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The Best eDiscovery Software Companies of 2021
How We Chose the Best eDiscovery Software
eDiscovery software is electronic discovery software used by legal professionals to review, process, and tag electronic data and documents, such as emails, text messages, social media posts, and computer files. They use the information discovered to prepare electronic documents for investigations and lawsuits. eDiscovery software digitizes the process, making it much quicker than manually going through all this data. There are numerous eDiscovery software companies, and all tout multiple features and services. We evaluated these companies on important eDiscovery features, integrations, and reports to create our list.
eDiscovery Features
An average civil case can involve 130 gigabytes of data, which is equal to 6.5 million pages of data. With the right features, eDiscovery makes the process of gathering, processing, and indexing all this data much faster and more accurate. We recommend software that comes with a variety of features for eDiscovery, especially document indexing, full text extraction, and keyword search.
Integrations
eDiscovery must be able to leverage other technologies to be effective. The best software has pre-built integrations for tools that are often used together with eDiscovery software. We looked for software with key technology integrations that improve the exchange of up-to-date information, including integrations with HR systems, case management software, and other enterprise data sources and IT investments.
Reports
Good eDiscovery software often includes various pre-built reports, such as summary reports that monitor case progress to ensure resources are properly allocated and deadlines met. Activity reporting is also valuable to create an audit trail for all users’ actions, and life cycle reporting covers the entire eDiscovery process from collection through production. Detailed reports help the user understand and improve the performance of their discovery process, so we focused on companies with robust reporting built into their software.
The 15 Best eDiscovery Software of 2021
AccessData
AccessData eDiscovery is a fully integrated, end-to-end platform that covers the entire electronic discovery process. It helps legal teams reduce risk and ensure compliance while improving the efficiency of their responses. AccessData can collect data from more than 30 of the most frequently used cloud platforms and data repositories, as well as export data with a direct web API feature. Other key features include:
- Advanced interactive data visualizations to identify communication patterns
- Emails collected as distinct files and ready for MD5 hashing
- Searchable PDFs created from native files and exported
- Workflow-driven templates collect data from email and data retention environments
- Secure web and role-based access assignments
- Integrated document review with predictive coding
- Over 700 data types with full forensic logging processed
AccessData eDiscovery also includes an intuitive litigation hold wizard. This feature provides real-time hold status updates, litigation hold integrations with leading HR databases, and pre-loaded notification templates.
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Windows, web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: Phone during business hours, online >Integrations: Microsoft Office 365, Google G Suite, OneDrive, SharePoint, DocuShare, Box, and others >More features at AccessData |
Pros & Cons of AccessData eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offer free demos | >No public pricing information |
| >30+ integrations with popular platforms | >No free trial |
| >Includes key eDiscovery features |
CloudNine LAW
CloudNine is an automated on-premises or cloud-based eDiscovery software designed to reduce costs and increase efficiency. It consolidates entire data collections and reviews this data all in one platform. CloudNine LAW streamlines the discovery process with comprehensive processing, imaging, and production that increase productivity. With CloudNine LAW, users can reduce their eDiscovery spend and maintain control of their data by handling matters in-house. Other key benefits include:
- Enabling self-service ingestions with reduced IT dependency
- Decreasing time spent on project implementation with intuitive navigation
- Reducing document counts and related expenses with advanced filters and analytics
- Managing productivity with real-time user statistics
- Controlling user access and field level permissions
- Ensuring data security and eDiscovery compliance
- Monitoring/controlling eDiscovery cost with built-in reporting
CloudNine Law lets users identify and extract content from more than 4,000 file types, scan documents from over 100 scanners, and produce outputs in print or digital format.
