I have spent 27 years working inside Australian law firms as a FilePro technician, eastern states agent, and state manager. I have seen every platform on this list up close — what they do well, where they fall short, and what firms tell me they wish they had known before they signed. This is not a marketing page. It is what I actually think.
This guide covers every legal practice management software platform operating in the Australian market in 2026 — LEAP, ActionStep, Smokeball, FilePro, LawMaster, Practice Evolve, Affinity, and Law App. It is written for Australian law firm principals who are evaluating their options, facing a forced migration, or questioning whether their current platform is still the right fit. Every platform is assessed on the same criteria: pricing model, contract terms, accounting capability, data location, and who actually owns the company.
— Kelly Mills, Law Support Australia
Click any platform to jump to the full detail below.
Most Australian law firms evaluate their practice management options as though they are comparing independent products in a competitive market. They are not. The Australian legal software market is controlled by two large groups — and one genuinely independent alternative.
Three of the most recognised names in Australian legal software are owned by the same holding company — the ATI Global group, founded by Christian Beck. When you compare LEAP against Smokeball, or consider Practice Evolve as an alternative, you are comparing products from the same owner's portfolio.⁷
Smokeball and LEAP are not merely industry peers — they share a founder, a majority owner, and a parent group. Australian law firms evaluating Smokeball as an alternative to LEAP should be aware they are considering two products from the same stable.
ActionStep is backed by US private equity firm Serent Capital. After acquiring both FilePro and LawMaster, ActionStep is now winding both platforms down and funnelling those firms toward its own product — under tight timelines, with account managers that keep changing, and implementation costs that run into the tens of thousands before you even go live. FilePro firms have until 31 December 2026. LawMaster firms face an uncertain but finite window. Both groups of firms are being moved, not consulted.
Law App is the only independent, full-featured legal practice management platform of meaningful scale in Australia. Full general accounting built directly in — not an add-on, not a second subscription, not a third-party integration. No ATI Global group. No Serent Capital. No VC. No IPO to prepare for. When a firm chooses Law App, it is not trading one corporate group for another. It is opting out of the group model entirely.
LEAP is the largest practice management platform in Australia by market share. Setting aside FilePro firms who are being forced to move ahead of its December 2026 shutdown, LEAP is the platform firms most often contact us about leaving by choice — the most common reason Australian firms get in touch with us is a LEAP renewal notice or price-hike letter.
If you are comparing LEAP against Smokeball, or considering Practice Evolve as an alternative, you are comparing products from the same owner's portfolio.
LEAP, Smokeball and Practice Evolve are all owned by the ATI Global group — the same holding company.⁷
Verified users report LEAP requires a full licence for every staff member, including casual and part-time staff.² For a firm of ten lawyers, that bill compounds quickly. Verified users report significant increases at renewal — an Australian lawyer reported in May 2024 that LEAP “lured me back with a discounted fee and then raised it...for the new term so we left”.¹ LEAP locks firms into three-year contracts. If you do decide to leave, verified reviews describe a significant cost to export your documents and data in a usable format.³
LEAP does not include general accounting. If you want your office accounting done, you pay for Xero on top. You are running two systems, two subscriptions, and two sets of bank reconciliations every month. Law App includes full general accounting — no Xero, no MYOB, nothing extra.
LEAP has an Australian support team. Two things can be true at once: verified Australian users on Capterra nonetheless report a decline in responsiveness, including one Australian principal who reported waiting over a week for a support ticket to be acknowledged.²
Getting your data out at the end is its own project. An Australian partner reported that LEAP limits exports to 100 files at a time, and that a full extraction was quoted at around $4,000. LEAP’s own published response to that review states that extraction of data is “at the discretion and responsibility of the firm, stated in the LEAP Terms and Conditions”.⁸
“LEAP is expensive. Incredibly expensive, considering the product that they have to offer. I have been a LEAP user for 22 years. In that time, I have seen the price for LEAP dramatically increase while the service and support drop off a cliff.”
Tony — Solicitor Director, Australia · Capterra, 29 June 2025⁴ActionStep was not originally built for law firms. It started life as project management software and was adapted for the legal industry. That heritage shows — the platform is highly configurable, which sounds like a benefit until you realise that configurable means your firm pays significant implementation costs before you can even start using it properly.
ActionStep originated in New Zealand and is now US-based, backed by US private equity firm Serent Capital. In 2022 it acquired FilePro. In subsequent years it acquired LawMaster. The strategy is visible: consolidate legacy platforms, wind them down, and funnel those firms toward ActionStep. Firms currently on FilePro and LawMaster are receiving migration pressure emails with tight timelines. Many feel like a number, not a client.
ActionStep requires firms to commit to three-year contracts. FilePro firms being pushed toward ActionStep are being asked to make a long-term commitment under deadline pressure — not ideal conditions for choosing software you will live with for years. Account managers at ActionStep have been changing frequently, which adds to the sense of instability.
