MinuteBox vs Fast Company

Fast Company (also known as FastCo) is an on-premises entity management tool in the Dye & Durham portfolio, widely used by law firms across Canada for corporate records and minute book management. With Dye & Durham consolidating its legacy products into Unity Entity Management, Fast Company users face critical decisions about their data and their long-term governance platform. If you’re looking for an alternative to Fast Company, here’s how MinuteBox compares.

About MinuteBox

MinuteBox is a modular governance platform offering an ecosystem of fully integrated products — entity management, board portal, legal data room, national integrated registry services and government e-filing, contract management, and more — all powered by leading-edge AI. Teams across the US, Canada, UK, EU, Middle East, South Africa, and Australia use MinuteBox to manage entities in 150+ countries. Because MinuteBox serves both law firms and their corporate clients, advisors and clients can collaborate on the same platform with a single login and shared data layer.

About Fast Company

Fast Company was originally developed by DoProcess Software, a Toronto-based company founded in 1989. DoProcess entered the legal technology market focused on real estate conveyancing, and in 1993 expanded into corporate law with the launch of Fast Company. The product became widely adopted by Canadian law firms for managing corporate records, minute books, and corporate history tracking — including director, officer, and shareholder changes over time.

In December 2020, Dye & Durham acquired DoProcess for approximately C$530 million from Teranet/OMERS Infrastructure. This brought Fast Company, The Conveyancer, and DoProcess’s other legal software products under the Dye & Durham umbrella. Following the acquisition, Dye & Durham began consolidating its growing portfolio of legacy products — including Fast Company, Corplink, and Emergent — into a single cloud platform called Unity Entity Management, which is built on the Athennian platform, which is developed by Paper Interactive (Athennian’s parent company).

Some Dye & Durham product subscription agreements allow data migration with as little as 30 days’ notice — check your Fast Company agreement for specific terms. This has prompted many firms to proactively evaluate their options rather than wait for a vendor-mandated transition.

As an on-premises desktop application, Fast Company is a desktop application requiring local installation and manual software updates, and is limited to office network access. It does not offer AI capabilities, interactive ownership charts, integrated national registry services, compliance calendars, board portal, data room, or no-code document automation — features that modern cloud governance platforms provide.

Feature Comparison

Capability		Fast Company
Entity management	✅	✅
Board portal	✅	—
Legal data room	✅	—
National integrated registry services	✅ Canada, US, UK	—
Contract management	✅	—
Minute book management	✅	✅
No-code document automation	✅ Visual editor — no document coding required	Requires document coding with specialized syntax
Interactive ownership charts	✅	—
Cap table tracking	✅	—
Compliance calendar	✅	—
Automated compliance module	✅	—
Precedents & guides from leading textbooks	✅	—
In-app database file export	✅	—
AI capabilities	✅	—
Deployment	Cloud — accessible from the web, anywhere	On-premises — local installation required
Remote access	Full web access with role-based permissions and optional IP restrictions	Office network or VPN only
Concierge data migration	✅	Vendor-driven migration to Unity
Third-party integrations (DocuSign, iManage, Microsoft Office, SSO)	✅	—
Security certifications	SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018	Check with vendor

Why Firms Are Moving from Fast Company

Vendor-driven migration — Some Dye & Durham subscription agreements allow data migration to Unity with as little as 30 days’ notice — check your Fast Company agreement. Your migration timeline may not be in your control.
On-premises limitations — remote work, client collaboration, and multi-office access are constrained by Fast Company’s local installation requirement.
No modern governance capabilities — Fast Company lacks AI, interactive ownership charts, compliance calendars, board portal, data room, and integrated national registry services.
Document coding required — Fast Company’s document automation requires specialized coding syntax. MinuteBox offers no-code document automation with a visual editor.
Migration to Unity is the same effort as migrating anywhere — Unity is built on Athennian’s architecture, not an upgrade of Fast Company. The migration effort to Unity is comparable to migrating to any other cloud platform. If you’re migrating regardless, evaluate all your options. MinuteBox offers a drag-and-drop migration tool that lets firms upload their Fast Company data directly into the platform.
Dye & Durham’s pricing track record — their Unity Conveyancer platform saw price increases of up to 900% after acquisition.

Why Teams Choose MinuteBox

Modular platform, not a point solution — Start with entity management, board portal, data room, or registry services individually. Each product is best-in-class on its own. As your governance needs grow, everything connects through a single login and shared data layer — no data silos, no bolted-on products.
Vendor independence — you’re a customer by choice, not by migration mandate. Your data is yours.
Leading-edge AI — Second Chair AI provides document extraction, importing, drafting, and research built into the governance workflow.
National integrated registry services — Direct registry integrations across Canada, the US, and the UK for corporate filings, due diligence searches, lien searches, and more.
Extensive Fast Company migration experience — MinuteBox has migrated many firms from Fast Company and understands the data structures involved. See how Bianchi Presta LLP migrated from Fast Company to MinuteBox.

Book a demo to see MinuteBox and discuss your migration from Fast Company.

Thinking of Staying on Fast Company? Questions to Ask Dye & Durham

Data portability

Will Dye & Durham provide a complete copy of the Fast Company database in a non-proprietary format? (Note: MinuteBox does not require this — our team has deep expertise migrating Fast Company data directly. However, if you are considering a platform outside the Dye & Durham ecosystem, you may need this. Regardless, it is good practice to have a copy of your own data.)
Can you get a full data export from Fast Company today — before any vendor-driven migration occurs?
If you request a data export, will you continue to have full access to Fast Company during the transition?
Does Dye & Durham provide a tool for exporting Fast Company data in SQL format?

Migration and continuity

What is Dye & Durham’s timeline for sunsetting Fast Company in favor of Unity Entity Management?
Do you have a choice in whether or not to migrate to Unity, or will it be mandated?
Since Unity is built on a different architecture (Athennian), is the migration effort to Unity comparable to migrating to any other cloud platform?
What happens to your Fast Company data and access if you choose not to migrate to Unity?

Pricing and vendor stability

What is Dye & Durham’s philosophy on price increases? Is there any price increase in moving from Fast Company to Unity?
Is Dye & Durham currently exploring a sale of the company or parts of the business? What happens to your contract if the company changes ownership?

Platform capabilities

Does Fast Company or Unity offer integrated national registry services like e-filing, due diligence searches, or lien searches?
What AI features are available for document drafting, extraction, or legal research?
Does document automation require knowing specialized document coding syntax?

Data portability contract clause

Before signing any new agreement with Dye & Durham, ask them to include a full data portability clause that ensures:

You own your data — all entity records and documents remain your property at all times
You can request and receive a complete data export at any time during the contract, without additional cost, penalty, or restriction
Repeat data exports will have a consistent data structure — all keys, values, and table relationships preserved identically each time
You will not be locked out of the platform, restricted from using any functionality, or have your access degraded in any way after providing notice of termination or requesting a data export

Change of control provision

Given Dye & Durham’s history of ownership changes, ask for a change of control clause that gives you:

The right to terminate the contract without penalty if the company or your specific product division is acquired by a third party
A guaranteed data export window (minimum 90 days) following any change of control event
Continued access to the platform at existing terms for a transition period following any ownership change

In July 2025, Dye & Durham initiated a review of strategic alternatives that could include a sale of assets or the company. If a vendor undergoing a strategic review is unwilling to commit to change of control protections, you are accepting the risk that your mission-critical governance data could end up under the control of an entity you did not choose to do business with.

MinuteBox vs Fast Company