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at $35/month | Free 30-Day Trial, Free Demo | >Deployment: Mac, Windows, web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: Phone during business hours, online >Integrations: CloudNine services and leading document review platforms >More features at CloudNine LAW |
Pros & Cons of CloudNine LAW eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Lowest monthly cost | >Doesn’t provide 24/7 support |
| >Offers free 30-day trial and demos | |
| >Includes all key eDiscovery features |
Concordance
Concordance Discovery Management Software is an on-premises electronic discovery system that helps legal teams manage litigation documents with data import, search, review, organization, production, and collaboration. It helps cut the costs of electronic discovery review and litigation document management while providing an effective way for law firms, government agencies, and corporations to manage the high volumes of documents generated during litigations. Key features include:
- Importing, searching, and organizing email and other electronic documents
- Turning images into text with optical character recognition automatically on import
- Reviewing all types of documents, including foreign language documents
- Searching text and metadata to quickly locate potentially relevant documents
- Drag-and-drop organization based on user-created tags and tag folders
- Collaborating/sharing case data among co-counsel and other team members
- Sharing data with industry-leading applications through integrations
- Producing precisely formatted, customized reports for trial preparation and fact review
- Building databases without predefined limits
- Accessing information from anywhere
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Windows Install >Support: Online >Integrations: CloudNine services >More features at Concordance |
Pros & Cons of Concordance eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free demos | >No public pricing information |
| >Easy drag-and-drop organization | >Missing some key eDiscovery features |
| >Robust search capabilities |
Consilio
Consilio’s web-based platform, Sightline, is a self-service eDiscovery software that lets users process data and manage review workflows of all sizes. Sightline offers a fully automated end-to-end process that converts native to images, performs quality control checks, minimizes human delays, and ensures there isn’t any privileged material produced. Users can drag and drop data uploads to process their own data, including loose eFiles or archives, to quickly find what matters. Searches are powered by analytics with targeted results and suggested documents for review displayed. Other key features include:
- Advanced ECA tools directly integrated in a single, unified platform
- Automated data loading, QC, and gap identification
- Data augmentation to enable better searching
- Template creation based on existing projects speeds up new project setup
- Non-responsive document identification and culling
- Communication visualization on an actionable timeline
- Speed coding with code sync and coding stamps
- Batching to keep topic clusters, threads, and near dupes together
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: 24/7 (live rep), phone during business hours, online >Integrations: Analytics workflows >More features at Consilio |
Pros & Cons of Consilio eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free demos | >No public pricing information |
| >24/7 live customer support | >Limited integrations |
| >Includes key eDiscovery features |
Disco
DISCO eDiscovery is an end-to-end, cloud-based application that gives law firms, corporations, and government agencies control over their data. This native-driven solution lets users quickly create a review database with automatic ingestion and processing of data. Users can upload up to 4 TB of data daily, and the program extracts and indexes metadata, de-dupes, and performs near-dupe analysis, imaging, OCR, and email threading. Other features include:
- Customizable workflows, views, and security
- Advanced AI and intuitive user interface to speed up review times and improve accuracy
- Machine learning and cloud computing to solve complex data analysis challenges
- Visual search tools to interactively visualize entire document sets
- Amazon Web Services integration to keep data confidential and mitigates security risks
- Integrated dashboards and real-time reporting throughout the eDiscovery process in a single interface
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: 24/7 (live rep), online >Integrations: Amazon Web Services >More features at DISCO |
Pros & Cons of DISCO eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free demo | >No public pricing information |
| >24/7 live customer support | >No topic clustering, full text extraction, or document indexing |
| >Robust search features and integrations |
eCapture by Ipro
Ipro eCapture is a fully automated electronic evidence processing solution and works as a fully functional stand-alone application or as the processing engine for Ipro’s enterprise solution. It allows users to take control of large data sets with complex file types by quickly and accurately performing eDiscovery, processing data, handling production tasks, and exporting reports. Core performance features include:
- Searching, de-duping, filtering, and parent-child document handling
- Multilingual conversion and normalization technology
- Multi-language OCR recognizes text from files containing multiple languages
- SQL storage of directory, size information, and file count
- Extractions of PDF comments and metadata from photographs
- Flex processor to define custom processing rules
- Central console for managing terabytes of data processing
Ipro eCapture also has hundreds of export options, auto-publishes documents with errors, and includes hashing compatibility with legacy cases. It fully supports forensic files, so users can extract, organize, and index related data.
