SimplePractice is electronic health record software for people who bill insurance. If that is your work, it will serve you better than we will, and the honest advice is to stay. If you have never filed a claim in your life, most of what you pay for there is machinery you will never switch on — and this page shows what a smaller tool looks like instead.
Do you bill insurance?
That single question decides this comparison, because almost everything SimplePractice does better than us is downstream of it. Claims, ERAs, superbills and CMS-1500s are built in. Insurance status checks run automatically on the top plan. From 1 October 2026 their claim pricing changes: their own notice says "claim fees will no longer be determined by your subscription plan" and that "free claims for Essential and Plus plans are ending".
If you answered yes, stop here and go back to them. Nothing further down this page is going to outweigh a billing pipeline you depend on. If you answered no, keep reading: the question becomes what that machinery costs you when it is idle.
Who SimplePractice is built for
Their own front page names the audience: "EHR Software for Health & Wellness Professionals", listing therapists, speech-language pathologists, occupational therapists and psychiatrists. Their HIPAA guidance addresses you as a covered entity — "As a covered entity, you're responsible for…". The Business Associate Agreement is signed automatically at sign-up: "When you create your trial account, you agree to the Business Associate Agreement", on every plan, telehealth included.
They are the better answer if you need any of this:
- a BAA, today, without asking for one
- electronic prescribing — nobody else in this comparison has it
- a team: multiple clinicians, practice managers, per-seat roles
- third-party security assurance: they state they are "HIPAA compliant and HITRUST certified"
- native mobile apps for you and for your clients
- mental-health specifics: Wiley treatment planners, and a public directory clients can find you through
We have none of those. Not a smaller version — none. If you need any of them, this comparison is already over.
What happens to your session transcript
This one is worth reading closely if you dictate notes, because it is a policy question rather than a feature question, and it changed recently.
Their note-taking add-on does not keep audio: "Note Taker doesn't create or store a session recording as only the transcript is generated", and "the audio is deleted immediately after the transcript is generated". We work the same way, so that is not a difference between us and there is no point pretending otherwise.
The transcript is where the paths part. Theirs lives "up to 7 days, or until the note is signed and locked, whichever comes first" — and since 17 June 2026, de-identified transcripts are retained to improve their features by default: "Transcript retention is enabled by default for new Note Taker users". There is an opt-out, and users from before that date are opted out already.
Two details are easy to miss. The setting is per clinician, since "there is no practice-wide transcript retention setting" and account owners "can't manage retention preferences on behalf of clinicians". And once a transcript has been de-identified, it stays: "we can't fulfill deletion requests for transcripts that have been de-identified and de-coupled".
On our side there is no equivalent setting because there is nothing to retain: dictation produces text, the text is yours, and nothing is kept to train anything. Whether that matters is your call, not ours — we are quoting their published policy, not accusing them of hiding it.
Getting your data out, and getting out
Their way in is gentler than ours: "30-day trial. No credit card required." The export has limits they publish plainly: contacts come out as vCard only, "data exports don’t include client appointments", and the download link and its password "expire after a week". Their terms and their help centre also describe the days after cancelling differently, so read both before you rely on either.
Ours is one file, made by you whenever you want. A deleted client stays in an archive for thirty days before it is gone for good, so a mistake can still be undone.
Where we fit
HoldSpace is practice management for holistic practitioners — voice-first session notes, online booking, and client history in one place, built for people who hold space, not for hospitals.
Concretely, we are the better fit when you never bill insurance, work alone, and want the note to be the centre of the tool rather than an attachment to a claim. Dictation and structuring are in the base plan rather than an add-on. There is a free tier, which neither vendor in this comparison offers. And the vocabulary is not clinical, because the work often is not: their published specialty lists name therapists and physicians; bodyworkers, readers and breathwork practitioners are not among them.
What we are not: a place to run a clinic. If you work alone and never bill insurance, try it after your next session: press the microphone, say what happened, and read it back tomorrow. What the product actually does and the plans on the pricing page are there if you would rather look first.
FAQ
Can you import my data from SimplePractice?
No. There is no migration tool and no migration service — both vendors on this comparison do that for free, and we do not do it at all. You would be starting your client list by hand. That is a real cost and you should weigh it before switching, not after.
Do you offer a BAA?
No. Our terms say so directly rather than leaving it vague. If your work makes you a covered entity under HIPAA, that answer disqualifies us and SimplePractice is the safer choice.
Is there a free plan?
Yes, and it is a plan rather than a trial — it does not expire. The current limits are on the pricing page.