Mitratech HotDocs

Pros: It is highly customisable according to needs. Have been working on esignature, qr code development, image processing and many more along with document template development and generation

Cons: The features are wonderful but the application license is little too expensive compared to other application in the market. Recent author has some issues and need improvements compare to classic version

Pros: A good document management platform that was recommended by students studying law. The cloud version has progressively become better. The software is very easy to navigate and a little exploration with the functions goes a long way.

Cons: The platform is still behind competitors when it boils down to its overall presentation and cloud functions.

Pros: HotDocs is a very useful tool to efficiently prepare legal documents for the sale of property. It has all of the relevant, pertinent verbiage in every document. You can create legal documents that you are know are useful in a matter of minutes. It allows you to stay on top of your legal practice in a stress-free manner.

Cons: There is nothing that I do not like about HotDocs. It saves me a lot of time, by efficiently creating legal documents, that I can spend on other pressing matters.

Pros: The supposed ease of use; but without some guidance, it’s not easy to use. Good luck getting any guidance from developers.

Cons: The developers sold me on the product and disappeared after purchase. They don’t even bother to respond to emails. Don’t do it.

Pros: Once you put in the work to set everything up, this software makes daily document creation and management a breeze.

Cons: You basically have to have a BA in computer science to set it up, would enjoy much more with basic coding knowledge.

Pros: The ability to create my own forms and purchase pre-made sets of forms. While it does take time to create templates, doing so helps me think through what I am trying to accomplish with any particular documents. I think that makes for a better and more useful final product.

Cons: That is went to a subscription model that is rather expensive. Thankfully I still have my stand-alone program.

Pros: Inputting client information one time to use with various forms. Court forms contain the same information in multiple areas and this fills the form.

Cons: There are two forms where the client information is not available from what was input. It is not a major issue since I am now aware.

Pros: Product provides enough features and flexibility to customize almost any type of form.

Cons: The web-based version of the product is probably still in its early stages of development. This shouldn't discourage you from using it. The program has a bright future and there the potential gains in efficiency and form robustness are worth it.

Pros: Once everything is set up, HotDocs is the most customized, helpful document assembly program out there.

Cons: Found it difficult and expensive to learn.

Pros: Saves time, and is very commonly used (and therefore understood) outside of our office.

Cons: Very expensive, and requires re-entry of data already entered far too often. The actual coding in documents is surprisingly opaque, and converting existing document structures to a HotDocs format is exceptionally cumbersome. The existing form sets that are on top of HotDocs are useful, and the community is broad, but the quality is hit or miss.

Pros: Deceitful support which will lie to clients to capture a long term contract. Yes... this is what we liked the most.

Cons: So complicated that it's functionally unusable. Previously hired programmer to get working when they didn't charge usury monthly rates for worthless "lease".

Pros: Nothing, since I don't have the hundreds of hours that would be necessary to make this product useful.

Cons: Very difficult and esoteric to use. Really requires a dedicated in-house person who has creating templates as part of their job description.

Pros: I think HotDocs is THE choice to use when you need to prepare more complex legal documents, particularly in packages. We are lawyers who specialise in automating documents for other law firms in areas like loan and security documents, share sale agreements, and complex wills and estates. We really haven't found anything we can't do with HotDocs, but we know that most (if not all) of the other document automation tools we've looked at, and sometimes use for simpler work, couldn't do the job at the high end. While a lot of focus is on the actual document creation aspect, we also really like the ability to build organisational compliance and training into the interview questionnaires.

Cons: The biggest issue with HotDocs is the annual per user licensing model, which restricts the ability to use HotDocs in situations where you have a lot of POTENTIAL users, who may only need to use it occasionally. It also stops people from starting to use it when they don't know how large the benefits will be. I would love to see a more flexible licensing model that allowed people to get started using HotDocs, because they would love it, and would quickly see many more uses. With a more scalable licensing model, I think millions more people would use it. The ability to collaborate with others (e.g. via client interviews) would be a great help. I'd also like to see more easy - out of the box - integration with other systems, particularly Office 365.

Pros: I love how HotDocs streamlines the drafting of frequently used documents, such as Health Care Directives and Powers of Attorney. You can enter info through a template, hit a button and viola, you are ready to go.

Cons: It has an expensive user license fee. It can be cumbersome to get started and require additional tech assistance.

Pros: The product takes substantial time to learn, but is robust and can be extremely helpful if you are willing to devote the time on the front end to save time on the back end.

