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Casetext Alternatives After the Shutdown, for Solos and Small Firms

Thomson Reuters shut down the standalone Casetext product on March 31, 2025, less than two years after buying it, and folded its technology into CoCounsel inside the Westlaw ecosystem at a price many small firms report is 5 to 10 times what Casetext cost. That left the solos and small firms who relied on Casetext as an affordable, self-serve research tool looking for a replacement. Casesearch is that replacement: an independent tool where you ask in plain English and get cited precedents with plain-language holdings and a still-good-law signal, self-serve and transparently priced from 39 dollars per month, with no enterprise contract and no folding into a bigger suite. If you want the Thomson Reuters stack, CoCounsel is the official continuation; if you want the affordable, standalone experience Casetext used to offer, start here.

The short answer

The best Casetext alternative depends on what you used Casetext for. Thomson Reuters retired the standalone Casetext product on March 31, 2025 and moved its AI into CoCounsel, which now sits inside the Westlaw ecosystem at enterprise pricing. Firms that used Casetext for plain-English case law search, cited holdings, and a good-law check want a self-serve replacement rather than a Westlaw contract. Casesearch covers that job from 39 dollars per month; CoCounsel is the official Thomson Reuters continuation; Fastcase and vLex are the closest bar-association-bundled options.

Last updated July 2026

Mar 31, 2025

the day CoCounsel 1.0 on Casetext went dark for good

650M

what Thomson Reuters paid for Casetext in August 2023

65 to 99

dollars per seat per month Casetext charged before the shutdown

39

dollars per month Casesearch starts at, self-serve

Side by side

Casesearch vs Casetext

An honest, good-faith comparison. Verify current features with each vendor before you decide.

Feature Casesearch Casetext
Available as a standalone product Discontinued March 31, 2025
Plain-English search
Cited cases with plain-language holdings
Still-good-law treatment signal
Independent, not inside an enterprise suite Now Thomson Reuters CoCounsel
Transparent self-serve pricing From 39 dollars per month CoCounsel, enterprise-aligned
Built for solos and small firms Mixed, into enterprise

Comparison reflects general product positioning and is provided in good faith. Verify current capabilities with each vendor.

The research console

Plain-English legal research, self-serve

Run a real question and see the cited cases, holdings, and good-law signal for yourself.

CASESEARCH · RESEARCH
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Reading opinions

Finding the authorities that answer your question...

Controlling statute

The controlling statute is surfaced alongside the case law so you read the code and the precedents together.

Plain-English answer

Research memo

Question
Short answer
Authorities

Casesearch shows you the sources. Always read the full opinion and verify citations before you rely on them.

What is the best Casetext replacement for small firms?

For a small firm, the replacement has to clear three bars Casetext cleared: you can buy it yourself without a sales call, it costs a few hundred dollars a year rather than a few thousand, and it answers a real legal question with cases you can cite. CoCounsel, the official successor, misses the first two for most small firms because it is sold with Westlaw and priced for firms with a research budget. That gap is why solos went looking in the first place.

Casesearch was built for that gap. You ask a question the way you would ask a colleague, and you get back opinions with the citation, a plain-language holding, and a signal telling you whether the case is still good law. There is no contract, no seat minimum, and no bundling into a larger suite. If your practice needs the full Thomson Reuters stack, CoCounsel is genuinely the better fit and we will say so; if what you lost was an affordable standalone research tool, this is the closer match.

Self-serve, no sales call

Sign up and run a search the same afternoon, the way Casetext worked.

Priced for one to five lawyers

From 39 dollars per month with no seat minimum or annual contract.

Cited holdings, not summaries

Every answer points to real opinions with the citation and the holding.

Good-law signal included

Treatment checking is part of the product, not a separate subscription.

What replaced Casetext Parallel Search and CARA A.I.?

Parallel Search was Casetext's semantic search: you pasted a sentence describing a proposition and it found passages that meant the same thing, rather than matching keywords. CARA A.I. worked from the other direction: you uploaded a brief or complaint and it surfaced the cases relevant to those specific facts. Both were folded into Thomson Reuters CoCounsel, so the capability still exists, but you reach it through the Westlaw ecosystem rather than a standalone 65 dollar seat.

The underlying technique is no longer exclusive. Semantic and plain-English search is what modern AI research tools do by default, and Casesearch works the same way: describe your issue in a sentence and get back opinions that match the meaning, not the words. What matters more than which brand name is on it is whether the tool shows you the actual cited case and lets you verify it, which is the discipline covered in avoiding AI hallucinated citations.

What is a Casetext citator replacement?

