# Frix vs Clio

> Clio is the most widely used practice management system for small and mid-sized firms: matters, time and billing, documents, client intake through Clio Grow, and Clio Duo as its AI assistant. Frix covers matters, documents and intake too, and adds what Clio does not have: a public Law Library with a citator, and an AI that researches the law and reads your files with citations. Clio is stronger on billing and its integration marketplace.

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/compare/clio
Reviewed: 2026-09-29. Clio is a product of Themis Solutions; nothing here quotes a price.

## Choose Frix if

- You want research and drafting inside the same system as your matters, with citations you can open.
- You want an AI phone assistant answering calls and booking consultations, not only a web intake form.
- You are starting out and want to begin free.

## Choose Clio if

- Time tracking, billing, trust accounting and payments are the centre of your practice.
- You depend on Clio's integrations (accounting, e-signature, court forms) and its app marketplace.
- You already run on Clio and do not need legal research in the same tool.

## At a glance

| | Frix | Clio |
|---|---|---|
| Matters and clients | Matters, contacts, parties, insurance, notes, tasks, deadlines. | Matters, contacts, tasks, calendars, with mature workflows. |
| Billing | Not a billing system. | Time, billing, trust accounting, online payments. |
| Intake | AI phone assistant answers calls, asks the intake questions, books consultations; web intake too. | Clio Grow: web forms, CRM pipeline, scheduling. |
| Documents | Vault with Word and spreadsheet editing; Donna reads every file and cites the page. | Document storage and templates; integrations for editing. |
| Legal research | Public Law Library: about 10.8M opinions with an automated citator, 2.9M statute and regulation sections, 71M federal docket entries, 15,000 judge profiles. Free, no account. | Not included; integrations with research vendors. |
| AI | Donna reads your case files and the Law Library, answers with numbered citations that open the source at the page, and drafts in Word. | Clio Duo: summaries, drafting help and questions about your matter data. |
| Price | Free to start (3 guest questions, then a free account). Paid plans per firm; no sales call required. | Published per-user monthly tiers. |

## Where Clio is the safer choice

If billing is the heart of your firm, Clio is the more mature product and Frix does not try to replace it. Trust accounting, invoicing, payments and the accounting integrations are things Clio has spent years on. The same goes for its marketplace: if your workflow depends on a court-forms or e-signature integration that lives there, that is a real reason to stay.

## Where Frix is different

Frix starts from the work rather than the ledger. The phone assistant takes the call at 9pm, asks the questions a personal injury intake needs, and the matter is waiting in the morning. Donna reads the file, researches the law in the library, and drafts the demand in Word with citations. The Law Library is free and public, so research stops being a separate subscription. We wrote about what an intake assistant should and should not do in [AI phone intake for personal injury firms](https://www.frixlaw.com/blog/ai-phone-intake-for-personal-injury-firms).

## Frequently asked questions

### Does Frix replace Clio?

For matters, documents, intake and research, Frix covers the same ground and adds a Law Library and a citing AI. Frix is not a billing or trust accounting system; firms that need those keep Clio or an accounting tool alongside.

### Does Clio do legal research?

Clio is practice management. Legal research comes through integrations with research vendors rather than a library of its own. Frix's Law Library is built in and free.

### Can Frix answer my phone?

Yes. The Frix phone assistant answers calls, asks intake questions, books consultations and hands off to staff, and the call and its summary land in the matter.