Too many documents, not enough time?
If you’re searching for efficient ways to manage sprawling legal data, you’re not alone—deciding on a tool for case management, investigations, and compliance reviews can get overwhelming fast.
Here’s the truth: missing critical evidence or deadlines stresses you out daily and keeps your team from focusing on strategy instead of firefighting.
Relativity promises a fix with its all-in-one e-discovery platform, purpose-built for large-scale review, defensible legal holds, and advanced analytics—plus, its new generative AI tools could seriously speed things up over traditional review methods.
In this review, I’ll walk you through how Relativity helps you turn messy data into real insights and supports faster, more confident legal decisions.
You’ll see in this Relativity review exactly how the features, pricing, and support options measure up, helping you make a confident choice for your team’s needs.
You’ll get the features you need to take control of your legal data, cut wasted time, and boost confidence with every review.
Let’s dig right in.
Quick Summary
- Relativity is a comprehensive e-discovery platform that helps legal teams manage, review, and analyze large volumes of data efficiently.
- Best for legal professionals handling complex litigation, investigations, and regulatory compliance involving extensive electronic data.
- You’ll appreciate its advanced AI-powered analytics and highly customizable workflows that reduce review time and improve accuracy.
- Relativity offers custom enterprise pricing with no free trial, typically requiring direct contact to get a tailored quote.
Relativity Overview
Based in Chicago, Relativity has been a legal tech leader since 2001. Their mission is helping your organization organize massive datasets to discover the critical truth and act on it.
I’ve found they specifically serve large law firms, corporate legal teams, and government agencies. What truly sets them apart is their unwavering focus on high-stakes matters, where the cost of missing key evidence is simply astronomical.
Their recent investment in generative AI with Relativity aiR is a smart move. Through this Relativity review, you’ll see how this innovation is changing complex document review workflows.
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Unlike competitors that champion simplicity, Relativity’s platform provides unmatched customization for complex investigations. You get the feeling it was built by people who have actually managed these demanding cases.
They work with a majority of Am Law 100 firms and many Fortune 500 corporations. This provides strong validation of its reliability for demanding enterprise discovery tasks.
Their strategy is centered on embedding AI across the platform and expanding secure offerings for regulated sectors, aligning with your future security and innovation requirements.
Now let’s examine their capabilities.
Relativity Features
Legal documents are a nightmare to manage, right?
Relativity features offer a comprehensive suite of tools designed to tackle complex data management in legal and compliance processes. Here are the five main Relativity features that simplify e-discovery.
1. Data Processing
Is raw data overwhelming your team?
Ingesting large volumes of data from various sources can be a manual nightmare. This often leads to delays and errors in critical legal cases.
Relativity’s processing feature allows you to ingest raw data directly into your workspace, eliminating external tools. From my testing, its ability to dynamically scale worker servers based on load really shines, efficiently handling large datasets. This feature helps you discern what data is present and reduce it defensibly.
This means you can efficiently manage data intake, ensuring your team only reviews relevant information.
2. Legal Hold
Still manually tracking legal holds?
Managing legal holds manually can lead to missed notifications and compliance risks. This often results in a lack of defensibility in litigation.
Relativity Legal Hold centralizes this workflow, enabling organizations to preserve relevant data effectively. What I love about this feature is how you can automate follow-ups and track responses, providing a defensible audit trail for your organization. You can even place custodians on “silent hold.”
The result is your team gets a streamlined process that ensures compliance and reduces manual overhead.
3. Analytics & Assisted Review
Drowning in documents for review?
Reviewing thousands of documents manually is incredibly time-consuming and expensive. This can delay critical insights and increase litigation costs.
This feature amplifies e-discovery efforts with visual data analytics and machine learning. Here’s the thing – Relativity Analytics helps categorize documents and significantly reduces review time by identifying inclusive emails and textual near-duplicates. It prioritizes relevant documents, too.
