CoCounsel Alternative: Plain-English Case Law Search Without the Westlaw Bundle
CoCounsel is the Thomson Reuters successor to Casetext, and it is sold the way Westlaw is sold: through a configurator or a sales rep, on a term contract, usually bundled. If you just want to find the on-point case without any of that, this is the honest comparison.
How courts have ruled
Sample results, illustrative only. Informational research, not legal advice. Verify every citation.
In short
CoCounsel is Thomson Reuters legal AI product, built on the Casetext technology it acquired in 2023 and relaunched as CoCounsel Legal in August 2025. Thomson Reuters does not publish a flat price for it. Its plans page asks for your sector, number of attorneys, jurisdiction, and preferred term before showing a figure, restricts online pricing to new customers, and sells one, two, and three year subscriptions, with firms above roughly ten attorneys routed to a sales representative. Cases is the alternative for people who want the research answer without the procurement exercise. You ask a legal question in plain English, you get on-point precedents as headnote cards with a plain-English summary, the holding, and a real citation you verify, and you pay 29 dollars per month at a price printed on the page. CoCounsel is the deeper suite and it wins on breadth. Cases wins on getting a solo or a small firm to an on-point case today without a quote. Cases is informational research, not legal advice, so verify every citation before you rely on it.
Last updated July 2026
Side by side
Cases vs CoCounsel
| Capability | Cases | CoCounsel |
|---|---|---|
| Price published on the website | ||
| Starts at 29 dollars per month | ||
| Self-serve signup, no sales call | Configurator, or sales above ten attorneys | |
| No term contract | One to three year terms | |
| Sold without a Westlaw bundle | Commonly bundled | |
| Plain-English search, no boolean required | ||
| On-point precedents with summaries and holdings | ||
| Real, checkable citations | ||
| Full citator (KeyCite) | ||
| Document review and drafting suite |
Comparison reflects general product positioning and is provided in good faith. Verify current capabilities and pricing with each vendor.
Honest read
Where CoCounsel fits, and where Cases does
CoCounsel is a genuinely capable product, and it is worth being straight about that. It grew out of Casetext, which was the most-loved research tool in its price bracket, and Thomson Reuters put the Westlaw content library and KeyCite behind it. If you need document review, deposition prep, drafting, and a full citator in one place, CoCounsel does things Cases does not attempt. The catch is not the software. It is that CoCounsel is sold like enterprise software, and a solo practitioner who wants to answer one research question is not the buyer that model is designed for.
What Thomson Reuters actually publishes is worth reading carefully, because it explains the shopping. The CoCounsel Legal plans page does not list a price. It collects your sector, attorney count, jurisdiction, and preferred plan duration first, offers one, two, and three year subscription lengths with longer terms described as offering greater savings, and states that online pricing is available to new customers only while existing customers should contact sales. Third-party trackers publish estimated per-seat figures that vary widely by bundle, and CoCounsel is frequently sold attached to a Westlaw subscription rather than on its own, which is what pushes the real monthly number well above the add-on price people quote. None of those third-party numbers are official, so get your own quote in writing.
Cases is the opposite shape. The price is 29 dollars per month and it is printed on the pricing page. You sign up yourself. There is no term, no configurator, and no call. What you get is narrow and specific: describe the issue in plain English, get back on-point precedent as headnote cards with the holding and a real citation, and check that citation at the source. There is no document review, no drafting suite, and no proprietary citator. That is a real tradeoff, not a hidden one, and for a lot of solos and small firms it is the right side of the trade.
A fair way to choose: if your firm bills enough that a full research and drafting suite pays for itself, and you want one vendor for everything with a citator included, CoCounsel or Westlaw is the sensible buy and you should get a quote. If you mostly need to find the case, read the holding, and cite it correctly, and you would rather see the price before you talk to anyone, start here. Either way, verify what the tool hands you. Courts have sanctioned lawyers over AI-generated cases that nobody checked, and no vendor, including this one, removes that duty from you.
Questions buyers ask
CoCounsel alternatives, answered
How much does CoCounsel cost?
Thomson Reuters does not publish a flat price. Its CoCounsel Legal plans page asks for your sector, number of attorneys, jurisdiction, and preferred plan duration before showing a figure, offers one, two, and three year terms, and limits online pricing to new customers. Firms above roughly ten attorneys are quoted by a sales rep. Third-party trackers report a wide per-seat range, but only a written quote from Thomson Reuters is authoritative.
Is CoCounsel worth it for a solo attorney?
It depends on whether you need the whole suite. CoCounsel bundles research, document review, and drafting with the Westlaw library and KeyCite behind it, which is a lot of product for one person to fund, and it is usually sold on a term contract. A solo whose real need is finding and citing the on-point case is paying for capability they will not use. A solo doing heavy document-intensive litigation may find the bundle earns its keep.
What is the difference between CoCounsel and Casetext?
CoCounsel is what Casetext became. Thomson Reuters acquired Casetext for 650 million dollars in August 2023, retired the standalone Casetext product on April 1, 2025, and launched CoCounsel Legal in August 2025 on that technology. The software lineage is continuous. The commercial model is not: Casetext was self-serve with a public price, and CoCounsel is quoted, bundled, and contracted.
Is there a cheaper alternative to CoCounsel?
Yes, with a tradeoff. Cases costs 29 dollars per month with the price on the page and covers plain-English case law search with holdings and verifiable citations, but no citator or drafting suite. Free tools like Google Scholar and CourtListener cover retrieval at no cost and no citator. Fastcase is free to members of many state bars. The cheaper you go, the more of the verification work stays yours.
Does CoCounsel require a Westlaw subscription?
CoCounsel is commonly sold attached to Westlaw rather than as a freestanding purchase, and several of the plan configurations pair Westlaw Advantage with CoCounsel Essentials. That bundling is the main reason the real monthly cost per seat lands higher than the add-on figures quoted around the web. Ask directly whether the configuration you are quoted includes a Westlaw subscription and what it costs without one.
Other comparisons
Try it on your own question
Transparent self-serve pricing, plain-English search, and a citation you can check for every result. Informational research, not legal advice. Decide for yourself.