If you’ve ever had a lawyer ask for “all emails, chats, and documents about X”, you’ve already brushed up against eDiscovery. It’s the work of finding, reviewing, and sharing digital information for a legal matter, an investigation, or a regulatory request.

For years, eDiscovery felt like a big-company sport. Expensive platforms, specialist vendors, and invoices that arrived long after the deadline pressure had passed. But as we head into 2026 planning, more SMEs are asking a fair question: does eDiscovery have to be complicated and costly?

It doesn’t. Many teams can get defensible results with simpler tools and clearer pricing. Options like Logikcull (part of the Reveal family), Everlaw, Reveal products (including Onna and Reveal Enterprise), and Nebula have changed what “good enough” looks like for small and mid-sized legal and compliance teams.

Why eDiscovery feels expensive and confusing (and what actually drives the cost)

The confusing part isn’t the core task. It’s everything around it.

Most eDiscovery spend is driven by scale and process, not mystery technology. These are the usual cost drivers:

• Data volume creep: One custodian’s inbox becomes ten, then Teams and Slack join the party, plus shared drives and personal mobiles.
• Messy sources: Email is hard enough. Add chat threads, emojis, reactions, edits, and file links.
• Slow legal holds: If you can’t preserve quickly, you end up collecting more later (and paying twice).
• Manual review time: Human eyes are still the biggest cost line, especially when search and filtering are weak.
• Outside vendor fees: Processing, hosting, productions, and project management can pile up, even for “small” matters.
• Unclear pricing units: Some tools charge for storage, others for processing, others for exports, and some for all three.

When you see eDiscovery as a workflow, it gets less intimidating. You’re moving information from “where it lives” to “what matters” to “what we can share”.

The eDiscovery basics, in plain English

Most matters follow four steps:

1. Collect: Gather relevant data from custodians and systems (email, documents, chats, attachments, sometimes mobile data).
2. Process: Convert data into something searchable, remove duplicates, extract text from PDFs (OCR), and organise metadata.
3. Review: Search, filter, tag, and redact. Decide what’s relevant and what’s privileged.
4. Produce: Share data with the other side or a regulator in the required format, with an audit trail.

A quick SME example: an HR dispute lands, and you need communications between a manager and an employee across email plus Teams for a six-month window. The goal is not “collect everything”. It’s to collect enough, early, then narrow fast.

Hidden cost traps to avoid when buying a tool

Procurement goes smoother when you ask the awkward questions up front. Use this as a quick checklist:

• Per-seat surprises: “Unlimited users” is different from “unlimited reviewers” if guest access costs extra.
• Processed vs stored GB: Ask what you’re billed on, when the meter starts, and what counts as a gigabyte.
• Export and production add-ons: Some platforms charge for common outputs (load files, natives, TIFF/PDF sets).
• Long contracts for short problems: A 12-month commitment can sting if you only have two matters a year.
• Paying for mega-matter features: You might not need advanced workflows built for global litigation teams.
• Needing consultants for basic work: If a simple collection requires professional services, factor that in.

A practical tip: ask for a scoped estimate based on one real scenario (your typical matter size and deadline), not a generic brochure.

Democratising eDiscovery in 2026: simpler tools that deliver results fast

“Democratising” eDiscovery doesn’t mean lowering standards. It means more teams can do defensible work without building an enterprise project.

In practice, that often looks like:

• Cloud-based set-up, with faster time to first review
• Self-service workflows that don’t rely on IT for every step
• AI-assisted search and summaries (useful, but not magic)
• Predictable pricing options (per matter, per month, or capped usage)
• Connectors for modern sources (Microsoft 365, Teams, Slack, Google Workspace)

The immediate payoff is simple: quicker responses to requests, fewer missed deadlines, less panic purchasing, and better control of sensitive data.

What “easy” looks like in practice for a small legal or compliance team

A minimum viable workflow for SMEs is short and repeatable:

Upload or connect data, deduplicate, filter by date and custodian, run keyword plus concept searches, tag decisions, redact, then produce.