Cons: We have been with HotDocs forever and likely would have continued; however, since they were acquired by AccessData they have switched to a new pricing model requiring a perpetual monthly cost per user that will dramatically increase our cost for this product. We are currently exploring alternatives. I do not yet have pricing or sufficient information to know if any of these will be less expensive and work for us, but we are looking at Contract Express, XpressDox, and Exari. I am online today performing research for other viable competitors.

Pros: I used this software for years and put a lot of time and effort into the program. There were no subscriptions. You paid for the software and it was yours. I did pay for an upgrade to HotDocs 11.

Cons: Now that the company's pricing has changed, I was told that I would have to purchase a new monthly, per user subscription to re-install what I already paid for onto a new computer that replaced my old one.

Pros: I can easily sell this program to anyone, and have in fact have turned several attorneys on to this program. It's a great way to automate your documents. It's logical. Is it complex? Sure it can be, but that gives the user a lot of options and makes it a powerful tool.

Cons: Cost prohibitive. For some reason HotDocs has elected to increase the price of HotDocs well beyond what they charged. From my understanding they want to have you pay a MONTHLY FEE where they used to just charge you a one time fee for the program. The price is too high for solo attorneys and small law firms. Bottom-line: Until Hotdocs can figure things out on the pricing, do not start using Hotdocs; there are other ways to get the same job done for cheaper, A LOT CHEAPER!

Pros: I've used HotDocs in my law practice for more than 10 years. Love it. Very powerful. The more time you invest using it, the more you'll appreciate its many features and the better your templates will become.

Cons: My only warning concerns the new year-to-year subscription pricing requirement. How does that make sense for this kind of software? The software becomes helpful only after you make your own serious upfront investment of time to build HotDocs "templates". Without that investment, HotDocs will do nothing for you. Don't make such an investment without considering that, in future years, you'll have no guarantee that you'll be able to renew your HotDocs substription on a basis that makes sense. And without yearly renewals, you'll forfeit your own upfront investment of time in templates. But for the pricing scheme adopted by HotDoc's new owner, AbacusNext, I'd give HotDocs an overall rating of 5 out of 5. However, as it stands now, I suggest you look at other software. Perhaps XpressDox. Or, for less ambitious automation projects, consider TheFormTool or Pathagorus.

Pros: Any positives are overshadowed by the new owners’ fixation for signing up new customers at any price. See comment below

Cons: Beware of entanglement with the new owners of this software. They will suck you into a monthly subscription scheme which is virtually impossible to cancel.

Pros: It's great that we can keep all of our companies needed documents on one software that is accessible to everyone at our Firm.

Cons: It's just not very comprehensive. It's a clunky software, and I think there are probably may software companies out there that have a similar product. Nothing is that special or outstanding about this one!

Pros: - It is powerful and can do a lot. - It allows us to have a robust interview that generates templated documents - The software generally works, though it has some shortcomings which are not easily solved.

Cons: - The company is about one thing: how much money can they get out of your firm. I received 4 sales calls in one week to get us to upgrade or change or whatever. They call other people in my firm who then refer the calls to me. If they redirected some of their sales staff to make the product better, it would be better for everyone! - It lacks a robust network of developers that work with it. We struggled to find qualified providers that could help us develop interviews and templates. - It has a dizzying array of different product editions, two different SAAS products, a desktop product which comes in different versions.

Pros: Our firm works on a vast amount of forms that are specific to our individual clients needs - these are not fill-in forms, but documents ranging from 1 single page to 100+ pages. We use a sometimes complicated Answer File whereby HotDocs lets us quickly assemble a single document or multiple documents - I sometimes do 20 or more documents at a time. The amount of time that is saved being able to use HotDocs for this document assembly process is phenomenal.

Cons: If the answer to a variable is not readily available some end-users would like there to be a prompt on the draft document indicating what fields/questions have been left blank. For the person filling in the answer file those unanswered questions are known at the end of the answer file, but after assembly these documents are passed on for further editing and review and a reminder of what information was not available at the time of assembly would be helpful.

Pros: Very flexable, no matter how complex the document is you can build the template in hotdocs. The interview is also great, being able to control what the user sees depending on inputs makes the program very easy to use for the end user. Also, the help page is incredibly helpful, I hope people are using it because it is nothing like the usual help page programs have.

Cons: Rather steep learning curve. Took me a couple of weeks to get the hang of it, and the built in functions are hard to find without the help feature. Once you have them memorized its great though. I imagine it will take me a few more months to master the program.