SimplePractice Review 2026: Is It Right for Coaches?

This SimplePractice review reaches a short verdict: it is a capable system for licensed therapists and health practitioners who need clinical notes, insurance claims and e-prescribing, and it is usually the wrong fit for coaches. A coach would pay for clinical machinery they will rarely touch and still need separate tools for programs, courses and community. If you bill insurance, keep it on your list. If you sell coaching packages and programs, look at a coaching platform first.

We make Coachful, one of the alternatives in this article, so read our recommendation with that in mind. We did not run a paid SimplePractice account for this review. Everything below comes from what SimplePractice documents on its pricing page and in its FAQ, plus what public reviewers report.

What is SimplePractice?

SimplePractice is practice management and electronic health record software for private practitioners. Its site calls the product an EHR, its navigation is organized around clinical work, and it says more than 250,000 practitioners and 20 million clients have used the platform. Those figures are the company's own.

That origin explains almost everything else in this review. An electronic health record exists to document care. So the core of SimplePractice is progress notes, treatment plans, diagnostic plans, insurance filing and a client portal for paperwork. Scheduling, telehealth and payments surround that core. All of it makes sense when your client is a patient and your income runs through insurance.

Coaching runs on a different model. A coach usually sells an outcome over a period of time, delivers structured work between calls, and finds clients through their own marketing. Coaches can certainly book sessions and take card payments in SimplePractice. The question is whether that small slice is worth the price, and whether the rest of the coaching business then ends up somewhere else.

What does SimplePractice do well?

SimplePractice does the clinical job well, and fair criticism has to begin there. For the audience it serves, several of its choices are hard to fault.

• Compliance is built in. SimplePractice says it is HIPAA compliant and HITRUST certified, and its Business Associate Agreement takes effect automatically at signup.
• Unlimited clients on every plan. Plans are split by features, not by client count, so a growing caseload does not force an upgrade on its own.
• Insurance is included. Insurance Essentials is listed among the core features on every plan, with claims filed at $0.39 each.
• A long, low-risk trial. Thirty days with no card is generous, and SimplePractice's FAQ says no payment information is needed until you decide to continue.
• Real ease-of-use praise. On review sites, ease of use is the compliment that comes up most, along with having scheduling, notes and billing in one place.

If you are a licensed clinician, those are reasons to take it seriously. The rest of this article looks at the product through a coach's eyes, which is a different test from the one it was built to pass.

What does SimplePractice offer for each job in a coaching business?

It covers admin and session logistics well, and it offers little for marketing and between-session delivery. Here is how the documented features map to the five jobs a coaching business has to do.

Marketing

The plan lists on SimplePractice's pricing page name no website builder, funnels, email sequences or social tools. The closest item is online appointment requests, which helps a person who has already found you. The site's footer includes a "Find a therapist" link aimed at therapy seekers, which tells you who that traffic is for. A coach should plan on running marketing somewhere else, and should check SimplePractice's feature pages if a specific marketing tool matters to the decision.

Selling

You can take payment online on every plan, through SimplePractice's own payments at 3.15% + $0.30 per successful transaction. That handles a session fee or an invoice well enough. What we could not find documented in the material we reviewed is the kind of selling coaches do most: sales pages, order bumps, coupons, payment plans on a program, or a checkout that enrolls someone in a course. If those matter to you, confirm during the trial rather than assume.

Delivery

This is where the gap is widest. Telehealth is a core feature, and group appointments and group telehealth are on Plus (or added to Essential for $20 a month). Progress notes, customizable treatment plans and Wiley Treatment Planners are well developed, but they exist to document care. SimplePractice has no coaching programs, courses or community features. A client cannot log into a 12-week program, tick off a daily habit and post in a cohort group, because none of those objects exist in the product.

Client experience

Clients get a Client Portal on the web and in a mobile app, used for paperwork and appointments, with secure messaging from Essential upward. For a therapy client, that is about what you want: private and low-effort. For a coaching client who expects to see progress between calls, it is a place to visit before a session and not much more.

