My Best Practice vs. Simple Practice: Detailed EHR Comparison for Therapists & Mental Health Teams

Choosing an EHR is one of those decisions that quietly shapes every workday in a practice. It decides how long notes take, how clients book, how claims get paid, and what it costs every time you add a clinician. SimplePractice is the best-known name in this space, and for good reason. My Best Practice (MBP) was built by clinicians for practices that want evidence-based care built into the workflow at a lower cost per clinician. This guide puts the two side by side so you can decide which one fits your practice.

A quick disclosure before we start. My Best Practice publishes this blog, and I'm one of its co-founders, so I have a stake in which EHR you choose. That's exactly why every price and feature below comes from each company's own published pages, checked on 10-4-26, and why I've tried to be clear about where SimplePractice is the better fit.

The short version

If you're a solo clinician who wants telehealth, a professional website, and a directory listing in one low-cost subscription, SimplePractice is a strong, polished choice. If you run a group practice or plan to grow, the math changes quickly. MBP's core EHR costs $39 a month for the first professional and $19 for each additional one (My Best Practice, 2026b), while SimplePractice requires its Plus plan for any team and charges $69 to $74 a month for each added clinician (SimplePractice, 2026a). MBP also builds evidence-based note templates, homework cues, and outcome measures directly into the clinical workflow (My Best Practice, 2026a).

How we compared them

We used each company's own published pricing and plan documentation as of 10-4-26, plus MBP's current card processing rate. We compared standard list prices rather than promotional discounts. Prices and plans change, so please confirm current numbers with each vendor before you sign up.

Pricing for solo clinicians

SimplePractice offers three plans. Starter is $49 a month, Essential is $79, and Plus is $99 (SimplePractice, 2026a). Telehealth is included on every plan with no limits on session length or number of appointments (SimplePractice, 2026b). The trade-off on Starter is that general appointment reminders, secure messaging, calendar sync, and customizable progress note templates aren't included, so many solo clinicians end up on Essential (SimplePractice, 2026b).

MBP has one core plan. The first professional is $39 a month, and that plan includes notes and treatment plans, scheduling, appointment reminders, the client portal and messaging, intake forms and custom surveys, online payments, and the mobile app (My Best Practice, 2026b). Telehealth is an add-on at $20 a month per professional, so a solo clinician who wants telehealth pays $59 a month on MBP.

For a solo clinician, the honest answer is that the two are close. SimplePractice Starter costs less if you only need the basics plus telehealth. MBP costs less than SimplePractice Essential and includes reminders and messaging in its single core plan.

Pricing for group practices

This is where the two platforms separate. On SimplePractice, adding any team member requires the Plus plan. Each added clinician costs $74 a month in practices with 2 to 5 clinicians, $72 in practices with 6 to 15, and $69 for 16 or more. Practice managers are $39 a month each, while billers, schedulers, and supervisors are free (SimplePractice, 2026a). On MBP, each added professional is $19 a month, and schedulers, billers, and bookkeepers are unlimited at no charge (My Best Practice, 2026b).

Sources. SimplePractice (2026a) and My Best Practice (2026b). SimplePractice Plus is $99 for the first clinician plus $74, $72, or $69 for each added clinician by practice size. MBP is $39 for the first professional plus $19 for each added professional, with telehealth at $20 per professional.

Even after adding telehealth for every clinician on MBP, a 10-clinician practice would pay about $337 less per month at list price, or roughly $4,000 a year. These figures exclude add-ons such as AI notes, ePrescribing, and insurance claim fees, which we cover next. To run your own numbers, try the MBP cost estimator.

See What MBP Would Cost You (CTA button 2, links to https://www.mbpractice.com/cost-estimator-tool/)

Telehealth and AI notes

SimplePractice includes telehealth on every plan, which is a genuine advantage for practices that are mostly virtual (SimplePractice, 2026b). The flip side is that it's built into the plan price whether you use it or not. On MBP, telehealth is a $20 per professional add-on, so you pay for it only if you want it (My Best Practice, 2026b). If you already use another HIPAA-compliant video platform, such as Doxy.me's free plan or a paid Zoom plan with a signed business associate agreement (BAA), you can skip the add-on and save $20 a month per clinician. Keep in mind that MBP's AI Notes currently work with MBP telehealth sessions (My Best Practice, 2026c).

