Web Design
Law firm website design
$3,500 flat, 21 days, WordPress you own. The build at the center of this comparison.
Compare · FirmForte vs Scorpion
FirmForte vs Scorpion: when you leave, who keeps your website?
That one question sorts most of this decision. Scorpion is the big, managed, all-in-one machine: a proprietary platform, a quote you get after a sales call, and a relationship most firms describe as hard to walk away from. FirmForte is the flat-priced opposite, built for solo and small firms. $3,500 to launch, $1,750 a month if you want ongoing work, cancel after month three, and the WordPress site, the domain, and the code are yours from day one. Both can grow a firm. They just disagree about who should be holding the keys.
The short version
Two real tools. Different firms, different bets.
Neither one is a scam and neither one is magic. Scorpion is a genuine market leader with serious technology and a sales-and-account machine to match. FirmForte is a small, deliberately lean shop that publishes its prices and builds on software you already own. The honest split is below. If you read nothing else, read this.
Pick FirmForte if
- You're a solo or small firm and want a posted price, not a discovery call to find out what it costs.
- You want the site on WordPress, exportable, with the domain in your own registrar.
- You want to be cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews, with that work baked in at launch.
- You want a fixed 21-day build and the freedom to cancel a retainer after three months.
Scorpion fits if
- You're a larger or multi-location firm with a five-figure monthly budget and real ad spend behind it.
- You'd rather hand the whole machine to one vendor than keep any of it in-house.
- You're fine trading ownership and exportability for a managed, done-for-you platform.
- You want a big account team, a CRM, intake tooling, and paid media run under one roof.
Side by side
Same goal, more clients. Opposite arrangement.
Illustrative. The left is the legacy-agency model Scorpion represents: a proprietary platform, a price you only see after a call, a longer commitment, and the keys staying with the agency. The right is how FirmForte ships. Look at who controls what.
Proprietary platform · price quoted after a sales call
- Built on the agency's own software, not a portable CMS
- Pricing isn't published; you get a number after discovery
- Commitments commonly reported at twelve months or longer
- The platform, and often the site, stays with the agency
WordPress you export · $3,500 flat, posted on the site
- WordPress with your editor of choice, fully exportable
- Four tiers with prices on the page, same for everyone
- Retainers cancel after month three, no annual lock-in
- Domain, code, and accounts are yours from day one
A fair caveat: Scorpion's exact terms vary by contract and change over time, and the figures here come from published third-party reviews and firm reports, not a Scorpion price sheet (they don't publish one). Always check your own agreement. The structural difference, proprietary-and-managed versus portable-and-owned, is the part that holds steady.
Line by line
The comparison, without the spin.
Where a number isn't published, it's marked as reported rather than stated as fact. FirmForte's column is just what's on the pricing page.
| Feature | FirmForte | Scorpion |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $3,500 one-time to launch | Not published; reported managed engagements run into the thousands per month, plus ad spend |
| Pricing transparency | Four tiers posted on the site, same numbers for everyone | Quoted after a discovery call; no public price list |
| Ongoing commitment | Month-to-month retainers, cancel after month 3 | Commonly reported as twelve months or longer |
| Platform | WordPress, your choice of Divi, Elementor, or the block editor | Scorpion's own proprietary platform |
| Who owns the site | You. Code exportable, domain in your registrar, accounts in your name | Built on their platform; widely reported as difficult to take with you |
| Build timeline | 21 days, fixed, same schedule every client | Varies by scope and queue |
| AEO (cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews) | FAQ + LegalService schema and answer-first content on every page, by default | Not a published, named part of the core offering |
| Paid ads & CRM under one roof | Paid search and LSA management on the Multi-Attorney tier; no proprietary CRM | Yes. Full-service media, intake tooling, and CRM are a core strength |
| Built for | Solo and small firms in the US, UK, and Canada | Firms with larger budgets that want one vendor to run everything |
The honest part
Where Scorpion is the better call.
A comparison page that only flatters the home team isn't worth reading. Scorpion is big for reasons, and there are firms it serves better than we would. If you're one of them, we'd rather say so than win a client who'll be unhappy in six months.
01
You want one vendor running everything
Website, SEO, paid search, social, intake, CRM, reporting, all under one account team. Scorpion is built for exactly that. FirmForte is a focused shop. We do the site, the AEO, the SEO, and the local work well, and we don't pretend to be a full media agency with a 24/7 call center bolted on.
02
You're spending heavily on ads
If your plan leans on five-figure monthly PPC and LSA budgets in a brutal market like personal injury, you want a serious media team managing it daily. That's Scorpion's wheelhouse. We manage paid search and LSAs on the Multi-Attorney tier, but a firm built around aggressive paid acquisition will outgrow what we offer.
03
You'd genuinely rather not own any of it
Some firms don't want the domain, the logins, or the responsibility. They want to write a check and have it handled. That's a legitimate preference. We built FirmForte for the opposite firm, the one that got burned by lock-in once and never wants to be there again. If ownership isn't a value you hold, our biggest advantage doesn't matter to you.
