# Frix vs Westlaw

> Westlaw is the most complete commercial research system, with editorial headnotes, the Key Number System and the KeyCite citator, and CoCounsel as its AI layer; it is priced for firms that research every day. Frix gives a solo or small firm a free public Law Library with an automated citator, an AI that cites what it finds, and the rest of the firm's work (intake, matters, files) in the same place.

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/compare/westlaw
Reviewed: 2026-09-29. Westlaw is a product of Thomson Reuters; nothing here quotes a price.

## Choose Frix if

- You want to check whether a case is still good law, read citing cases and pull statutes without a subscription.
- You want research, drafting and your case files handled by one assistant that cites the page.
- You are a solo or small firm and the research budget is real money.

## Choose Westlaw if

- You rely on editorial headnotes, the Key Number System and West's secondary sources (treatises, ALR, practice guides).
- You need every state's administrative code and every unpublished opinion, with an editorial citator behind it.
- Your firm already lives in Thomson Reuters products (Practical Law, Drafting Assistant, Firm Central).

## At a glance

| | Frix | Westlaw |
|---|---|---|
| Case law | ~10.8M opinions, federal and all 50 states, 1658 to today, updated daily from public sources. | Comprehensive, including unpublished opinions, with editorial headnotes and synopses. |
| Citator | Automated citator: red and yellow flags, every citing case with the citing sentence, parentheticals. You read the citing case yourself. | KeyCite, editorially reviewed, with depth-of-treatment and history. |
| Statutes and regulations | US Code, CFR, all state statutes and constitutions, court rules; state administrative codes for 16 states. | All jurisdictions, annotated, with historical versions. |
| Dockets | 71M federal docket entries and 1.7M filed documents from the public RECAP archive. | Dockets through separate products and add-ons. |
| 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. | CoCounsel: research memos, document review and drafting inside Westlaw Precision. |
| Your own files | Donna reads records, transcripts and recordings in your matter and cites the page. | Document review through CoCounsel; practice management is separate. |
| Firm operations | Matters, document vault with editing, AI phone intake that answers calls and books consultations, tasks, calendar. | Not the product's purpose; Thomson Reuters sells separate tools. |
| Price | Free to start (3 guest questions, then a free account). Paid plans per firm; no sales call required. | Subscription quoted per firm; contracts typically run a year or more. |

## Where Westlaw is still the safer choice

Westlaw's editorial layer is the reason it costs what it costs. Headnotes, the Key Number System and KeyCite's editorial history are written and checked by people, and for an appellate brief on a hard question that layer is worth paying for. Frix's citator is automated: it finds every later case that cites yours and classifies the treatment, but it does not have an editor confirming that a case was overruled on the point you care about. Our own guide on [checking whether a case is still good law](https://www.frixlaw.com/blog/how-to-check-if-a-case-is-still-good-law) says the same thing: read the citing case.

Coverage is the other honest gap. Frix has every state's statutes and constitution and the full CFR, but administrative codes for only sixteen states so far, and some older opinions in the corpus are scans without text.

## Where Frix changes the economics

For most day-to-day questions, a small firm does not need the editorial layer. It needs the opinion, the statute, a reliable signal that the case has not been overruled, and the ability to check the answer. The Frix Law Library gives all of that away, to anyone, without an account, and Donna searches it for you and cites what she finds so the check takes a click.

The bigger difference is scope. Westlaw is a research product. Frix is where the research happens next to the matter: Donna reads the deposition transcript in your file and the case law in the library in the same answer, drafts the motion in Word, and the phone assistant that took the intake call lives in the same system. That is why we compare the two at all: a firm choosing Frix is usually replacing several subscriptions, not one.

## A fair way to decide

Take a real question from a matter you are working on and ask it in both. In Westlaw, note what the editorial tools added that you actually used. In Frix, ask Donna at [/ask](https://www.frixlaw.com/ask), open each citation, and run the citator on the lead case. If you needed the headnotes, keep Westlaw. If you needed the opinion and the citator, you have just seen that you can have that for free.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Frix a free alternative to Westlaw?

For case law, statutes, dockets and citator checks, yes: the Frix Law Library is free and public. It does not replace Westlaw's editorial headnotes, secondary sources or the editorially reviewed KeyCite.

### Does Frix have KeyCite?

No. KeyCite is Westlaw's. Frix has its own automated citator with red and yellow flags and every citing sentence, built on public court data. Read the citing case before relying on a flag.

### Can Frix replace CoCounsel?

Donna does what most firms use CoCounsel for: research with citations, reading and summarising documents, and drafting. The difference is that Donna also reads your matter files and works inside the firm's system rather than inside a research subscription.

### Does Frix cover unpublished opinions?

Frix carries what the public record carries, including many unpublished opinions from CourtListener and RECAP. It marks precedential status where the court provided it, but coverage of unpublished decisions is not as complete as a commercial service.