Admin

Admin is SimplePractice's strongest area. Reminders by email, text and voice are free on Essential and Plus, according to its FAQ, and calendar sync is also listed from Essential upward. Plus adds advanced analytics and a premium support phone line, and the site also documents credentialing and team management. Most of the depth, though, sits in claims and clinical records. A coach pays for it either way.

There are also optional AI add-ons. Care Aide bundles Note Taker, Session Sidekick, a Treatment Planner in beta and client summaries, and Note Taker can be bought alone. Both are aimed at clinical documentation. Note Taker is described as drafting therapy notes, so check how well it would suit a coaching conversation before paying for it.

How much does SimplePractice cost in 2026?

SimplePractice costs $49, $79 or $99 per month as listed in October 2026, with no annual billing shown on the pricing page. Extra practitioners on Plus start at $74 a month each, though its comparison table showed a range of $69 to $74, and groups of six or more get custom pricing.

What fees sit on top of the plan price?

Several, and most are usage-based. As listed in October 2026:

• Card payments: 3.15% + $0.30 per successful transaction.
• Insurance claims: $0.39 each. A coach who files none pays nothing here.
• AMA CPT code access: $20 per clinician per year. SimplePractice describes it as an $18.50 royalty plus a $1.50 processing fee. CPT codes are medical billing codes, so this line has no purpose for a coach who does not bill insurance.
• Care Aide: $59 a month for the account owner, $49 for each additional clinician.
• Note Taker: $35 a month, included in Care Aide.
• ePrescribe: $49 a month plus $89 setup.

The pricing page also shows Insurance Navigator as coming soon, at $1.79 per claim after 30 free days, and an offer of 50% off for three months if you start a paid plan within the first seven days of the trial. Discounts on the add-ons were running in October 2026 too, so check what is current.

What would a year actually cost?

Here is an example, using the listed prices and not a quote. It assumes one practitioner, no add-ons and the $20 CPT fee, and leaves out card processing because that depends on your sales.

For card fees, take an example coach who collects $2,000 a month across eight payments. At 3.15% + $0.30, that comes to $65.40 a month, or $784.80 a year. Then add what the plan does not cover. A coach who also needs a website, an email tool and a course platform pays for each of those separately, and those costs usually decide the real total more than the plan tier does.

What do public reviewers praise and complain about?

Reviewers mostly praise ease of use and having everything in one place, and they mostly complain about price rises and support. The two big public scores tell very different stories: Trustpilot shows 2.6 from 1,616 reviews (seen October 29, 2026), while Capterra shows 4.6 from 2,819 reviews (seen October 30, 2026), with customer service rated 4.4 there.

Review sites draw different samples, so neither score should be read alone. Capterra's own sentiment breakdown counted 2,641 positive, 115 neutral and 63 negative reviews when we looked. The themes below come from Capterra and similar review listings. Trustpilot's page blocked our automated request, so we are reporting its score and not summarizing its review text. Some older listings date from several years ago, so treat them as patterns and not current measurements.

What they praise

• An interface reviewers call intuitive and easy to learn.
• Client management, scheduling and billing kept in one place.
• A paperless workflow for intake forms and documents.
• Reliability, in the experience of the reviewers who praise it.

What they complain about

• Price increases. This is the most frequent theme. Reviewers describe rises announced on short notice, and some say no new features came with them.
• Support. Several describe phone support as slow or hard to reach. Note that the premium support phone line is listed as a Plus feature.
• Billing. Some call the billing features confusing, and some ended up using insurers' portals directly.
• Cancellation. At least one reviewer felt misled by the cancellation process after a price rise.
• Reliability. Some report outages and connection problems, which is the opposite of the praise above.

The harshest reviews read like this one from Capterra. It is one customer's experience, and it does not represent the 4.6 average:

Technology extremely unreliable, constant connect issues, non existent customer support, price is very expensive ($99 per month) and system issues at least 4 to 6 times per week.

