The Best Legal Document Software 2026: Our Team’s Honest Opinion

Modern legal teams face huge workloads and ever-shrinking budgets. In today’s competitive environment, with constraints on resources and expertise, manually drafting documents is simply no longer a viable option.

For this reason, the advent of document automation software comes as a tremendous boon to legal teams. By streamlining common processes, automation software can be a massive boost to productivity for time-poor firms. However, as any legal expert will tell you, the devil is often in the details.

With a large variety of competitors in the nascent field of document automation software, it can be difficult to choose which is the best fit for your business. While some software packages offer basic legal templates, others include features such as workflow automation, integrations with your existing tech stack, and performance analytics. Choosing the right software can transform how your team operates.

In this article we will survey the growing field of document automation software, delving specifically into different options to give you our recommendation for the best in the business.

What is legal document software and why is choosing the right software so important for your business?

Legal document automation software can be defined as a smart template system for law firms or in-house legal teams. The best software packages often employ sophisticated analytics which can process complex information at a rapid rate

Lawyers and legal teams often have to spend hours creating and editing contracts, NDAs, and other common documents, often by copying old ones and tweaking the details (such as names, dates, etc.). This is often time-consuming and prone to human error.

Document automation software provides an elegant solution which minimizes the risk of such errors, while also increasing productivity by reducing the amount of time that firms need to dedicate to menial tasks.

Giving your legal teams more time to dedicate to strategic legal work and client service without sacrificing professionalism and compliance, can be a game changer for busy teams that strive for more.  

What to consider when choosing the right software?

Selecting the right legal document automation software depends on your organization’s unique requirements, resources, and goals. The following is an overview of the main considerations to take into account when choosing the right software for your organization.

Team size:

Smaller legal teams often need simple, intuitive solutions that don’t require extensive setup, while larger firms may prioritize scalability and advanced features to manage higher workloads.

Organization type:

In-house legal departments may benefit from advanced matter management and collaboration tools in order to optimize workflow, whereas traditional law firms often prioritize sheer efficiency, with high import on watertight document accuracy.

Pricing:

Evaluate whether a platform’s pricing model aligns with your budget. Subscription-based software may suit growing or thinly resourced in-house teams.

Tech stack:

Importantly, it is worth ensuring that the software integrates seamlessly with your existing tools such as your document system, SAP, email, or contract management systems, to avoid workflow disruption. For smaller organizations in particular, deploying unsuitable software can be a nightmare to correct.

Features that legal automation software should have

Customizable templates:

Allows teams to quickly generate accurate legal documents tailored to specific clients, cases, or jurisdictions.

Workflow Automation:

Streamlines repetitive approval and review steps, ensuring consistency and faster document turnaround times.

Collaboration Tools:

Enable multiple users to edit, comment, and share documents securely in real time.

Analytics and reporting:

Provide visibility into document usage, team performance, and overall efficiency to support data-driven decision-making.

The Best Legal Document Automation Software in 2025

1.       Xakia 

   – Xakia combines document automation with complete legal matter management, providing in-house teams with a single, connected platform. Beyond document generation, Xakia offers contract lifecycle management, an intake portal, spend management, automation workflows, and reporting, giving teams visibility into the full lifecycle of their legal work.

By consolidating matter and spend management, Xakia offers a practical user experience, helping legal organizations to organize their tasks and workflow around budgetary and time constraints – all on one centralized platform.

Pros: Well-known to be affordable, robust, and exactly what in-house teams need to manage their entire legal workflows.

Cons: Suitable only for in-house teams, not law firms

Best for: In-house legal teams seeking a comprehensive and robust legal toolkit without the hefty price tag.

2.       Checkbox.ai -

   
   Checkbox.ai focuses on process automation through workflows that allow legal teams to build self-service tools without developer support.

Pros: Helpful for automating repetitive processes.

Cons: Limited in its capabilities, and not as broad as other tools.

Best for: Legal operations teams wanting to automate high-volume, low-risk tasks.

3.       DazyChain 

   - DazyChain offers project and matter management capabilities, helping teams keep track of deadlines, approvals, and compliance documents. Its visual dashboards make it easy to monitor progress and performance.

Pros: Offers matter tracking, collaborative task management.

Cons: Limited document automation depth compared to competitors.

Best for: Legal departments seeking visibility across projects.

4.       Onit

   
   Onit is an enterprise-level solution designed for large organizations with complex legal operations. It combines document automation, contract lifecycle management, and workflow tools in one system.

Pros: Highly configurable, scalable, suited to enterprise teams.

Cons: Requires more onboarding and investment than smaller tools.

Best for: Large enterprises with complex legal operations.

5.      Lawcadia -

   Lawcadia specializes in spend management with a focus on compliance and risk reduction. 

Pros: Suited to compliance tracking and audit readiness.

Cons: Less flexible for teams seeking creative workflow automation.

Best for: Regulated organizations needing strict process control and transparency.

6.       LawVu

   
   LawVu offers a unified platform which brings together document automation, collaboration, and reporting. 

Pros: Offers collaboration tools, reporting capability.

Cons: May not be straightforward to integrate with pre-existing tech stacks.

Best for: Mid-sized legal teams able to integrate a complex software solution. 

So who should you go with?: Our final thoughts:

Each platform brings distinct strengths. Checkbox and DazyChain simplify task automation and project tracking; Onit and Lawcadia cater to complex enterprise needs; LawVu strikes a middle ground for mid-sized teams.

Xakia, however, stands out for in-house legal departments seeking more than document automation. Its integration of matter, spend, contract, intake, and document management gives teams complete oversight of their legal function, without the cost or complexity of heavy enterprise tools.

For legal teams ready to move from manual processes to a connected, data-driven workflow, Xakia offers a modern, practical solution built for the realities of 2026. Book in a demo to find out more!