SimplePractice vs. TheraNest: Practice Management Software Comparison

Comparison Summary

SimplePractice and TheraNest are excellect products. In fact, we think they're the top two mental health practice management systems.

Overall, SoftwarePundit has a preference for SimplePractice over TheraNest. However, if you have a low number of active clients or prefer TheraNest's unique features, then TheraNest might be the better option for you.

Table of Contents

• Which practice management system is cheaper?
  • SimplePractice Pricing Details
  • TheraNest Pricing Details
• Key Feature Comparison
  • Client Intake
  • Appointments & Scheduling
  • EMR, Plans & Notes
  • Billing & Invoicing
  • Client Portal
  • Mobile Applications
• Ease of Use
• What Do The Companies Say About Each Other?
• Bottom Line

Which practice management system is cheaper?

One of the biggest differences between SimplePractice and TheraNest is their pricing models. SimplePractice is priced per clinician. TheraNest is priced per active client.

Overall, TheraNest is cheaper for clinicians with a low number of active clients (less than 30), and more expensive for clinicians with a high number of active clients (over 100).

Key Feature Comparison

We've evaluated the key features of both practice management systems. Read below to see our main takeaways and images of each feature captured during our demos.

Client Intake

Overall, the client intake flow in SimplePractice is slightly more streamlined. Adding a new client is very easy in both systems, and both systems allow you to send a welcome email that includes links to the client portal with associated intake forms.

However, SimplePractice's software walks you through these steps one after another. In TheraNest, you have to add a client in one part of the application, and then send the welcome email in another part of the application.

Here's a look at the client intake workflows for the two systems. The first screen is entering a new client's information, and the second is the new client's welcome email.

SimplePractice: New client info and welcome email

TheraNest: New client info and welcome email

Appointments & Scheduling

Creating appointments and managing your calendar is comparable in SimplePractice and TheraNest. The client portals of both systems allow clients to schedule, cancel and modify appointments.

There are two key scheduling-related differences between the two systems:

SimplePractice: Calendar

TheraNest: Calendar

EMR, Plans & Notes

Both SimplePractice and TheraNest offer strong EHRs, plans, and notes. Both companies' software offers time-saving features such as drop-down ICD-10 codes and auto-fill text fields.

SimplePractice: Progress Note

TheraNest: Progress Note

Billing & Invoicing

SimplePractice and TheraNest have strong billing & invoicing features. Both systems allow your practice to accept credit cards and manage payor billing and claims. They also offer time-saving features such as uploading your practice's common services and corresponding billing information.

Automatic credit card processing is one unique feature of SimplePractice. This feature runs client credit cards each night to save your team's time.

SimplePractice: Billing Main Dashboard

TheraNest: Billing Main Dashboard

Client Portal

SimplePractice and TheraNest feature robust client portals. The only major difference is that clients can access their TheraNest teletherapy appointments through any device, rather than having to log into the client portal.

In both systems, clients can use the portal to:

SimplePractice: Client Portal

TheraNest: Client Portal

Mobile Applications

SimplePractice and TheraNest both offer mobile applications to allow you to manage your practice on the go. Available features include:

SimplePractice's app currently has thousands of ratings and a score of 4.7/5.0. TheraNest's app has 20 ratings and a score of 2.9/5.0. Additionally, SimplePractice has created a mobile app for clients to attend HIPAA-compliant telehealth sessions.

Ease of Use

SimplePractice and TheraNest are both well-design software products. Overall, they have far better design than many other mental health practice management systems.

With that said, SimplePractice is slightly more intuitive for multi-step flows such as client intake. In our tests, there were fewer instances where we felt lost using SimplePractice.

What Do The Companies Say About Each Other?

As the top two software companies in the market, it isn't surprising that SimplePractice and TheraNest have published articles comparing the two solutions. Links to their articles are below. While reading, it's important to remember to take these articles with a grain of salt, and understand that they might be slightly outdated since being published.

Bottom Line

SimplePractice and TheraNest are both excellent software tools. They're our top two choices for mental health practice management and we recommend that all practices evaluate these tools when choosing a new practice management system. Your preference will likely depend on your active client volume and the tool that is a better fit with your practice's processes.

If you are interested, you can read SoftwarePundit's full reviews on SimplePractice and TheraNest.

Click here to sign up for a free trial of SimplePractice or TheraNest.