Both platforms offer AI-drafted progress notes as an add-on. SimplePractice's Note Taker costs $35 a month per clinician (SimplePractice, 2026a). MBP's AI Notes cost $2 per note on demand or $60 a month per professional for unlimited use (My Best Practice, 2026c). A clinician who generates fewer than about 17 AI notes a month will spend less with MBP's on-demand option. A clinician who uses AI notes for most sessions will usually spend less with SimplePractice's flat rate.

Why does this matter clinically? Documentation burden is a real contributor to clinician stress. In a survey of physicians, excessive data entry and after-hours EHR work were associated with burnout (Gardner et al., 2019). Early evaluations of ambient AI scribes in medical settings report time savings and positive clinician experiences (Tierney et al., 2024). The evidence in psychotherapy settings is still young, so whichever platform you choose, the clinician should review, edit, and sign every AI-drafted note.

Insurance billing

As of October 1st, 2026, SimplePractice charges $0.39 per claim for its base Insurance Essentials offering, with lower rates at higher volumes, and $1.79 per claim for its upgraded Insurance Navigator service. Manual insurance status checks cost $0.15 on Starter and Essential and remain free on Plus until 2027 (SimplePractice, 2026a).

MBP offers three billing options. The free plan includes 20 claims a month, with additional claims, ERAs, and eligibility checks at 35 cents each. The Unlimited plan is $99 a month for unlimited claims and ERAs and covers the entire practice, regardless of the number of providers. The Enterprise plan is $199 a month and adds a clearinghouse login and premium support (My Best Practice, 2026b).

For a practice that files a handful of claims, both options are inexpensive. For a group filing hundreds of claims a month, a flat monthly rate can be easier to budget than per-claim fees. Run your own monthly claim volume through both models before you decide.

Credit card processing

If most of your clients pay by card, processing fees can quietly cost more than the subscription itself. SimplePractice charges 3.15% plus $0.30 per successful transaction (SimplePractice, 2026a). MBP charges 2.94% plus $0.37 per transaction as of 10-4-26. On a $175 session payment, that's about $5.81 on SimplePractice and $5.52 on MBP. For a practice collecting 400 card payments of $175 a month, the difference is about $119 a month, or roughly $1,400 a year. For very small payments, under about $33, SimplePractice's rate works out slightly lower.

Clinical tools that support evidence-based care

This is the part of the comparison I care about most as a clinician. Both platforms support outcome measurement. SimplePractice offers measurement tools and includes Wiley Treatment Planners on its Essential and Plus plans (SimplePractice, 2026b). MBP was designed around evidence-based practice, with note templates, treatment plans, agenda cues, homework cues, and custom surveys and routine outcome measures built into the workflow (My Best Practice, 2026a).

The research behind these features is strong. Measurement-based care, which means routinely collecting symptom measures and using them to guide treatment, has a solid evidence base across behavioral health (Lewis et al., 2019). A multilevel meta-analysis found that giving therapists progress feedback produced small but reliable improvements in outcomes and reduced dropout (de Jong et al., 2021). In cognitive and behavioral therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), homework is associated with better outcomes (Kazantzis et al., 2010). Reminders matter too, since a systematic review and meta-analysis found that digital notifications such as text reminders improved clinic attendance (Robotham et al., 2016).

An EHR doesn't make care evidence-based on its own. What it can do is make the right step the easy step, so a measure gets sent, a homework assignment gets recorded, and a reminder goes out without anyone having to remember.

Start Your Free 14-Day Trial (CTA button 1, links to https://referral.mbpractice.com/ref/Simple-Practice-vs-My-Best-Practice)

Team roles and growing practices

SimplePractice's Plus plan supports billers, schedulers, and supervisors at no cost, practice managers at $39 a month, group appointments for up to 15 clients, an appointment request widget for your website, and automatic insurance status checks (SimplePractice, 2026b). MBP includes unlimited schedulers, billers, and bookkeepers, multiple therapist calendar views, Google Calendar sync, online booking, and reports on scheduling, billing, payments, and revenue (My Best Practice, 2026a).

If you're switching systems, MBP offers Standard Migration and a more hands-on White Glove Migration package, a one-time $299 for individual practitioners or $499 for group practices, to help move client records, recreate intake forms, and train your team (My Best Practice, 2026a, 2026d).

