SimplePractice alternatives are electronic health record (EHR) and therapy practice management platforms that cover the same core jobs: scheduling, clinical notes, billing, telehealth, and a client portal. If you're weighing a switch, the platform you land on shapes how much of your week goes to admin, how cleanly you can bill, and how safely your clients' records move from one system to another.

Key Takeaways

• Research on clinicians links EHR stress and documentation time to burnout, so the system you choose and how much charting it leaves you with both matter for your wellbeing.

• Export a complete copy of your SimplePractice data before you cancel, because cancellation ends account access immediately and deleted data can't be recovered.

• Treat a platform switch as a professional responsibility: confirm a signed business associate agreement (BAA), plan your record retention, and give clients clear notice about portal and payment changes.

Why therapists look for SimplePractice alternatives

Most clinicians who leave SimplePractice aren't leaving because it doesn't work. More often, the practice has changed: you've moved from self-pay to insurance (or the reverse), added clinicians, or started prescribing.

Price is the other common driver. SimplePractice's live pricing page currently lists Starter at $49 per month, Essential at $79, and Plus at $99, with add-ons such as Note Taker and ePrescribe billed separately. PricingSaaS, which tracks changes to software pricing pages, recorded the Starter plan rising from $29 to $49 per month and Essential from $69 to $79 in early 2025. If you signed up at an older rate, compare what you pay against what you use.

Before you start comparing logos and price tags, it helps to know which features genuinely matter for your caseload.

What to look for in therapy practice management software

The best EHR for therapists is the one that fits your billing model and documentation habits, not the one with the longest feature list. Our broader guide to the best EHR for therapists covers general selection criteria, so here the focus is on what matters when you're switching away from an existing system:

• Data import support: whether the vendor will load your SimplePractice export for you, and which records (demographics only, or notes too) actually transfer

• Billing fit: insurance claims, eligibility checks, and ERAs if you're in network; superbills and card payments if you're self-pay

• Documentation: note templates, treatment plans, outcome measures, and whether AI note tools cost extra

• Pricing model: flat monthly, per clinician, per session, or custom quote, plus per-claim and payment processing fees

• Compliance: a signed BAA and clear security documentation

• Trial terms: length of the free trial and whether it requires a credit card

With those criteria in mind, here's how eight established SimplePractice competitors compare.

SimplePractice competitors at a glance

The 8 best SimplePractice alternatives

Each option below is framed around one question: what would you gain, and give up, by moving from SimplePractice to this platform?

1. TherapyNotes

TherapyNotes is a behavioral health EHR best suited to insurance-based practices. Its support center lists a Solo plan at $69 per month and a Group plan at $79 for the first clinician plus $50 for each additional clinician, with a 30-day free trial. For switchers, TherapyNotes offers a free data import service that loads client demographic and insurance information, though you'll upload other records like prior notes to each chart yourself. Its AI tool, TherapyFuel, is a separate per-clinician add-on. We'll go deeper on this matchup in an upcoming head-to-head comparison.

2. Jane

Jane works well for practices that blend therapy with other disciplines or want polished online booking. Plans start at $59 per month (Balance, limited to 20 appointments) and $79 for the Practice plan, with insurance billing, group telehealth, and unlimited AI Scribe sold as add-ons. Jane states plainly that it doesn't offer a free trial, so you'll rely on a demo account instead. Its onboarding team will import your data for free.

3. Sessions Health

Sessions Health is a mental health EHR aimed at solo and group practices that want a simpler, lower-cost setup. Its Freemium plan covers up to three clients for free, and the Professional plan is $39 per month for the first practitioner plus $29 for each additional one. Telehealth and AI Assist are optional add-ons, and insurance claims are billed per claim. The 30-day trial doesn't require a credit card.

4. TheraNest

TheraNest, now part of Ensora Health, is built for solo and small group practices and scales to multi-location behavioral health groups. It offers recurring and group scheduling, payer-specific billing rules, and a client portal, with telehealth and the Ensai Session Assistant for AI-drafted notes sold separately. Pricing isn't listed on the product page, so expect to compare tiers on its pricing page or with sales. A 21-day free trial is available.

5. Owl Practice

Owl Practice suits self-pay therapists, nonprofits, and campus counseling centers. Its tiered plans run from Owl Starter (capped at 20 sessions per month) through Owl Pro, which adds telehealth, secure messaging, and measurement-based care, plus a Group Edition priced per practitioner. Owl's help center publishes a step-by-step guide for importing client contacts and medical records from a SimplePractice export, with the caveat that it can run only one import.

6. Valant

Valant suits larger or more clinically complex practices. It serves psychiatry clinicians, PMHNPs, group practices, and IOP/PHP programs, with ePrescribing, treatment planning, utilization review, and reportable outcome measures. Pricing is quote-based and depends on the number and type of provider licenses plus add-ons. Valant offers live and recorded demos rather than a self-serve trial.

