If you bill insurance for most of your caseload, pick TherapyNotes. If you’re cash-pay or telehealth-first and care about how the client side feels, pick SimplePractice. That’s the verdict up front, and the rest of this comparison is the evidence.
We should say where we stand: Therapeia builds websites for therapists, not EHR integrations for commissions. Neither company pays us a cent. We just spend most weeks embedding booking widgets and portal links from both platforms into client sites, which turns out to be a revealing place to judge them from.
The Two Platforms in One Table
| SimplePractice | TherapyNotes | |
|---|---|---|
| Solo price | $49–$99/mo (3 tiers) | $69/mo |
| Group price | Plus required: $99 + $74/clinician (2–5) | $79 + $50/clinician |
| Electronic claims | 10 free/mo on Essential, 35 on Plus, then tiered ($0.19–$0.50 by plan/volume) | $0.14 per claim |
| Telehealth | Included on all plans | Basic free (2 people); Premium $15/mo (16 people, HD, captions) |
| AI notes | Note Taker $35/mo; Care Aide bundle $59/mo | TherapyFuel $40/mo |
| Support | Ticket-based; premium phone line on Plus | 24/7 phone and email, all plans |
| Admin staff | Free non-clinicians on Plus; practice managers $39/mo | Unlimited non-clinical users free |
| Website booking widget | Plus plan only | Portal-based booking, all plans |
| Free trial | 30 days | 30 days |
Standard monthly rates as of July 2026, from simplepractice.com and therapynotes.com. Both vendors sign a BAA.
Where SimplePractice Wins
The client-facing experience. Portal, reminders, intake, mobile — SimplePractice feels like consumer software, and your clients notice. For a practice competing on experience, that polish is a real asset, not vanity.
Telehealth on every plan. No session limits, waiting rooms, screen sharing, whiteboards, included even at $49. TherapyNotes’ free telehealth caps at two participants in standard definition; the good version costs $15/month extra.
The ecosystem. Wiley Treatment Planners on Essential and up, a bundled professional website, a client-matching directory, calendar sync, and the deepest add-on menu in the category. If you want one subscription to do everything, this is the everything subscription.
Measured criticism, as promised: the tiering works against insurance billers. Starter charges $0.50 per claim and can’t send secure messages. Essential includes just 10 claims a month. The features an insurance practice actually needs keep living one tier up.
Where TherapyNotes Wins
Billing, by a distance. Claims cost 14 cents flat. Electronic remittance and eligibility checks are 14 cents each. There’s no claim allowance to track and no tier to outgrow. For 100 claims a month you’d pay $14; on SimplePractice Essential the same volume costs the $79 subscription plus roughly $26–$31 in overage claims.
Support that answers a phone at night. 24/7 phone and email support on every plan. SimplePractice reserves its premium phone line for Plus subscribers. When a claim batch bounces on Friday evening, this single line item justifies the whole choice.
Group pricing. A four-clinician practice pays $229/month on TherapyNotes versus $321 on SimplePractice Plus — about $1,104 a year of difference, with unlimited free schedulers and billers on both, but practice managers costing $39/month only on SimplePractice.
The exit. TherapyNotes offers a $9/month storage plan that keeps records accessible after you close or retire. It’s the only mainstream therapy EHR that prices the ending, and we think that says something good about the company.
The trade-off you accept: the interface is dated next to SimplePractice’s, the AI notes add-on costs $5/month more, and there’s no bundled website or directory. TherapyNotes assumes your marketing happens elsewhere.
The Website Angle Nobody Reviews
Here’s what we see in client audits, and it changes the calculus for some practices.
SimplePractice’s embeddable appointment-request widget — the “Book Now” button that lives on your site — is a Plus-only feature. We regularly audit therapist websites where an Essential subscriber has linked “Book Now” to a bare portal login instead, and new visitors bounce off it. If the widget matters to you (it should), the real SimplePractice price is $99, not $49.
TherapyNotes routes booking through its client portal, which every plan includes. Less elegant on the page, more honest in the pricing.
Either way, the connection between EHR and website is where inquiries leak: portal links buried in footers, intake forms without a BAA behind them, booking paths that dead-end. It’s exactly the seam our private practice website design work is built around, and why we’d rather you pick your EHR first and design the site to fit it.
The Verdict, by Practice Type
- Insurance-heavy solo or group: TherapyNotes. Cheaper claims, cheaper seats, all-hours support. This isn’t close.
- Cash-pay solo, telehealth-first, brand-conscious: SimplePractice. The client experience and included telehealth earn the premium.
- Group practice, mixed payers: TherapyNotes on price, SimplePractice Plus if the front-desk experience is your differentiator and you’ll actually use the widget, directory, and group telehealth you’re paying for.
- Brand-new practice still deciding on insurance: honestly, neither is the obvious first stop. At $39/month, Sessions Health undercuts both while you find your footing — see the full field in our guide to the best EHR systems for therapy practices.
No “it depends” hedging beyond that: if you’re reading this with an insurance-heavy caseload, go start the TherapyNotes trial.
FAQ
Is TherapyNotes cheaper than SimplePractice?
Do SimplePractice and TherapyNotes both sign a BAA?
Can I switch from SimplePractice to TherapyNotes later?
Which is better for telehealth?
Where to Go From Here
Trial both for a week, file one test claim, and send yourself each intake packet. Then make sure your website actually delivers clients into whichever you choose — if you’d like a second pair of eyes on that path, tell us about your practice through the Website Inquiry Form and we’ll map it with you on a free consultation.