Where SimplePractice may be the better fit

• You're a solo clinician who sees most clients by telehealth and wants it included in a low base price.
• You want a professional website and a Therapy Finder directory listing, which SimplePractice includes on all plans (SimplePractice, 2026b).
• You want a longer evaluation window. SimplePractice offers a 30-day free trial (SimplePractice, 2026a), compared with MBP's 14 days (My Best Practice, 2026a).
• Your clinicians will use AI notes for most sessions, where a flat $35 monthly rate may cost less.

Where MBP may be the better fit

• You run a group practice or plan to grow, and the cost of each added clinician matters.
• You want evidence-based templates, homework cues, and outcome measures built into every note.
• You have several non-clinical staff and don't want to pay per-seat fees for them.
• You want a flat-rate insurance billing option, a lower card processing rate on typical session fees, or hands-on help migrating from another system.

Questions to ask before you choose

Whichever way you lean, a few questions will save you from surprises. How many clinicians will you have in 12 months, not just today? How important are streamlined evidence-based and measurement-based care? What share of your sessions are virtual? How many claims do you file each month? Which features are on the plan you would actually need, rather than the advertised starting price? And what would it cost, in time and money, to move your records if you switch later?

The bottom line

Both are established platforms built for behavioral health. The right choice comes down to your practice size, how you deliver care, and how central you want evidence-based tools to be in daily work. If you'd like to see MBP in action, start a 14-day free trial, and you'll also receive 3 months of credit after your first paid month. You can also browse more side-by-side options on our EHR comparisons page. For a deeper dive on outcome tracking, see our measurement-based care implementation guide.

Start Free + Get 3 Months On Us (CTA button 3, links to https://referral.mbpractice.com/ref/Simple-Practice-vs-My-Best-Practice)

Start with a 14-day free trial. After your first paid month, you receive 3 months of credit.

Competitor features and pricing change over time. All figures reflect each vendor's published standard pricing on 10-4-26 and exclude promotions and taxes. Please confirm current details directly with each vendor before making a purchasing decision.

References

de Jong, K., Conijn, J. M., Gallagher, R. A. V., Reshetnikova, A. S., Heij, M., & Lutz, M. C. (2021). Using progress feedback to improve outcomes and reduce drop-out, treatment duration, and deterioration: A multilevel meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 85, 102002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102002

Gardner, R. L., Cooper, E., Haskell, J., Harris, D. A., Poplau, S., Kroth, P. J., & Linzer, M. (2019). Physician stress and burnout: The impact of health information technology. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 26(2), 106-114. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocy145

Kazantzis, N., Whittington, C., & Dattilio, F. (2010). Meta-analysis of homework effects in cognitive and behavioral therapy: A replication and extension. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 17(2), 144-156. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2850.2010.01204.x

Lewis, C. C., Boyd, M., Puspitasari, A., Navarro, E., Howard, J., Kassab, H., Hoffman, M., Scott, K., Lyon, A., Douglas, S., Simon, G., & Kroenke, K. (2019). Implementing measurement-based care in behavioral health: A review. JAMA Psychiatry, 76(3), 324-335. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.3329

My Best Practice. (2026a). Evidence-based EHR built for mental health clinicians [Home page]. Retrieved October 4, 2026, from https://www.mbpractice.com/

My Best Practice. (2026b). Pricing and insurance. Retrieved October 4, 2026, from https://www.mbpractice.com/pricing-and-insurance/

My Best Practice. (2026c). AI notes. Retrieved October 4, 2026, from https://www.mbpractice.com/ai-notes/

My Best Practice. (2026d). Migration. Retrieved October 4, 2026, from https://www.mbpractice.com/migration/

Robotham, D., Satkunanathan, S., Reynolds, J., Stahl, D., & Wykes, T. (2016). Using digital notifications to improve attendance in clinic: Systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ Open, 6(10), e012116. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012116

SimplePractice. (2026a). Subscription plan and pricing FAQs. Retrieved October 4, 2026, from https://support.simplepractice.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005956266-Subscription-plan-and-pricing-FAQs

SimplePractice. (2026b). Comparing SimplePractice features by plan. Retrieved October 4, 2026, from https://support.simplepractice.com/hc/en-us/articles/360034957931-Comparing-SimplePractice-features-by-plan

Tierney, A. A., Gayre, G., Hoberman, B., Mattern, B., Ballesca, M., Kipnis, P., Liu, V., & Lee, K. (2024). Ambient artificial intelligence scribes to alleviate the burden of clinical documentation. NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, 5(3). https://doi.org/10.1056/CAT.23.0404