The two solutions meet different needs.
Swisslex is above all a legal library that provides access to legislation, case law and licensed legal doctrine. Silex is a legal assistant that answers questions on the basis of Swiss law and can also work on the documents in a case file.
The choice therefore depends mainly on your needs: consulting specialist doctrine, or analysing a question and the case documents.
Swisslex: a comprehensive legal library
Swisslex is a legal database that has been around since 1986. Among other things, it contains federal and cantonal decisions, specialist journals, commentaries and legal books.
Its main value lies in its licensed content, such as commentaries, journals and certain publishers’ books.
Some legislation and case law is available free of charge elsewhere, but specialist doctrine often requires a subscription.
Swisslex 6.0 and its AI features
Swisslex 6.0 adds artificial intelligence features to its legal database.
In particular, users can:
- ask questions in natural language;
- summarise documents;
- translate content;
- carry out multi-step searches.
The AI works primarily from the corpus available in Swisslex.
According to Swisslex, the model runs on servers located in Switzerland and does not rely on any external AI provider for these features.
Silex: a sourced answer based on Swiss law
Silex takes a different approach. It does not sell a library of publishers’ doctrine, but an assistant that can research, analyse and structure a legal answer.
Each answer can refer to the sources used, such as a law, a decision or a document in the case file.
Research can also be limited to a canton, a field of law or a type of source.
This approach makes it possible, for example, to distinguish a federal rule from a cantonal practice or to look for a precedent suited to a specific situation.
Silo: working with the firm’s documents
With Silo, Silex can also analyse the firm’s internal documents.
In particular, it can work on:
- contracts;
- correspondence;
- internal notes;
- precedents;
- case documents.
Each result can refer back to the original document used.
For large case files, the analysis can also bring out the main facts, the key points and any missing information.
The method is detailed in our article on AI-assisted legal analysis. For case law, see also our article on AI and Swiss case law.
Licensed doctrine: an important difference
Swisslex provides access to licensed commentaries, journals and books.
Silex does not distribute this type of editorial content.
If you regularly consult commentaries or doctrinal articles, access to a database such as Swisslex may therefore remain necessary.
If your work consists mostly of analysing facts, finding documents and applying the law to the case, an assistant such as Silex meets a different need.
Legal library or case file assistant?
A legal library contains laws, decisions and legal doctrine. It does not automatically contain the contracts, emails and other documents in a case file.
Yet much of legal work consists of linking the two: checking a clause, finding a date, comparing several versions of a contract or testing the facts against the applicable law.
Swisslex is mainly used to search for and consult legal content.
Silex, with Silo, makes it possible to link legal research to the documents in the case file.
Other available solutions
The Swiss market now includes several types of tools: legal databases, legal search engines and AI assistants.
Weblaw, for example, offers assisted search features across its own collection. legalis.ch is also adding artificial intelligence to its legal library.
To compare other solutions, see our article on legal AI alternatives, as well as our comparisons Weblaw or Silex and legalis or Silex.
Swisslex and Silex can complement each other
The two tools can be used together.
Silex can be used to prepare an initial analysis, search for sources and work on the case documents.
Swisslex can then be used when a commentary, a journal article or a licensed book is needed to explore a point in depth.
The legal professional thus uses each tool for what it does best.
How to compare the two tools
To find out which one best suits your practice, you can start with a few simple questions:
- Do you often consult commentaries or licensed doctrine?
- Do you regularly need to analyse internal documents?
- Do you want a structured answer, or simply to find a source?
- Are the cited references easy to check?
- How much time do you actually save on a routine task?
Another good method is to test both tools on matters that have already been resolved. You can then compare the answers with a solution you already know.
The professional ethics framework is presented in our article on AI for lawyers.
Swisslex or Silex: the main differences
Pricing
Swisslex and Silex do not charge for the same type of service.
According to its published pricing, Swisslex charges for access to its library and includes a certain number of secondary documents in its subscriptions.
Silex offers several monthly plans:
- Solo: CHF 149 per month for one user;
- Team: CHF 490 per month for up to five users;
- Enterprise: CHF 895 per month for up to ten users.
According to Silex, data is hosted in Switzerland with Infomaniak and client files are not used to train the models.
Details are available on the security, product, solutions and pricing pages.
In short
Swisslex and Silex meet two different needs.
Swisslex is particularly useful for consulting a legal corpus that includes doctrine, commentaries and licensed publications.
Silex is designed to research Swiss law, produce a sourced analysis and work on the documents in a case file with Silo.
The two solutions can therefore complement each other, depending on how you work.
To test Silex on a real legal question, you can book a demo.
FAQ
Does Silex replace a Swisslex subscription?
Not necessarily. If you regularly consult commentaries, journals or other licensed content, Swisslex remains useful. Silex mainly meets a need for analysis and work on case files.
Can Swisslex also work on my documents?
Swisslex lets you upload documents into its environment, but its offering remains mainly centred on its legal corpus. Silo is designed for regularly querying the firm’s documents alongside Swiss law.
Do both solutions host their data in Switzerland?
According to the information provided by both companies, yes. Swisslex states that it runs its model on servers in Switzerland. Silex states that it hosts its files with Infomaniak in Switzerland and does not use them to train its models.
