Relex & Claude vs Harvey
Own your clients, your data and your firm.
Relex and Harvey both bring AI to legal work, and they make opposite bets. Harvey describes itself as domain-specific AI for legal and professional services, sold to large firms and in-house teams, running on a curated set of models it selects for you. Relex automates the work around the law, intake, drafting, signing and billing, and leaves the law itself to you. Your clients’ names never leave your browser, your know-how is never fed to a model, and you own the client. It makes you more of a lawyer, not less.
At a glance
| Dimension | Relex | Harvey |
|---|---|---|
| Where client data goes | Encrypted in your browser before anything leaves your device. The model only ever sees [Party 1]. | States that it does not use inputs, outputs or uploaded documents to train underlying models, requires zero data retention from model providers, and holds SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 audits. |
| Whose AI runs it | Bring your own Claude or Claude for Legal over MCP and OAuth. You own the reasoning. | Multi-model by design: an administrator picks from a curated selection of Anthropic, Google DeepMind and OpenAI models. Harvey does not publicly describe bringing your own model or agent. |
| Try it today | Sign up and run a real case in minutes. Free to try, no card. | Request a demo. No public pricing. |
| Who owns the client | Partner Network: own the client and keep 100%, at 0% commission. | No client referral marketplace is publicly described. |
| Case structure | A formal ontology of parties, issues, claims, statutes, and facts. | Assistant, Vault, Knowledge and Agents workflows. |
| Your know-how | A private per-tenant index the model searches. Never a copy it keeps or trains on. | Firm knowledge integrations inside the platform. |
| Getting started | In the browser in minutes, standalone or with your own Claude. | Demo request, sales process and onboarding. |
This comparison reflects each product’s own public positioning as of July 2026. Harvey is a trademark of its respective owner, and this page is an independent comparison.
The opposite bet
Harvey is the bet that legal AI is an enterprise purchase: a closed platform chosen by a committee, on models chosen for you, sold to the firm that already owns the client. Relex takes the opposite bet. Bring the Claude you already pay for. Keep every client identity off the model. Own the client, keep 100% of what they pay you, and start today in a browser.
Why the pairing wins
Harvey selects models on your behalf and exposes them through its own assistant. Relex does the reverse. It hands the reasoning to the Claude you already pay for, over MCP and OAuth, and gives it what a chat window never had: a formal case ontology, your private know-how, and a hard privacy boundary. Claude reads the matter, argues about it and drafts on it, while every real name stays sealed in your browser and the model sees only labels like [Party 1]. Relex runs standalone too. The pairing is what makes the most capable AI you can buy safe to point at a real client file.
Own the intake, own the client
A matter starts before anyone opens a document. Clients reach your practice by email, by WhatsApp or SMS message, or through a guest link you send them, and what they tell you becomes a structured case the agent picks up without making them repeat it. From there Relex runs intake, drafting, e-signature and invoicing in one workspace. Through the Partner Network you stay the merchant of record through Stripe, at a flat $99 per month and 0% commission on what your clients pay you. Relex never holds your client’s money, and never stands between you and your client.
Relex is a software platform. It is not a law firm, it does not replace lawyers, and it does not provide legal advice.
Questions people ask
Relex or Harvey for a small firm?
Relex. You can sign up and run a real matter today, with no demo and no procurement cycle. Harvey is sold through a sales process, publishes no pricing, and its own materials describe large law firms and in-house teams as its customers.
Can I use my own Claude subscription with either one?
With Relex, yes. Connect Claude Code, Claude desktop, or any MCP client over OAuth, with no key to paste. Harvey publicly describes an administrator-curated selection of Anthropic, Google DeepMind and OpenAI models, and does not publicly describe bringing your own model or agent.
What does the AI actually see about my clients in Relex?
Labels, not people. Names, national IDs and contact details are encrypted in your browser under a password only you hold, and documents are de-identified there before anything is sent. The AI works on [Party 1] and [Party 2]. If a connected agent asks the server for plaintext personal data, the request is refused and the agent is handed a deep link so you can do that step yourself.
Is Relex a Harvey replacement?
They solve different problems. Harvey positions itself as domain-specific AI for large legal and professional-services organisations. Relex is where an independent practice runs matters end to end, keeps its clients, and points its own Claude at the work. If you want the leverage without giving up the client relationship or the client’s privacy, that is the bet Relex makes.
More comparisons
Automate the work around the law. Stay the lawyer.
Own your clients, your data, and your firm. Start in the browser, or bring your own Claude in one step. No key to paste.