Comparison
Draftiro vs Smokeball
Practice management with auto-time tracking, hidden pricing.
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TL;DR
Smokeball is loved by PI and family-law firms for its auto-time-tracking and document automation. Pricing is opaque; AI features are limited.
- Smokeball best for
- PI and family-law firms that need OS-level time capture.
- Draftiro best for
- Solos who want AI as the core capability, not an add-on.
Draftiro vs Smokeball — overview
Smokeball is loved by personal-injury and family-law firms for one standout feature: automatic time tracking at the operating-system level, which captures billable activity without anyone remembering to start a timer. Pair that with strong document automation and a PI/family-law focus and it is a credible practice-management choice. Two caveats matter for this comparison: its pricing is not published openly, and its AI features are limited.
Pricing, plainly
Smokeball does not list pricing publicly; it is typically quoted around $100+ per user per month through a sales conversation. Draftiro publishes its pricing — free with no card, paid from $29/mo — and you can sign up without a call. If transparent, self-serve pricing matters to you, that is a real difference.
A note on time tracking
Smokeball's auto-time-tracking captures activity at the OS level across applications. Draftiro's time tracking is narrower and AI-specific: every AI exchange auto-creates a billable entry tagged "AI-assisted," aligned with ABA Formal Opinion 512's guidance on billing AI-assisted work honestly. They solve different slices of the timekeeping problem — OS-wide capture versus a clean AI-work audit trail.
Who should switch — and who shouldn't
Switch to Draftiro if AI drafting and research are the capability you actually want, with citation validation and transparent pricing. Stay with Smokeball if firm-wide automatic time capture across every application is the feature you can't live without.
Where Smokeball wins
- Auto-time tracking at the OS level
- Strong document automation
- PI / family-law verticalization
Where Draftiro wins
- Transparent pricing
- Modern AI drafting + research
- Citation validation
- Lower starting price
Side by side
| Feature | Draftiro | Smokeball |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing transparency | Public, self-serve | Contact sales |
| AI citation validation (CourtListener / equivalent) | Included | Not included |
| Conflict checking with audit trail | Included | Included |
| Court-day math (federal + state holidays) | Included | Not included |
| ABA Op. 512 auto time tracking | Included | Not included |
| Outlook calendar sync | Included | Included |
| Client portal share links | Included | Included |
| Self-serve signup (no sales call) | Included | Not included |
| Free plan | Included | Not included |
Common questions
Does Draftiro auto-track time like Smokeball?
Differently. Smokeball captures billable activity automatically at the OS level across applications. Draftiro auto-creates a billable, "AI-assisted"-tagged time entry for every AI exchange, aligned with ABA Op. 512 — a clean audit trail for AI work rather than firm-wide OS capture.
What does Smokeball cost compared to Draftiro?
Smokeball does not publish pricing; it is typically quoted around $100+ per user per month through sales. Draftiro publishes its pricing — free with no card, paid from $29/mo — and is self-serve, no call required.
Does Smokeball validate case citations?
No. Smokeball is practice management with document automation; case-citation validation is not part of it. Draftiro checks every case cite against the public CourtListener corpus.
Will my data train AI models?
No. Draftiro runs on Google Gemini's enterprise API tier, which is contractually prohibited from training on inputs. See our security page for the full posture.
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No credit card. Migration help included on Solo and Practice plans.
Start freeSmokeball information sourced from https://www.smokeball.com and public reviews. We update this page as their offering changes.