Can I Try eDiscovery For Free? [No Credit Card, No Sales Calls]

02 February 2021 by Anith ediscovery pricing

Takeaway: There’s a lot to consider when choosing and buying eDiscovery software. But if you’re working with smaller in-house cases or just want to explore next-gen eDiscovery software, here’s a shortcut. GoldFynch (a powerful-but-affordable eDiscovery application) lets you upload, review, and produce 512 MB of data for free! And if you want/need to, you can upgrade to larger cases for a fraction of the cost of most other eDiscovery applications.

eDiscovery is slowly becoming a way of life for even smaller law firms. But have you been put off by the exorbitant prices?

You might recognize the importance of eDiscovery, but how do you make peace with the high prices for most premium software? The problem is that many eDiscovery providers target larger law firms who need advanced features. But these are features you won’t need. (Things like ‘predictive coding’ to help sort through hundreds of GB of data). So, why pay hundreds or thousands of dollars more for software that isn’t designed for smaller firms like yours? Especially if you’re unsure about eDiscovery and just want to explore.

You could try to get by without dedicated eDiscovery software but it’s so much harder.

Let’s look at an example to see why eDiscovery software is so valuable. Say you’re reviewing your case files. You’ll first want to see what you’ve got, so you start opening documents. You open Microsoft Word for the Word documents, Adobe Reader for the PDFs, and Outlook for the emails. And you keep switching between these 3 windows as you look at your files. Next, you’ll want to search your files for keywords. Say you’re searching for the ‘Anderson meeting.’ Well, you’ll first search your Word documents in their window. Then you’ll search the PDFs. And finally the emails. That’s three separate searches! And you’re switching back-and-forth between windows the whole time.

With specialized eDiscovery software, things are so much simpler.

  • To see what you’ve got, you’ll open your eDiscovery window. You can now open all files (Word, PDF, email, etc.) from that window. No back-and-forths.
  • To search your files, you use a single search bar. So, in one shot, you’ll pull up all ‘Anderson meeting’ Word documents, PDFs (scanned files included), and emails. And you’ll review them all from the same window. It’s that simple.

Learn more about why you need eDiscovery software.

So, you’ll definitely need eDiscovery software. But what can we do about the high prices? Well, you can choose a pricing scheme that makes eDiscovery more affordable.

The earliest form of eDiscovery pricing was a la carte pricing, where you pay for each step of eDiscovery. Here, your vendor charges piecemeal for each process in the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM). So, for example, you’d pay separately for data collection, processing, review, production, etc. But recently, many vendors have begun to offer a flat-rate pricing scheme. Here, your vendor will bundle their services and charge you a flat rate. So, instead of paying for each EDRM stage, you’ll pay for what you upload, what you store, or for each custodian that uses the software. This flat-rate pricing makes your eDiscovery bill much more predictable. (Learn more about eDiscovery pricing.)

But as a beginner, you don’t yet know which features or pricing system will work best for you. What you need is no-frills, no-investment software.

And this is possible when you subscribe to an eDiscovery ‘service’ instead of buying eDiscovery software. With the ‘Software as a Service’ (SaaS) business model, your software and data sit in the loose network of high-performance servers that we call the Cloud. Your eDiscovery provider runs the software for you, and you access it by logging in to their website. You’re outsourcing all the hassle of updates, security, and troubleshooting – which means you don’t have to commit to any particular software. There’s no upfront investment, and at any given time you’ve paid for just one month of service. So, you can walk away and lose next to nothing.

Our software ‘GoldFynch’ goes a step further. We offer a free ‘starter’ case for you to explore eDiscovery.

You’ll get 512 MB of storage space to upload files and practise using all the latest eDiscovery tools. You won’t need to enter any credit card details, won’t have to take annoying sales calls to negotiate pricing, and you aren’t obliged to subscribe. We know how frustrating it is to try out different eDiscovery applications when vendors unnecessarily complicate the pricing scheme and sign-up process. That’s why we’ve designed a smooth and simple user experience, especially useful for beginners.

And here’s a bonus: GoldFynch lets you seamlessly upgrade to larger cases with more features, if and when you need it.

These are some reasons our trial customers decided to upgrade to paid cases:

  • It costs just $27 a month for a 3 GB case: That’s significantly less than most comparable software. With GoldFynch, you know what you’re paying for exactly – its pricing is simple and readily available on the website.
  • It’s easy to budget for. GoldFynch charges only for storage (processing is free). So, choose from a range of plans (3 GB to 150+ GB) and know up front how much you’ll be paying. It takes just a few clicks to move from one plan to another, and billing is prorated – so you’ll pay only for the time you spend on any given plan. With legacy software, pricing is much less predictable.
  • It’s simple to use. Many eDiscovery applications take hours to master. GoldFynch takes minutes. It handles a lot of complex processing in the background, but what you see is minimal and intuitive. Just drag-and-drop your files into GoldFynch and you’re good to go. Plus, it’s designed, developed, and run by the same team. So you get prompt and reliable tech support.
  • It keeps you flexible. To build a defensible case, you need to be able to add and delete files freely. Many applications charge to process each file you upload, so you’ll be reluctant to let your case organically shrink and grow. And this stifles you. With GoldFynch, you get unlimited processing for free. So, on a 3 GB plan, you could add and delete 5 GB of data at no extra cost – as long as there’s only 3 GB in your case at any point. And if you do cross 3 GB, your plan upgrades automatically and you’ll be charged for only the time spent on each plan. That’s the beauty of prorated pricing.
  • Access it from anywhere. And 24/7. All your files are backed up and secure in the Cloud.

Want to learn more about GoldFynch?