Does MyCase have passive billable-hour capture?

MyCase offers a built-in timer and time-tracking workflow tied to matters, plus its MyCase IQ AI feature surface released in 2024 which includes some automatic time-entry drafting from document and communication activity inside MyCase. The automation is narrower than Clio Duo or Smokeball AutoTime — primarily email-and-document-inside-MyCase based, less aggressive on OS-level signal capture. ClaimHour's OS-level metadata capture (calls, system-wide mail, document edit bursts, calendar blocks) is broader in scope.

What is MyCase pricing in 2026?

Three tiers as of April 2026: Basic $39/user/month (billed annually), Pro $79/user/month, Advanced $119/user/month. MyCase IQ AI features are included starting at the Pro tier. Monthly billing is available at roughly a 20% premium over the annual prices. All tiers include matter management, calendar, time tracking, and billing.

Is MyCase better than ClaimHour for a solo lawyer?

Only if you want a full PMS. MyCase Basic at $39/month is the cheapest full-featured legal PMS on the market, a real value for a solo who wants matters + calendar + billing + client portal in one place. But if your only pain is billable-hour capture and you already have QuickBooks + LawPay, MyCase adds six features you won't use on top of the capture. ClaimHour Starter at $29/month is narrower and cheaper.

Can I export data if I leave MyCase?

Yes, MyCase supports CSV export of matters, contacts, and time entries. Like all PMS exports, the numeric time entries port cleanly; the attached matter and communication context is harder to extract and usually stays trapped inside the platform. ClaimHour exports the full event log (captured events, approved entries, edits) to CSV or IIF with one click.

Does MyCase run natively on Mac?

MyCase is primarily web-based, so it runs in any modern browser including Safari on macOS. There's no Mac-native desktop agent, so any OS-level capture (phone calls, system-wide document edits outside MyCase, Apple Mail outside of MyCase's own email module) is not available. ClaimHour is a native Mac menubar app with CallKit, Apple Mail, Pages, and Calendar.app integrations — meaningfully deeper native capture than a web app can achieve.

Compare · MyCase vs ClaimHour · Updated April 2026

MyCase vs ClaimHour: side-by-side, for the solo lawyer trying to decide

MyCase is a mid-priced, solo-and-small-firm-friendly legal practice management system — the "cheaper alternative to Clio" that a lot of first-time PMS buyers evaluate. ClaimHour is a single-purpose billable-hour capture tool for the solo who doesn't want a PMS at all. If you're weighing MyCase's Basic tier ($39/user/mo) against ClaimHour Starter ($29/user/mo), the price gap is $10/month — the scope gap is the whole rest of the PMS feature set. This page lays them out head-to-head.

TL;DR

Pick MyCase if you want the full PMS stack — matter management, calendaring, billing, client portal, trust accounting — at the lowest PMS price on the market, and you're OK with a web app as your main work surface. Starts at $39/user/mo annual. Pick ClaimHour if billable-hour capture is the one pain you're solving, you already bill out of QuickBooks/LawPay/FreshBooks, you work primarily on a Mac, or you want metadata-only capture for privilege reasons. $29–$59/month, monthly terms, Mac-native.

What each product actually is

MyCase

Founded 2010, acquired by AppFolio in 2012, spun out into AffiniPay (LawPay's parent) in 2020. US legal PMS aimed at solo and small-firm practices — the "budget-friendly Clio" by most positioning. Core product is a web app with iOS and Android mobile companions. Features span matter management, calendar, document storage, native LEDES invoicing, client portal and intake forms, credit-card payments via the included LawPay integration, and since 2024 the MyCase IQ AI feature layer (time-entry drafting, document summarization, research assist). Three 2026 tiers: Basic $39/user/mo (annual), Pro $79/user/mo (adds IQ AI, workflow automation), Advanced $119/user/mo (adds advanced reporting, custom roles, larger client portal). Monthly billing ~20% more. All tiers share the same matter + billing core.

