Digital Forensics & eDiscovery Software Development

My bill is often larger than I expected. A single case cost $2,200 a month just to host 200GB. And when your review methodology goes on trial, discovery on discovery, the platform you trusted becomes the question you're defending. Digital evidence is only as useful as its chain of custody, and eDiscovery costs are only as predictable as the pricing model allows.

  • Forensic evidence collection and chain-of-custody tracking built for defensibility

  • Litigation hold and multi-custodian data collection across email, chat, and cloud storage

  • Document review workflows scoped to your case volume, not a per-GB hosting model

  • Fixed-cost delivery, scoped up front

The problem

Sound familiar?

  • Forensic evidence handoffs tracked in a spreadsheet instead of an auditable chain-of-custody log a court will actually accept?

  • eDiscovery hosting costs climbing every time a case's data volume grows, with no way to control it?

Short answer

RaftLabs builds custom digital forensics and eDiscovery software: forensic evidence collection and imaging, chain-of-custody tracking, litigation hold management, multi-custodian data collection, and document review platforms. We build for law firms, corporate legal teams, and forensic examiners who need software that fits their case workflow, or who are managing eDiscovery hosting costs that scale unpredictably with data volume on commercial platforms. A single-purpose tool typically runs $35,000 to $70,000; a full review platform with litigation hold and multi-custodian collection runs $90,000 to $160,000. Fixed cost, scoped after discovery.

01 Diagnosis

Where forensics and eDiscovery operations actually leak

  1. 01
    Problem

    The bill is larger than expected, and nobody can explain it

    Solution

    You often don't realize in advance how much goes into processing and maintaining your files. You'll just be stuck with a bill you had no idea was coming. Per-GB processing plus hosting plus per-user plus per-production plus OCR fees stack into unforecast bills, and the more documents you put in, the more the platform struggles. One construction company's paralegal watched a single case cost $2,200 a month just to host 200GB. Multiply that across several outside counsel firms, each running its own platform, and the costs stop making sense.Software built around your firm's actual review workflow, not a general-purpose per-GB platform, gives you cost control that scales with how you actually work. The outcome is a bill you approved, not a bill you discovered.

  2. 02
    Problem

    The review methodology goes on trial

    Solution

    In a 2026 California federal case, plaintiffs sought discovery on the defendant's use of AI-assisted review: elusion estimates, error rates, human-validation counts. The request was denied, but the fight itself is the buyer fear. Opposing counsel can put your review methodology on trial. The largest expense in an eDiscovery review is the human document review, and when AI accelerates it, the defensibility question follows.We build review workflows where the methodology is documented, the validation is counted, and the audit trail is complete. The outcome is answers that exist when the questions come.

  3. 03
    Problem

    Custodian data collection is scattered across a dozen platforms

    Solution

    A single litigation hold might touch email, Slack or Teams messages, cloud storage, and local devices, each with a different collection method and different metadata-preservation requirements. Collecting all of it manually, platform by platform, is slow and error-prone, and a missed data source is a preservation risk. The Goldilocks dilemma: throwing everything through processing breaks the bank, collecting too narrowly risks spoliation.Collection tooling built around the specific platforms your custodians actually use turns a multi-platform manual process into one workflow. The outcome is a defensible collection without the guesswork.

  4. 04
    Problem

    Litigation hold compliance depends on someone remembering

    Solution

    Missing a litigation hold deadline, or failing to confirm a custodian actually preserved their data, is a sure route to sanctions even when the destruction was not intentional. Legal hold is a concept IT doesn't always share with counsel: eDiscovery is the act of finding the information, keeping it in an unmodified form is called a legal hold. In many organizations, hold tracking is still email and a shared document.Structured hold management with tracked notices, confirmation status, and escalation makes compliance visible and auditable instead of dependent on institutional memory. The outcome is preservation you can prove.

02 What we ship

What we build for digital forensics and eDiscovery

  1. Forensic evidence collection and imaging

    Forensic imaging and evidence collection tooling with cryptographic hash verification at capture, built around the device and data types your investigations actually involve. Every capture produces a verifiable hash, so the evidence's integrity is provable from the moment of collection. The tooling is scoped to your investigation types: drives, mobile devices, cloud accounts, or a combination. No enterprise fluff, no required tech expertise beyond what your team has.

  2. Chain-of-custody tracking

    Structured, timestamped audit logs of every access, transfer, and handoff of digital evidence, with tamper-evident storage and hash verification at each step. The record shows who handled the evidence, when, and what changed, so the gap between what happened and what you can prove happened closes completely. Built to the requirements your counsel or forensic expert defines during discovery.

  3. eDiscovery review platforms

    Document review workflows: search, tagging, privilege review, redaction, and production, scoped to your case volume rather than a commercial platform's per-GB pricing model. The review methodology is documented and the validation is counted, so AI-assisted review is defensible when opposing counsel asks questions. Reviewers get a tool that fits how they actually review, not a general-purpose platform's feature list.

  4. Litigation hold management

    Custodian identification, hold notice tracking, and preservation confirmation with escalation, so hold compliance is visible and auditable rather than dependent on memory. The system tracks who was notified, who confirmed, and who is overdue, with escalation when a hold confirmation is missing. Missing a hold deadline is a sure route to sanctions even when the destruction was not intentional: this is the workflow that prevents it.

  5. Multi-custodian data collection

    Collection integrations across email, chat platforms, and cloud storage, preserving the metadata required for authentication and built around the platforms your custodians actually use. One workflow replaces the platform-by-platform manual process. The collection record documents what was collected, from where, and when, so the scope is defensible.

