SimplePractice Free Trial (2026): Length, Card Rules and Cost

The SimplePractice free trial lasts 30 days and needs no credit card. As listed in October 2026, staying afterwards costs $49 a month on Starter, $79 on Essential or $99 on Plus, billed monthly, with no annual option on the pricing page. Start a paid plan inside the first 7 days and you get 50% off for 3 months. Wait until day 30 and you pay standard pricing.

That is a generous trial, and it is a fair way to test a very capable product. The catch for coaches is what the product is for. SimplePractice is an electronic health record built for therapists and health practitioners, so you would spend your 30 days evaluating insurance claims, CPT codes and progress notes rather than programs, courses and community. We make Coachful, a coaching platform, so read our recommendation with that in mind: if you treat patients, SimplePractice deserves the trial; if you coach, a platform built for coaching will likely fit better. Every vendor term below comes from public pages, and where a term is not published, we say so.

How long is the SimplePractice free trial, and does it need a card?

It runs 30 days and no card is required. SimplePractice's FAQ says you can use its features during the trial "with no cost or obligation" and that no payment information is needed until you decide to continue.

The detail most summaries miss is that the trial has two clocks. The 30-day clock governs your access. A shorter 7-day clock governs the discount. The pricing page puts it plainly: begin a paid account in 7 days to claim the offer, and if you need more time, the trial keeps going to 30 days, after which you choose a plan at standard pricing.

For a wider view of how trials differ across the category, see our guides to coaching software with a free trial and what is actually free in coaching software.

What happens when the SimplePractice free trial ends?

You choose a paid plan at standard pricing to keep going. Since no card is collected at signup, there is no payment method on file for an automatic charge at the end of the trial unless you added one yourself, though that is our reading of the published terms rather than a sentence SimplePractice prints.

Three things are not spelled out on the pricing page or FAQ we read in October 2026, so do not assume them:

• How long trial data is kept after day 30. We found no published retention period for an expired trial on those pages.
• How you export before leaving. SimplePractice's export steps sit behind a bot check in its help center, and we could not confirm them. Ask support in writing if you loaded anything you would need back.
• Whether card payments work fully during the trial. The pricing page does not say. If taking a real payment is part of your test, confirm it first.

The practical answer is simple. Put test clients in the trial rather than your full roster, and keep your current system running until you have decided. A coach who never moves real records has nothing to rescue on day 31.

What does SimplePractice cost after the trial?

Between $49 and $99 a month for one practitioner, as listed in October 2026, with extra practitioners on Plus at $74 a month each. Here is every plan, with Coachful alongside for reference.

One small thing works in SimplePractice's favor: its core feature list includes unlimited clients on every plan. If you run a high-volume 1:1 practice, no client cap will force an upgrade. The plan you land on depends on features, not headcount. Our full SimplePractice pricing breakdown goes deeper on the plans themselves.

What does each SimplePractice plan add?

Each plan layers on features, and the ones a coach would miss most, such as reminders, calendar sync and client messaging, begin at Essential rather than Starter. This is what the pricing page's plan cards listed in October 2026.

• Core features on every plan: unlimited clients, Insurance Essentials, telehealth, online payments, progress notes, paperless intake documents, a client portal website and mobile app, and the EHR mobile app.
• Starter ($49): core features plus basic diagnostic and treatment plans, integrated measurement-based care, online appointment requests and a template library.
• Essential ($79): everything in Starter plus appointment reminders, calendar sync, customizable treatment plans, Wiley Treatment Planners and secure client messaging.
• Plus ($99): everything in Essential plus group appointments, group telehealth, a premium support phone line, advanced analytics and the ability to add practitioners.

Read that list as a coach and two things stand out. First, Starter is cheap but thin for a coaching practice: its FAQ says reminders by email, text and voice are free "if you choose the Essential or Plus Plan". Second, much of what separates the tiers is clinical. Wiley Treatment Planners and diagnostic plans are real value for a therapist and of little use to someone running a 12-week leadership program.

Group work is the other fork. Essential lists group sessions at +$20 a month, which brings it to $99, the same as Plus. If you run any group calls, Plus is the sensible pick since it also brings the phone line and analytics. Check the compare-plans page before buying, because plan cards can change.

What fees sit on top of the plan price?

