SimplePractice Review 2026

Last updated: May 2026

What Is SimplePractice?

SimplePractice is the practice management platform for therapists, counselors, and other health and wellness practitioners. Founded in 2012, SimplePractice now serves over 200,000 mental health professionals, dietitians, occupational therapists, and other behavioral health practitioners.

The pitch is everything a private practice needs in one HIPAA-compliant app. Client scheduling, telehealth, treatment notes, insurance claims, billing, and secure messaging integrated rather than scattered across multiple tools. Most therapists running solo or small group practices can replace 3-5 separate tools by adopting SimplePractice.

The product competes with TherapyNotes and TheraNest in the behavioral health space, with stronger consumer-facing features (client portal, online booking) than the more clinician-focused alternatives.

How SimplePractice Works

Set up your practice profile with services, fees, and insurance accepted. Clients book online through your branded portal. Intake forms, consent documents, and outcome measures collect electronically before the first session.

Telehealth runs over HIPAA-compliant video. SimplePractice handles BAAs (Business Associate Agreements) so practitioners can use the platform without separate compliance setup. Sessions can also happen in-person with the platform managing scheduling and documentation regardless.

Treatment notes use templates customized to your modality (CBT, EMDR, DBT, narrative therapy). Quick-pick options for common diagnoses, interventions, and progress notes speed documentation. AI-assisted note generation helps draft notes from session highlights.

Insurance billing handles claims submission, payment posting, and patient responsibility tracking. SimplePractice generates and submits CMS-1500 claims electronically to most major payers. Statements for self-pay clients automate through Stripe integration.

Outcome tracking lets practitioners administer standardized measures (PHQ-9, GAD-7, etc.) through the client portal. Results graph over time to track treatment progress objectively.

SimplePractice Pricing in 2026

Starter: $39/month annually. Solo practitioner, calendar, basic notes, billing.

Essential: $69/month annually. Adds telehealth, advanced billing, secure messaging, outcome measures.

Plus: $99/month annually. Adds insurance billing automation, custom branding, multi-clinician.

Groups: Custom pricing. Multi-practitioner practices with shared scheduling and billing.

Insurance billing has additional per-claim fees on top of subscription. Stripe processing fees apply on credit card payments (2.9% + $0.30 standard rate).

Where SimplePractice Wins

• Mental health specialization: treatment plans, intake forms, outcome measures built for behavioral health workflows.
• Integrated telehealth: HIPAA-compliant video without separate vendor.
• Insurance claims: electronic submission to major payers from same platform.
• Client portal: clients book, fill forms, message, and pay through branded portal.
• HIPAA compliance handled: BAAs in place, security model designed for PHI.

Where It Falls Short

• Heavier than minimal alternatives: practitioners only needing scheduling find it overkill.
• Insurance billing complexity: handling rejections and patient responsibility requires real billing knowledge.
• Pricing higher than basic tools: $69-99/month vs $20-40 for simpler scheduling apps.
• Some workflow rigidity: customization within structures rather than fully custom workflows.

SimplePractice vs TherapyNotes vs TheraNest vs Practice Better

TherapyNotes is the closest direct competitor with similar feature set. Stronger clinical features, less polished client-facing UX.

TheraNest targets smaller solo practices with simpler workflows.

Practice Better targets nutritionists and integrative health practitioners.

Owl Practice and Sessions Health are newer alternatives with modern UIs.

Who Should Use SimplePractice

Solo mental health practitioners: psychologists, LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCs in private practice.

Small group practices (2-10 clinicians): shared scheduling, billing, and supervision.

Practitioners accepting insurance: built-in claims submission saves significant time.

Skip it if: you only need basic scheduling (Acuity is cheaper), you primarily do coaching (Practice Better fits coaches better), or your practice is enterprise-scale (use Athena or NextGen).

How SimplePractice works

SimplePractice is a HIPAA-compliant EHR and practice management platform for private-practice health and wellness clinicians, mostly therapists and counselors, and increasingly psychiatric prescribers and other allied-health specialties. It combines scheduling, clinical documentation, a client portal, built-in telehealth, credit-card billing, and insurance claim submission in one subscription. The vendor claims more than 250,000 practitioners. It is built and priced around solo and small group behavioral-health practices rather than hospitals or medical clinics.

You configure your calendar and availability, service codes and rate tables, and intake paperwork. Clients then self-schedule and complete forms through a branded Client Portal. Telehealth is native: sessions launch from the calendar with no separate login, appointment links go out automatically, and the room includes a virtual waiting room, screen share, secure chat, a whiteboard, blurred backgrounds, and session timers, supporting group appointments of up to 15 clients.

Documentation runs on a template library plus customizable treatment plans. Insurance billing means creating, submitting, tracking, and reconciling claims inside the app rather than through a separate clearinghouse interface. Group practices get role-based permissions, team-visible calendar events, and an income-allocation report that pulls payments and appointment counts together for payroll.

AI is sold as add-ons. Care Aide ($29.50/mo for the owner, $24.50/mo per additional clinician) bundles Note Taker, Session Sidekick, Treatment Planner (beta), and Client Summaries. Note Taker on its own is $17.50/mo. ePrescribe is $24.50/mo plus an $89 one-time setup fee.

Where SimplePractice wins

• Telehealth is included on all three plans at no extra cost, and it is a real product (waiting room, screen share, whiteboard, group sessions up to 15) rather than a Zoom link bolted onto a calendar.
• A 30-day free trial with no credit card, and unlimited insurance claims free during the trial, so you can test the billing path properly before paying anything.
• The full stack sits in one subscription: scheduling, notes, client portal, secure messaging, card payments, and claims, with no separate clearinghouse account to manage.
• A strong template and treatment-plan library aimed specifically at behavioral health, plus a professional website builder for practitioners with no web presence.
• Group-practice tooling arrives at the Plus tier, including role-based permissions and an income allocation report for payroll, instead of requiring an enterprise contract.

Where it falls short

• Electronic claim filing is not on Starter after the trial. Starter charges $0.50 per claim, and the vendor's own guidance is that you need Essential ($79/mo) or Plus ($99/mo) to keep filing electronically. If you take insurance, the real entry price is $79, not $49.
• The AI features most buyers now expect are paid add-ons, and they stack per clinician. Care Aide adds $24.50/mo for every additional clinician on top of the plan price.
• ePrescribe carries an $89 setup fee plus $24.50/mo, which matters for exactly the PMHNP and psychiatry segment the product is courting.
• Plus-plan pricing for additional clinicians is only exposed through an interactive slider on the pricing page, not a published per-seat rate, so you cannot budget a 10-clinician group practice from the public site.
• The product is behavioral-health-shaped throughout. Specialties outside mental health and adjacent wellness get a less tailored template and coding experience, and the platform is not positioned for multi-location medical groups.

Who should use SimplePractice

Solo therapists and small behavioral-health group practices in the US who bill insurance and want telehealth, notes, and claims in one system without assembling three separate vendors. Budget for Essential at $79/mo rather than Starter if insurance is any part of your revenue, because the per-claim charge on Starter makes it a false economy the moment volume picks up. Use the 30-day trial to push real claims through, since claims are unlimited and free during it.

It is a poor fit for cash-pay practitioners who only need scheduling and payments, where cheaper tools cover the same ground. It is also a poor fit for specialties outside mental health and adjacent wellness, and for anyone who wants AI note-taking without committing to a second per-seat subscription on top of the plan.

Frequently Asked Questions