Irys (formerly Iqidis) vs PerplexityA cited answer is not a verified authority.

You ask a question, it searches, and it returns a written answer with inline citations to the pages it read. For fast orientation on an unfamiliar subject, that is a genuinely good way to work, and it is why so many lawyers already have it open.

Its paid tiers add premium data sources and route questions across several frontier models rather than one, which makes it a strong general research companion.

It is a research assistant for the open web, not a legal platform. It does not hold your matter, and the citations it shows are the pages it quoted, not authorities it has checked.

Its individual plan is $17 per month billed annually, its top individual plan is $167 per month billed annually, and on the business side $34 per seat per month billed annually and $271 per seat per month billed annually. A further security and governance tier is quoted rather than listed.

Note what sits behind the enterprise price. Configurable file retention on enterprise plans; the retention controls are listed as contract required. The governance controls a firm would want are therefore contract terms to negotiate, not plan features to switch on.

Irys One is publicly listed at $299 per month, with no per-token or per-query overage on the advertised plan. Irys Teams is $329 per seat per month for 2 to 25 attorneys. There is a 7-day trial with no credit card.

On sticker price, Perplexity is cheaper, and nothing here pretends otherwise. The comparison that matters is what each subscription takes responsibility for when the work is billable.

For an unfamiliar industry, a counterparty, a regulator or a technical term, it is quicker than reading five pages yourself.

Citations by default. Every answer shows the sources it drew on, which is a far better habit than a chat window that asserts without showing anything.

Breadth of sources and models. Paid plans add premium business data sources and route questions across several frontier models. Its pricing page also lists 400+ app connectors on paid plans.

A real free tier and published enterprise terms, which makes it easy to try before anyone signs anything.

Its answers carry inline source citations, and no legal citator is stated on its own pages. A citation tells you where a sentence came from. A citator tells you whether the authority behind it is still good law, whether it has been reversed, distinguished or superseded. The second question is the one that ends careers when it goes unasked, and an answer engine does not claim to answer it.

Perplexity reads the open web. Case law behind a paywall, the court's own docket, and the firm's prior work on the same issue are not in its reach, and an answer that looks complete can be complete only over what it could see.

Check the security scope for yourself rather than taking the summary tier at its word. Its own security page states SOC 2 Type 2 certification and GDPR compliance, and it describes HIPAA-aligned safeguards, which is a different statement from a HIPAA certification. We found no ISO 27001 claim on its own pages as of the review date, which is a statement about their pages and not about their practice.

The next task picks up where the last one ended, rather than starting from a fresh question box.

Output is source-linked and Cite Check reviews the authorities behind it, so the answer carries not only where a statement came from but whether it still stands.

Research and drafting happen in the same matter workspace, and a Word add-in brings that work into the document where lawyers actually finish it. Built-in electronic signature covers execution without another subscription.

Workbench connects to applications such as Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, Sheets, Outlook, OneDrive and Slack, and can prepare documents and email drafts across them, with user approval rather than sending or changing anything on its own.

The infrastructure around the models is Irys's own: agentic orchestration, structured matter intelligence and evaluation infrastructure built to plan and carry multi-step legal work. In Irys's internal evaluations on published legal benchmark tasks (Irys internal testing, July 2026), the Irys system scored above leading frontier-model baselines on legal work. Methodology available on request.

The honest summary: Perplexity is excellent at finding out. Irys is built for producing the work product afterwards, and for standing behind it.

Take one real matter and run the same work through both tools, then answer these questions.

Choose Perplexity when the priority is fast, cited orientation across the open web at a low price. Choose Irys when the output has a client's name on it: matter context, verified authorities, drafting and finished files.

Except where a statement is expressly labeled as Irys internal testing, comparisons on this page are based on information published on each vendor's own website and reviewed October 13, 2026. Pricing, plans and features change. Confirm current terms with each vendor before you buy.