stella review
A free, open-source matter workspace with AI review, drafting, and self-hosting.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
stella is an open-source legal workspace built around matters. It brings documents, contacts, deadlines, research, chat, review tables, and drafting into matter-based workspaces. Legal teams can edit Word .docx files in a browser, restore earlier document versions, create reusable templates with fields and conditional clauses, and research case law and company registries. Its free core, self-hosting option, and AI capabilities make it particularly relevant to small firms that want control over their document environment.
The published model is freemium: the core workspace is free, while AI usage is charged according to consumption or can run through the user's own AI provider keys. AI features cover document analysis, tabular review with cited passages, and an agent that can work across matters, files, registries, and connected tools. This gives stella a distinctive review and research workflow rather than limiting AI to chat. Teams should account for provider or usage costs when planning ongoing AI work.
Deployment and ecosystem choices are broad in format but focused in connectivity. stella offers cloud, self-hosted, and desktop deployment, plus web and API access, a CLI, an MCP server, and a desktop bridge for Microsoft Word. Role-based access, audit trails, full-text search, OCR, and GDPR support are included in its stated capabilities. The hosted cloud is currently in beta, so organizations choosing it should weigh that status against the control of self-hosting. stella fits firms seeking an open-source matter-centered workspace; teams requiring a wider set of native integrations or a non-beta hosted service may need another system.
stella pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Matter workspaces organize documents, contacts, deadlines, and research
- Version history, restoration, templates, and .docx editing support drafting
- AI review tables provide cited source passages and reusable analysis
- Where it doesn't
- Hosted cloud is currently in beta
- AI usage is billed by usage or through your own provider keys
- Integrations focus on MCP clients, CLI, and connected external tools
stella fact sheet, pricing and score →
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