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: 24/7 (live rep), phone, chat >Integrations: Ipro for Enterprise >More features at eCapture by Ipro |
Pros & Cons of eCapture by Ipro eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free demos | >No public pricing information |
| >Includes key eDiscovery features | >Limited integrations |
| >24/7 live customer support |
Everlaw
Everlaw is a cloud-based eDiscovery solution that helps ensure key evidence in the legal process isn’t overlooked. It allows fast uploads of nearly all data types, including forensic image files, emails, instant messages, social media posts, and audiovisual files from other platforms. Everlaw’s secure, centralized location lets legal teams investigate issues, reveal relevant information, and receive nearly instantaneous search results, even when using complex search strings. Other features include:
- Drag-and-drop and cloud file-sharing capabilities
- Fast data ingestion of more than 400,000 documents per hour
- Simultaneous searches for duplicates and errors
- On-screen review tabs to view and apply codes
- Secure in-platform sharing, communication, and joint editing
Everlaw’s uploader tool integrates with popular third-party cloud storage apps and other platforms to improve data capture and review. It doesn’t support OAuth or OpenID but does support Active Directory Azure AD, Okta, Ping, Centrify, Google Vault, Box, Dropbox, Drive, SharePoint, and OneDrive.
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: Phone during business hours, online >Integrations: Google Vault, Dropbox, OneDrive, SharePoint, Azure AD, Ping, and others >More features at Everlaw |
Pros & Cons of Everlaw eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free demo | >No public pricing information |
| >Numerous integrations | >Doesn’t include topic clustering |
| >Includes most of the core eDiscovery features | > |
Exterro
Exterro’s eDiscovery data management software combines processing with collection, offering documents for review almost immediately after the collection process begins. Its simultaneous collection/processing feature is unique among eDiscovery software vendors and dramatically reduces the length of time it takes to collect facts for a case. It also provides comprehensive collection, review, analysis, and production features that discover communications and documents that might have otherwise been missed using traditional collection methods. Other key features include:
- Early case assessment prior to collection to find responsive data sooner
- AI-driven ECA exposes contextual relationships between content and custodians
- Concept clusters and communication patterns visualized
- Built-in analytic tools, predictive coding, and email traffic analysis
- Built-in concept, fuzzy, facet, and Boolean searches
- Single-instance collection and storage across all collections
- Intuitive interface enables conduct tiered and batched reviews
- Algorithms analyze labeling decisions to suggest, queue, and label relevant unreviewed documents
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Mac, Windows, web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: 24/7 (live rep), phone during business hours >Integrations: Alfresco, Google, MS Office 365, Oracle, SharePoint, Salesforce CRM, and others >More features at Exterro |
Pros & Cons of Exterro eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Simultaneous collection and processing | >No public pricing information |
| >Free demos and 24/7 customer support | >Doesn’t include reporting |
| >Multiple eDiscovery features and integrations |
eZReview
eZReview is a comprehensive eDiscovery software powered by Knovos’ advanced analytics engine and designed for discovery requests, investigations, and subpoenas. Its intuitive dashboard enhances customization and oversight while ensuring confidential data remains protected with advanced security features. eZReview is an end-to-end solution with feature-rich integrated modules that cover the entire eDiscovery life cycle on a centrally managed platform. Integrated modules include:
- Early case management: Reduces data volume, conducts exploratory analysis, and develops strategy early in a case
- Data processing and production: Supports ingestion of hundreds of file types with comprehensive language support and culling techniques
- Document review and analysis: Comprehensive analytics, automated workflows, and advanced search technology to efficiently review countless documents with accuracy
eZReview’s knowledge repository stores documents and associated work products from previous cases to use in future matters and perform trend analysis. Generated reports provide detailed information of the entire eDiscovery process for a complete chain of custody.
