeball run on more platforms?
Luminance runs on Web, Windows. Smokeball runs on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
What is Luminance best used for?
Luminance is most often used for in-house teams auditing a contract estate for a specific exposure such as change of control, procurement and compliance functions reviewing supplier agreements at scale, transaction teams reviewing large contract populations against a deal deadline, negotiation teams applying a standard playbook consistently across many counterparties. Of those, in-house teams auditing a contract estate for a specific exposure such as change of control and procurement and compliance functions reviewing supplier agreements at scale are not what Smokeball is typically brought in for.
What can Luminance do that Smokeball cannot?
Luminance covers Anomaly detection, Contract negotiation, Due diligence review, Multi-language analysis. Smokeball covers Automatic time capture, Matter management, Document automation, Billing and trust accounting.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Luminance: Is Luminance's accuracy independently verified?

No independent verification has been published. It did not participate in the Vals Legal AI Report, the main lawyer-baselined benchmark, and the only named benchmark in its materials is one it built and ran itself. Treat the published figures as vendor claims and run a proof of concept on your own documents.

Smokeball: What does Smokeball cost?

Pricing is quoted per firm and not published.

Luminance: What do the ninety per cent time-saving claims mean?

They are unattributed marketing figures about time and cost rather than accuracy, published without methodology, dataset or baseline. They are not a measure of how often the software is right.

Smokeball: How does automatic time capture work?

A desktop application observes work on matters and turns activity into billable entries, rather than depending on someone remembering to start a timer.

Luminance: Who backs Luminance?

It launched in 2016 with backing from Invoke Capital, the fund founded by Mike Lynch, and has since raised further rounds led by March Capital and Point72 Private Investments.

Smokeball: Does it run on Mac?

The automatic time capture component is Windows-based, which is the main platform constraint.

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