Card processing of 3.15% + $0.30, $0.39 per insurance claim, $20 per clinician per year for CPT code access, plus optional add-ons. SimplePractice publishes all of these in its FAQ and pricing page, which is to its credit.

The CPT fee deserves a note. SimplePractice explains that the American Medical Association requires royalties for every clinician with access to the codes, "regardless of usage". So a life coach who will never bill a CPT code still pays it. Twenty dollars a year is small, but it is a clean illustration of paying for a clinical system's plumbing.

Promotional windows also appeared on the add-ons in October 2026: Care Aide free for 45 days, Note Taker free for 30 days, and a 50% discount shown on several add-ons. Treat those as temporary and check the live page.

What does a coach actually pay at three sizes?

In our examples, roughly $146 to $743 a month on SimplePractice alone, and more once you add the tools it does not include. These are worked examples, not quotes: each assumes clients pay a $250 monthly fee by card, which is an illustrative figure and not a rate recommendation. The budget for tools beside it is also an example, so replace it with what you pay today.

Two honest caveats. Card processing exists on every platform, so do not count all of it against SimplePractice. The relevant number is the gap between rates. Healthie lists Stripe processing at 2.9% + $0.30, a quarter point lower, which on $6,250 a month comes to about $15.63. That is real money over a year but will not decide this on its own.

The bigger number is the tools row. SimplePractice has no coaching programs, courses or community features, so a coach who sells those needs other software beside it. That is where the stack gets expensive and, just as important, where clients end up with several logins.

What hidden costs and gotchas should you check during the trial?

None of these are secrets, since SimplePractice publishes most of them, but they are easy to miss in a 30-day test. The first one has the shortest deadline.

1. The discount expires long before the trial. On Essential, the 7-day offer is worth $118.50. A coach who takes the full 30 days to decide gives that up.
2. Feature access can flatter the cheap plan. The FAQ describes access to all features during the trial. If you test reminders and messaging and then buy Starter on price, confirm you are not losing them.
3. There is no annual discount to fall back on. The pricing page lists monthly billing only, so the intro offer is the one published way to pay less.
4. Group work moves your price. One group call a month is enough to make the $20 add-on or the Plus plan relevant.
5. AI is sold separately. Note Taker and Care Aide are add-ons. If AI notes drew you in, add $35 or $59 to your comparison.
6. Cancellation terms are not on the pricing page. The FAQ confirms you can change plans at any time, but we did not find cancellation or refund terms for the 3-month offer on the pages we read. Ask before you commit.
7. The language is clinical. Clients see a portal designed for care, and you work in notes, treatment plans and diagnosis fields. Decide whether that framing suits a coaching relationship.
8. Public reviews are mixed. SimplePractice showed 2.6 on Trustpilot from 1,616 reviews when last checked in October 2026. Treat that as a prompt to test support during your trial rather than a verdict.

What does SimplePractice do well?

It is a serious practice system with real strengths, especially around compliance. It deserves a fair hearing before we explain where coaches outgrow it.

• HIPAA by default. Its business associate agreement takes effect automatically at signup, and its FAQ describes the platform as HIPAA compliant and HITRUST certified. The US Department of Health and Human Services explains what a business associate agreement covers.
• Insurance billing. Claims, CPT codes and an insurance add-on on the way. If you bill insurance, this is core rather than clutter.
• Clinical depth. Progress notes, treatment plans, measurement-based care and e-prescribing fit licensed practice.
• Transparent fees. The fees above are published in plain figures.
• No client cap. Unlimited clients on every plan is a real advantage for high-volume practices.
• A no-card trial. Thirty days with no payment details is longer than the 14 days Practice Better lists on most of its paid plans.

Our SimplePractice review covers these in more depth. For licensed clinicians, these strengths are the reason to buy, and we would not suggest leaving for a coaching tool.

Where do coaches outgrow SimplePractice?

They outgrow it the moment they sell something other than appointments. A session-based clinical system handles the calendar, the note and the invoice well. It has no coaching programs, courses or community features for what happens between sessions.

That gap shows up in everyday questions. Where do clients see this week's goals, habits and check-ins? Where does a 12-week group cohort talk to each other? Where does a self-paced course live? Which tool holds your website, your funnel and your email list, and does it know who paid? In a clinical system the answer to each is a different product. Coachful was built around those questions, which is why we recommend it for coaches who deliver programs.

