Common Paper vs SpotDraft: the honest comparison
The short answer
Edition v2026.Q3 · pricing and status verified 2026-08-06.
Choose Common Paper for startups that want NDAs, Cloud Service Agreements, and DPAs closed in hours on open-source-style standard terms — before hiring anyone with a bar card. Choose SpotDraft for the first-legal-hire moment: an end-to-end AI CLM (draft → negotiate → sign → renew) that a one-person legal team can actually run.
On the elems table, Common Paper holds seat #1 of the Legal element and SpotDraft holds #2 — this is the closest call in the category, and the honest answer depends on which trade-off you can live with.
The case for each
1Common PaperCommon Paper (YC, Uncork, boldstart)
Free (2 agreements/mo) · Startup $50/user/mo · Growth $100/user/mo · Gerri AI agent free (3 agmts) → $500/mo · Enterprise customBest for Startups that want NDAs, Cloud Service Agreements, and DPAs closed in hours on open-source-style standard terms — before hiring anyone with a bar card.
Watch Built for SaaS sales paper; it is not a repository for employment, IP, or financing documents. Per-user pricing plus a separate Gerri subscription adds up. Adoption stats are vendor-reported with no independent audit.
2SpotDraftSpotDraft (Draftspotting Technologies)
Quote-based — priced per user or per contract volume; implementation, template setup, and legacy migration includedBest for The first-legal-hire moment: an end-to-end AI CLM (draft → negotiate → sign → renew) that a one-person legal team can actually run.
Watch No public pricing — you are negotiating a quote with a company that sells negotiation software. Overkill before you have real contract volume; the 15x VerifAI figure is a vendor claim with no independent benchmark behind it.
Common Paper vs SpotDraft: side by side
Edition v2026.Q3 · verified 2026-08-06.
| Common Paper | SpotDraft | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $0 | Quote |
| Free tier | Yes (2 agmts/mo) | No |
| AI review / redlining | Gerri agent (playbooks, counterproposals) | VerifAI + AI workflows |
| Standard templates | Yes — CC BY 4.0 standards | Configured for you |
| Full CLM + e-sign | Yes (SaaS paper) | Yes (end-to-end) |
| Lives in Word | No (web) | Yes (VerifAI) |
| Best stage | Pre-seed → Series B | First legal hire → growth |
What each side won't tell you
Common Paper: Built for SaaS sales paper; it is not a repository for employment, IP, or financing documents. Per-user pricing plus a separate Gerri subscription adds up. Adoption stats are vendor-reported with no independent audit.
SpotDraft: No public pricing — you are negotiating a quote with a company that sells negotiation software. Overkill before you have real contract volume; the 15x VerifAI figure is a vendor claim with no independent benchmark behind it.
If it's neither
The rest of the top five: Spellbook (ai lawyer in word) · Termly (policies and consent, cheap) · Ironclad (the clm heavyweight). The complete field — 18 more tools including the graveyard — is on the element page.
This analysis is drawn from the Legal element dossier — the ranked top 5, the comparison matrix, and the complete field of 18 more tools live there, with every source. Data: lg.json (CC BY 4.0).
Every claim above is dated and sourced from the elems dossiers — 1,421 tools tracked across 58 categories, verified 2026-08-06, including the 276 we found dead, renamed, acquired, or sunsetting. Rankings are editorial, never paid — the charter.
Build your stack in 5 questions →