| Where data lives | Hosted in a vendor cloud. Client data leaves your building on every query. | 100% on-premise. Zero bytes of client data leave the appliance — ever. |
| Pricing model | $1,000–$1,500+ per user, per month. The invoice climbs with every attorney. | $999/month for the entire firm + one-time $2,999 appliance. Flat, forever. |
| Seat penalties | Every new lawyer adds a recurring seat fee — growth gets expensive. | Unlimited attorney seats. Adding lawyers costs nothing. |
| Model costs | You rent frontier tokens (GPT, Claude) — metered and metered again. | You own the local models. Every query resolves on the box — $0 token cost. |
| Connectivity | Dead without an internet connection to the vendor. | Works fully offline. No internet required for any legal task. |
| Audit trail | Chat history sitting in someone else's database. | Immutable, matter-level audit trail — hashed, timestamped, on your disk. |
| Vendor lock-in | Non-cancellable contracts. They can raise the price at renewal. | You own the box. The advantage doesn't expire with a contract. |