SimplePractice vs. TherapyAppointment: Practice Management Software Comparison
SimplePractice and TherapyAppointment 2.0 are both popular, cleanly designed practice management systems for mental health practices. However, compared in a head-to-head match-up, SoftwarePundit recommends SimplePractice over TherapyAppointment, except for new or part-time practices with 10 or less appointments per month.
As you'll read below, SimplePractice is cheaper for most practices and offers a broader set of features. We also found SimplePractice to be easier to navigate compared to TherapyAppointment, and it comes with a more helpful support center. TherapyAppointment does offer a $10 per month entry package for practices with 10 or less appointments per month, which should be strongly considered for new or part-time practices.
Please let us know your questions or feedback below. As always, we hope you find our analysis helpful in your practice management exploration.
| Category | SimplePractice vs. TherapyAppointment Analysis |
|---|---|
| Cost | TherapyAppointment is cheaper for practices with 10 or less appointments per month. For all other practices, SimplePractice is cheaper. |
| Features | SimplePractice's overall product offering is stronger with telehealth, mobile applications and a client portal that allows clients to schedule appointments themselves. TherapyAppointment has valuable calendar features that allow you to color-code appointments and prevent therapist double-booking. |
| Ease of Use | While TherapyAppointment 2.0 is well-designed and a huge improvement on the company's 1.0 product, SimplePractice is easier to navigate. |
Table of Contents
Which practice management system is cheaper?
The pricing models and cost of SimplePractice and TherapyAppointment are very similar, with the systems starting at $49 per month (SimplePractice) and $59 per month (TherapyAppointment) for group practices. SimplePractice will save you $10 per month for each clinician in your practice.
The exception is TherapyAppointment's $10 per month entry package for new and part-time clinicians with 10 appointments or less per month.
Here's the full list of price differences between SimplePractice and TherapyAppointment:
- Monthly cost per clinician: SimplePractice costs $10 less per month for each clinician.
- Telehealth: $10 per clinician per month in SimplePractice. Not offered in TherapyAppointment.
- Wiley Treatment Plans: $15 per clinician per month in SimplePractice. Not offered in TherapyAppointment.
- Electronic claims: $0.25 each in SimplePractice vs. $35 per month with TherapyAppointment.
SimplePractice Pricing Details
Starting price for one clinician: $49/month.
- Additional clinicians: $29/month
- Credit card processing: 2.95% + 30¢ per transaction
- Coverage reports: $0.05 each
- Electronic claims: $0.25 per claim
- Telehealth: $10/month per clinician
- Wiley Treatment Plans: $15/month per clinician
TherapyAppointment Pricing Details
Starting price for one clinician with 10 or less appointments: $10/month.
Starting price for groups: $59/month.
- Additional clinicians: $39/month
- Credit card processing: must contact TSYS for details
- Electronic claims: $35 per month or $0.19 each
Key Feature Comparison
We've evaluated the key features of both practice management software systems. Read below to see our main takeaways and images of each feature captured during our demos.
Client Intake
SimplePractice's client intake workflow is more automated and will save your team time relative to TherapyAppointment. Adding new clients to both systems is relatively simple as you'll see in the images below.
However, in SimplePractice, as soon as a new client is added, you are prompted to send that client an email that asks them to visit the client portal and complete your paperless intake forms. TherapyAppointment has similar functionality, however your team will need to complete each step one at a time. You must create the new client record, create and send an email, and then upload your client intake forms into the portal.
Here's a look at the client intake workflows for the two systems. The first image is how you enter a new client's information, and the second image is a client welcome email.
SimplePractice: New client info and welcome email
TherapyAppointment: New client info and welcome email
Appointments & Scheduling
Creating appointments and managing your calendar is comparable in both SimplePractice and TherapyAppointment. Both systems offer appointment reminders at no additional cost. A key difference is that clients cannot reschedule or create new appointments using TherapyAppointment's client portal. SimplePractice offers both of these features for free.
Finally, TherapyAppointment's calendar does come with valuable calendar features that allow you to color-code appointments and prevent therapist double-booking.
SimplePractice: Calendar
TherapyAppointment: Calendar
EMR, Plans & Notes
SimplePractice offers much stronger electronic health records, plans and notes. SimplePractice offers a range of customizable therapy note options: basic templates, advanced templates and Wiley Planners (for an extra cost of $15/month/clinician). Currently, TherapyAppointment only offers a basic editor to create new, simple forms from scratch. However, TherapyAppointment has very clearly said that the release of their new forms is on the way. In the future, the company says that you will have access to a library of more complex templates with integrated ICD-10 codes.
SimplePractice: Progress Note
TherapyAppointment: Progress Note
Billing & Invoicing
SimplePractice offers slightly stronger billing & invoicing functionality. Both systems allow your practice to accept credit cards and manage payor billing and claims. They also both offer time-saving features such as uploading your practice's common services and corresponding billing information. Both systems offer ERAs, but only SimplePractice offers coverage reports.
SimplePractice: Billing Main Dashboard
TherapyAppointment: Billing Main Dashboard
Client Portal
SimplePractice's client portal is more robust than TherapyAppointment's. A few key examples are your client's ability to schedule & reschedule appointments, and edit personal & billing information in the portal. SimplePractice also allows clients to attend teletherapy sessions through its client portal (and mobile application). Clients can view and cancel appointments in both systems, as well as view, sign, and send documents.
SimplePractice: Client Portal
TherapyAppointment: Client Portal
Mobile Applications
SimplePractice has created a mobile application that with a high level of feature parity to make it easy for you to manage your practice while on the go. The app currently has thousands of ratings and a score of 4.7/5.0. Through the mobile application, you can:
- Manage your schedule
- Share, upload and manage documents
- Add and review progress notes
- Access client contact and payment information
- Process payments and view invoices
Telehealth
For an extra $10 per month per clinician, SimplePractice offers telehealth functionality that is fully-integrated into its practice management system. Launching telehealth sessions is as simple as clicking a button while viewing your calendar. In addition to being able to join sessions through the client portal, SimplePractice has built a HIPAA-compliant mobile application that allows your clients to join video sessions from their mobile phones and iPads.
Ease of Use
Having a broad set of features makes for a powerful software application. However, it's equally important that you're able to navigate the user-interface to take advantage of the best features.
Both SimplePractice and TherapyAppointment have modern, well-designed interfaces. However, the key user flows in SimplePractice are more streamlined. While using the software in our tests, there were far fewer occasions when we felt lost inside the SimplePractice software. For example, in TherapyAppointment, it's difficult to locate plans & notes, and you'll find error alerts without guidance on how to correct them. In addition, we found SimplePractice's knowledge center easier to use and more complete.
Bottom Line
Both systems are well-designed and offer the basic features that you need to run your private mental health practice. However, with the exception of practices that have 10 or less appointments, SimplePractice is cheaper and offers a more complete set of features. While it's best to test the free trials of both systems for your practice, we believe that you'll be happier with the product that SimplePractice has built for the mental health industry.
If you are interested, you can read SoftwarePundit's full reviews on SimplePractice and TherapyAppointment.
Click here to visit TherapyAppointment
Click here to sign up for a free trial of SimplePractice.