Best Legal Billing Software for Small Law Firms and Solo Lawyers in 2025

Every small law firm has its own unique challenges—whether it’s spending too much time on administrative tasks or chasing late payments. Fortunately, small law firm billing software can help overcome these hurdles. The result? Firms unleash entirely new levels of success.

That barely scratches the surface of what legal billing software for small law firms can do. From streamlined workflows to quicker payments, small law firm billing software offers a world of possibilities. Read on as we highlight its many benefits and look at the best small law firm billing software solutions available in 2025.

Why invoice management for small law firms matters

Let’s say, for example, your law firm is the heart of your small community. Odds are, some clients are looking for alternative payment options to ease the burden of their legal fees. Because of the close relationship you’ve built, offering a more client-centered experience only feels natural. 

Or, maybe you’re one of several small firms in your community and are searching for ways to separate yourself from the competition.

In both scenarios, small law firm billing software helps you stand out by letting them pay how they prefer. After all, flexibility is exactly what clients want. 

According to the 2024 Legal Trends Report, over half of potential clients prefer to pay their lawyers using modern service delivery models, like flat fees or subscriptions. Yet, only 31% of law firms offer these payment options. Small law firm billing software allows you to accept these payment methods, giving your firm a competitive edge.

Discover the top highlights from our 2024 Legal Trends for Solo and Small Law Firms Report to gain insights on how small law firms are performing and industry wide trends.

The best billing options for small firms and solo practitioners

We’ve established that legal e-billing software can make a real difference at a small law firm by streamlining time-consuming tasks. That said, not all solutions are created equal. Let’s explore some of the best small law firm billing software options for 2025.

Clio Payments

Founded in 2008, Clio introduced the first cloud-based practice legal management software for law firms. Clio Payments—which is Clio’s built-in payment solution—offers a fast, flexible, and convenient way to manage a law firm’s collections.

Pros

• It’s affordable. Clio Payments is included with Clio Manage subscriptions, offering simple and transparent pricing.
• Clients gain flexibility. Clients can pay their legal bills using credit card, debit, or eCheck. They can also set up alternative payment options like payment plans.
• Accounting is a breeze. With Clio Accounting, a legal accounting solution well-suited for small law firms, you can record, manage, and analyze financial transactions from a single place. Plus, it connects to your bank accounts and centralizes all financial information.
• Work smarter. A whopping 79% of surveyed legal professionals are now using AI in some way in their practice—and those who aren’t risk falling behind. Clio Duo uses AI to automate tasks like generating bills based on client activity.
• It saves time. Clio Payments simplifies invoice management for small law firms by allowing you to track time, generate invoices, and send electronic bills effortlessly.  Clio also integrates with Xero and QuickBooks Online, which means users can say goodbye to error-prone manual data entry. Learn more about how to streamline your law firm invoice process.
• You’ll gain true peace of mind. Clio Payments isn’t just convenient—it’s a reliable online payment system for small law firms. Clients sleep well knowing that Clio Payments is PCI-compliant and follows IOLTA and trust accounting standards. Earned and unearned fees are kept separate, and transaction fees never come out of your trust account.
• World-class support. Clio has cemented a reputation for a bunch of things—its stellar customer support among them. Customers have access to the company’s award-winning team 24 hours a day, Monday through Friday, be it through live chat, phone, or email.

“Clio makes billing simple and task management easy. I am sold and have recommended it to numerous solo and small firm leaders. Clio is very service oriented. Should I have a question, Clio gives me the answer quickly and allows me to get back to serving my clients.” – David Crawford, Owner, Crawford I.P. Law

Cons

• Geographic restrictions. Clio Payments and some integrations are only available in certain countries. Presently, Clio Payments is best for law firms practicing in the US or Canada.

LawPay and MyCase

MyCase is a practice management platform designed for small and medium-sized firms. Their software doesn’t include payments capabilities, which is why they work with LawPay to offer LawPay Payments to their users.

Pros

• Alternative payment options. MyCase allows customers to accept alternative payment options—such as Pay Later, a legal fee financing solution that lets legal clients pay loans in automated installments.
• Create multiple invoices at once. MyCase’s batch billing feature helps save time by expediting the billing process.

Cons

• Higher transaction fees. Users have to pay higher fees on transactions, which can be a challenge for smaller law firms. Transaction fees are 3% for VISA and MasterCard and 3.9% for American Express. That’s $300 for every $10k processed using a Visa, MasterCard, or Discover—and $390 for AMEX.
• Inability to apply payments to matters. Users complain about payments being applied to clients, not matters. This can complicate the billing process for staff and clients.
• Limited integrations. Often results in duplicate and manual data entry for users. (Clio integrates with over 250 partners.)

PracticePanther

PracticePanther is a law practice management solution that offers case management, billing, time tracking, and automation features.

Pros

• Alternative payment methods. PracticePanther offers the ability to pay through alternative methods, such as payment plans—giving clients the flexibility to choose an option that’s best for them.
• Customizable invoices. With customizable invoice templates, PracticePanther lets users create invoices for a range of matters.

Cons

• High costs for basic features. Users will have to pay a premium for basic features like LEDES billing and integrations that you would otherwise get automatically with other legal billing providers.
• Limited integrations. PracticePanther has fewer than 30 integrations on its platform.

Rocket Matter

Rocket Matter is a legal practice management platform with a payment processing feature.

Pros

• Built for small law firms. Rocket Matter is specifically designed for solo practitioners and small law firms, offering features like invoice management for small legal firms to streamline billing.

Cons

• All or nothing prices. Rocket Matter’s essentials package is very basic, which means you’ll find yourself paying more for features that you would automatically get with other programs.

Smokeball

Smokeball is a cloud-based practice management software offering automatic time and activity tracking, document automation, and legal billing through the same LawPay integration mentioned above.

Pros

• Work efficiently. Smokeball comes with batch editing, finalizing, and printing, allowing users to generate multiple reports.

Cons

• Different interfaces. While billing can be managed online, it’s through a separate product and interface.
• Higher fees. With SmokeBall, you’ll be running your billing through a LawPay integration. While this integration comes with PCI and IOLTA compliance, and they help you meet your trust accounting obligations, LawPay charges higher fees than most legal payment processors.
• Compatibility limitations. Only PCs running Windows 10 that meet the minimum technical requirements can run Smokeball. Despite being the most used email service in the world, no Gmail compatibility exists.
• Conflicting programs. Because Smokeball Billing only works with Google Chrome, the local installation may cause issues with other software on your computer.

Final notes on the best legal billing software for small law firms

As small law firms have unique needs, they also have unique considerations when it comes to comparing the best lawyer billing software. Among the top criteria, it’s important to choose a solution that’s easy to set up, cost effective, reduces time spent on administrative tasks, offers flexible payment options, and maintains compliance with IOLTA and trust accounting.

Checking off all boxes may sound like a tall order, but it’s not. Today, a wide range of small law firm billing software solutions—including Clio Payments—are making the billing process easier than ever.

Try the best law firm billing software on the market: Sign up for a Clio Payments demo today.

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We published this blog post in November 2022. Last updated: March 21, 2025.

Categorized in: Technology