ActionStep does offer Australian data hosting as an option — but it is a choice you make at setup, not a default. The platform itself is built and owned overseas and is not specifically tailored to Australian law firms.
“Annual subscription went from $1,306 in 2023 to $5,794 in 2024. A 450% increase in one year. An absolute joke.”
Verified Australian user — Capterra Australia⁵“Significant cost increases year on year and now unethical charging practices.”
Verified Australian user — Trustpilot Australia⁶Smokeball is owned within the ATI Global group and has an Australian presence and an Australian support team. It targets smaller law firms working in conveyancing, family law, and estate planning. It has a template library, automatic time tracking, and a local support team — those are genuine strengths.
The concerns start with contracts and costs. Smokeball operates on three-year contracts in Australia with per-user, per-month pricing.⁹ Its own published pricing runs from $59 per user/month on the entry Bill plan to $249 per user/month on Grow (AUD, excluding GST), with a custom-priced Prosper+ tier. Capabilities many firms assume are core are charged as add-ons on the lower plans — automatic time tracking (AutoTime) at $39, and Intake at $29 to $59 depending on plan.⁹ For a growing firm, a per-user model plus add-ons compounds quickly, and the three-year lock-in means you are committed before you fully understand the real cost.
Smokeball does not include general accounting. You will need Xero alongside it — which means two systems, two subscriptions, and duplicated bank reconciliation every month. That is another cost and another layer of complexity that gets harder to justify as your firm grows.
Smokeball requires a Windows desktop installation for full functionality. It is not a purely browser-based platform, which limits flexibility for firms that want genuine cloud access from any device.
A note on ownership and entity structure. Smokeball Australia Pty Ltd (ABN 46 664 254 200) is a registered Australian entity with a Sydney office. However, the product IP, copyright, and trademarks are held by Smokeball Inc — a US corporation incorporated in Illinois. This is confirmed in the footer of Smokeball's own global website, which reads © 2025 Smokeball, Inc. and notes trademark registration with the US Patent and Trademark Office — on the same page that describes Sydney as the global head office.
Opening a local Pty Ltd does not change the corporate structure of the parent entity. Australian law firms signing contracts with Smokeball should satisfy themselves as to which entity they are contracting with, where the product IP sits, and what that means for data sovereignty and contract enforceability.
Smokeball is also part of the ATI Global group alongside LEAP and Practice Evolve.⁷ Firms considering Smokeball as an alternative to LEAP should note they share the same owner.
FilePro was acquired by ActionStep and will reach end of life on 31 December 2026. From that date, all compliance updates cease and the Electronic File Purchase portal closes permanently. Every FilePro firm in Australia must migrate to a new system before that date. There are no extensions and no exceptions.
If you are on FilePro, you already know this. What you may not know is that you have more options than ActionStep wants you to think. ActionStep has been contacting FilePro firms since late 2025, pushing migration to ActionStep with tight timelines. Their available migration windows fill from September to October 2026 — which is closer than it sounds when you factor in planning, data migration, and staff training.
FilePro was per file pricing — one of the things firms loved most about it. Of all the platforms available to FilePro firms right now, Law App is the only one that matches that model. Every other alternative charges per user per month.
I spent 16 years as a FilePro technician, eastern states agent and state manager. I know FilePro data structures, trust accounting setup, and document templates at a level most migration teams simply do not. If you are on FilePro and looking at your options, talking to me costs nothing and takes 20 minutes.
Law App is the only FilePro alternative in Australia with per file pricing. If that matters to your firm — and for most FilePro firms it does — that makes this decision simpler than it might first appear.
LawMaster was a well-regarded platform for mid-to-large Australian law firms. It is now owned by ActionStep, which acquired it as part of the same consolidation strategy that saw them purchase FilePro. LawMaster is being wound down — firms on it face a forced migration with an uncertain timeline.
LawMaster was built on on-premise architecture. It was a solid platform for its era — but that era has passed. Firms on LawMaster know they need to move. The question is where. ActionStep is the obvious push, but it is not the only option — and given that LawMaster firms are typically larger and more complex, the choice of migration destination deserves careful consideration.
If you are on LawMaster, the key questions to ask any alternative platform are: Can you handle our file volumes? Do you have Australian general accounting built in? What does data migration actually look like for a firm of our size? And who specifically will be doing it?
Practice Evolve is an established platform that has served Australian firms for many years, and is owned within the ATI Global group alongside LEAP and Smokeball.
The point firms most often raise with us about Practice Evolve is response time. Not the software itself — but how long it takes to get help when something goes wrong. Two things can be true at once: Practice Evolve has a support team, and users report long waits. An IT support and systems developer at a legal services firm wrote in September 2024: “Support is dreadful and problems do not get fixed. You just get an email back 2 weeks later asking if it is still an issue.”¹¹ For a practice management platform, where downtime has direct financial consequences, that wait matters.
