# Niyam vs Manupatra — Niyam > Honest comparison of Niyam and Manupatra for Indian legal research: plain-English Q&A with inline citations vs editorial headnotes and database search. See which fits how you work. Manupatra is a well-established legal database with deep editorial headnotes, a reliable citator, and decades of curated Indian case law. Niyam approaches the problem differently: plain-English questions answered directly from Indian statutes and judgments, every proposition cited to its source, good-law signals built in, and research connected to drafting in one workspace. This page compares them honestly so you can decide which fits how you work. ## What you can do - Plain-English Q&A over 72,000+ Indian judgments — no boolean syntax required - Every answer cited to the exact section or paragraph it relied on - Research, good-law checking, and drafting in one workspace ## Capabilities - **Ask the question you actually have** — Manupatra's search is powerful for practitioners who know the citation or keyword. Niyam's model is complementary: type the legal issue in plain English and get a direct, cited answer. No query construction, no results list to filter — the answer comes with the authority behind it. - **Every claim carries its source** — Editorial headnotes in platforms like Manupatra summarise a judgment's ratio — which is genuinely useful. Niyam takes a different approach: every sentence in an answer is tied to the section or judgment paragraph it came from, so you can open the original and confirm it yourself before relying on it in argument or a filing. - **Know a precedent is safe before you cite it** — Manupatra's citator is an established tool for tracking how a case has been treated. Niyam builds good-law signals into the research flow itself — so when an answer cites a case, the treatment history appears alongside it, not as a separate lookup. - **Research connects directly to drafting** — In a traditional workflow — whether in Manupatra or any other database — research and drafting happen in separate tools. You find the authority, then switch to a word processor and re-enter the citation. In Niyam, once you've found and verified the authority, drafting the submission, contract, or note happens in the same session without leaving the source behind. ## How it works 1. **Ask in plain English** — Put the legal issue the way you would to a colleague — no keyword syntax needed. Niyam reads Indian statutes, rules, and judgments to understand exactly what you mean. 2. **Get a cited answer** — Every answer comes grounded in primary Indian sources — the section, rule, or judgment paragraph that governs the point — with a good-law signal on every cited case. 3. **Verify, draft, and save** — Open the cited source, confirm it says what Niyam says, draft from it, and save the authority to the relevant matter — all without leaving the workspace. ## Frequently asked questions ### Is Manupatra better than Niyam? For some workflows, yes. Manupatra's editorial headnotes and curated summaries are the product of decades of legal publishing — they give practitioners a structured, reliable way to understand a judgment's ratio without reading the full text. Its citator is well-established. If your primary need is access to a curated, structured Indian legal database, Manupatra delivers genuine value. Niyam is better suited when you want to ask a plain-English question and get a cited answer directly, or when you want research and drafting in one workspace. The two tools solve complementary problems. ### Does Niyam have editorial headnotes like Manupatra? No. Niyam does not have a dedicated editorial headnote layer. Instead, every answer is generated directly from the underlying statute or judgment, with the source cited and one click away. You read what the primary source says, not a curated summary of it. Whether that is better for you depends on your workflow — editorial summaries are genuinely useful; so is direct grounding. ### How does Niyam's corpus compare to Manupatra's? Niyam indexes more than 72,000 Supreme Court and High Court judgments alongside central and state Acts and rules. Manupatra has a very large corpus built over many years. Niyam is expanding steadily. For the questions most practitioners ask — what does this provision mean, what has the Supreme Court said about this issue, is this precedent good law — coverage is substantial. If you need specialised tribunals, Revenue Board orders, or very granular state-level material, check current coverage before switching. ### Can I use both? Yes, and many practitioners do. Manupatra for structured database search and curated headnotes; Niyam for plain-English Q&A, inline-cited answers, and drafting in one workspace. They address different parts of the research and drafting workflow. ### Is the ₹100 entry really that different from Manupatra's pricing? Manupatra is priced for institutions and established firms, which reflects its depth and scale. Niyam's ₹100 trial grants 200 credits covering real research and drafting tasks — which makes it accessible to solo practitioners, junior advocates, and students who cannot justify an institutional subscription. If you're evaluating at the individual level, the entry point matters. ### Is this legal advice? No. Niyam is legal research and drafting tooling. It provides legal information grounded in primary Indian sources. It does not create an advocate–client relationship and does not replace advice from a qualified legal professional. You remain responsible for verifying every citation and exercising your own professional judgment. ### Is my research private? Yes. Your queries, matters, and saved research stay private to your account. Your work product is never sold and never used to train public models. ## Get started Create your Niyam account in under a minute — ₹100 to start, 200 credits to try everything. Ask a question and see the cited authority behind every answer. Start your ₹100 trial at https://app.niyam.ai/register — 200 credits to begin, cancel anytime.