So as a legal professional, you can quickly uncover critical insights and make faster, more informed decisions.
4. Document Review
Struggling with inconsistent document coding?
An inefficient document review process can lead to inconsistent coding and prolonged project timelines. This often impacts the accuracy of your findings.
Relativity provides an intuitive interface for reviewing, annotating, and coding documents with flexible workflows. This is where Relativity shines; its ability to support thousands of simultaneous users without performance degradation is remarkable. You can configure the UI for focused review, too.
This means your team can conduct extensive inquiries efficiently, ensuring consistent and accurate document coding.
5. Customization and Integration
Is your e-discovery platform inflexible?
Rigid software that can’t adapt to your unique project needs creates workflow bottlenecks. This limits your ability to tailor solutions to specific legal matters.
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Relativity offers extensive customization options, allowing you to tailor workspaces and tagging options to specific project needs. I found the UI customization APIs particularly useful for developing unique looks and dynamically manipulating data. It also integrates smoothly with third-party platforms.
This gives you the flexibility to adapt the platform to any case, enhancing your team’s productivity and efficiency.
Pros & Cons
- ✅ Comprehensive, end-to-end e-discovery solution for complex legal matters.
- ✅ Advanced analytics and AI tools for rapid insight and reduced review times.
- ✅ Highly customizable workflows to adapt to specific project requirements.
- ⚠️ Support quality can be inconsistent due to rapid organizational growth.
- ⚠️ Advanced features may present a steep learning curve for new users.
- ⚠️ The comprehensive nature often implies a higher cost for smaller firms.
These Relativity features work together as a powerful, integrated platform that addresses every stage of the e-discovery process, and then some.
Relativity Pricing
What’s the real cost going to be?
Relativity pricing isn’t publicly available in fixed tiers, indicating a custom or enterprise-focused model that requires direct contact to get your specific quote.
Cost Breakdown
- Base Platform: Custom quote
- User Licenses: Varies by volume and specific solutions
- Implementation: Significant; varies by project scope and complexity
- Integrations: Varies by complexity, may include partner enhancements
- Key Factors: Data volume (per GB), number of users, features required
1. Pricing Model & Cost Factors
Understanding how costs are structured.
Relativity’s pricing model primarily revolves around custom quotes, particularly for RelativityOne. What I found regarding pricing is that costs can be around £9 per gigabyte per month, meaning your total expenditure scales directly with the data volume you manage. User licenses, specific features like AI enhancements, and required solutions also significantly drive your final cost.
From my cost analysis, this means your budget needs to account for data growth and specialized functionality.
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2. Value Assessment & ROI
Is this an investment worth making?
Relativity excels in complex e-discovery and data management for large organizations, offering significant ROI by streamlining processes that would be impossible manually. What stands out to me is how its specialized AI features for government clients can dramatically reduce review time and increase accuracy, providing immense value.
This helps you justify the investment by connecting the cost directly to efficiencies and risk mitigation.
3. Budget Planning & Implementation
Consider total cost of ownership.
Beyond the per-gigabyte or user-based fees, expect to budget for implementation, training, and potential integration with your existing systems. From my cost analysis, partner-specific enhancements can add further expenses and licensing needs, which your finance team needs to factor in.
So for your large organization, you can expect a comprehensive, but custom-fitted, investment that pays off long-term.
My Take: Relativity’s pricing is built for large-scale, complex legal and compliance needs, reflecting its deep feature set and enterprise-grade support.
The overall Relativity pricing reflects customized value for complex enterprise legal operations.
Relativity Reviews
What do real customers actually think?
Relativity reviews provide valuable insights into what users truly experience, helping you understand the software beyond its marketing claims and features list.
1. Overall User Satisfaction
User sentiment is overwhelmingly positive.
From my review analysis, Relativity generally receives very high marks, often being called an “industry standard” by its users. What I found in user feedback is how its comprehensive nature consistently satisfies diverse legal professionals across various industries.
