Clerky vs Common Paper
A side-by-side comparison of Clerky and Common Paper — two options for legal & compliance. Pricing, features, and honest pros and cons.
Category
Legal & Compliance
Legal & Compliance
Rating
4.7 / 5
4.4 / 5
Pricing
Pay per use
Free; paid plans
Best for
Ensuring portfolio and prospective companies have clean, standard paperwork
Portfolio companies speeding up sales contracts; funds standardizing NDAs
Key features
- Delaware incorporation with standard startup-grade documents
- SAFE and convertible note financing paperwork
- Board consents, equity grants, and hiring documents
- Attorney-built templates aligned with market standards
- Clean document records that survive later financing diligence
- Open-source standard agreements (NDA, CSA, DPA, pilot, design partner)
- Structured cover-page format separating business terms from legal boilerplate
- Send, negotiate, and e-sign contracts on platform
- Contract tracking and repository
- Standards maintained with a committee of technology lawyers
Pros
- Documents diligence-ready by default — fewer cleanup costs at Series A
- Trusted default across the YC and startup-lawyer ecosystem
- Far cheaper than bespoke counsel for standardized paperwork
- Standardization genuinely shortens negotiation cycles
- Free templates are high quality and widely accepted
- Cover-page structure makes terms legible to non-lawyers
Cons
- US/Delaware-centric; not for international structures
- Founder-facing — the fund's role is pointing companies to it, not using it directly
- Standards are strongest for B2B SaaS contracting, narrower elsewhere
- Counterparties unfamiliar with the format sometimes redline from scratch anyway