Two cautions for coaches. Complaints about insurance billing will not affect you if you never file a claim. And SimplePractice is built for clinical practices, so a high score says little about how well it fits coaching.

What are the pros and cons of SimplePractice for coaches?

The pros are real but mostly clinical, and the cons are mostly about fit. This table reads them from a coach's point of view.

Who is SimplePractice best for?

It is best for licensed solo clinicians and small group practices that bill insurance. That covers therapists, counselors and other practitioners who need notes, claims and, in some cases, e-prescribing under one vendor.

Three kinds of coach might reasonably consider it anyway:

• A dual-licensed practitioner. A licensed therapist who also coaches may prefer one system, especially while therapy is most of the income.
• A coach inside a clinical setting. If you work with a medical practice or a covered organization that requires a HIPAA agreement, a clinical system may be a condition of the work.
• A sessions-only coach with sensitive records. If you sell only single sessions and want a clinical-grade portal, it can do that job, though you would be paying for a lot you would not use.

Most other coaches can skip it. HIPAA is the usual reason coaches look at it, and it is worth checking whether the rule applies to you at all. HHS explains that it applies to covered entities such as health plans, clearinghouses and providers who transmit health information electronically in standard transactions, along with their business associates. A coach who bills no insurance and works with no covered organization is often outside that definition, but the answer varies, so check with an attorney.

A note for health and wellness coaches: coaching is not treatment. If a client describes symptoms of a medical condition, disordered eating, or a mental health crisis, refer them to a licensed professional. If you diagnose or treat under a license, keep those records in a clinical system. Our guide to SimplePractice alternatives for health coaches goes further into this line.

What are the best SimplePractice alternatives for coaches?

Coachful is our recommendation for coaches who deliver programs, with Practice Better, Healthie and Paperbell as narrower options for specific situations. We judged them on one login for the whole client journey, between-session delivery, total stack cost and setup effort. Our full list of SimplePractice alternatives for coaches covers 12 tools.

Coachful

Coachful is a coaching platform where 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. The coach has one login, and the client has one branded app. It is built for coaches who deliver programs and not just sessions, for solo coaches growing into a small team, and for coaches replacing four to six tools. The company is based in Tallinn, Estonia, and holds a Trustpilot score of 4.5 from 21 reviews.

The main difference from SimplePractice is what happens between calls. You can build multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks. Enrolling a client in a program can create a cohort group automatically, so community comes with the delivery instead of being one more tool to join. This walkthrough shows how programs work:

On the client record, you see goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, tags, payments and sessions together, with an AI briefing and a status of thriving, active, quiet or at risk. Michelle, the built-in AI assistant, works from your live practice data to build programs, draft emails, summarize recorded sessions and brief you before a call. Questions and planning are included in your Coachful membership; confirmed builds and changes use AI credits.

Marketing is included too, which a coach on SimplePractice would otherwise have to pick up elsewhere. Coachful has a section-based website builder with a blog, custom domain and 30 designed homepage templates, plus booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels. Email lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences sit in the same account, along with a social planner and Instagram automations that can send a booking link when someone comments a keyword. See the website builder and coaching software pages for the detail.

Selling and admin are coaching-shaped as well. Payments go through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account, with one-time charges, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons, refunds and Stripe Tax. Coachful charges a 0% platform fee, so you pay only processing. Coaching agreements with e-signature go out before the first call and are stored on the client record. Booking pages sync both ways with Google, Apple and Outlook calendars and can create Zoom, Meet or Teams links automatically.

If you are working toward a credential, ICF hour tracking counts coaching hours and distinct clients against ACC, PCC and MCC thresholds and exports a client coaching log with paid and pro bono hours. That matters more to most coaches than CPT codes do.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can describe what you want built from Create, under "We'll build it for you," and attach up to 8 reference links and up to 10 files. The team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours: a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline and written material, email sequence, form and more. Nothing gets invented, so there are no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and any gaps are left for you. In one recent build, a leadership coach with a Squarespace renewal days away got one clean homepage with a repeated "talk with me" button. In another, a business mentor for beauty professionals got a 12-week mentorship sales page, a free start-up-guide funnel and rewritten follow-up emails. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. Read more about the white-glove service.