ClaimHour

Standalone macOS menubar app plus iOS companion. Does one job: watches system-level billable signals — phone-call metadata via CallKit, email activity via Apple Mail (counts, not bodies), document edit-time bursts, calendar blocks — and surfaces a 2-minute end-of-day review digest. Approved entries export to QuickBooks IIF, LawPay, FreshBooks, or plain CSV. Metadata-only: no audio, no email bodies, no file contents. Tiered at $29 (Starter) / $59 (Pro) / $99 (Scale, 2 seats). Month-to-month, cancel anytime.

Feature-by-feature comparison

Capability	MyCase	ClaimHour
Matter management	Yes — matter/contact/document database, central	No — contact-based inference only
Calendar	Yes — built-in with court-rules add-on	No — reads Apple Calendar / iCloud
Invoicing & billing	Yes — native, LEDES, LawPay integrated	No — exports to QuickBooks, LawPay, FreshBooks, CSV
Trust / IOLTA accounting	Yes — three-way reconciliation, all tiers	No — use LawPay or standalone
Client portal	Yes — included all tiers	No — out of scope
Document storage	Yes — unlimited on Pro + Advanced	No — out of scope
Passive capture	MyCase IQ (Pro + Advanced tiers) — inside-MyCase email and document activity	OS-level CallKit, Apple Mail, Pages, Word, Calendar.app, browser switches
Phone-call capture	No — only manual time entries for calls	Yes — CallKit duration + counterparty ID
Capture data depth	Reads emails and documents inside MyCase for AI drafting	Metadata only — durations, counts, timestamps, counterparty IDs
Primary platform	Web app; iOS and Android; no Mac-native desktop agent	macOS menubar; iOS companion
Mac-native capture	Browser only	CallKit, Apple Mail, Pages, Calendar.app native integrations
Minimum monthly cost	$39/user (Basic, annual) — no IQ capture	$29/user (Starter) or $59/user (Pro), monthly
Minimum for passive capture	$79/user (Pro tier with IQ, annual)	$29/user (Starter, monthly)
Contract	Annual standard; monthly at ~20% premium	Month-to-month, cancel anytime
Onboarding time	4–20 hours (migration + setup); free onboarding help available	~15 minutes (install + permissions + export target)

Where MyCase genuinely wins

Lowest full-PMS price. MyCase Basic at $39/user/mo (annual) is the cheapest full-featured US legal PMS on the market. For a solo who wants one system to handle matters, calendar, invoicing, client portal, and trust, nothing matches the price-to-scope ratio. ClaimHour does not try to compete on "I want a PMS" — we're for the cohort that doesn't.
Client portal included at all tiers. Intake forms, secure messaging, document-exchange portal, and online client payments are in every MyCase tier from Basic up. Building equivalent communication hygiene across ClaimHour + a standalone portal is doable but is more plumbing.
IOLTA trust accounting at all tiers. Three-way reconciliation and IOLTA-compliant trust accounting are included from the Basic tier. With ClaimHour you'd run trust through LawPay or a standalone bookkeeping setup.
Matter attribution accuracy. MyCase's matter-aware calendar and communications module gives MyCase IQ deterministic matter context. ClaimHour infers from counterparty ID — good enough for most solos but more ambiguous on multi-matter shared contacts.
AffiniPay ecosystem. MyCase shares a parent with LawPay and has first-class LawPay integration (payments, subscription plans, refund management). ClaimHour exports to LawPay but doesn't orchestrate it.

