Comparing Family Law Calculator Tools in Canada

The landscape

If you are calculating child support or spousal support in Canada, you will encounter three categories of tools: the professional standard (DivorceMate), a growing number of consumer-focused calculators, and Amicably. Each takes a different approach to pricing, transparency, and user experience.

This comparison is based on publicly available information as of March 2026. We built Amicably, so we are transparent about our perspective. We have tried to be fair about where each category excels.

The tools

DivorceMate

DivorceMate is the 35-year incumbent in Canadian family law software, founded in 1987. It serves approximately 6,500 professional users and is used primarily by lawyers, mediators, legal aid organizations, and members of the judiciary. It was acquired by LEAP Legal Software in 2021.

Pricing: $75/user/month on a 36-month commitment (approximately $2,700 committed). Enterprise pricing available. Available to family law professionals only.

Strengths:

• Deep market trust built over three decades as the professional standard
• Comprehensive court form library (Ontario, BC, Alberta, and expanding)
• LEAP Legal Software integration for practice management
• Recently added LawY AI for legal research assistance (Ontario, BC, Alberta)
• Used by law societies and the Canadian judiciary

Limitations:

• 36-month lock-in is a significant commitment
• Designed exclusively for professionals, not available to consumers directly. Their sister product, MySupportCalculator.ca, offers a simplified consumer-facing calculator using the same engine, but with limited features
• Legacy desktop product was sunset December 2025, forcing migration to DivorceMate Cloud

Other consumer calculators

A growing number of consumer-facing tools offer family law calculations in Canada. These range from free calculators on law firm websites (designed as lead generation) to paid platforms with subscription pricing. Examples include DivorcePath, MySupportCalculator, and various law-firm-embedded calculators.

Pricing: Varies widely. Free tiers typically offer basic child support only. Paid consumer plans generally range from $19 to $60/month as subscriptions. Professional tiers run $75 to $100/user/month. Some law firm calculators are free but limited to a single province.

Strengths:

• Multiple options at different price points
• Some offer court form libraries and practice management integrations at professional tiers
• Broad SEO presence with province-specific landing pages makes them easy to find
• A few cover property division in addition to support calculations

Limitations:

• Subscription pricing for a one-time life event. A 2-3 month separation can cost $60 to $180 depending on the plan, and the charges continue until you remember to cancel
• Free tiers are typically very limited: basic child support only, simple employment income assumed, no spousal support
• No explain trees or transparent reasoning. Outputs are final numbers without showing how they were calculated
• No knowledge-grounded Q&A. Users cannot ask follow-up questions about their results
• Form-based input that requires understanding of legal terminology
• Quebec coverage is inconsistent. Quebec uses its own child support model, and many consumer tools either exclude it or only apply the Federal tables
• Tax integration is rare at the consumer tier. Most tools simplify or ignore tax implications entirely

Amicably

Amicably (that is us) launched in 2026 with a different approach: transparent calculations with one-time pricing.

Pricing: Free first calculation with full detail. Premium at $79 one-time. Documents at $199 one-time (coming soon). No subscriptions.

Strengths:

• Full explain trees showing every step of the calculation with citations to the law
• Knowledge-grounded Q&A: ask questions about your results and get answers traced to specific sections of the SSAG or Federal Child Support Guidelines
• Conversational interface: describe your situation in plain language, no legal jargon required
• All 13 provinces and territories covered for both child support and spousal support, including Quebec
• One-time pricing that matches the one-time nature of a separation

Limitations:

• No court form generation yet (coming soon as part of the Documents tier)
• No professional accounts or practice management integration yet
• Newer platform without the track record of established tools
• No client intake or firm branding features

Feature comparison

What matters most

The right tool depends on your situation:

If you are representing yourself, the key question is whether you need to understand your results or just see them. A number without context is hard to act on, especially when negotiating with an ex-partner or presenting to a court. Tools that show their work and let you ask follow-up questions give you more confidence in the output.

If you are a professional, the key questions are court form coverage and practice management integration. DivorceMate's form library and LEAP integration are genuinely strong, and some consumer platforms offer Clio integration at professional tiers. Amicably does not yet offer these features, though they are planned.

On pricing, the models are fundamentally different. Subscription pricing makes sense for professionals who use the tool regularly. For a consumer going through a single separation, one-time pricing avoids the risk of paying for months you do not use.