Needles vs Smokeball
Smokeball scores 8.2/10 vs 6.0/10. Best for: Small firms that want automatic time capture and a massive document template library so they can bill more hours without manual tracking.
Smokeball scores higher overall at 8.2/10 vs 6.0/10. Smokeball's automatic time tracking genuinely captures revenue that other tools miss. If your firm leaks billable hours because attorneys forget to start timers, this pays for itself. The catch: you need the $149/user Grow plan to get it.
Needles 
Smokeball Rank
#36 of 39
Rank
#2 of 39
Features
15/18
Features
17/18
Starting at
Custom
Starting at
$29/mo
User reviews
3.5/5 (100)
User reviews
4.8/5 (500)
What they cost
| Needles | Smokeball | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting at | Contact for pricing | $29 /mo |
| Free trial | No | No |
| Number of plans | Custom | 3 |
What the pricing really means
Smokeball publishes their pricing upfront, which is a good sign. Needles requires you to contact sales for a quote. When a company hides pricing, it usually means the cost is high enough that they want a salesperson to justify it before you see the number. Always ask for total year-one cost, not just the monthly subscription.
Where Needles wins
- Been in the PI market for decades with deep understanding of plaintiff workflows
- Court rule deadline calendaring built in
- Trust accounting and conflict checks included
- Document automation with merge fields for common PI documents
Where Smokeball wins
- Automatic time tracking runs in the background and captures billable activity you'd otherwise forget to log — firms report 20-30% more captured time
- 1,000+ built-in document templates for common legal forms, which saves hours compared to building templates from scratch
- G2 and Capterra ratings (4.8/5 on both) are the highest in the category, and reviews back it up with genuine praise
- Bill plan at $29/user is one of the cheapest entry points if you just need billing and time tracking
Where Needles falls short
- Lowest-rated product in the category with G2 at 3.5 and Capterra at 3.7
- No client portal, no mobile app, no API
- Interface is dated and reflects its legacy desktop origins
- Now owned by Assembly Software (same parent as Neos), and the product roadmap is unclear
Where Smokeball falls short
- No free trial — you have to commit based on a demo, which means trusting the sales pitch
- The Grow plan at $149/user is expensive and you need it for automatic time tracking, which is the main differentiator
- Smaller integration ecosystem than Clio — about 50 integrations vs 250+
- No mobile app — desktop-first architecture means attorneys can't access cases from their phone
- Originally built for Australian and UK markets, so some US-specific workflows feel bolted on
Who is each product built for?
Needles
Target: 1-25 attorneys
Needles is a legacy product that existing long-term users may stick with out of inertia. New PI firms should not start here — CASEpeer, CloudLex, or even the parent company's Neos product offer better modern alternatives.
Smokeball
Target: 1-30 attorneys
Smokeball's automatic time tracking genuinely captures revenue that other tools miss. If your firm leaks billable hours because attorneys forget to start timers, this pays for itself. The catch: you need the $149/user Grow plan to get it.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Needles | Smokeball |
|---|---|---|
| Case Management | ||
| Case / matter management | ||
| Contact management | ||
| Conflict checks | ||
| Client intake forms | ||
| Client portal | ||
| Documents & Automation | ||
| Document management | ||
| Document automation | ||
| E-signatures | ||
| Email management | ||
| Billing & Accounting | ||
| Time tracking | ||
| Billing & invoicing | ||
| Trust / IOLTA accounting | ||
| Scheduling & Deadlines | ||
| Calendar management | ||
| Task management | ||
| Court rule deadlines | ||
| Platform | ||
| Reporting / analytics | ||
| Mobile app | ||
| API access | ||
Common questions
Smokeball scores 8.2/10 vs Needles's 6.0/10 in our ranking. Smokeball is the better pick for 1-30 attorneys. Needles is better if you need established pi firms that have used needles for years and are comfortable with its workflow.
Needles uses custom pricing (contact sales). Smokeball starts at $29/month. Watch for add-on costs — the base price often does not include all features. Pricing last verified 2026-04-11.
Needles: No free trial. Smokeball: No free trial. Always test with your actual workflow before committing to an annual plan.
Needles covers 15 of 18 features we track. Smokeball covers 17 of 18. Smokeball has broader feature coverage, but more features does not always mean better — pick the tool that covers what your business actually needs.
No, Needles does not have a mobile app. Smokeball does not have one either.
Yes. The main effort is migrating your data (customer lists, job history, invoices). Plan for 1-2 weeks of overlap where you run both. Most legal practice management tools can import CSV data. Ask both vendors about migration support before you sign.
The bottom line
Pick Needles if...
Established PI firms that have used Needles for years and are comfortable with its workflow. New firms should evaluate modern alternatives.
Pick Smokeball if...
Small firms that want automatic time capture and a massive document template library so they can bill more hours without manual tracking.