# Gavel Reviews **Vendor:** Gavel **Category:** [Legal Document Drafting Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/legal-document-drafting) **Average Rating:** 5.0/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 11 ## About Gavel Gavel (formerly Documate) is easy to use legal automation software with powerful document automation for Word, PDF, or other .docx documents. Easily collect client intake, set up robust nested conditional logic, numerical and date calculations, and collect and populate lists. Grow your practice by building legal products. Make your Gavel workflows client-facing to collect client intake data. For the legal tech entrepreneurs, go a step further by building a "TurboTax" for any area of law to sell legal documents to the public. Payment integrations, file uploads, videos, and whitelabeling are also supported. ## Gavel Reviews ### 1. Best form-building software out there **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brian M. | Founder/Immigration Lawyer, Law Practice, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 26, 2023 **What do you like best about Gavel?** Gavel is a no-code template/form-building software that is easy to use and share with clients. I love the ease of putting together an aesthetically pleasing questionnaire for clients that I can put together efficiently while being able to develop so that I can get the most helpful information from a client or prospective client. Gavel lets you create conditional questions that will take a client to a follow-up question, depending on his or her response to the first question. Once the questionnaire is complete, Gavel creates a link that I can send to a client via email, text, or in whatever way I am communicating with them. The link takes the client to a clean, nice-looking portal where they can complete the questionnaire, which I can then integrate with my Clio Grow CRM through a "zap" from Zapier. Also, questions can be marked as "required", and for those questions, the client cannot move on to the next question without including a response; in the alternative, questions can not require a response either. You can customize it to how you see fit. Gavel also allows you to take payments from clients, and you can include payment requirements before a client fills out a form, between two forms, or after. Payments can be recorded in your CRM through the Zapier integration as well. Further, I can use Gavel to schedule client appointments with Calendly or any online scheduling software, then integrate it into my workflow to streamline appointment scheduling for my clients. Going back to Zapier, there are many ways that Gavel's utility can be extended even further through creative automation with Zapier, such as sending automated texts, as one example. The ease of implementation is refreshing, it does not require me to be a software developer to get the most out of this software so that I can translate my use of Gavel into providing the highest quality of service to each of my clients. I can use the software daily, and it will only take up a limited amount of time. Lastly, I'd like to give a shoutout to Lonnie and the rest of the Customer Support team at Gavel, who are responsive and eager to assist me and the rest of the Gavel users. I highly recommend Gavel! I cannot speak highly enough of this app! **What do you dislike about Gavel?** The pricing options are not fully clear, and can be pricey for a solo practitioner or small law firm with limited employees; however, the software is a great price for growing legal practices and medium to large firms. It would be great if Gavel could secure a direct integration with Clio Grow AND Clio Manage, which it does not currently have because I believe that it is superior software over LawYaw. **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** It solves the problem of taking hours and hours, in addition to the technical knowledge of web form building, and it allows non-tech individuals and teams to build high-quality templates and other web forms that can vary in complexity. It is very useful for creating questionnaires that will play out conditionally, depending on the specific responses of an individual who is completing the questionnaire or form. This, very importantly, saves time for them as well. The ease of use of transmitting a web link to the user raises the likelihood that they will complete the form timely as well. And being able to schedule with a prospective client, client, or whoever else you need to complete your form, you can send it to them and they do not need an account to complete it; however, if they must make a payment to continue with your law practice, you can ensure that this happens by inserting this required step where you see fit. Further, the sky is the limit regarding the ability to customize and streamline the who, what, where, when, why, and how that you desire to respond to your form. You can embed these forms into your website, or a specific landing page. Gavel is high-quality software developed and managed by a team that actively seeks improvement and growing with its users. This is what I most appreciate about the software. ### 2. Excellent Software and Support Staff **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Les T. | Senior Marketing Specialist, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 14, 2023 **What do you like best about Gavel?** The software is easy to use and the administrative interface is simple and straightforward. The support staff is excellent and it is well worth the price. We use this software in a non-traditional manner as we are a service company and not a law firm and it works exceptionally well for our use case scenario. **What do you dislike about Gavel?** Even though the software is not very old is is well documented, but could use some improvements on that end. Some functionality could be added, but they are working on that. Nothing is perfect out of the box, but what they have to offer is exceptionally functional. **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** We are using the software to automate proposal generation for our clients. Our proposals are much more like legal documents than anything else, hence the software works very well for us. ### 3. Best automation for Mac computers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ari A. | Technical Program Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Gavel?** I have previously had a hard time finding good automation software for my Mac and often had to create a Windows environment in my Mac to be able to run different software. And even those were terrible. But Documate works with Macs and is easier to use than the clunky tools I've used in the past. So much better than HotDocs and Contract Express, and any other Thomson Reuters product for that matter. **What do you dislike about Gavel?** Great product. I wish I had given up on legacy tools mcuh earlier and tried Documate, as it would have saved me a ton of time and money. **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Really affordable for what you get. Documate has been a hit at our Mac-first company! ### 4. Generating Business Through Documate **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Hospital & Health Care | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 28, 2021 **What do you like best about Gavel?** I use Documate for building legal applications for my clients, and I charge my clients for them. I love the flexibility Documate gives me to do this. I have built several legal modules that I now sell to my clients. I collect payments through Stripe, and they also integrate with lots of other tools, including Clio and Zapier-supported applications. **What do you dislike about Gavel?** I wanted to say I wanted more customization, but then they started allowing you to add your own CSS, and they made my world. I can now modify my workflows to have them match my website styling exactly - down to the button styles and fonts and colors. **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Another useful aspect of Documate is that they have document automation consultants on hand to build out workflows for you. So if you don't have time, they have contractors who can help you get up and running, too. ### 5. STELLAR software for intake and document sets **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Real Estate | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Gavel?