Should a law firm buy intake software or hire an intake coordinator?

It depends on where intake breaks. Intake software fits when enquiries arrive and nobody logs them or follows them up. An intake coordinator fits when each enquiry needs a conversation and a judgement. An answering service fits when calls go unanswered. Having the workflow built, by an independent builder such as Alea Applied AI, fits when enquiries arrive through several channels and stall between systems. Check first what the software you already pay for includes.

Updated 4 October 2026

How do the four options compare?

Prices are the ones each company published on 4 October 2026. Wages are medians from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS). Each cell is a summary: the detail and the qualifiers are below.

Compared on	Buy intake software	Hire an intake coordinator	Use an answering service	Have it built
Cost	MyCase Pro, its first plan with intake forms: 100 dollars a user a month billed annually. Clio sells intake as an add-on or inside its top plan, priced by quote.	No official wage for the title. Nearest BLS medians, May 2025: 55,570 dollars a year for legal secretaries and administrative assistants, 38,010 for receptionists. ONS median in the UK, April 2025: 26,968 pounds for legal secretaries. Employer costs come on top.	Smith.ai from 300 dollars a month for 30 calls. Ruby from 250 dollars a month for 50 minutes.	A fixed-fee audit, then a build quoted at a fixed price before it starts.
Time to live	Neither pricing page gives a setup time. MyCase includes guided implementation on every plan; Clio, live onboarding training on its top two.	The time it takes to recruit and train one person.	Smith.ai says setup takes about 15 minutes. Ruby's pricing page gives no setup time. Both say they charge no setup fee.	An audit of about a week, then a first working version usually live in two to four weeks.
Covers	MyCase: intake forms, lead tracking and automated workflows. Clio's intake product: intake forms, appointment booking, automated emails and workflows.	Whatever one person can answer, judge and chase in working hours.	The phone. Both list lead qualification and intake on every plan.	The path from the form, the inbox and the phone message into your case management system, with the follow-up.
Leaves with you	Setting it up, keeping it current, and every enquiry that arrives outside it.	Recruitment, training, supervision, cover for absence, and the hours the person does not work.	Everything after the call is logged: the decision, the engagement and the file.	Agreeing the acceptance criteria, and the cases the rules pass to a named person.

What does each option cost, and what does it cover?

Each option is described from its own published pages, read on 4 October 2026, in the currency the page prints, and closes on when it fits.

Buy intake software
Intake software captures an enquiry, tracks it and reminds someone to act. MyCase lists three plans at 50, 100 and 130 dollars a user a month billed annually (60, 120 and 150 billed monthly); its lead tracking, online lead forms and client intake forms start at the second, Pro, guided implementation comes with every plan, and its FAQ says there is no long-term contract or setup fee. Clio lists its Starter plan from 49 dollars a user a month; its intake product, Clio Grow, is unavailable on Starter, an add-on to Core and Signature and included in Elite, and those three plans are priced by quote, with live onboarding training on Signature and Elite. Clio's UK page lists Core from 79 pounds a user a month. Lawmatics prints no prices on its pricing page and sets a minimum of three users on its two lower plans. Neither MyCase's nor Clio's pricing page gives a setup time. This route fits when enquiries arrive and nobody logs them or follows them up.
Hire an intake coordinator
Intake coordinator is not a title either statistics office reports: it is absent from the index of BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook and from the ONS occupation figures. The index files a legal administrative assistant under secretaries and administrative assistants and a front desk receptionist under receptionists, so we take those as the nearest. BLS puts the median annual wage, in May 2025, at 55,570 dollars for legal secretaries and administrative assistants, 38,010 for receptionists and 62,890 for paralegals and legal assistants. Benefits come on top: BLS's employer cost figures for June 2026 put them at 11.51 dollars an hour worked for office and administrative support staff in private industry, against 25.22 in wages and salaries. In the UK, ONS's provisional figures for April 2025 put median gross annual pay, for full-time employees a year or more in the job, at 26,968 pounds for legal secretaries and 24,678 for receptionists. Employer costs come on top: GOV.UK gives employer National Insurance for 2026 to 2027 as 15 percent on earnings above 5,000 pounds a year for the standard category, less an Employment Allowance of up to 10,500 pounds for eligible employers, and the minimum employer pension contribution under automatic enrolment as 3 percent, in most schemes on earnings between 6,240 and 50,270 pounds a year. This route fits when each enquiry needs a conversation and a judgement.
Use an answering service
An answering service puts receptionists on your phones. Smith.ai lists 30 calls for 300 dollars a month, 90 for 810 and 300 for 2,100; lead qualification and a new client intake of five short questions are included, booking an appointment adds 1.50 dollars a call, and it says setup takes about 15 minutes. Ruby prices by the minute: 50 minutes for 250 dollars a month, 100 for 395, 200 for 720 and 500 for 1,725, with lead qualification and intake listed on every plan; its pricing page gives no setup time. Both say they charge no setup fee. This route fits when the leak is calls nobody answers.
Have it built
An independent builder connects what you already run: the website form, the shared inbox, the phone messages and the case management system. An enquiry is then captured, answered and followed up by rule, and anything the rules do not cover goes to a named person. That is our work. It starts with a fixed-fee audit that measures your intake and models the fix; the build is then quoted at a fixed price, against acceptance criteria written before it starts. This route fits when enquiries arrive through several channels and stall between systems, or when nobody in the firm owns intake.