Now the limits, because they matter for anyone comparing it with SimplePractice. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and offers no BAA, and it is not for clinical record-keeping or insurance billing. If you need those, SimplePractice wins outright. There is also no PayPal and no permanent free plan, and no Garmin, Fitbit, Whoop or Oura sync. The client app ships under the Coachful listing with your branding, not under your own App Store account.

Plans are flat and monthly, and lower plans cap the number of clients (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). To start, take a free trial and ask the team to build your first website or program. Clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding, and monthly plans cancel in one click.

Practice Better

Practice Better is practice management for wellness and nutrition practitioners: scheduling, telehealth, charting, billing, programs and a client portal. As listed in October 2026, it has a Sprout plan at $0 for three clients, Starter at $35 a month ($25 annually) for 10 clients, Professional at $69 ($59) for 300 clients, Plus at $99 ($89) for unlimited clients, and Team at $155 ($145) for two practitioners. Its Trustpilot score was 3.8 from 87 reviews.

It sits closer to coaching than SimplePractice does, because programs are part of the product. Evergreen programs, portal branding, a custom URL and SMS start on Plus, and an older profile notes no website builder or funnel pages. Compare the two in Practice Better vs SimplePractice or read our Practice Better review. Pick it over Coachful if you need charting for a nutrition or wellness practice, or want to start at no cost with three clients.

Healthie

Healthie is practice management and telehealth built for dietitians, nutrition and wellness providers, with a client portal, booking, charting and payments through Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30. As listed in October 2026, Core is $19.99 a month ($18 annually) for 10 active clients, Essentials is $49.99 ($45) for 250, Plus is $129.99 ($115) for unlimited clients, and Group is $149.99 ($135) with $50 a month per extra provider. Its Trustpilot score was 4.0, from only 5 reviews, so that one tells you little.

Its BAA also takes effect automatically when the account is created, while insurance claims and e-prescribing are add-ons. That makes it a lighter route to a HIPAA agreement than SimplePractice for someone who does not bill insurance. See Healthie vs SimplePractice for the full comparison. Pick it over Coachful if your work is clinical nutrition and you need a BAA and charting.

Paperbell

Paperbell is a coaching tool focused on selling packages and handling the client admin around them. It speaks to coaches in a way SimplePractice does not, but its scope is narrow. An older profile notes no courses, no community, no goal or habit tracking and no native mobile app, so check its current pages. Its Trustpilot score was 3.5 from 14 reviews in October 2026. We compare the two in Paperbell vs SimplePractice. Pick it over Coachful if you only want package checkout and booking, and nothing else.

Is SimplePractice worth it for a coach? A worked example

For most coaches, no. To see why, take an illustrative coach: 15 private clients on a three-month package, with a plan to launch a small group program, and no insurance billing or clinical records.

On SimplePractice, this coach would realistically choose Essential, since reminders and calendar sync start there, or Plus for group appointments. The 15 clients fit comfortably, and notes, booking and card payments all work. Then the gaps show up: the group program needs a separate course or community tool, the daily check-ins need another app or manual messages, and the website and email list need their own subscriptions. The coach also carries a CPT fee and a claims system with no use for either.

On Coachful, the same coach would use the plan that covers 15 clients (Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients), with the program, check-ins, cohort group, website and email in the same account. The team can build the first version of the site and the program through the white-glove service. The trade-off is what we covered above: no HIPAA agreement and no insurance billing, which this example coach does not need.

Change one detail and the answer flips. If this coach were a licensed therapist billing insurance for most sessions, SimplePractice would be the right base, and the coaching side would be the part to solve separately.

What should you check before moving to or from SimplePractice?

Check your data, your payment setup and your actual legal obligations before you switch in either direction.

