You want a number. Most vendor sites make you book a call to get one, and when you do get a price, it's hard to tell what's included and what shows up later as an add-on.
The short answer
Legal intake software usually costs a few hundred dollars a month for a small firm, and more as call volume, message volume and features grow. The sticker price matters less than the pricing model, because per-user fees, usage overages and setup charges are what move the real bill. Estimate your monthly calls and the number of people who need access, then price every option against those two numbers.
What you're actually paying for
"Intake software" covers a few different things, and vendors bundle them differently:
- Answering and intake. Who picks up the phone and runs the intake questions. That could be an AI voice agent, a live answering service or your own staff.
- The CRM. Where leads live from first contact to signed retainer, with status, notes and owners.
- Messaging and automation. Texts, consult reminders, follow-ups and retainer e-signature.
- Setup. Building your intake questions, workflows and calendar connections.
Some products cover one piece. Others cover all four. Before comparing prices, make sure you're comparing the same scope. Our longer legal intake software pricing guide goes deeper on each piece.
The pricing models you'll run into
Per user. You pay for each seat. Cheap for a solo, but the bill grows every time you add a paralegal or let an attorney see the pipeline. It also pushes firms to share logins, which causes its own mess. More on this in per-user vs. flat pricing.
Per call or per minute. Common for answering and AI voice tools. Fair when volume is steady. Watch the overage rate if your ads or your season spike.
Flat monthly with an allowance. A set price for a set number of calls or messages, with a per-unit charge above that. Easy to budget if you know your volume.
Setup and onboarding fees. Some vendors charge one-time fees to configure the system. Others include it. Ask directly.
How to estimate your real monthly cost
Here's a simple way to do it. The numbers below are made up for illustration.
Say your firm gets 400 inbound calls a month and five people need to see leads.
- Price the calls. If a tool includes 300 calls and charges for each one over, you'll pay for 100 extra calls most months.
- Price the users. A per-seat CRM multiplies by five. A flat one doesn't.
- Add messaging. Reminders and follow-ups add up. Five reminders per consult times your consult count is a real number of texts.
- Add setup. Spread any one-time fee over the first year to compare fairly.
- Add the stuff you'd still need to buy separately, like an e-signature tool or a scheduling app.
Now you have a monthly figure you can compare across vendors.
What it costs to not have it
Software cost is only half the math. The other half is what you lose today. If a few calls a month go to voicemail and those callers hire someone else, that's lost fees on leads you already paid to generate. Run your own numbers with what a missed call costs a law firm.
Where IntakeGenius fits
IntakeGenius is priced so you can estimate the bill from your call and message volume. The AI voice agent starts at $299 a month, IntakeCRM with messaging starts at $299 a month, and the full stack with both starts at $499 a month. Every plan includes unlimited users and there are no setup fees, because we do the setup for you. See the details on our pricing page.
If you want help sizing it to your actual call volume, book a demo. It's 15 minutes, no slides, and we'll do the math with you.
Common questions
Is there a free legal intake software option? Some tools have free tiers, usually with tight limits. You'll still need someone to answer calls and follow up, which is where most of the real cost sits.
Why do some vendors charge per user? It's a common SaaS model. It works for some firms but gets expensive as your team grows. Ask what a seat includes and whether view-only users cost the same.
Should I pay a setup fee? Only if you know what you're getting for it. A lot of the value in intake software is in the setup, so ask who does the work and how long it takes.
Is AI intake cheaper than hiring a receptionist? Usually, on a monthly basis, but they do different jobs. We compare them in AI receptionist vs. human receptionist cost.