What do we do, and on what terms?

We build and run the system inside the software your firm already uses. It starts with a fixed-fee audit, about a week, that measures the current process and models the fix. The build is then scoped and quoted at a fixed price, and a first working version is usually live in two to four weeks. The acceptance criteria are written before any build begins: what the system will do, measured how, by when. If it does not meet them, the fix is ours. After that we can keep running it, reviewed monthly, and you can cancel at any time.

How do you decide?

Find where intake breaks before you buy anything. Enquiries that arrive and are never logged are a software or workflow problem. A phone that rings out needs someone to answer it: a person or an answering service. Enquiries that are logged and then wait are a follow-up problem.
Check what you already pay for. MyCase includes intake from its Pro plan up; Clio includes it in its top plan and sells it as an add-on to two others.
Count the enquiries. If you receive only a handful a week, a tidy manual process is fine.
Cost the person in full: the wage, the employer's costs on top, and the time to recruit and train.
Decide who owns it. Software needs someone to maintain it, a coordinator needs someone to supervise, and a built system needs acceptance criteria that somebody in the firm agreed.
The options combine. An answering service can cover the phones while software or a built workflow handles the forms and the inbox.

When are we the wrong choice?

If the software you already pay for includes intake and nobody has switched it on, start there: that is a configuration job, not a build
If the problem is calls nobody answers, an answering service is the direct fix
If each enquiry needs a long conversation with a person, hire the person
If you receive only a handful of enquiries a week, a tidy manual process is fine, and we will say so
If you are about to change case management systems, wait until that settles rather than building twice

Frequently asked questions

Is intake software cheaper than an intake coordinator?

For a small firm, yes on the published figures, and they are not the same purchase. The software is priced by the user: MyCase lists its Pro plan, the first with intake forms, at 100 dollars a user a month billed annually. The person is priced by the year: the BLS median annual wage for legal secretaries and administrative assistants was 55,570 dollars in May 2025, before benefits. Software records, routes and reminds. A person answers, judges and chases, and still needs somewhere to record the enquiry.

How much does an intake coordinator cost a law firm?

There is no official wage for the title. The BLS median annual wage in May 2025 was 55,570 dollars for legal secretaries and administrative assistants and 38,010 for receptionists. Benefits are extra: for office and administrative support staff in private industry, BLS put them at 11.51 dollars an hour worked in June 2026, against 25.22 in wages and salaries. In the UK, the ONS median gross annual pay for full-time legal secretaries was 26,968 pounds in April 2025, a provisional figure, before employer National Insurance and pension.

What does legal intake software cost?

On 4 October 2026 MyCase listed 50, 100 and 130 dollars a user a month billed annually, with intake forms from the 100 dollar plan. Clio listed its Starter plan from 49 dollars a user a month, without its intake product, which is an add-on to two plans and included in a third, all three priced by quote. Lawmatics printed no prices on its pricing page.

What does an answering service cost a law firm?

On 4 October 2026 Smith.ai listed receptionist plans at 300 dollars a month for 30 calls, 810 for 90 and 2,100 for 300. Ruby listed 250 dollars a month for 50 minutes, 395 for 100, 720 for 200 and 1,725 for 500. Both list lead qualification and intake on every plan, and both say they charge no setup fee.

How much does it cost to automate client intake at a small law firm?

It depends on the route. Software with intake forms starts at 100 dollars a user a month, billed annually, on MyCase's published prices. An answering service starts at 250 dollars a month on Ruby's and 300 on Smith.ai's. Having it built starts, with us, with a fixed-fee audit that measures your current intake and models the fix; the build is then scoped and quoted at a fixed price, which depends on how many channels you connect and how complex your qualification rules are.

Can a firm use more than one of these?

Yes. They cover different parts of intake: an answering service the phone, software the record, a coordinator the conversation, and a built workflow the handoffs between them. Smith.ai, for one, lists integration with a firm's CRM, the first at no charge.

Sources

Every statement on this page about a named company, a price, a wage or a rule was read at its source on 4 October 2026. Prices, wages and policies change: read them again before you rely on them.

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