What is Coachful, and who is it for?

Coachful is a coaching platform. One subscription covers booking, payments, contracts, program delivery with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant, with one login for the coach and one branded app for the client. It suits coaches who deliver programs rather than just sessions, solo coaches growing into a small team, and coaches replacing 4 to 6 tools.

These are the parts that most directly replace the separate tools from the cost table, all included in your Coachful membership:

• Programs between sessions. Multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, progress bars and streaks. There is a group option too: cohort groups are created automatically on enrollment.
• Booking. Booking pages with availability rules, buffers and time-zone detection; two-way Google, Apple and Outlook sync; built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet and Teams links; and email reminders plus SMS and WhatsApp once messaging is enabled.
• Payments. Your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account, one-time payments, subscriptions, payment plans, coupons and refunds. There is a 0% platform fee, so you pay only the processor's charges.
• Agreements. Coaching agreements with e-signature sent before the first call and stored on the client record.
• Courses and community. Modules, drip and completion tracking, plus a community feed, group chat, direct messages and video events.
• Website and marketing. A section-based site builder with custom domain and 30 designed homepage templates, funnels, email lists, broadcasts and sequences.
• Michelle, the built-in AI assistant. Works from live practice data, builds programs, drafts emails, summarizes recorded sessions and briefs you before sessions. Questions and planning are included; confirmed builds and changes use AI credits.
• ICF hours. Credential tracking counts hours and distinct clients against ACC, PCC and MCC thresholds and exports a client coaching log.

This walkthrough shows how programs are built and delivered in Coachful:

Sessions sit in the same account as those habits and check-ins, so a client's calendar and daily work share one login.

Signed agreements and payments are kept there too, on the client record.

Coachful also has clear limits. It is not HIPAA-certified and offers no BAA, so it is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing. There is no PayPal and no permanent free plan. The client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account. It has no Garmin, Fitbit, Whoop or Oura sync, no Salesforce or HubSpot integration, and it is not a course marketplace. If any of those is essential, weigh it honestly.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can ask the Coachful team to build a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline, email sequence and more, inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. You describe what you want and attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files. Nothing gets invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. One recent build took a leadership coach with a Squarespace renewal days away to one clean homepage with a repeated "talk with me" button. It does not cover recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. Here is how the white-glove service works.

To start, take a free trial, request the build you need, and bring your clients, programs and content across, since they are imported for you during onboarding. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients.

Is SimplePractice worth it, by coach type?

For most coaches, no; for coaches with a clinical license or clinical workflow, often yes. The deciding question is whether you need a health record or a coaching delivery system.

• Life, mindset and confidence coaches. Skip it. Insurance and treatment plans add cost and complexity you do not need, and clients would get no programs or community. See Coachful for life coaches.
• Business, executive and career coaches. Skip it. Your deliverables are engagements, agreements and between-session accountability. See Coachful for executive coaches.
• Licensed therapists who also coach. Keep it for clinical work. Your clinical records belong in a clinical system. Ask a compliance adviser how to separate coaching and therapy services.
• Health and wellness coaches. It depends. Coaching is not treatment: it does not diagnose or treat conditions, and clients with symptoms or medical questions should be referred to a qualified clinician. If you work under a clinic that requires HIPAA, stay in a clinical system. If you run non-clinical habit and lifestyle programs, Coachful for health coaches fits better, and our list of SimplePractice alternatives for health coaches compares more options.
• Fitness and nutrition coaches. Skip it unless you bill insurance. The Fitness & Nutrition pack adds a workout builder, client logging, meal plans and check-ins. Coaches attach their own demo videos, as there are no stock exercise videos.
• New coaches. Skip it. A clinical system teaches you the wrong workflow, and you still need a website and a way to sell. See Coachful for new coaches.

How does SimplePractice compare with alternatives?

On price it sits mid-pack, and on fit it is the clinical end of the range. We rank Coachful first for coaches on one login for the whole client journey, between-session delivery and total stack cost. Figures are as listed in October 2026, and Paperbell's trial detail comes from an older help-center check.

If you are weighing one of these directly, we have side-by-side guides for Healthie vs SimplePractice, Practice Better vs SimplePractice and Paperbell vs SimplePractice, plus a longer list of SimplePractice alternatives for coaches.

