When I become a bigtime New York lawyer, I will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of my career using LexisNexis or Westlaw. The people who run those services know this, and cater to my every whim as a law student in a formative period, at least as legal research is concerned. Lexis has kept me stocked with water bottles, while Westlaw has me covered in the coffee mug department. Both services offer free online chat-based help and an 800 number to call if I can't find what I need. Both LexisNexis and Westlaw are free for me to use while I'm in law school and have free printers in the library that link up directly to their websites. All told, the services are almost identical in form and function.
How does one decide which service to use?
The LexisNexis printer is on the second floor of the library. The Westlaw printer is on the third. I like to work on the third. Therefore, my hundreds of thousands of dollars of research charges will go to Westlaw when I start practicing. They probably didn't even have to give me the mug.
I like Lexis cuz its website is more colorful and i like to look at pretty things.
Westlaw has candy.