Migrawise vs Clio
Clio is a great general-purpose legal practice management system. Migrawise is purpose-built for Canadian immigration. The choice depends on what your practice actually does.
Clio is the dominant legal practice management platform in Canada, with strong adoption across litigation, family law, real estate, and corporate firms. It's a mature, well-engineered product. Many immigration lawyers use it.
So why would an immigration practice consider Migrawise instead? Because Clio is built around the assumptions of general legal practice — billable hours, court dockets, conflict checks, trust accounting — and immigration practice has a different shape. Forms instead of dockets. IRCC processing times instead of court dates. CRS scores instead of damages.
Feature-by-feature
| Feature | Migrawise | Clio |
|---|---|---|
|
Designed around immigration-specific case sub-types
Migrawise has 35+ pre-built case sub-types (Express Entry, Super Visa, PNP, LMIA, etc.) with the right questionnaires, document checklists, and form mappings per sub-type. |
✓ | — |
|
IRCC portal autofill (Chrome extension)
Clio doesn't fill IRCC portal forms. Practitioners copy-paste from Clio into the IRCC portal manually. |
✓ | — |
|
AI that knows your firm + the IRCC catalogue
Clio has Clio Duo, a general legal AI assistant. Migrawise's AI uses your firm's tone and templates, the IRCC catalogue, and the case in front of you — every time it writes for you. |
✓ | ◑ |
| Built-in IRCC form library + auto-suggest by case type | ✓ | — |
| CRS / FSW calculators | ✓ | — |
|
Trust accounting (PCLAS-grade)
Clio is genuinely strong here. If trust accounting is a hard requirement, Clio (or QuickBooks + manual reconciliation) is the better fit. Many Canadian immigration firms run Clio for trust accounting and a separate tool for case workflow — that's a valid pattern. |
— | ✓ |
|
Time tracking + billable hours
Migrawise has time entries; Clio has the more developed billable-hours toolkit. |
◑ | ✓ |
|
Court calendar / docket management
Migrawise is for immigration practice — no court docket layer. Clio has this. |
— | ✓ |
|
Conflict checks
Migrawise has contact-based conflict search. Clio has the formal conflict-check workflow. |
◑ | ✓ |
| Client portal for document collection + eSign | ✓ | ✓ |
|
Canadian data residency
Clio offers Canadian-region hosting on enterprise plans. Migrawise hosts every customer in Canadian regions by default. |
✓ | ◑ |
|
Pricing for solo practitioner
Migrawise: $3 to open each case + pay-as-you-go for AI, in CAD. Most cases run $3–$10 total. Quiet months cost $0. Clio prices in USD with FX on top — the gap widens for Canadian firms. |
Pay per case | $99-149 USD/mo |
Legend: ✓ Yes · ◑ Partial · — No · ? Couldn\'t verify.
Pricing
Migrawise: pay-per-case in CAD — $3 to open each file, then pay-as-you-go for AI. No subscription, no per-seat. Clio: tiered USD subscriptions — Essentials $99 USD, Suite $149 USD, with add-ons for Clio Grow, Clio Manage, etc. See Migrawise pricing →
Pick Clio if…
You need formal trust accounting, your practice mixes immigration with other practice areas, you have court dockets to manage, or your firm is already deep in the Clio ecosystem.
Pick Migrawise if…
Your practice is 80%+ immigration. You want IRCC portal autofill, AI letter drafting grounded in case data, and a system that knows what an LMIA or PNP file actually requires without you teaching it.
Switching from Clio
- Many firms run both: Clio for trust accounting, Migrawise for case workflow + AI. The two integrate via shared client records.
- If you're moving away from Clio entirely, we have CSV exporters for matters, contacts, documents, and time entries.
- If you're on Clio for trust accounting only, you can keep that and use Migrawise as the immigration-side workflow layer.
Try Migrawise for your next 5 files.
Pay only for the cases you actually work on — $3 to open each case, then pay-as-you-go for AI, no subscription. Currently invitation-only — request access below.
Request access →