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: 24/7 (live rep), online >Integrations: Integrated modules for data processing and production, early case assessment, knowledge management, document review, and workflow management >More features at eZReview |
Pros & Cons of eZReview eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free demos | >No public pricing information |
| >24/7 live customer support | >Missing integrations with popular platforms |
| >Includes all key eDiscovery features |
KLD Data Collection Services
KLD Data Collection Services provides in-person data collection from experts across the globe equipped with state-of-the-art tools. It can also perform remote collections by logging into the customer’s system to collect evidence. Customers can also opt for self-collection using KLD’s remove collection tool, RCMgr. This tool uses advanced remote collection technology to effortlessly perform forensically sound collections repeatedly and defensibly. Users can perform collections of loose files, hard drives, and email servers using preconfigured drives that collect only user-defined data. RCMgr features include:
- Entire collection logged in granular detail to track process from start to finish
- Full bitstream DD forensic imaging for Windows- and Mac-based devices
- Overcomes full disk encryptions that hamper forensic digital investigations
- Targeted collection of files on local, external, and network drives on a single computer
- Compatible with thumb drives, external hard drives, MP3 players, etc.
- Updates power/energy settings to prevent systems from pausing/restarting during collection
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: Email, phone >Integrations: Cellebrite, Office 365, AccessData, Microsoft Azure, Relativity, and others >More features at KLD Data Collection Services |
Pros & Cons of KLD Data Collection Services eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free demo | >Primarily a service not a software |
| >Includes keyword and metadata searches and topic clustering | >Doesn’t include document indexing or full text extraction |
| >Includes multiple integrations | >No public pricing information |
Logikcull
Logikcull is a secure, cloud-based solution for organizations of all sizes. Drag-and-drop uploads allow users to quickly add documents/data to the platform, which applies more than 3,000 processing steps to the inputted data. Steps it performs include document indexing, full text and metadata extraction, de-duplication, OCR, and topic clustering, among others. Users can further streamline the process by setting up customized project templates to get to work faster.
- Suite of cloud-to-cloud integrations allows users to access data from Box, Slack, and Hangouts Chat, Gmail, Google Drive, and other Google Vault platforms.
- Repeat tag feature reduces work by applying tag logic across multiple documents.
- Automated processing with built-in quality control tags documents that contain embedded files or are potentially privileged or password-protected.
- Culling intelligence and intuitive filters find the most important metadata.
- User reporting functions track user activity, such as batch distributions to review teams.
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Pro: $295/matter/month Business: $495/matter/month Enterprise: Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Web-based, cloud, SaaS, iPhone/iPad, Android >Support: 24/7 (live rep), phone during business hours, online >Integrations: Google Vault, Slack, Box, and Hangouts >More features at Logikcull |
Pros & Cons of Logikcull eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free demos | >Has additional costs over monthly fees |
| >Includes all core eDiscovery features | >Integrations limited on some plans |
| >24/7 live customer support |
Nextpoint
Nextpoint is a cloud-based eDiscovery software that automates projects of all sizes and allows collaborative access from anywhere and on any device. It has a full-featured core with a simple document review workflow and unlimited data hosting. File importation is accomplished by drag-and-drop uploading, and a fully customizable interface lets users quickly execute relevance reviews. Users can also tailor coding, tags, and bulk actions with customization options that modify everything in real time to meet a particular project’s needs. Other core features include:
- Dynamic 360-degree views of all case data
- Data-set visualization with search, filter, and cull processing
- Customizable exhibit stamping workflow
- Artificial intelligence and machine learning prompts
- Ability to designate depositions, link exhibits, build timelines, and manage transcripts
- Automated metadata extraction, imaging, OCRing, and de-duping
- Post-review case building tools to prepare cases for hearing or trial
- Free file sharing and exports with collaborators or experts
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Starts at $350/user/month | Free 14-Day Trial | >Deployment: Web-based, cloud, SaaS, iPhone/iPad, Android >Support: 24/7 (live rep), phone during business hours, online, phone, email, in-app chat >Integrations: Clio and all leading trial presentation applications >More features at Nextpoint |
Pros & Cons of Nextpoint eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free 14-day trial | >No reporting tools |
| >Free data hosting and imports, and unlimited cases | >Higher starting price |
| >24/7 live customer support |
Onna
Onna is an eDiscovery platform that allows real-time searches across multiple repositories. Users can consolidate and protect data collections on one centralized, secure platform while accelerating productivity. Pre-trained categories help users identify document types during initial assessment of unstructured data. Other core features include:
- Targeted searches with data automatically processed and OCRed
- Collaboration and file sharing with granular user and access levels
- Continuous data syncs to maintain up-to-date versions and real-time access to all data
- Export data from Onna to popular review platforms in DAT, CSV, or custom text files
Onna provides numerous built-in integrations through API-based connectors for common enterprise, email, document collaboration, productivity tools, data repositories, team communication, and wiki connectors. Popular integrations include Microsoft 365, Google Suite, Slack, Dropbox, Amazon, Jira, Salesforce, Zoom, Zendesk, Quip, and many others. Users can also build their own connectors by developing their own application on top of Onna’s open API.
