Casetext (CoCounsel)
Exa
| Feature | Exa | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | From $110/mo | Free / from $100/mo |
| Free Plan | ✗ No | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.2 / 5 |
| Best For | solo-practitioners, small-law-firms, legal-researchers, in-house-counsel | ai-developers, researchers, data-scientists, startup-builders |
| Founded | 2013 | 2022 |
| Ai Research | ✓ | ✗ |
| Brief Analysis | ✓ | ✗ |
| Contract Analysis | ✓ | ✗ |
| Deposition Prep | ✓ | ✗ |
| Timeline Creation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Document Review | ✓ | ✗ |
| Neural Search | ✗ | ✓ |
| Content Retrieval | ✗ | ✓ |
| Similarity Search | ✗ | ✓ |
| Filtering | ✗ | ✓ |
| Auto Search | ✗ | ✓ |
| Api Access | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Casetext (CoCounsel) Pros
- AI-powered research
- Natural language search
- Document review
- Affordable vs alternatives
✗ Casetext (CoCounsel) Cons
- Smaller database than Westlaw
- Newer platform
- AI sometimes inaccurate
✓ Exa Pros
- Semantic search beyond keywords
- Clean API for developers
- Returns full page content
- Excellent for AI agent use cases
✗ Exa Cons
- Developer-focused - no consumer product
- Free tier has limited requests
- Results can be unpredictable
The Verdict
Casetext (CoCounsel) is built for solo practitioners and small law firms, with a focus on ai-research and brief-analysis. Exa targets ai developers and researchers and leads with neural-search and content-retrieval.
On pricing, Exa is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $100/mo compared to $110/mo for Casetext (CoCounsel). That $10/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Exa has a free plan, which gives it a meaningful edge for individuals and small teams exploring their options. Casetext (CoCounsel) requires a paid subscription from day one.
Bottom line: Casetext (CoCounsel) has a slight overall edge — but if semantic search beyond keywords matters most to you, Exa may still be the right call.