SimplePractice is a solid tool for managing your practice. Tend is built on a different idea: what if the EHR did the work instead of organizing it for you to do?
SimplePractice
from $49/mo
Tend
EHR free, AI $149/mo
SimplePractice gives you a calendar, a client portal, note templates, and a billing system. It's well-made software. But at the end of the day, you're still the one doing everything — typing the notes, answering the phone, sending reminders, generating superbills.
Tend takes a different approach. The AI answers your calls, screens new patients, writes your notes from the session, drafts follow-ups, and generates superbills. You review and approve. Your job is clinical judgment, not admin.
SimplePractice Essential is $79/mo. Add their AI Note Taker and you're at $114/mo — and you still type, still answer phones, still do intake manually. Their Starter plan ($49/mo) doesn't even include appointment reminders or client messaging.
Tend's health record is free — forever. The $149/mo Intelligence tier adds AI that actually does the work: receptionist, note-writing, intake, follow-ups. For $35/mo more than SimplePractice + AI notes, you get an entire AI team instead of a transcription add-on.
SimplePractice gives you an online booking page. That works for patients who are comfortable navigating a web form. But many patients — especially older ones, or anxious first-time therapy patients — just call.
If you don't answer, you lose them. If you do answer, that's 5-10 minutes per call you could spend on patients. Tend's AI receptionist picks up every call, 24/7. It screens, schedules, collects intake information, and updates the chart. You never touch the phone.
The #1 reason clinicians stay on a bad EHR is migration fear. "All my patient records are in there." SimplePractice lets you export, but you're on your own to figure out the import.
Tend migrates your data for you, free. Records, notes, documents — imported from SimplePractice or any other EHR. You don't touch a thing. Try Tend alongside your current system, switch when you're ready.
To be fair: SimplePractice has a mature client portal, insurance billing with claim submission, a large template library, and a well-established mobile app. If you bill insurance heavily and need a polished client-facing portal today, SimplePractice covers that.
Tend doesn't do insurance claim submission (we generate superbills for you to submit). And our client portal is in development. We're focused on the 80% of your admin day that isn't billing: calls, notes, intake, and follow-ups.
HIPAA
Compliant
SOC 2 Type II
Audited
Built by Freed
Trusted by 30,000+ clinicians
Your data
Export anytime, never used for AI training
Free EHR. No commitment. No credit card.
For solo clinicians, small groups, and independent practices.