SmartCite was Casetext's citator, the flag system that told you whether a case had negative treatment. It did not survive as a separate product; Thomson Reuters folded that function into Westlaw's KeyCite. So a firm that left Casetext lost both its search tool and its good-law check in the same week, and the citator is the part you cannot safely skip.

The realistic options are a citator built into an affordable research tool, Bad Law Bot on Fastcase and vLex, BCite on Bloomberg Law, or paying for Shepard's or KeyCite on an enterprise seat. Casesearch includes a treatment signal on the cases it returns so verification happens in the same pass as the search. Whatever you choose, run the check before you cite: our guides to what a citator is and how to Shepardize a case walk through the workflow without an enterprise subscription.

Casetext competitors compared: who actually competes for the same buyer

The Casetext user base split in three directions after the shutdown. Some followed the technology into CoCounsel and absorbed the price increase. Some moved to bar-association-bundled research, mainly Fastcase and vLex, which many state bars include with dues. Some went looking for a new independent tool at roughly the price Casetext used to be. Those three groups want genuinely different things, and no single product is the right answer for all of them.

Docket Alarm comes up in this conversation too, but it solves a different problem: it tracks dockets and filings rather than searching case law, and it is now part of the same Fastcase and vLex family. If your Casetext use was docket monitoring, that is where to look. If it was research, compare on plain-English search quality, whether holdings are shown, whether a citator is included, and whether you can buy it without a contract.

CoCounsel

The official continuation of Casetext AI, inside the Westlaw ecosystem at enterprise pricing.

Fastcase and vLex

Often free through a state bar, deep primary law, less plain-English answering.

Casesearch

Independent and self-serve from 39 dollars a month, plain-English search with cited holdings.

Docket Alarm

Docket tracking and alerts rather than case law research, now in the vLex family.

Frequently asked

Questions buyers ask about a Casetext alternative

Is Casetext shutting down?

Casetext has already shut down. Thomson Reuters retired the standalone product, redirecting casetext.com from February 1, 2025 and keeping CoCounsel 1.0 on Casetext available only through March 31, 2025. Its AI features now live in Thomson Reuters CoCounsel, which is sold with Westlaw rather than as a low-cost standalone subscription.

What happened to Casetext after Thomson Reuters bought it?

Thomson Reuters acquired Casetext for 650 million dollars in August 2023 and shut the standalone product down about 19 months later, folding its technology into CoCounsel inside the Westlaw ecosystem. SmartCite, the Casetext citator, was absorbed into KeyCite. Users on Casetext seats were migrated toward Westlaw-based products at substantially higher prices.

Is there a free Casetext alternative?

For raw opinions, yes: CourtListener and Google Scholar are free and cover most published US case law. What they do not include is a citator, plain-language holdings, or plain-English answering, so you verify good law manually. Fastcase or vLex is often free through a state bar membership and is the closest thing to a free full-featured replacement.

How much did Casetext cost compared to CoCounsel?

Casetext's popular tiers were reported at roughly 65 to 99 dollars per seat per month before the shutdown. CoCounsel is sold through Thomson Reuters alongside Westlaw and is widely reported by small firms at several times that, which is why many solos looked for an independent replacement instead of migrating. Confirm current pricing directly with Thomson Reuters.

Do I need Westlaw to use CoCounsel now?

In practice, yes for most buyers. Thomson Reuters positions CoCounsel within the Westlaw ecosystem, so the affordable standalone path Casetext offered is no longer available. If you do not want a Westlaw relationship, you need an independent research tool, which is exactly the segment Casesearch, Fastcase, and vLex serve.

Keep reading

What happened to Casetext The full timeline of the acquisition and the shutdown. Casesearch vs CoCounsel The official successor, compared honestly on price and fit. How much does CoCounsel cost What firms report paying after the Casetext migration. Legal research software pricing What every major research tool costs in 2026. Fastcase alternative The bar-bundled option many Casetext users moved to. Citation check The good-law signal that replaced SmartCite in our workflow. Best AI legal research tools for small firms How the affordable end of the category compares. Legal research software The four kinds of research tool and how to choose.

Other comparisons

Westlaw alternative LexisNexis alternative Fastcase alternative Affordable legal research alternative CourtListener alternative Paxton AI alternative vLex alternative CoCounsel alternative FindLaw alternative CaseMap alternative Vincent AI alternative

Casesearch is a legal research tool, not legal advice. Always read the full opinion and verify citations before relying on them.

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Transparent, self-serve pricing and a console you can try right now. Ask a question and read the cited cases. A research tool, not legal advice.