Gavel and ContractKit both show up on shortlists when an estate attorney wants something more modern and affordable than legacy document assembly. They are easy to lump together, but they solve genuinely different problems. Gavel is a no-code automation builder — a platform you configure to turn your own documents into guided workflows. ContractKit is AI-native drafting from a single-entry data model — you describe the plan and it produces the package. The right choice depends on whether you want to build your own automation or have drafts generated for you out of the box.
Gavel: a platform to build on
Gavel (from ~$83/month) is genuinely powerful. You take your existing documents, add variables and conditional logic, and produce guided workflows that generate documents from intake answers. For a firm that wants to engineer its own firm-specific automation — its own clauses, its own branching, its own client-facing intake — Gavel is built for exactly that. The cost is the build: you supply and maintain the templates and logic, and the quality of the output is the quality of what you configured. It is a workshop, not a finished product.
ContractKit: drafts out of the box
ContractKit takes the opposite stance. There is no workflow to build. You describe the estate plan in plain English — the couple, the children, the structure, the fiduciaries — and it generates the full package: revocable living trust, pour-over will, durable power of attorney, healthcare directive. The data lives in a single-entry data model, so it is entered once and reused across every document, and a change regenerates the package cleanly. The married-couple workflow is built in: one intake produces both spouses' mirrored documents. It is $49/month flat, with trust accounting, billing, conflict checks, and a client portal bundled.
Head to head
| Dimension | Gavel | ContractKit |
|---|---|---|
| Model | No-code workflow builder | AI drafting from a data model |
| Setup | You build the workflows | None — describe and draft |
| Templates | Yours to supply and maintain | Generated from your brief |
| Married couples | Configure it yourself | Built-in single-entry workflow |
| Practice tooling | Automation-focused | Trust accounting, billing, portal bundled |
| Price | ~$83/mo+ | $49/mo flat |
Which to choose
Choose Gavel if you want to build and own a custom automation — your clauses, your logic, your client-facing intake — and you have the time and inclination to configure and maintain it. Choose ContractKit if you want to draft estate packages today without building anything, you value the single-entry married-couple workflow, and you want trust accounting and the rest of your practice tooling in the same $49/month subscription. Both review-duty rules apply: whatever generates the draft, you finalize it. See the full ContractKit vs Gavel breakdown and best estate planning software for solos.
Frequently asked questions
What is the core difference between Gavel and ContractKit?
Gavel is a no-code automation builder: you turn your own documents into guided workflows, which means you supply and maintain the templates and logic. ContractKit is AI-native drafting from a single-entry data model: you describe the plan in plain English and it generates the package, with no workflow to build. Gavel gives you a platform to build on; ContractKit gives you drafts out of the box.
Which is faster to get started with for estate planning?
ContractKit, for most attorneys. Gavel’s power comes from configuring your own workflows, which takes setup time before you draft. ContractKit requires no build — describe the plan and review the draft. If you want to engineer a custom firm-specific automation, Gavel’s flexibility is the point; if you want to draft estate packages today, ContractKit is faster to value.
How do they compare on married-couple plans?
ContractKit has a built-in married-couple workflow: enter the couple once and generate both spouses’ mirrored documents from one data set, with clean regeneration on changes. In Gavel, the married-couple handling depends on how you build the workflow — the capability is yours to configure rather than provided out of the box.
What about price?
ContractKit is $49/month flat for a solo seat with trust accounting, billing, and a client portal bundled. Gavel starts around $83/month for its automation builder. Both are far below legacy assembly platforms, but they are different products — a builder vs a drafting tool with practice plumbing included.
Draft without building a workflow first
Try ContractKit free for 14 days — no credit card. Describe the plan, get the full package, review and finalize — $49/month flat.
Start free trial →