Gavel (formerly Documate) is a no-code document automation engine: it turns collected answers into finished legal documents. Superforms is the front door that collects those answers in the first place, and it is built so clients actually finish. The two solve different halves of the same problem.
The short version
Gavel is strongest at turning answers into documents. Superforms is strongest at getting a client to complete the intake at all: guided, read aloud, plain language, on any phone. If your gap is document assembly, look at Gavel. If your gap is drop-off on the intake, that is Superforms.
Superforms is built around getting a long intake finished. Every question is spoken, so clients who would abandon a dense form do not.
The words only a lawyer knows are explained on tap, where they come up, so clients answer instead of stalling.
You send the questionnaire you use today and we turn it into the guided form. No workflow builder to learn.
The finished intake lands in Clio or MyCase, so the answers are where your team already works.
| For law firm intake | Superforms | Gavel |
|---|---|---|
| Getting clients to finish a long intake | Built for this | Not the focus |
| Reads questions aloud | Yes | No |
| Explains legal terms in plain language | Yes | No |
| Rebuilds your existing PDF for you | Yes, done for you | You build workflows |
| Document automation and generation | No, on purpose | Yes, core strength |
| Document collection from clients | Yes | Yes |
| Feeds your case system | Native, Clio | Integrations |
| Pricing model | Flat, from $99/mo | Per user tiers |
An honest read based on what each product publicly documents. Gavel is good at what it is built for; this page is about the specific job of long, complex client intake.
Flat pricing built for a small firm: Solo at $99 a month and Firm at $249 a month, with a custom plan above. Free to preview, you only pay once your form is live for clients, extra intakes are $2 each, and there is no per-seat minimum or long lock-in.
Gavel is priced in per-user tiers aimed at document automation, typically higher per seat than a single-purpose intake tool. Pricing scales with automation features and users rather than intakes.
These two are more complementary than competitive. If your bottleneck is drafting documents, Gavel is purpose-built for that. If your bottleneck is that clients start the intake and never finish, Superforms is built for exactly that moment, and it feeds the case system you already run. Some firms will end up using both: Superforms for a great intake, a document engine for assembly.
For the client-facing intake experience, yes. Gavel focuses on turning collected answers into finished documents; Superforms focuses on getting the client to complete the intake in the first place, with a guided, spoken, plain-language form. They solve different halves of intake.
No, and that is on purpose. Superforms is the intake front door. It collects clean, complete answers and hands them to the system you already run. Document assembly is a different job that tools like Gavel do well.
Superforms. The guided steps, read-aloud voice, and plain-language explanations are built specifically to get a long, complex intake finished.
Yes. A firm can use Superforms for the client intake experience and a document engine for assembly. Superforms hands off the finished answers to the case system, where the rest of your workflow lives.
Yes. Send us the questionnaire you use today, even a scanned PDF, and we rebuild it as a guided form. There is no workflow to build yourself.
Send us the intake you use today and we will build a guided version for free. You only pay once it is live for your clients.