7. PracticeQ (by IntakeQ)

IntakeQ started as a HIPAA-compliant forms tool, and PracticeQ is its practice management tier. The Practice Management plan is $84.90 per month with claims, superbills, and telehealth included, plus $30 for each additional practitioner; a lower-volume plan caps appointments and form submissions. It's a strong pick for form-heavy intake. A 14-day free trial is available.

8. Blueprint

Blueprint, long known for AI documentation, now offers an all-in-one EHR with scheduling, intake, telehealth, a client portal, and insurance billing. Instead of a monthly subscription, it charges per session (its EHR page lists $1.49 per session), after a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. Blueprint says it will import existing clients, notes, forms, and billing data at signup. Note that its listed payment processing and claims fees have been temporarily waived, so check current terms before you budget.

If none of these feel right, our comparisons of EHR systems for therapy private practice, EMRs for small practices, and EMRs for psychologists cover additional options. Once you've chosen, the next step is getting your records out cleanly.

How to migrate your data out of SimplePractice

SimplePractice lets the account owner (and practice managers with export permissions) run a data export from Settings. A complete export arrives as a zip file containing clinical notes, billing documents, contact information, intake forms, secure messages, and stored documents, organized in a folder per client. A few limits are worth planning around:

• Appointments aren't included in the export, so run an appointment status report separately.

• Contacts export as vCard files, not CSV; the Client details report covers spreadsheet-style data.

• The export link and password expire after a week, so download it promptly.

• Reports, subscription receipts, and payment information need separate exports.

Order matters here. SimplePractice's cancellation guide states that your account is canceled immediately when you finish the process and that deleted data can't be recovered. Run your exports, confirm the files open, and store them securely before you cancel.

Expect some manual work on the other end, since prior notes often land as attached documents rather than editable notes. Keep in mind the distinction between psychotherapy notes and progress notes as you sort what goes where, since SimplePractice exports them in separate folders.

HIPAA and BAA considerations when switching

Your new EHR vendor is a business associate, so sign its BAA before any client data is uploaded, including your export file. HHS guidance on business associate contracts says that at termination, the business associate should, where feasible, return or destroy the protected health information it holds. Ask your outgoing vendor how it handles that, and document the answer.

You're still responsible for retaining records according to your state's rules and your licensing board's standards, so your exported archive needs to live somewhere secure and encrypted, not on a personal laptop desktop. If you're also changing video platforms, our roundup of HIPAA-compliant telehealth platforms can help. Finally, tell clients what's changing: a new portal login, new payment links, and possibly re-signing consent forms.

Compliance covers the transition itself; documentation is what you'll live with every day afterward.

Don't overlook documentation time when you switch

In a survey of 1,792 Rhode Island physicians, Gardner and colleagues found that 26% reported burnout and 70% reported stress related to health information technology, with poor documentation time and after-hours EHR use linked to higher odds of burnout. The study, published in 2019 in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, focused on physicians rather than therapists, but the pattern will sound familiar to anyone charting at night.

That's why it helps to separate your note-writing workflow from your EHR choice. Berries is an AI scribe built exclusively for mental health professionals that turns a live session, dictation, an audio upload, or even handwritten notes into a clinical note, treatment plan, optional ICD-10 suggestions, and a client follow-up email in seconds. It offers 20+ templates (SOAP, DAP, BIRP, GIRP, PIE, SIRP, intake, and supervision docs) plus a template builder, and it works with any EMR via copy-paste, plus PDF export. You can keep SimplePractice, switch to any platform above, or wait for Berries' own EMR, which is launching soon, without relearning how you write notes. Berries is HIPAA and PHIPA compliant and SOC 2 certified, and you can start a free trial with your first 20 sessions free, no credit card required.

For more ways to trim charting time, see our guides on how to write therapy notes quickly and how to reduce admin time as a therapist.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best SimplePractice alternative for insurance billing?

TherapyNotes, TheraNest, Valant, and PracticeQ all support electronic claims, and several include eligibility checks and ERAs. The best fit depends on your size: TherapyNotes and PracticeQ are straightforward for solo and small group practices, while Valant is built for larger, more complex organizations.

Is there a free SimplePractice alternative?

Sessions Health offers a free plan for up to three clients, which suits a very small caseload. Blueprint has no subscription fee but charges per session after its free trial. Most other platforms offer a time-limited free trial rather than a free plan.

Can I transfer my clinical notes from SimplePractice to a new EHR?

You can export them, but how they arrive depends on the new vendor. Some attach older notes as documents, while others, like TherapyNotes, ask you to upload prior records to each chart yourself.

Should I cancel SimplePractice before setting up my new EHR?

No. Set up and test your new platform first, export all your SimplePractice data, and confirm the files are complete. SimplePractice ends account access immediately when you cancel, so overlapping by a billing cycle is usually safer.

Do I need a new BAA when I switch EHRs?

Yes. Any vendor that stores or processes your clients' protected health information is a business associate, so you'll need a signed BAA with your new EHR, and with any other tool, such as an AI scribe for mental health professionals, that handles PHI.

This article is for educational purposes and professional development only. It does not constitute clinical supervision or replace professional judgment in therapeutic practice.