Comparison
Relativity vs Mi Assist Legal -- Which is right for your firm?
Relativity charges Enterprise pricing, processing and hosting fees and runs on Cloud (RelativityOne) or on-premise (Relativity Server). Mi Assist Legal runs on your own hardware -- one flat fee, no recurring seats, no data leaving your office.
TL;DR
The five-row answer.
| Dimension | Mi Assist Legal | Relativity |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | On-premise, your hardware | Cloud (RelativityOne) or on-premise (Relativity Server) |
| Price model | One-time deployment fee | Enterprise pricing, processing and hosting fees |
| Data location | Your office network, always | Relativity cloud or client-managed servers |
| Best for firm size | 5-30 attorneys | Large litigation matters, enterprise eDiscovery |
| Offline capable | Yes -- fully offline | No -- internet required |
Deployment Model
Cloud vs on-premise. What it actually means.
Relativity is the dominant platform in enterprise eDiscovery. It offers both a cloud version (RelativityOne) and an on-premise version (Relativity Server), making it one of the few legal AI platforms that gives firms a choice of deployment model. Relativity handles document ingestion, processing, review, analytics, and production at a scale used by the largest law firms and corporations in the world.
The complexity and cost of Relativity reflect its enterprise positioning. Relativity Server requires dedicated IT infrastructure, trained administrators, and significant capital investment. RelativityOne reduces that infrastructure burden but introduces the cloud data handling questions that apply to any cloud legal AI. Relativity's AI features, including its document analytics and AI-assisted review, are layered on top of a full eDiscovery platform.
Mi Assist Legal and Relativity address fundamentally different problems. Relativity manages multi-terabyte document productions in litigation worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. Mi Assist Legal helps a 10-attorney personal injury firm quickly find what a deponent said about a specific injury or what clause a contract contains. One is infrastructure for enterprise litigation; the other is a precision search tool for everyday case file management. The firms that need Relativity are not the same firms Mi Assist Legal was built for.
Pricing at Scale
10-attorney firm. 5-year total cost.
Per-seat pricing compounds every year. Mi Assist Legal is a one-time deployment -- the math becomes obvious over time.
| Period | Mi Assist Legal | Relativity |
|---|---|---|
| Year 1 (10 attorneys) | $6,000 setup | Enterprise pricing, varies widely |
| Year 2 | $0 (no per-seat) | Processing + hosting + seats |
| Year 3 | $0 | Processing + hosting + seats |
| Year 4 | $0 | Processing + hosting + seats |
| Year 5 | $0 | Processing + hosting + seats |
| 5-Year Total | ~$6,000 | Enterprise pricing, contact sales |
Relativity pricing varies significantly by deployment model, data volume, and feature set. RelativityOne is usage-based with processing, hosting, and seat fees. Relativity Server requires on-premise hardware and administrator staffing in addition to license costs. Neither is suitable for routine case file search at a small to mid-size firm budget.
Feature Comparison
Honest feature breakdown.
| Feature | Mi Assist Legal | Relativity |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | Case file search, Q&A | Enterprise eDiscovery platform |
| On-premise option | Yes, standard deployment | Yes (Relativity Server) |
| Target market | 5-30 attorney firms | Enterprise, Am Law, in-house |
| Pricing model | One-time deployment fee | Complex enterprise pricing |
| Setup time | 48 hours | Weeks to months |
| Admin requirements | Minimal, managed by Mi Assist | Dedicated Relativity admins |
| Full eDiscovery workflow | No | Yes, full platform |
| AI document Q&A | Yes, core feature | Available as add-on analytics |
Decision Guide
The honest answer.
Choose Relativity if:
- --Your firm handles complex multi-party litigation with document productions exceeding hundreds of thousands of pages.
- --You need a full eDiscovery platform: processing, review, analytics, productions, and chain-of-custody documentation.
- --Your firm has or can hire dedicated Relativity administrators to manage the platform.
- --In-house legal departments or large firm clients require Relativity as the platform of record for matters.
Choose Mi Assist Legal if:
- Your firm needs fast natural language search across accumulated case files without enterprise infrastructure.
- The cost and complexity of Relativity is not justified for your practice volume or matter sizes.
- You want 48-hour deployment without dedicated IT staff or platform administrators.
- On-premise AI with no data leaving your network is a requirement that can be met without full eDiscovery infrastructure.
FAQ
Common questions.
Does Relativity have an AI document search feature?
Yes. Relativity includes AI-assisted analytics including concept clustering, email threading, near-duplicate detection, and predictive coding. These features are designed for eDiscovery review workflows where attorneys need to efficiently code large document productions. Mi Assist Legal provides natural language Q&A search specifically for case file queries with source citations, which is a simpler and more targeted workflow for everyday case file management.
Is Relativity Server truly on-premise?
Relativity Server is a licensed software that runs on your own hardware, which qualifies as on-premise. However, deploying Relativity Server requires significant IT infrastructure, hardware investment, and trained Relativity administrators. It is a viable on-premise option for large firms with IT departments. Mi Assist Legal's on-premise deployment runs on a Mac Mini and does not require dedicated administrators or specialized IT infrastructure.
What is the minimum firm size for Relativity?
Relativity does not publish a minimum firm size, but the platform's complexity, cost, and administrative requirements make it impractical for firms without dedicated legal technology staff. The typical Relativity customer is a large law firm, in-house legal department, or litigation support vendor. Relativity offers some small firm options, but the product architecture is optimized for enterprise scale.
Can Mi Assist Legal handle the document volumes typical in litigation?
Mi Assist Legal is designed for a firm's accumulated case file library: the documents your attorneys have collected across active and closed matters. For a 10-attorney firm with 50-200 active matters, this could be hundreds of thousands of pages. Very large individual document productions in major litigation (over 500,000 pages) would benefit from a purpose-built eDiscovery platform. Mi Assist Legal is optimized for the daily case file search workflow, not multi-terabyte litigation document sets.
How does Mi Assist Legal stay updated as AI models improve?
Mi Assist Legal runs on Ollama, an open-source local model server. When improved model versions are released (new Llama or Mistral versions), the system can be updated by swapping the model configuration. Your documents remain indexed in the vector database and do not need to be re-ingested when models are updated. The update process does not require vendor approval or contract changes.
Next Step
See how Mi Assist Legal works for your firm.
15-minute call. Live demo on a real case file. We will walk through setup, pricing, and whether Mi Assist Legal fits your workflow.