Paperbell is the coaching-native option in this group, with one plan per coach and no add-ons, though it is focused on solo admin rather than program delivery.

How should a coach use the 30 days?

Test a coaching week, not a feature tour, and decide by day 7 if you want the discount. Here is a simple plan that fits the two clocks.

1. Day 1: write your pass or fail list. Name the 5 jobs the software must do, such as booking a paid session, sending an agreement, and delivering week 1 of a program. A tool that fails one of those fails the test.
2. Days 1 to 3: run one fake client end to end. Use your own second email address. Book, sign, pay if card payments are available to you, attend and follow up.
3. Days 3 to 5: look through the client's eyes. Open the portal on a phone. Ask whether this feels like coaching or like a medical appointment.
4. Day 6: price your real stack. Fill in the cost table above with your numbers, including everything you would still pay for beside it.
5. Day 7: decide on the discount. If it is a clear yes, the offer is worth having. If it is not, let it pass rather than buying to save money.
6. Days 8 to 30: test what you were unsure about. Contact support with a real question and note the reply. Ask about export, data retention and cancellation in writing.
7. Before day 30: close it out. Pick a plan or move on, and save anything you entered that you would want later.

Run the same list on any other tool you are considering so the results are comparable. The same two-clock logic applies when you read other trials, such as the HoneyBook free trial or the Skool free trial.

How can you save money on SimplePractice?

Take the 7-day offer if you are sure, choose the plan by features rather than price, and avoid add-ons you can do without. Because no annual billing appears on the pricing page, these are the main published levers. Here is what the first year looks like for one practitioner, before card processing.

On Plus, the pricing page also shows added practitioners at $37 a month during the offer rather than $74.

• Match the plan to your group work. If you run no groups, Essential at $79 is enough. If you do, Essential with the $20 add-on costs the same as Plus, so compare what each includes.
• Add AI deliberately. Care Aide includes Note Taker, so do not pay for both. Note Taker alone is the cheaper route if notes are all you want.
• Watch the promotional add-on windows. A free add-on period ends. Put the date in your calendar.
• Compare your processing cost. If you take most payments by card at high volume, price the 3.15% rate against other options.
• Count the tools you could drop. The largest saving usually comes from replacing several subscriptions, not from a discount on one of them.

SimplePractice free trial FAQ

How long is the SimplePractice free trial?

It is 30 days, as listed in October 2026. To get the 50% off for 3 months offer, you need to begin a paid account within the first 7 days. After that the trial continues to day 30, and you choose a plan at standard pricing.

Does the SimplePractice free trial require a credit card?

No. SimplePractice says no payment information is needed until you decide to continue. That means you do not have to enter card details just to look around.

Will SimplePractice charge me when the trial ends?

Without a card on file, there is nothing for it to charge. That is our reading of the published terms, as SimplePractice says only that you choose a plan when the trial ends. If you add payment details during the trial, confirm exactly when billing starts.

What happens to my data after the trial?

The pricing page and FAQ we read do not give a retention period for expired trials. SimplePractice's export steps also sit behind a bot check, so we could not confirm them. Use test clients during the trial, and ask support in writing if you loaded real records.

Is there a free version of SimplePractice?

No. There is no permanent free plan, so the trial is the only no-cost option, and the lowest paid plan is Starter at $49 a month as listed in October 2026.

Does SimplePractice offer annual billing?

The pricing page we read lists monthly billing only, with no annual option. The published way to pay less is the 7-day offer of 50% off for 3 months.

Can a life coach use SimplePractice?

Yes, nothing we read prevents it, but it is built for therapists and health practitioners. You would pay for a clinical system and its $20 annual CPT fee while still needing other software for programs, courses and community.

Is Coachful a better fit than SimplePractice for coaches?

For coaches who deliver programs, yes, in our view, and we do make it. Coachful puts booking, payments, agreements, programs, courses, community and website under one login. SimplePractice is the better choice if you need HIPAA coverage, a BAA, clinical notes or insurance billing, since Coachful offers none of these.

What is Coachful's free white-glove service?

The Coachful team builds what you describe, such as a website, funnel, program or email sequence, inside your own account on any plan, usually within about 24 hours. You can attach reference links and files. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing.

Does Coachful have a free trial?

Yes, Coachful has a free trial, and monthly plans cancel in one click. There is no permanent free plan. Compare it directly by running the same test plan above on both products.