04
You're a large multi-location operation
Dozens of attorneys, several offices, complex intake routing. At that scale, an enterprise platform with deep tooling can earn its cost. Our Multi-Attorney tier handles 3-plus attorneys and multiple locations, but a 40-lawyer firm with a marketing director is squarely Scorpion's customer, not ours.
Leaving either one
The exit test. Run it before you sign anything.
The cleanest way to compare two web vendors is to ask what happens the day you want to leave. Run this test on us, on Scorpion, on whoever you're talking to.
01
Leaving FirmForte
You point the domain wherever you want (it was always in your registrar), export the WordPress site, and hand it to any developer on earth, because WordPress runs a huge share of the web and every host supports it. There's no migration project. The thing you paid for is already a thing you can pick up and carry.
02
Leaving a proprietary platform
When a site lives on an agency's own software, "taking it with you" often means rebuilding it somewhere else, because the underlying system doesn't travel. This is the single most common regret in legal-marketing reviews, and it's the exact trap FirmForte is built to avoid. Before you sign with anyone, get the answer in writing: if I leave, do I keep a working, exportable website?
03
Moving from Scorpion to FirmForte
Doable, with eyes open. We rebuild the site fresh on WordPress (no proprietary export to fight with), carry over your content and rankings carefully, and set up redirects so you don't lose the search equity you've built. Wait until your current term is up to avoid early-termination fees, and start the build in the final month so launch lines up with your exit.
04
The whole point
FirmForte's pitch isn't "we're cheaper," though for a solo or small firm we usually are. It's that you never have to take this exit test and flinch. Posted price, WordPress you own, cancel after month three. The upper hand stays on your side of the table.
Want the numbers side by side with our other tiers? The full FirmForte lineup (Audit + Fix, Launch, Launch + Grow, Multi-Attorney) is on the pricing page, and the build itself is detailed on web design.
Common questions
FirmForte vs Scorpion, answered plainly.
If your question isn't here, drop it in the audit form below. We answer everything within a business day.
For most solo and small firms, yes. FirmForte was built specifically for the underserved end of the profession that large platforms tend to skip or overcharge. You get published flat pricing ($3,500 to launch, $1,750 a month for ongoing work, cancel after month three), a WordPress site you fully own and can export, a fixed 21-day build, and AEO architecture on every page. Scorpion is a strong choice for larger firms with five-figure monthly budgets that want one vendor running website, paid media, intake, and CRM together. It tends to be a heavier and more expensive arrangement than a small firm needs.
Scorpion builds on its own proprietary platform, and third-party reviews and former-client reports commonly describe the site as difficult to take elsewhere when the relationship ends. In practice that often means rebuilding on a new platform rather than exporting what you had. Terms vary by contract and can change, so confirm the specifics in your own agreement. FirmForte takes the opposite approach by design: the site is WordPress, fully exportable, the domain stays in your registrar, and every account is in your name. Leaving doesn't require a rebuild.
Scorpion doesn't publish prices. You get a quote after a discovery call, and third-party reviews and firm reports put a typical managed engagement somewhere in the thousands of dollars per month, with paid advertising spend on top of that. FirmForte posts its prices: $3,500 one-time to launch, an optional $1,750-a-month retainer for ongoing SEO and AEO work, and a $7,500 build plus $3,500 a month for multi-attorney or multi-location firms. The featured $1,750 monthly tier is roughly half the legal-industry median retainer.
Reviews and former clients commonly describe commitments of twelve months or longer, sometimes with early-termination penalties. Specifics vary by agreement, so read yours closely before signing. FirmForte's retainers are month-to-month with a cancel-after-month-three minimum, and the website builds are one-time projects with no ongoing obligation attached.
No. Scorpion builds on its own proprietary platform. That's part of why the site can be hard to move when you leave. FirmForte builds on WordPress, which runs a large share of the web, and lets you choose Divi, Elementor, or the WordPress block editor at kickoff. Any WordPress developer anywhere can maintain the result, and you can edit it yourself between projects.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), getting cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google's AI Overviews, isn't a published, named part of Scorpion's core offering. FirmForte builds AEO architecture into every site by default: answer-first content plus FAQ and LegalService schema on every page, with monthly citation tracking across the major AI engines on the retainer tiers. A point of honesty we hold to across the site: the schema is hygiene and rich-result eligibility, not a magic trick. The content is what earns the citation.
When you want a single vendor to run everything (website, SEO, paid media, intake, CRM, reporting) and you have the budget for it; when your strategy leans heavily on five-figure monthly ad spend in a competitive market; when you're a large multi-location firm with a marketing director; or when you genuinely don't want to own or manage any of the stack. FirmForte is built for the solo and small firm that values a posted price and keeping control of its own website.
Yes, with planning. Because Scorpion's platform is proprietary, we rebuild fresh on WordPress rather than exporting the old site directly, carry your content and rankings over carefully, and set up redirects so you keep the search equity you've earned. The practical advice: wait until your current term ends to avoid early-termination fees, and start the FirmForte build in your final month so the new site is ready to launch the day your old contract closes.
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