This indicates you can expect a robust and reliable platform for your eDiscovery needs.
2. Common Praise Points
The advanced features win users over.
Users consistently praise Relativity’s end-to-end eDiscovery capabilities, including its powerful analytics and AI tools like predictive coding. Review-wise, the platform’s advanced features save significant time on document review, which is a massive benefit for any legal team.
This means you can accelerate your review processes and uncover insights faster.
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3. Frequent Complaints
Support issues arise due to growth.
While broadly positive, some users mention challenges with support resources, attributing this to Relativity’s rapid growth. What stands out in customer feedback is how stretched resources can impact response times for complex inquiries, which can be frustrating during critical projects.
These issues seem to be a byproduct of scale, and you might need patience with support.
What Customers Say
- Positive: “Relativity has become the industry standard within the Legal Documents Review field. It is very easy to get started for beginners.”
- Constructive: “However due to rapid growth, their resources might be stretched which affects Support.”
- Bottom Line: “Best document software we’ve used for the price – simple but powerful.”
The overall Relativity reviews demonstrate high satisfaction despite occasional support growing pains.
Best Relativity Alternatives
Navigating competitive e-discovery options?
The best Relativity alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different business situations, budget considerations, and specific e-discovery priorities you might have.
1. Everlaw
Your legal team values modern UI and collaboration?
Everlaw excels for teams prioritizing a sleek, user-friendly interface and robust real-time collaborative features for document review. What I found comparing options is that Everlaw provides exceptional collaborative cloud-native experience, though its broader ecosystem is less established than Relativity’s.
Choose Everlaw if ease of use and strong team collaboration are your top priorities for an e-discovery alternative.
2. DISCO eDiscovery
Need rapid processing and AI-driven efficiency?
DISCO stands out for its speed in data processing and review, emphasizing AI-driven automation for legal holds and data preservation. From my competitive analysis, DISCO offers streamlined, AI-powered rapid data turnaround, making it a strong alternative when quick results are critical.
Consider DISCO if you need fast, AI-focused data processing and a simplified user experience for critical matters.
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3. Exterro E-Discovery
Seeking a unified, end-to-end e-discovery platform?
Exterro provides a comprehensive, integrated solution managing the entire e-discovery lifecycle from preservation through production. Alternative-wise, Exterro unifies all e-discovery and information governance processes to reduce costs and streamline operations more broadly than Relativity’s core focus.
Choose Exterro if you’re seeking a single, integrated platform for all your e-discovery and information governance needs.
4. Logikcull
Prefer a straightforward, “do-it-yourself” e-discovery tool?
Logikcull shines with its simplicity and automation, making it highly accessible for legal professionals without deep e-discovery expertise. From my analysis, Logikcull prioritizes self-service ease of use for smaller to mid-sized matters, offering quick processing and automated legal holds.
Consider Logikcull for automated, user-friendly e-discovery on smaller matters, prioritizing simplicity over complex customization.
Quick Decision Guide
- Choose Relativity: Large-scale, complex investigations with deep analytics and customization.
- Choose Everlaw: Collaborative document review with a modern, intuitive user interface.
- Choose DISCO eDiscovery: Rapid data processing, AI efficiency, and simplified user experience.
- Choose Exterro E-Discovery: Unified, end-to-end platform for all e-discovery activities.
- Choose Logikcull: Straightforward, automated self-service for smaller to mid-sized matters.
The best Relativity alternatives depend on your specific project scale and feature priorities, not just brand recognition.
Relativity Setup
What about the actual setup and go-live?
This Relativity review section breaks down what it takes to get up and running, focusing on practical preparation and realistic expectations for your team.
1. Setup Complexity & Timeline
Expect a tailored, not instant, deployment.
While RelativityOne is cloud-based, initial setup involves significant customization of workspaces and workflows for your specific needs. From my implementation analysis, this configuration requires dedicated effort, so plan for a detailed onboarding rather than a quick deployment.