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Pay-As-You-Go: 40/GB process/month Discovery: Custom Quote Enterprise: Custom Quote | Free 30-Day Trial | >Deployment: Mac, Windows, web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: Phone during business hours, online >Integrations: Amazon, Dropbox, Google Suite, Jira, Microsoft 365, Slack, and others >More features at Onna |
Pros & Cons of Onna eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free 30-day trials and free demos | >No public pricing information |
| >Pay-as-you-go plan that meets smaller needs | >Doesn’t include commenting or notes |
| >Numerous built-in integrations |
Relativity
Relativity’s secure eDiscovery platform, called RelativityOne, is a cloud-based end-to-end solution that allows users to perform targeted, remote collections straight from custodians’ digital accounts and mailboxes. RelativityOne handles full metadata extraction, domain parsing, and native application imaging. Other core features include:
- Culling data prior to processing
- Visual exploration of emails, chat messages, and texts
- Tab-by-tab workflow-based navigation
- Next-generation viewer with options to add notes, codes, etc.
- Workflow templates to reduce errors and save time on manual tasks
- Content clustering to spot patterns
- Reuse of previous coding decisions and privilege calls
- Analytics to eliminate non-relevant data
Users can accelerate eDiscovery reviews with AI and machine learning and define their strategy from the start but refine it later. Relativity also handles legal hold, which preserves critical data with one defensible, repeatable process, and case strategy, which lets users build cases and prep for trial with a fully integrated strategy and transcripts solution.
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Windows, web-based, cloud, SaaS, iPhone/iPad, Android >Support: 24/7 (live rep), phone during business hours, online >Integrations: Control Risks, Deloitte, AON, ProSearch, Complete Discovery Source, and others >More features at Relativity |
Pros & Cons of Relativity eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free demos | >No public pricing information |
| >Includes all core eDiscovery features | |
| >24/7 live customer support |
Zapproved
Zapproved offers litigation response software designed to help legal teams reduce risk and costs while building a better process. This includes its ZDiscovery platform, which combines Legal Hold Pro, a leading legal hold management and automation solution, and Digital Discovery Pro, a powerful processing and review engine. Its intuitive cloud-based eDiscovery platform lets users review and process potentially relevant documents for legal proceedings, including litigation responses. ZDiscovery API integrates with popular third-party platforms to apply and remove legal holds and collect data. Other key features include:
- Managing custodian communications and compliance
- Automating repetitive tasks to send and monitor litigation holds
- Processing thousands of file types
- Reducing overall data volume with filters and search term hit reports
- Applying OCR and automatically de-NIST and de-duplicate files
- Applying targeted keyword searches and filters to quickly find documents
- Recreating email chains with email conversation views
- Customizing tags to better organize files
- Redacting privileged information
| Price | Free Trial/Demo | Features |
|---|---|---|
| Custom Quote | Free Demo Only | >Deployment: Web-based, cloud, SaaS >Support: 24/7 (live rep), phone during business hours, online, in-app chat >Integrations: Microsoft Office 365 and Google Vault >More features at Zapproved |
Pros & Cons of Zapproved eDiscovery Software
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| >Offers free demo | >No public pricing information |
| >24/7 customer service | >Doesn’t include commenting/notes |
| >Includes important features and integrations |
What Is eDiscovery Software?