  6. Forensic reporting and documentation

    Structured, court-ready reporting that documents methodology, findings, and chain-of-custody history for expert testimony and case files. The report writes itself from the audit trail: every handoff, every hash verification, every analysis step is already recorded. Your forensic expert gets a document they can stand behind.

03 Buy, build, or wait

The forensics and eDiscovery question is really about who controls the cost and the methodology.

Buy or rent

  • Relativity/Everlaw/Logikcull, while the volume fits

    Standard matters before the per-GB hosting, the per-user fees, and the dedicated admins outgrow the case.

  • Attorney-built tools, for simple matters

    No enterprise fluff, no required tech expertise: when the matter is simple, simple is right.

Build custom

  • When the bill is a surprise

    You often don't realize in advance how much goes into processing your files. A fixed cost you approved beats a bill you discovered.

  • When the methodology goes on trial

    Discovery on discovery: build the review workflow where the validation is counted and the audit trail is complete.

  • When the corpus lives in someone else's cloud

    A vendor breach puts your clients' data in someone else's headline. Own the infrastructure.

Bottom line

Stay on the platform while the volume fits and the fees are honest. Build when the bill, the defensibility, or the data control stop fitting.

04 How we work

How we build digital forensics and eDiscovery software

  1. 01

    Discovery and evidentiary scoping

    Two to three weeks working with your legal or forensic team to map your evidence types, chain-of-custody requirements, and the platforms your data actually lives on. This surfaces requirements that would cause rework if discovered mid-build. The risk this retires: the requirement discovered at the hearing.
  2. 02

    Architecture and data model design

    We design the evidence data model, the chain-of-custody and audit-logging architecture, and the integration layer for custodian data sources. Hash verification and tamper-evidence are designed into the architecture from the start, not added afterward. The risk this retires: the audit trail built after the fact.
  3. 03

    Build in two-week sprints

    You review working software at each sprint, not wireframes. Collection, chain-of-custody, and review components are built and tested incrementally, so integration issues with data sources surface early. The risk this retires: the integration that fails on the live case.
  4. 04

    Forensic integrity testing and rollout

    Before full rollout, the software runs against real (or representative) evidence data so your team can validate hash verification, audit logging, and review workflows before a live case depends on it. The risk this retires: the validation that never happened.

08 Why us

Why choose us?

  • 01

    We've seen your problem before

    Across dozens of industries, we recognise your situation fast, then frame the fix around your margin and your operations, not a generic template.
  • 02

    We own the number, not the ticket

    We measure success the way you do: hours saved, revenue earned, margin recovered. We stay through launch and growth, so the result is ours to own.
  • 03

    Serious businesses trust us

    Vodafone, T-Mobile, Cisco, Energia, Aldi, Nike. Building since 2015. Serious businesses keep coming back because we stay accountable long after launch.

09 Questions

Common questions

Digital forensics software covers forensic evidence collection and imaging, chain-of-custody tracking, and forensic reporting for investigations. eDiscovery software covers litigation hold management, multi-custodian data collection, and document review for legal cases. The two overlap - both handle digital evidence under strict procedural requirements - but forensics is typically investigation-first while eDiscovery is litigation-first.

We build the technical chain-of-custody infrastructure: cryptographic hash verification at collection and every subsequent access, timestamped audit logs of every handoff, and tamper-evident storage. Whether a specific process satisfies your jurisdiction's evidentiary standards is a legal determination your counsel or forensic expert makes - we build the system to the requirements you define during discovery.

Both. Document review - search, tagging, redaction, privilege review, and production - is a common request alongside evidence collection, especially for firms trying to control the per-GB hosting costs of commercial platforms. We scope which capabilities you need during discovery; some clients want the full pipeline, others just need the collection and chain-of-custody layer.

Yes. Collecting data from custodians across email (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace), chat platforms (Slack, Teams), and cloud storage is a standard part of eDiscovery collection. We scope which platforms your cases actually touch during discovery and build the collection integrations accordingly, preserving required metadata.

A single-purpose tool - forensic evidence collection with chain-of-custody tracking - typically runs $35,000-$70,000 and takes 12-18 weeks. A full platform with litigation hold management, multi-custodian collection, and document review runs $90,000-$160,000 over 18-28 weeks. We scope a fixed cost after discovery, before any development starts.

Commercial eDiscovery platforms charge per-GB hosting fees that scale unpredictably as case data volume grows, and they're general-purpose tools, not built around your firm's specific workflow. Custom software makes sense when your case volume doesn't fit a per-GB model well, or when you need collection/chain-of-custody tooling feeding into a review platform you already use.

Yes. Litigation hold management - identifying custodians, sending and tracking hold notices, and confirming preservation - is commonly built alongside collection tooling. Missing a hold deadline creates real legal risk, so we build tracking and escalation to make hold compliance visible.

This is the live fear: in a 2026 California federal case, plaintiffs sought discovery on the defendant's use of Relativity's AI review, demanding error rates and human-validation counts. The fight was denied, but the fight itself is what buyers fear. We build review workflows where the methodology is documented, the validation is counted, and the audit trail is complete. No platform can stop opposing counsel from asking questions. We make sure your answers exist.

Digital forensics and eDiscovery software by product

Get a build-vs-per-GB plan for your caseload

Tell us your evidence types, your case volumes, and where your current process breaks down. We'll tell you how we'd approach it, what it costs, and what we'd leave alone.

  • Scope and cost agreed before work starts. No surprises. No obligation.
  • Working prototype within 3 weeks of kickoff.
  • Pay by milestone. You see progress before each invoice.
  • 60-day post-launch warranty. Bug fixes, UI tweaks, and deployment support. No retainer.
  • All conversations are NDA-protected.

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