The Callidus alternative.
Callidus positions itself as a lower-cost legal AI platform, and its own comparison pages say so directly.
What it does not say is what it costs. This page covers what is knowable from public sources and is explicit about what is not.
Verified 2026-08-24. Sources and dates on every claim.
What is actually knowable
This is the shortest comparison on the site, because Callidus publishes less than any competitor covered here.
It claims to undercut Paxton
Callidus's own comparison page states that Paxton pricing is $199 per user per month and that this is higher than Callidus, which it says offers more functionality. That is a vendor claim about a competitor, and it names no Callidus figure.
No public rate card
Callidus directs buyers to a pricing page or a sales team rather than posting a number. A July 2026 survey of twenty legal AI vendors found six that publish a readable price and fourteen that do not.
Free trial offered
Callidus offers a free trial, which its own materials describe as the best way to determine fit. That is a reasonable position and it is more than several larger competitors offer.
We are not going to invent a Callidus price to fill a table. Every other comparison on this site carries a dated source for every figure. There is no dated source for a Callidus rate, so there is no row. Ask them directly and get it in writing.
What a quote-only vendor costs you before you buy
The absence of a published price is itself information, and it has a cost that shows up before any invoice does.
| Vendor | Pricing posture | What that means for a small firm |
|---|---|---|
| Callidus | Quote only | You learn the number after a discovery call in which you disclose your firm size and budget. |
| Paxton AI | Published | $499 per user per month, or $2,999 per year. Comparable without a call. |
| Harvey | Quote only | Third-party reporting estimates $1,200 to $2,000 or more per user per month for mid-market firms. |
| Westlaw | Partly published | Self-serve rates published for firms up to ten attorneys. Quote above that. |
| LexisNexis | Quote only | No public rate card at any tier. |
| Marcella Firm | $99 / seat / mo | 1 to 25 seats, annual billing, Technology Outlaws hosted. Published rate, no sales call. |
| Marcella BOYA | $278 / mo flat | 3 seats. Deploys in the firm's own Azure tenant. |
The reason a vendor withholds the number is structural rather than sinister. A posted price lets a buyer compare and walk away. A quote establishes the buyer's firm size and budget before the seller names a figure. Both parties know this, which is why the demo call opens with questions about headcount.
What to ask on the call
If you are evaluating any quote-only legal AI vendor, four questions get you a comparable number instead of a range.
- The per-seat rate at your exact headcount, in writing. Not a range, not a starting point, and not contingent on a decision date.
- What the term is, and the one year equivalent. Multi-year discounts get baked into headline figures. Thomson Reuters term discounts are reported at twelve percent for two years and eighteen percent for three, so a published rate can already assume a three year signature.
- Which model providers sit in the data path, and whether any are non-Microsoft. Each one is a data processor your firm approves and a party that could hold a copy of a prompt.
- Who holds the prompts and outputs, and under what retention schedule. Prompts and outputs are electronically stored information. If a third party holds them, your firm is not the custodian of its own work product. Full explanation.
What Marcella answers to those four
$99 per seat per month for one to twenty five seats on annual billing, published. $278 per month flat for three seats on BOYA and $1,498 for twenty on BOYA 20, both deploying in the firm's own Azure tenant. Inference runs on Azure OpenAI inside Microsoft Azure with no public network access on the endpoint, and no non-Microsoft model provider receives client content. On Bring Your Own Azure tiers Technology Outlaws holds no copy of anything.
Feature by feature
| Capability | Callidus | Marcella |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | No. Directs to a pricing page or sales team. | Yes, at every tier through BOYA 20. |
| Free trial | Offered. | Waitlist. Trials at $20 for 7 days and $35 for 30 days at launch. |
| Where client data sits | Not documented publicly. | On Bring Your Own Azure tiers, the firm's own Azure and Microsoft 365 tenant, with no copy held by Technology Outlaws. |
| Model providers disclosed | Not documented publicly. | Azure OpenAI inside Microsoft Azure. No non-Microsoft provider receives content. |
| Citation architecture | Not documented publicly in sufficient detail to compare. | Retrieval only from an indexed corpus of 10M+ opinions, with a six-item Daubert attestation on every output. |
| Cross-publisher treatment | Not documented publicly. | Citation relationships mapped from public court records, which crosses every publisher silo. |
Four of those rows say the same thing: the information is not public. That is not an accusation, it is the state of the category, and it is why the four questions above matter more than any comparison table.
Questions
How much does Callidus Legal AI cost?
Callidus does not publish pricing. Its own comparison materials state that Paxton AI is $199 per user per month and that Callidus is lower, but they name no Callidus figure. Ask for a per-seat rate at your headcount in writing.
Does Callidus offer a free trial?
Yes. Callidus materials describe a free trial as the best way to determine whether the platform is a fit.
Why do so few legal AI vendors publish prices?
A July 2026 survey of twenty legal AI vendors found six that publish a readable price and fourteen that route to a sales call. A posted price lets a buyer compare and walk away. A quote establishes the buyer's firm size and budget before the seller names a number.
What should I ask a legal AI vendor that will not publish a price?
Four things: the per-seat rate at your exact headcount in writing, the contract term and the one year equivalent rate, which model providers sit in the data path, and who holds your prompts and outputs and under what retention schedule.
What does Marcella cost?
$99 per seat per month for one to twenty five seats on annual billing. BOYA is $278 per month flat for three seats and BOYA 20 is $1,498 per month flat for twenty seats, both deploying in the firm's own Azure tenant. This is launch pricing and rates increase after the launch period.
Every rate published, no discovery call required to learn the number.
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