Affinity is a legacy platform built on older architecture. It is not cloud native — it runs on a traditional workstation installation, which means server maintenance, IT overhead, and limited ability to work remotely without additional configuration.
Affinity has built-in billing and accounting features, which is better than many alternatives. But the broader platform has not kept pace with what Australian law firms expect from software in 2026. End-of-month processes need to be completed before beginning the new month — a constraint that modern cloud platforms eliminated years ago.
Affinity has limited modern integrations and an older interface that reflects its origins. Firms that have grown accustomed to cloud-based workflows find it restrictive. The architecture itself limits how quickly it can adopt new features — including AI tools and compliance integrations that are becoming standard elsewhere.
Law App is a 100% Australian-built legal practice management platform — the most modern platform available to Australian law firms today.
Law App includes full general accounting built in. Not an integration with Xero or MYOB — built in, part of the platform, included in the price. Trust accounting, office accounting, bank reconciliation, BAS assistance, and reporting are all there. One system, one subscription, one place to be.
Law App charges per file opened — not per user per month. There are no per-user charges at all. Ten lawyers or two, the cost structure is the same. Better still, that per file charge can be added directly to the client’s file as a disbursement — effectively funding the software from client matters.
Law App runs on Azure Australia East. Your data stays in Australia — not because you selected a region at setup, but because that is the only option. Australian built, Australian servers, Australian support team. Real people answer the phone. Same people every time.
Schedule a demonstrationThe key facts. No spin.
| Feature | LEAP | ActionStep | Smokeball | FilePro | Practice Evolve | Affinity | RecommendedLaw App ✓ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General accounting | No — integrates | Yes — available at extra cost | No — integrates | ✓ Yes (sunset Dec 2026) | ✓ Yes (legacy) | ✓ Yes (legacy) | ✓ Fully built in |
| Court & institutional forms | ✓ Included in base price | Optional extra | Optional extra | Optional extra | Optional extra | Optional extra | ✓ Included in base price |
| Lawyer-drafted precedents | ✓ Included in base price¹⁰ | Optional extra | Optional extra | Optional extra | Optional extra | Optional extra | ✓ Included in base price |
| Pricing model | Per user/month | Per user/month | Per user/month | Per file (sunset Dec 2026) | Per user/month | Per user/month | ✓ Per file — no per user charges. Per user per month also available. |
| Contract length | 3 year lock-in — financed option available | 3 year lock-in | Annual — 3 years financed | N/A — end of life | Multi-year — financed option available | Multi-year | ✓ Single year only |
| Australian built | ✓ Australian built | ✗ Originally NZ, now US | Unknown | ✗ Now ActionStep (NZ/US) | ✗ No — built overseas. Now owned within the ATI Global group — same as LEAP | ✗ LexisNexis (US) | ✓ 100% Australian |
| Data location | AWS — AU server available | AWS — AU server available | AWS — AU server available | N/A | Australian servers | On-premise / local | ✓ Azure Australia East — always |
| Australian telephone support | ✓ Yes | ✗ No | ✓ Yes | ✗ Winding down | Unknown | ~ Some | ✓ Same people every time |
| Cloud native | Hybrid (requires Windows install) | ✓ Yes | Hybrid (requires Windows install) | ✗ No — legacy desktop | Partial | ✗ No — on premise | ✓ Fully cloud, any browser |
| Ownership | ATI Group (AU) | Serent Capital (US) | ATI Group (AU) | ActionStep — Serent Capital (US) | ATI Group (AU) | LexisNexis (US) | ✓ Law Support Australia (AU) |
| Future certainty | Stable | Stable — growing via acquisition | Stable | ✗ End of life Dec 2026 | Uncertain | Uncertain | ✓ Active development |
Information based on publicly available data and firm feedback. Last updated 14 August 2026. Law Support Australia recommends firms research all platforms before making a decision — including talking to current users.
I have worked inside every platform on this page. I know what the sales pitch leaves out and what firms end up wishing they had asked. A conversation with me is free, takes about 20 minutes, and I will tell you honestly whether Law App is the right fit for your firm — or not.
Kelly Mills — Law Support Australia / 07 3040 3036 / kelly@lawsupport.com.au
FilePro is sunsetting. LawMaster is being wound down. LEAP renewal notices are arriving. If you are evaluating your options — now is the right time to have the conversation.
Note on checking these sources: the Australian reviews cited above do not appear on Capterra’s default LEAP review page. They surface only when the country and rating filters are applied — use the filtered links above. Reviews may be edited or removed by their authors at any time.
Information based on publicly available data, verified user reviews, and firsthand experience with Australian law firms. Last verified 14 August 2026. Law Support Australia makes no warranty as to the ongoing accuracy of third-party information. Firms should conduct their own due diligence before signing any contract.