Aderant Expert Sierra vs RelativityOne
Aderant Expert Sierra
aderant.com
RelativityOne
relativity.comSide by side
| Figure | Aderant Expert Sierra | RelativityOne |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Legal Tech Software | 8.3 (#5) | 7.9 (#10) |
| Headquarters | Atlanta, Georgia, United States | Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Integrations | Aderant says Sierra integrates with Microsoft products and most document-management, financial and other legal applications. | Relativity exposes an App Hub and partner ecosystem, and supports Microsoft Purview integration. |
| Licence | Aderant’s public product materials describe Expert Sierra as hosted SaaS and do not publish an open-source licence. | Relativity software is proprietary, distributed under written licence agreements with restrictions on copying, modification, reverse engineering and derivative products. |
| Limit: performance and usability | Reported problems include occasional slowness, browser lockups, dual-screen quirks, duplicate creation and difficult backend configuration. | Independent reviews mention slow loading, inconsistent performance, dated screens, multi-step workflows and occasional bugs or conversion errors. |
| Purpose | Expert Sierra is a practice and financial management system for law firms. | RelativityOne supports legal work including litigation, investigations, and other legal data challenges. |
| Rating on Apple App Store | 3.0 out of 5 from 6 ratings | 3.3 out of 5 from 29 ratings |
| Rating on G2 | 4.5 out of 5 from 1 review | 4.5 out of 5 from 656 reviews |
| Rating on GetApp | 4.3 out of 5 from 10 reviews | 4.2 out of 5 from 57 reviews |
| Security | Aderant reports proactive monitoring, extensive auditing and SOC 2 Type 2 compliance for Expert Sierra. | Relativity says Security Center, a monitoring application, is included with RelativityOne. |
| Self-hosting | Aderant’s comparison presents Expert Sierra as including managed infrastructure, patching, backups, disaster recovery and monitoring, unlike self-hosted Expert responsibilities. | RelativityOne is maintained and scaled by Relativity as a cloud service; infrastructure management is not customer-managed as it is in Server. |
| Support | The FAQ directs customers to Aderant’s myAderant support portal and regional support centers. | Relativity describes its support as available 24/7/365 with human assistance. |
| What it does | Expert Sierra is Aderant’s cloud practice-management and financial-management system for law firms. | RelativityOne is a cloud eDiscovery platform for collecting, processing, reviewing, analyzing and producing data in litigation, investigations and regulatory matters. |
Plans
RelativityOne
- Relativity aiR subscriptionPriced on request
- RelativityOnePriced on request
In their own words
Aderant Expert Sierra
Aderant Expert Sierra is a practice and financial management system for law firms, covering matter work, billing, trust management, and time and expense capture. Practice tools include conflict checks, file opening, client and matter management, work in progress, collections, reporting, and analytics. Billing features include paperless pre-billing, Alternative Fee Arrangement management, invoice flexibility, and billing compliance management. Lawyers can enter and track time on any device; expense claims can use configurable routing and approval workflows. Sierra can integrate with CRM, document management, and HR systems, and Aderant says existing customizations and integrations can be retained during migration. A First AML connection supports checks within the practice workflow and records verification outcomes for reporting and audit. Built on the Stridyn cloud platform, the product offers MADDI AI capabilities, including natural-language queries and AI-powered automation. Aderant describes proactive monitoring, extensive auditing, SOC 2 Type 2 compliance, and AWS hosting. The service is presented as remote and mobile-friendly, with global support coverage and optional elevated technical support. It runs on Android, iOS, and web. Pricing is not published; firms are asked to request a demo.
RelativityOne
RelativityOne is a vendor-cloud platform for legal work, including litigation, investigations, and other legal data challenges. It supports e-discovery from collection through production and review of emails, spreadsheets, chats, prompt-and-response conversations, and PDFs. Review tools include a native file viewer, email threading, and automated redaction; production options include TIFF, text, metadata, load files, and native files with placeholders. Administrators can manage permissions for users, system administrators, workspaces, and specific objects such as views, tabs, and fields. Security Center is included. Relativity says several AI capabilities are included with committed data volume, without separate AI licenses or per-user fees; other products, including Data Breach Response, Translate, FOIA, and Legal Hold, are licensed separately. Licensing is flexible: pay as you go or commit for one or three years, with pricing on request. The platform lists API, iOS, macOS, web, and Windows access, and customers can choose data location in 17 countries. Linux-based devices and mobile browsers are unsupported; mobile-device use requires the mobile app.