By capability
Onit, capability by capability.
Based on our practitioners’ point of view, what we are hearing in the market, and what each vendor has stated.
| Capability | What Onit offers | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| Matter management and intake | Structured intake, configurable workflows and role-based assignments that move work out of email and into governed processes. | Core strength |
| eBilling and invoice review | Configurable billing rules, budgets and alternative fee arrangements. Spend Agent, Onit’s embedded AI, reviews invoices and enforces billing guidelines. | Core strength |
| Global operations | Multi-currency, multi-language and VAT-compliant workflows, with single sign-on. | Core strength |
| Legal service requests | Intake and routing of requests from the business. Priced as a separate module. | Module |
| Legal hold | Legal hold management, priced as a separate module. | Module |
| Contract lifecycle management | Onit CLM, priced separately. See our Onit CLM page. | Module |
| Apptitude | The low-code layer for custom apps and workflows. More on Apptitude. | Platform |
| AI | Spend Agent for invoice review, Ask Unity for conversational analytics, and CounselMatch for outside counsel search. | Strongest on Unity |
| Law firm portal | Counsel Exchange, which brought CounselGO and BillingPoint together. Onit supports the firms. | Included |
From the OnitX ELM, Onit Unity and Counsel Exchange pages, October 2026. Module pricing from our implementation experience.
Three forms
OnitX, Unity and SimpleLegal: which is which.
Who each is for, and where each is heading.
| Product | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| OnitX | “Global control, financial discipline, and governed Enterprise Legal Management”, with configurable workflows for complex, global departments. | Sold and supported. Customers can choose to move to Unity (OnitX to Onit Unity). |
| Onit Unity | Onit’s AI-first ELM, which Onit calls the “next generation of legal matter and spend management”. | The direction of Onit’s platform. |
| SimpleLegal | An eBilling system with matter management, used by 550+ corporate legal departments. | No new implementations. Customers are being activated on Unity (SimpleLegal to Onit Unity). |
From Onit’s product pages and our implementation experience, October 2026.
Out of scope
What Onit does not cover.
Evaluations sometimes score Onit on enterprise risk, third-party risk, ACA compliance, background screening, ethics hotlines or AI for HR. Those belong to governance, risk and HR systems. Onit is an enterprise legal management platform, and it should be judged on legal work, spend and the processes around them.
Fit
Who Onit fits.
These are tendencies. Your requirements, volumes and systems decide the answer.
It fits when
You want matters, spend, intake and workflow on one configurable platform, with governed billing rules, global operations in many currencies and languages, and the option to build your own apps on Apptitude. Our Onit ELM guide and why choose Onit cover it in depth.
Look harder when
Your need is eBilling alone, your team cannot own a configurable platform, or you want a product with no configuration at all. Compare the Onit alternatives.
One team
One team for the whole move.
01
Process and change
We handle the process changes, the change management, and the chance to improve how your department works while the platform changes.
02
Testing, documentation, training
We test the configuration, document it, and adapt the training to your team and your law firms.
03
Configuration done by us
We do the configuration ourselves, so there is no need to hire two different teams for the work.
04
Certified and backed by Onit
Our work is fully certified and backed by Onit.
How we help
How we help.
01
Evaluate
Requirements, scripted demos and a side-by-side cost of Onit and the alternatives.
02
Implement
OnitX or Unity, configured by our own certified team, with minimal reliance on Onit’s professional services.
03
Support OnitX
Administration and support for OnitX, and a design review when you are ready to move to Unity.
Who you work with
The practitioners who run the evaluation.
Jonathan Gilman
Senior ELM / CLM / LSR Expert
Onit Level 4 certified, and joined Onit as employee number eleven. Specializes in ELM, CLM and legal spend reporting, with depth in complex data migrations and multi-system integrations. Career total: 50+ client implementations and projects.
Sam Lu
Senior Advisor, Legal Technology
Onit Level 4 certified. Has led ELM implementations for global enterprise legal departments across North America, with delivery across Onit, Mitratech and large-scale legacy migrations. Career total: 30+ implementations and complex projects.
Frequently asked questions
Is Onit a good fit for corporate legal teams managing outside counsel spend?
Yes, when spend control is part of a wider need. Onit enforces billing rules, budgets and alternative fee arrangements, and its Spend Agent AI reviews invoices against your billing guidelines. It also carries matters, intake and workflow on the same configurable platform. If eBilling is your only need, compare simpler options as well.
Does Onit review law firm invoices against billing guidelines?
Yes. Configurable billing rules enforce your guidelines at submission, and Spend Agent, Onit’s embedded AI, reviews invoices and enforces billing guidelines in real time. Law firms submit through Counsel Exchange, which Onit supports.
What is the difference between OnitX, Onit Unity and SimpleLegal?
OnitX is Onit’s configurable ELM for complex, global departments, still sold and supported. Onit Unity is Onit’s AI-first ELM and the direction of the platform. SimpleLegal is an eBilling system with matter management that no longer takes new implementations; its customers are being activated on Unity.
How strong is Onit for matter management?
Matter management is a core strength: structured intake, configurable workflows, role-based assignments, budgets and reporting, on a platform that also carries legal service requests, legal hold and CLM as separate modules. The trade-off is configuration, which needs an owner or a partner.
Should OnitX customers move to Onit Unity?
They can choose to. OnitX remains sold and supported. Swiftwater, a certified Onit implementation partner, reviews your current design and processes against the Unity model and checks whether your OnitX custom functionality fits Unity or needs Apptitude, so the decision rests on evidence.
Evaluating Onit? Talk to a practitioner who knows it from the inside.
Book a Discovery CallEnterprise legal management pages
Part of our enterprise legal management practice.
Also relevant: What Is Onit?, Onit ELM Guide, What Is Onit Unity?, Onit Apptitude