Modern platforms can cut out the “weeks of set-up” phase. That matters because most SMEs don’t have a full-time eDiscovery role. They have a legal manager, HR lead, compliance officer, or outside counsel trying to keep things moving.

AI features that matter (and the ones you can skip)

AI is useful when it saves time on the boring parts, without hiding the reasoning.

AI features that often earn their keep:

• Plain-language search that finds related terms and themes
• Email threading and near-duplicate detection
• Quick summaries for faster first-pass review
• Redaction suggestions (with human approval)

Features to treat with caution:

• Auto-classification that you can’t explain later
• “One-click relevance” decisions without transparent audit logs
• Using AI outputs as final truth, without sampling and quality checks

The rule for 2026 is simple: AI can help you find faster, but people still decide.

Alternatives to enterprise eDiscovery platforms: best fit options for SMEs

There’s no single “best” tool. The best fit depends on your data sources, matter frequency, deadlines, and how much review you do in-house.

Also, packaging changes often, so always request a scoped quote.

Logikcull: a simple, self-service path to eDiscovery

Logikcull is popular because it focuses on the essentials: upload, search, tag, redact, and export, without making you feel like you need a certification to start. It’s aimed at teams that want to move quickly and keep costs predictable, which you can see from the vendor’s own positioning on the Logikcull pricing page.

Who it’s for: SMEs handling employment matters, internal investigations, contract disputes, and repeatable requests where speed matters.

When it may not be enough: very large matters, highly customised workflows, or complex multi-region governance that needs deeper admin controls.

It’s also worth noting that Logikcull sits within the Reveal family of products, which gives some teams a path to “start simple, scale later”.

Reveal options (Onna, Logikcull, Reveal Enterprise): choosing the right level

Think of Reveal as a range:

• Onna is often positioned around collecting and managing modern collaboration data and sources, which can be the hardest part of eDiscovery. You can get a sense of how it’s packaged via Onna pricing plans.
• Logikcull covers end-to-end basics for many SME matters.
• Reveal Enterprise is geared for bigger portfolios and more complex review needs, with vendor-level breadth (see Reveal pricing for how they talk about packaging).

If you want context on how these pieces came together, this industry write-up on Reveal’s acquisition of Onna helps explain the “collection to review” direction of travel.

Everlaw and Nebula: strong alternatives depending on your needs

Everlaw is often chosen when teams care about collaborative review and presenting a clear case narrative.

Pick Everlaw if: you need strong review workflows, collaboration with outside counsel, and clear reporting for stakeholders.

Nebula is worth a look for lean teams that want an end-to-end platform with clear licensing language.

Pick Nebula if: you want a modern review experience and a licensing model that can suit a portfolio, not just a one-off matter.

How to pick the right eDiscovery tool without overbuying

The right tool is the one your team will actually use under pressure, with pricing you can explain to finance.

A quick fit checklist: data sources, security, speed, and pricing

Before demos, write down your non-negotiables:

• Your real data sources (Microsoft 365, Google, Teams, Slack, Box, Dropbox)
• Search and filtering quality (date, custodian, threads, near-duplicates)
• Redaction and production outputs you must deliver
• Audit logs and role-based access
• Security expectations (SOC 2-style controls, encryption, and clear access management)
• Support response times that match legal deadlines
• Pricing units you can track (processed, stored, per matter, per month)

A simple rollout plan for SMEs that need results this quarter

Keep it low-risk:

Pilot one likely matter type with a small dataset, agree standard tags and naming, build a basic hold and collection playbook, train 2 to 5 users, then measure outcomes.

Good success metrics are straightforward: time to first review, cost per matter, and reduced spend on outside vendors for basic processing and hosting.

Conclusion

eDiscovery in 2026 doesn’t have to be complex or expensive. For many SMEs, the fastest wins come from right-sizing: choosing a tool that matches your typical matter, your team, and your data sources.

Platforms like Logikcull, Everlaw, Reveal’s product range (including Onna and Reveal Enterprise), and Nebula give smaller teams real options without enterprise overhead. Map where your data lives, estimate your usual matter size, then trial one tool on a real workflow to prove value quickly.