Legal · head to head
Filevine vs Tabs3
Filevine
Legal
Configurable case management for plaintiff litigation, intake and mass tort firms
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Tabs3
Legal
Billing, trust and general ledger accounting for small and mid-sized US law firms
- From
- $69/month
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Filevine there is no built-in general ledger or three-way trust reconciliation, so the firm still pays for and reconciles QuickBooks separately, which undermines the single-system argument used during the sale.; Tabs3 the interface follows Windows desktop conventions from an earlier era, so new fee earners and staff take longer to train than they would on a browser-based competitor.
- They diverge on capability: Filevine covers Project templates, Tabs3 covers Tabs3 Billing.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Filevine and Tabs3 actually diverge.
Identical on both: 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 Filevine
- Project templates
- Lead Docket intake
- Document assembly
- Vinesign
- Case texting
- Reporting and dashboards
Only in Tabs3
- Tabs3 Billing
- Trust accounting
- General ledger and accounts payable
- PracticeMaster
- On-premises or cloud subscription
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Filevine
- A personal injury firm that wants advertising spend, intake conversion and settlement value reported in one placenot Tabs3
- A mass tort practice managing thousands of claimants against shared case phases and bulk document generationnot Tabs3
- A firm replacing spreadsheets and shared drives where each practice area has different deadline rulesnot Tabs3
- An immigration or workers compensation practice that needs form-heavy document assembly from case datanot Tabs3
Tabs3
- Small firms billing hourly that want billing and the firm general ledger in one system rather than reconciling twonot Filevine
- Practices that must run three-way trust reconciliation without a separate bookkeeping packagenot Filevine
- Firms that need an on-premises deployment because of client or insurer restrictions on cloud-hosted matter datanot Filevine
- Long-established practices replacing a decades-old billing system while keeping accounting in housenot Filevine
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Filevine
- There is no built-in general ledger or three-way trust reconciliation, so the firm still pays for and reconciles QuickBooks separately, which undermines the single-system argument used during the sale.
- Pricing is quoted per user with an implementation fee, so a firm with paralegals and case managers who log in occasionally pays full seat cost for light users.
- Configuration flexibility becomes a liability without an internal owner, and firms that skip that role commonly end up with duplicate fields and reports nobody trusts.
- It is built around contingency and litigation workflow, so corporate, conveyancing and other transactional practices find the project model a poor fit.
- Implementation commonly runs weeks to months with paid professional services, and the annual contract starts before the firm is live, so the first year buys less usable time than it appears to.
Tabs3
- The interface follows Windows desktop conventions from an earlier era, so new fee earners and staff take longer to train than they would on a browser-based competitor.
- On-premises deployment puts backup, disaster recovery, server upgrades and patching on the firm, which small practices without IT support routinely underestimate.
- It is built around hourly and flat fee billing, so a contingency practice tracking case costs and settlement disbursements will find the case financial model a poor fit.
- PracticeMaster case management is priced separately from billing, so the advertised per-user rate is not what a firm wanting matter management actually pays.
- Choosing the on-premises option no longer avoids a subscription, because it is billed per user per month like the hosted version.
Pricing, plan by plan
Filevine
On request- Filevine$undefined/year
- Quoted per user per month on an annual contract
- Separate one-off implementation and configuration fee
- Lead Docket, Vinesign and AI drafting priced as add-on modules
Tabs3
$69/month- OnSite Subscription$69/month
- Deployed on the firm server
- Billing, trust accounting and general ledger
- PracticeMaster add-on at 32 USD per user per month
- Tabs3 Cloud$89/month
- Hosted by the vendor
- Billing, trust accounting and general ledger
- PracticeMaster add-on at 35 USD per user per month
Which should you pick?
Choose Filevine if
- You need project templates.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want lead docket intake.
Choose Tabs3 if
- You need tabs3 billing.
- You work on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want trust accounting.
Questions people ask
- Is Filevine or Tabs3 better?
- Neither clearly leads. Filevine starts at On request and Tabs3 at $69/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Filevine or Tabs3?
- Filevine starts at On request and Tabs3 at $69/month.
- Does Filevine or Tabs3 run on more platforms?
- Filevine runs on Web, iOS, Android. Tabs3 runs on Windows, Web, iOS, Android.
- What is Filevine best used for?
- Filevine is most often used for a personal injury firm that wants advertising spend, intake conversion and settlement value reported in one place, a mass tort practice managing thousands of claimants against shared case phases and bulk document generation, a firm replacing spreadsheets and shared drives where each practice area has different deadline rules, an immigration or workers compensation practice that needs form-heavy document assembly from case data. Of those, a personal injury firm that wants advertising spend, intake conversion and settlement value reported in one place and a mass tort practice managing thousands of claimants against shared case phases and bulk document generation are not what Tabs3 is typically brought in for.
- What can Filevine do that Tabs3 cannot?
- Filevine covers Project templates, Lead Docket intake, Document assembly, Vinesign. Tabs3 covers Tabs3 Billing, Trust accounting, General ledger and accounts payable, PracticeMaster.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Filevine: Does Filevine handle trust accounting?
No. It tracks case costs and settlement disbursement but has no legal general ledger, so trust accounting is done in QuickBooks or a dedicated legal accounting product.
Tabs3: Is Tabs3 right for a personal injury firm working on contingency?
No. It is built for hourly and flat fee billing with a firm general ledger. A contingency practice needs case cost tracking and settlement disbursement handling, which is what CASEpeer and Filevine are built around.
Filevine: Is pricing published?
No. Filevine quotes per user per month on an annual contract and adds an implementation fee, so compare total first-year cost rather than the seat rate.
Tabs3: Can I still buy Tabs3 as a perpetual licence?
No published perpetual price exists. The on-premises option, called OnSite Subscription, starts at 69 USD per user per month, with the hosted Tabs3 Cloud starting at 89 USD per user per month.
Filevine: Is it suitable for a two-person firm?
Rarely. The configuration overhead and contract minimums suit firms with dedicated intake and case management staff.
Tabs3: Does it replace QuickBooks?
For most firms yes. It includes a double-entry general ledger and accounts payable, which is the usual reason firms choose it over billing-only products.
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