Clausely vs Spellbook: Which AI Contract Review Tool Is Right for You?

Clausely and Spellbook both use AI to review contracts. But they are built around completely different assumptions about who you are and how you work.

Spellbook assumes you are a lawyer or in-house counsel who lives in Microsoft Word. Clausely assumes you are a person who received a contract and needs to understand it before signing.

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The Short Answer

Choose Clausely if you are an individual, freelancer, employee, or small business owner who needs to understand a contract quickly. Works in your browser, no Word required, first analysis free with no account.

Choose Spellbook if you are a lawyer, law firm, or in-house legal team that reviews and redlines contracts daily inside Microsoft Word and needs a professional-grade AI drafting and review suite.

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Side-by-Side Comparison

| Feature | Clausely | Spellbook | |---|---|---| | Pricing | Free to start. Pro $12.99/mo | Custom per-user pricing | | Built for | Individuals, freelancers, small businesses | Lawyers, law firms, in-house legal teams | | Where it works | Browser — any device, no install | Microsoft Word (Add-in required) | | Upload & review | PDF, Word, JPG, PNG, WEBP | Word documents (in Word) | | Risk score | 1–10 with color coding | Risk flags + suggested redlines | | Red flags | Exact clause quoted + explanation | Yes + inline redlines in Word | | Plain-English explanations | Yes | Yes | | Contract drafting | No | Yes | | Word redlining | No | Yes — core feature | | Market benchmarks | No | Yes (2,000+ standards) | | Multi-document agent | No | Yes (Associate) | | Custom playbooks | No | Yes | | Chat with contract | Yes (Pro) | Yes (Ask feature) | | Jurisdiction awareness | Yes (Pro) | Yes | | Free contract templates | Yes — NDA, lease, employment, freelance, and more | No | | No account for first use | Yes | No (business email required) | | Free trial | Yes — first analysis free | 7-day trial (legal professionals only) | | Mobile friendly | Yes | No (Word Add-in is desktop only) | | Data used for training | Never | Never | | Setup | Zero — runs in browser | Word Add-in install required |

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Pricing Breakdown

Clausely is $12.99/month or $99/year for unlimited analyses, contract chat, and full history.

Spellbook does not publish pricing publicly. It is custom per-user and requires a demo call. Based on their positioning — 4,000 legal teams including enterprise clients like eBay, Nestlé, and Crocs — the pricing is built for professional legal budgets.

The 7-day free trial requires a business email and asks if you are a legal professional. If you answer no, Spellbook will tell you it is not the right tool for you.

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What Clausely Does Better

No Word required. Clausely runs entirely in your browser. You can upload a PDF from your phone, analyze a contract you received by email, and get results on any device — Mac, Windows, iOS, Android. Spellbook is a Word Add-in. If you do not have Microsoft Word, you cannot use Spellbook.

Zero setup. Upload and go. No add-in to install, no account required for the first analysis, no demo call, no business email requirement. Spellbook has a 7-day trial but it requires signup, business email, and professional verification.

Price. $12.99/month versus custom enterprise pricing. For anyone who is not a full-time legal professional, this comparison is straightforward.

Mobile. Take a photo of a printed contract with your phone and get a full analysis. Spellbook is a desktop Word Add-in — mobile is not part of its design.

Privacy. Clausely processes your contract in memory and immediately discards it after analysis. Nothing is ever stored. Spellbook has strong security (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR) and zero data retention agreements, but your documents pass through their systems as part of the workflow.

Free contract templates. Clausely includes a free library of downloadable contract templates — NDA, freelance service agreement, employment offer letter, residential lease, non-compete agreement, independent contractor agreement, partnership agreement, SaaS terms of service, and more. Every template includes key clauses explained in plain English. Spellbook does not offer public templates — it is a drafting tool for lawyers, not a template library for individuals.

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What Spellbook Does Better

Word-native redlining. Spellbook's core strength is reviewing and redlining contracts directly inside Microsoft Word with tracked changes, inline suggestions, and precise edits. If you negotiate contracts in Word daily, this is the right tool. Clausely does not offer Word redlining.

Contract drafting. Spellbook can draft contracts and clauses from scratch or from your precedents. You describe what you need, it writes the language. Clausely analyzes contracts — it does not draft them.

Market benchmarks. Spellbook compares your contract against 2,000+ market standards to show whether your terms are standard, above market, or below market. This is genuinely useful for lawyers negotiating deals. Clausely does not have benchmarks.

Associate — multi-document agent. Spellbook's Associate feature works across multiple documents in a single matter, executing multi-step legal tasks and returning structured outputs for attorney review. This is purpose-built for law firm workflows. Clausely analyzes one contract at a time.

Ask with citations. Spellbook's Ask feature gives answers to legal questions with citations, grounded in your documents and legal knowledge base. Clausely's chat feature lets you ask questions about your specific contract.

Depth for legal professionals. Spellbook is powered by GPT-5 and Claude and tuned specifically for commercial legal work. It is built for lawyers who review complex commercial contracts, M&A agreements, and enterprise deals. For that use case, Spellbook's depth is appropriate.

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Who Each Tool Is For

Clausely is the right choice if:

• You received a contract and need to understand it before signing
• You are a freelancer reviewing a client NDA or service agreement
• You are an employee reading an offer letter or non-compete clause
• You are a renter reviewing a lease
• You are a small business owner reviewing a vendor or supplier contract
• You do not have Microsoft Word or prefer not to install add-ins
• You want a free first look from any device, including your phone

Spellbook is the right choice if:

• You are a lawyer or in-house counsel who works in Word daily
• You need to redline contracts with tracked changes and inline suggestions
• You need to draft contracts and clauses from scratch
• You want to benchmark your contracts against market standards
• You are a law firm or legal operations team managing high contract volume
• You have a professional legal budget

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One More Thing Worth Noting

Spellbook's free trial requires you to confirm you are a legal professional. If you are not — a freelancer, a renter, an employee — Spellbook is not designed for you, and they will tell you that directly.

Clausely is designed for exactly that person. No legal background required. No Word required. No demo call required. Upload your contract, get your answer, decide whether to sign.

Start your first analysis free at clausely.app — no account, no download, results in under a minute.