You’ll need to define your processes upfront to ensure the platform is configured to optimize your legal work.
2. Technical Requirements & Integration
Consider your IT team’s capacity for integration.
RelativityOne runs on Azure, but optimizing performance and integrating with existing systems like HR or external platforms requires technical oversight. What I found about deployment is that APIs allow deep customization and integration, but upgrading these custom connections with new releases might be necessary.
Your IT team will need to ensure network readiness and manage any custom integration points for seamless data flow.
3. Training & Change Management
Don’t underestimate the user learning curve.
Relativity’s robust features mean comprehensive training is highly recommended, ranging from basic reviewer skills to super-user proficiency. From my analysis, successful adoption hinges on thorough training and proactive change management to ensure your teams fully leverage its advanced capabilities.
Invest in dedicated training programs and internal champions to help users navigate advanced features and new workflows.
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4. Support & Success Factors
How much support will you really get?
While Relativity is powerful, user feedback indicates support response quality can be stretched due to rapid growth. What I found about deployment is that engaging with certified partners can enhance support, providing a more personalized experience during and after implementation.
Plan to leverage both direct Relativity support and partner resources to ensure your implementation has consistent, high-quality assistance.
Implementation Checklist
- Timeline: Weeks to months for full customization and integration
- Team Size: Dedicated project manager, IT, legal ops, and super-users
- Budget: Professional services for customization and training
- Technical: API integrations and network optimization for large datasets
- Success Factor: Comprehensive training and robust change management
Overall, successful Relativity setup requires meticulous planning and strong internal commitment to truly maximize its powerful capabilities for your organization.
Bottom Line
Is Relativity right for your legal operations?
My Relativity review provides a comprehensive final assessment, helping you understand who this software is best for and why it stands out in the e-discovery space.
1. Who This Works Best For
Large enterprises and law firms handling massive data.
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Relativity excels for organizations managing vast volumes of electronically stored information (ESI) for complex litigation, internal investigations, and compliance. What I found about target users is that firms requiring defensibility and customization find it invaluable for streamlining their e-discovery workflows.
You’ll succeed if your current e-discovery process is overwhelmed by data complexity and demands a robust, scalable solution.
2. Overall Strengths
Unmatched power in data processing and analytics.
The software succeeds by offering unparalleled data processing, advanced AI (like Relativity aiR), and highly customizable workflows for efficient document review. From my comprehensive analysis, its scalability handles projects of any size while maintaining robust security and compliance features for sensitive legal data.
These strengths mean you can confidently manage the largest, most complex legal challenges with an industry-standard, defensible platform.
3. Key Limitations
Learning curve for advanced features and potential support strain.
While powerful, new users may face a steep learning curve to master its full capabilities, and rapid growth has sometimes stretched support resources. Based on this review, some users reported instances of slower support due to increased demand, which is an important consideration for ongoing operations.
I’d say these limitations are manageable trade-offs for its comprehensive feature set, but you should factor in training and support expectations.
4. Final Recommendation
Relativity earns a strong recommendation for specialized needs.
You should choose this software if your organization faces complex, high-volume e-discovery challenges and needs an industry-leading, defensible platform. From my analysis, this solution is an investment for top-tier legal operations that prioritize comprehensive features, scalability, and robust security over budget constraints.
My confidence level is high for large legal departments and law firms but drops for small, straightforward e-discovery needs.
Bottom Line
- Verdict: Recommended for large-scale e-discovery and legal technology needs
- Best For: Large law firms, corporations with significant legal departments, government agencies
- Business Size: Mid-sized to large organizations (1,000+ employees) handling complex ESI
- Biggest Strength: Powerful data processing, advanced AI, and customizable workflows
- Main Concern: Steep learning curve for advanced features; potential support resource strain
- Next Step: Contact sales for a personalized demo to assess fit and pricing
This Relativity review demonstrates significant value for the right business profile, offering a powerful solution for complex legal and compliance challenges.
