Clio is a polished practice-management platform for general law firms — but it has no migration-specific functionality. It can't auto-fill ImmiAccount, has no visa questionnaires, no points test, and no OMARA tooling. LodgeHQ does, and it's $99/mo per agent with unlimited admin & support staff included free — no per-seat charge for your support team (competitors bill for every seat).
No credit card. No setup fees. No per-seat charge for your support team.
Both handle the practice-management basics. Only one is built for the actual work of lodging visas.
Clio
LodgeHQ
Total savings
One agent + 2 support staff saves ~$2,700+/year
Clio's Essentials tier bills every seat — at ~$109/user/mo × 3 people ≈ $327/mo — including your admin staff. LodgeHQ is $99/mo for one agent, with admin & support staff included free. Approximate — based on Clio's published AU pricing.
An honest, line-by-line look at what each platform includes in its base subscription.
| Feature | LodgeHQ | Clio |
|---|---|---|
| Starting monthly price | $99/agent | From $109/user |
| Support staff included (no per-seat) | ||
| Built specifically for migration agents | ||
| ImmiAccount auto-fill (Chrome extension) | ||
| Smart visa questionnaires by subclass | ||
| DHA form auto-fill (956, 80, 1221 and more) | ||
| Points test calculator | ||
| Occupation search & visa pathway tools | ||
| AI document review & extraction | ||
| AI eligibility & refusal-risk analysis | ||
| OMARA compliance tools (file notes, CPD, consumer guide) | ||
| Passport scan auto-populate | ||
| Client self-serve portal | ||
| Trust accounting | ||
| Time tracking & billing | ||
| Built-in e-signatures | Add-on | |
| CRM & lead pipeline | Higher tier | |
| Document management | ||
| Online payments | ||
| Calendar sync & booking page |
Clio is an excellent generalist legal platform; this comparison is strictly about migration-specific capability. Feature availability compiled from Clio's public website and documentation — if anything has changed, please let us know and we'll correct it.
Three reasons we hear most often from migration agents who make the move.
Not chatbot gimmicks — real tools that cut hours off every file.
Our Chrome extension — live on the Chrome Web Store — pulls client data straight from LodgeHQ and types it into every ImmiAccount field, across every page, every subclass.
No surprises on your next invoice. $99/mo buys the whole platform.
LodgeHQ was built by Awais Nisar, a practising Registered Migration Agent (MARN 2318017), for his own practice — which is why it fits Australian visa workflows so tightly.
A practical, honest migration path. It's not one-click, but it's straightforward.
Use Clio's built-in export to pull clients, matters, and contacts to CSV / Excel. Bulk-download any documents you want to bring across.
LodgeHQ accepts CSV imports for clients, contacts, and matters. Map the fields once, preview, and import. Documents are uploaded per matter — you can bulk-drag folders in.
Start lodging new matters in LodgeHQ while keeping Clio read-only for your in-flight files. Most practices are operating entirely on LodgeHQ within 5–10 days.
Once every active matter is live in LodgeHQ, cancel your old subscription and bank the savings. We're happy to help with the transition — email support@lodgehq.com.au.
We won't pretend this is a one-click migration. It does involve some structured data entry, but most practices complete it in under a week.
Clio is a generalist legal practice-management platform — it manages matters, time, billing and documents for any practice area. It does not include migration-specific tooling: there's no ImmiAccount auto-fill, no visa-specific questionnaires, no DHA form generation, no points test and no occupation search. Most migration firms on Clio end up supplementing it with manual ImmiAccount data entry and spreadsheets. LodgeHQ is built specifically for that work.
For most firms, almost always. Clio is priced per user per month and bills every seat — including your admin and support staff — so the bill grows with your team. LodgeHQ is $99/mo (AUD + GST) per registered migration agent, with unlimited admin & support staff included free — so a one-agent practice with several support staff pays $99 while a per-seat tool bills every person. Each additional registered agent is $99/mo.
Yes. LodgeHQ includes a full trust account ledger with receipts, disbursements, transfers and reconciliation, plus audit-ready trust statements. Invoices can draw from trust.
Yes. Clio lets you export clients, contacts and matters to CSV / Excel, and LodgeHQ imports CSV for all three. Documents can be bulk-downloaded from Clio and uploaded to the relevant matters. Our support team can help with the import.
LodgeHQ is purpose-built for MARA-registered agents. It includes conflict-of-interest detection, consumer guide tracking, file note generation, CPD logging, trust accounting and a full audit trail, designed to help you stay organised and audit-ready under the Code of Conduct.
Start your 14-day free trial of LodgeHQ. Full access to every feature. No credit card. Import your Cliodata when you're ready.
Start your 14-day free trialNo credit card. No setup fees. Set up in 30 seconds.