Where ClaimHour wins

Price if capture is all you need. ClaimHour Starter at $29/mo versus MyCase Basic at $39/mo + MyCase Pro upgrade at $79/mo to get passive capture. If you only want capture, you're paying MyCase $50/mo for the rest of the PMS you aren't using.
OS-level capture breadth. MyCase IQ captures what happens inside MyCase — email sent through MyCase's communications module, documents opened via MyCase. ClaimHour captures at the OS level — any call placed through CallKit, any document opened in Word or Pages, any email through Apple Mail, regardless of whether MyCase is even installed. For a lawyer whose workflow extends beyond one web app, that's measurably broader capture.
Phone-call capture. MyCase has no native phone-call passive capture — calls are manual time entries. ClaimHour captures call duration and counterparty via CallKit automatically. For solos who take 10–20 calls a day, this single feature is often the largest recovery source.
Privilege posture. ClaimHour is metadata-only by design. MyCase IQ reads email bodies and document contents to draft time entries. In family law, criminal defense, and immigration work the metadata-only boundary is defensibly narrower under bar ethics rules and the ABA Formal Opinion 512 (2024) framework.
Mac-first capture. MyCase is a web app on Mac — good enough for matter management, but can't see OS-level signals. ClaimHour's Mac menubar + CallKit + Apple Mail + Pages integrations capture a cleaner signal than any browser-only tool can.
Monthly billing, clean exit. ClaimHour is month-to-month and exports your full event log on exit. MyCase is annual-default; entries export cleanly but the attached matter communication history stays inside the platform.

The cost math over 3 years

Numbers assume one US solo lawyer, 1,400 billable hours per year at $250/hr ($350,000 gross), running trust + tax. MyCase users can drop external QuickBooks and LawPay only partially (QuickBooks still handles general ledger and taxes; LawPay is the included payment rail). ClaimHour users keep their QuickBooks + LawPay stack.

Stack	Year 1 total	3-year cumulative
MyCase Basic (annual) + QuickBooks SE	$828	$2,484
MyCase Pro (annual, includes IQ capture) + QuickBooks SE	$1,308	$3,924
MyCase Advanced (annual) + QuickBooks SE	$1,788	$5,364
ClaimHour Starter + QuickBooks SE + LawPay	$828	$2,484
ClaimHour Pro + QuickBooks Simple Start + LawPay	$1,188	$3,564

At the no-AI-capture level, MyCase Basic + QuickBooks SE ties ClaimHour Starter + QuickBooks SE + LawPay exactly ($2,484 over 3 years). The comparison shifts as you climb the capability ladder: adding passive capture to MyCase requires jumping to Pro at $79/mo, which over 3 years costs about $1,440 more than ClaimHour Pro. Put differently: MyCase Pro is buying you the full PMS plus capture; ClaimHour Pro is buying capture only and letting you keep the rest of your stack. Whether that stack exchange is worth it depends on whether you want one tool or five. See time tracking without practice management software for the "I just want capture" case.

A 5-question decision ladder

Do you want matter management, calendar, billing, client portal, and trust accounting all under one login? Yes → lean MyCase. It's the cheapest way to buy that bundle.
Do you need a client portal with secure messaging and intake forms as core workflow? Yes → lean MyCase. Replicating a portal across standalone tools is real plumbing.
Do you work primarily on a Mac and want native capture of calls, email, documents? Yes → lean ClaimHour. MyCase is a web app; ClaimHour is Mac-native.
Is phone-call capture a primary source of leaked billable time for you? Yes → lean ClaimHour. MyCase doesn't capture calls passively; ClaimHour does via CallKit.
Is attorney-client privilege front-of-mind in your daily work? (family law, criminal defense, immigration, privileged appellate work) Yes → lean ClaimHour. Metadata-only is a defensibly narrower data posture than MyCase IQ's content-reading drafts.

Three or more "lean MyCase" → MyCase Basic at $39/mo (annual) is the better fit if you want scope, or MyCase Pro at $79/mo if you specifically want IQ capture. Three or more "lean ClaimHour" → ClaimHour Pro at $59/mo is the better fit. The real decision is whether your pain is "I need a system" (MyCase) or "I need one missing piece" (ClaimHour).

Our bias, stated plainly

We build ClaimHour. We are not pretending to be neutral. What we can promise: every price on this page is verified against MyCase's public pricing page as of April 2026, every feature description is drawn from MyCase's own product documentation or a hands-on demo, and if you spot something wrong, email hello@claimhour.com and we'll correct it in a visible changelog. Join the waitlist if you want to try ClaimHour when early access opens in 2026.

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