** I use Clio, but their document automation is not great nor is their intake. Documate has allowed me to replace the document automation AND the intake that Clio Manage and Clio grow provide. And because of the Clio integration, it means I can continue to use Clio for all the other practice management functions I already use them for. Clio should be thankful for the Documate integration! **What do you dislike about Gavel?** Absolutely stellar in every way! Clients love the client intake functionality because it's completely branded to my firm, and the doc automation tool is more powerful than any others I've tried. **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Documate has accomplished what no other software tool has been able to for me. I am so grateful that I found them through the marketplace! ### 6. Custom branded and control over your data! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Electronics | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Gavel?** The hook for me was that this platform allows me to custom brand my workflows and make them client-facing. I am also able to create client profiles for my clients and store their data when I want to. I have a custom domain, custom styling, and it looks like I had a developer build everything out for me, but I just pay Documate a small monthly fee. :) **What do you dislike about Gavel?** They've really added almost every feature I've asked for, so it's nearly perfect, and I know they're adding more features (literally) every day, too. **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Documate has been a great client-facing tool for intake and for generating documents. I use it both as a client-facing tool and as an internal tool to automate my document packets. ### 7. Cream of the crop automation software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Entertainment | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Gavel?** Our team has tried almost every automation tool out there, and Documate is the one we chose because of the ease of use and how much you can do with it. It's very easy to get up and running because of the easy user interface, but it's also very powerful and has been able to handle everything I've needed for our complex corporate contracts. **What do you dislike about Gavel?** Great software, and I have absolutely nothing to complain about so far. It's really been able to accomplish everything I wanted. **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** If you're looking for a contract automation tool, Documate can do it all - clause libraries, logic, web-based review, easy interface. We love it. ### 8. Handles the most complex automation **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Food Production | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Gavel?** I am drafting loan applications with very complex nested logic and calculations, and I didn't think I would find any software that would work to fully automate the process. Documate has a feature called "invisible logic" that allows you to create logic that is as complex as you want it to be. This has been a lifesaver for my business and is allowing me to scale my practice rapidly and easily. **What do you dislike about Gavel?** No cons so far. The support has been amazing and they've even added features I've asked for. **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Love the software overall and the support is incredible. They usually respond within minutes and always within the hour. Incredible. ### 9. Great way to populate large document sets **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Real Estate | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 22, 2021 **What do you like best about Gavel?** Documate is a powerful software with, as far as I've seen so far, unlimited functionality with respect to what you can do and how you can customize your documents. The platform is easy to use, and allows for complex logic and generation of multiple documents at once. I also love that I can use reference/lookup tables to store data easily. I was able to learn how to Documate (yes, I use it as a verb now) with just a 10 minute demo. The customer support is amazing, too. **What do you dislike about Gavel?** Honestly, I haven't found anything I don't like yet. I have tried so many other softwares out there, and this one has by far been the most powerful and easy to use. It might be nice to have more examples of what can be done, but I often go to the Slack group to ask other Documate users if I don't have a particular form that I need. **Recommendations to others considering Gavel:** Documate is wonderful! They have a free trial, too, and their support is unlimited even during the free trial, so you can learn quite a bit about whether it meets your needs! **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cutting down on document generation time drastically. I am able to complete my work in a fraction of the time, make it error proof, and spend more time with my kids that I would be spending on document generation. ### 10. Psychological Reports **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Real Estate | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 27, 2021 **What do you like best about Gavel?** Documate is marketed mostly to lawyers, but I use this software for building medical reports. What used to take me hours and hours now takes 30-40 minutes with all of the numerous inputs that I have. I have added so many conditions into my documents, and it has been able to handle them all. **What do you dislike about Gavel?** Market to us psychologists, too! We dig your software, Documate. **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** I've loved building on Documate, and the customer support has been above and beyond. ### 11. Very intuitive UI, all the functionality I was looking for **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 18, 2021 **What do you like best about Gavel?** Their tool has every iteration of logic that I needed for my use cases - which was fairly complex and extensive. They have also built out a nice library of reference materials, which made it easy to quickly get up to speed on their tool. **What do you dislike about Gavel?** Nothing really. I had a few questions and their customer service was super responsive. **What problems is Gavel solving and how is that benefiting you?** Generating first draft forms and filings by publishing questionnaires. ## Gavel Discussions - [What are document generation tools?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-document-generation-tools) - [What is document assembly software?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-document-assembly-software) - [How much does Documate cost?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-much-does-documate-cost) - [What is Documate used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-documate-used-for) - [View Gavel pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/gavel/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-15+06%3A02%3A49+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=bf1e6224-fd0b-48ca-9a40-47e8e6d0c6f8&secure%5Btoken%5D=10297685ed45416d8eec1a1a20166ad1d71887b23ec5cef600c456f639563b9f&format=llm_user) ## Gavel Features **Platform Additional Functionality** - Dashboard - Cloud - Mobility **Data Sources** - Software - Documents **Generation** - Templates - Automation - Branding **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization **Platform Content** - Automation - File Sharing - Content Library **Agentic AI - Legal Document Drafting** - Autonomous Task Execution - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration - Adaptive Learning - Natural Language Interaction - Proactive Assistance - Decision Making **Platform Basics** - Interoperability - Offline Editing - E-Signature **Delivery** - Workflow - Schedule - Batch **Agentic AI - Document Generation** - Autonomous Task Execution ## Top Gavel Alternatives - [8am MyCase](https://www.g2.com/products/8am-mycase/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (348 reviews) - [PandaDoc](https://www.g2.com/products/pandadoc/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (3,306 reviews) - [Proposify](https://www.g2.com/products/proposify/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (1,107 reviews)