Electronic discovery, or eDiscovery, software takes care of the electronic aspect of identifying, collecting, reviewing, and tagging all types of electronically stored information. These platforms provide the tools that legal professionals need to process electronic information, including emails, chat sessions, instant messages, social media posts, word processing documents, digital audio and/or video recordings, cell phone data, GPS data, and all other types of digital records. Legal teams use the processed data to produce documents that may be used in investigations, subpoena responses, litigation, compliance matters, and other legal proceedings.
Unlike hardcopy evidence, electronic data and documents are more dynamic and typically contain metadata, such as author and recipient information, time-date stamps, and other file properties. To use electronically stored information in legal proceedings, the original content and the metadata must be preserved to eliminate claims of tampering. Besides uncovering the data and processing it for review, eDiscovery software preserves this data and creates an audit trail to prove the data was unadulterated. The sheer volume of electronic data produced and stored by people makes it nearly impossible to process this data for legal proceedings without the use of eDiscovery software.
Benefits of eDiscovery Software
Collecting, reviewing, tagging, and organizing electronically stored information in complex legal cases is extremely time-consuming without the help of eDiscovery software. This software automates the entire process, making it much more efficient and reducing costs. Because legal teams often have limited time for eDiscovery, one of the biggest benefits is the time it saves. Some of the many other benefits of eDiscovery software include:
- Avoiding eDiscovery sanctions: When discovery is handled incorrectly by legal teams or not completed in the timeframe given, legal sanctions may occur. These risks can be mitigated with eDiscovery software.
- Identifying gaps: Gaps may exist between dates where there should be documents and point out that some electronically stored information has been deleted. eDiscovery software searches for gaps to identify what’s missing from a production, which might otherwise be overlooked.
- Performing auto-redactions: This is a version history feature that ensures all the original content of a document remains preserved and searchable. It also makes sure an audit trail of the redaction is retained for legal purposes.
- Advanced search: eDiscovery software has the technology to enable advanced search features, such as tagging and metadata, making it easier to focus on specific keywords and other parameters.
Must-Have Features for eDiscovery Software
When identifying eDiscovery software must-have features, technology integrations should top that list. The right integrations empower legal teams to coordinate activities efficiently and give users immediate access to search for and collect data for eDiscovery projects. Integrations can preserve custodian data, prevent users from deleting information relevant to a legal matter, and transmit data between applications accurately. Other important must-have features include:
- Document indexing: Associates documents with keywords so they can be more efficiently searched for review
- Keyword search: Helps narrow down the content produced to find relevant details to export for the case and reduces the amount of content that needs managed
- Full-text extraction: Scans entire files and runs optical character recognition so they can be indexed and searched
- Metadata extraction: Extracts and stores all the metadata attached to electronically stored documents
- Topic clustering: Groups related information together so users can review the clusters provided and search for common patterns or themes that run through the electronic documents
- Case analytics for reporting: Analytics provide the tools for data mining and event tracking to create reports that provide insight and analysis for document review
The Cost of eDiscovery Software
eDiscovery costs depend on multiple factors, including how complex the review is and the size and type of data being processed for the review. The type of eDiscovery solution used also factors into the cost. Performing a completely in-house review using legacy software eliminates data storage fees but requires firms to purchase the equipment required to house this data. An in-house review using a cloud-based provider solves the storage problem, but most charge upload fees that can add up. Upload and download fees are very common and usually charged on a per gigabyte basis. These fees are above the monthly subscription fee, which is the most common way eDiscovery software providers charge for using their platform.
Like any product, choosing the cheapest provider can cost more in the long run. Inferior eDiscovery software can slow the discovery process, expose legal teams to court sanctions, and leave data vulnerable to hackers. Compare costs along with company reputation. While most of the companies on our list don’t provide public pricing information for comparisons, the average monthly costs were between $295 and $495. Hosted eDiscovery systems with a subscription-based fee structure must also meet Federal Rules of Civil Procedure regulations.