1. Confirm whether you need a BAA. Ask whether you are a covered entity or work with one. Do not choose software around HIPAA on assumption.
2. Plan your export. SimplePractice's FAQ describes a window of around 60 days after you close an account to export client records, notes and dates of service, after which you should not count on retrieving them. Export before you cancel, and keep the copy somewhere appropriate for what it contains.
3. Keep clinical records separate. Anything that is a clinical record should stay in a clinical system, under the retention rules that apply to your license. Coachful is not a home for it.
4. Move recurring payments carefully. Note who is on a payment schedule and tell those clients about the change before their next charge.
5. Time the trial. The 50% offer on SimplePractice needs a paid plan within the first seven days, so do not let a discount rush your decision on a 30-day trial.
6. Test the client's view. Whichever tool you try, log in as a client on a phone. That screen is what your clients will judge you by.

If you are comparing specific tools, we also have CoachAccountable vs SimplePractice, Satori vs SimplePractice, Delenta vs SimplePractice and Quenza vs SimplePractice, along with the wider comparison hub.

What is our final verdict on SimplePractice?

SimplePractice is a sensible choice for licensed clinicians and a poor value for most coaches. It does what it was built for: documentation, claims and a compliant client portal, at a clear monthly price with a generous trial. Its public record is mixed, with a 4.6 on Capterra and a 2.6 on Trustpilot, and the recurring complaints about price rises and support are worth weighing even if you are a clinician.

For a coach, the deciding point is simpler than any score. SimplePractice has no programs, courses or community, and its plan lists show no website, funnels or email. You would pay for features built around insurance and then buy the coaching business separately. Coachful is our recommendation if you deliver programs and do not need a BAA, because those pieces sit in one membership and the team can build your starting setup for you. If you do need a BAA or insurance billing, stay with SimplePractice or look at Healthie, and accept that the coaching side will live elsewhere.

SimplePractice review FAQ

Is SimplePractice good for coaches?

Usually not, unless you also practice clinically or work in a setting that requires a HIPAA agreement. It handles booking, notes and card payments well, but it has no coaching programs, courses or community features. Its insurance and CPT features add cost and complexity most coaches do not need.

How much does SimplePractice cost per month?

As listed in October 2026, Starter is $49, Essential is $79 and Plus is $99 per month, all billed monthly. Card processing is 3.15% + $0.30, claims are $0.39 each, and CPT code access is $20 per clinician per year. Add-ons such as Care Aide and Note Taker cost extra.

Does SimplePractice have a free plan or a free trial?

There is no free plan, but there is a 30-day free trial with no card required. The pricing page also showed 50% off for three months if you start a paid plan within the first seven days of the trial. Offers change, so check before you decide.

Why is SimplePractice's Trustpilot score so low when its Capterra score is high?

We can report the gap but cannot fully explain it: 2.6 from 1,616 reviews on Trustpilot and 4.6 from 2,819 on Capterra, both seen in late October 2026. Review sites draw different samples of customers, so neither should be read alone. Across listings, the most frequent complaints we found concern price rises and support.

Is SimplePractice HIPAA compliant?

SimplePractice says it is HIPAA compliant and HITRUST certified, and its Business Associate Agreement takes effect automatically at signup. That is a real advantage for clinicians. Whether a coach needs it depends on whether HIPAA applies to their work, so check with an attorney if you are unsure.

Can I run a coaching program in SimplePractice?

Not in the sense most coaches mean. You can schedule sessions, run group telehealth on Plus or with an Essential add-on, and share documents. There is no structure for multi-week programs, daily habits, check-ins or a cohort community, so that would need another tool.

What is the best alternative to SimplePractice for coaches?

We make it and recommend it, so weigh this accordingly: Coachful, if you deliver programs and do not need a BAA. It puts booking, payments, programs, courses, community, website and email in one membership (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). If you need a BAA and charting, Healthie or Practice Better are closer fits.

Is Coachful HIPAA compliant?

Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and offers no BAA, and it is not meant for clinical records or insurance billing. It is GDPR-ready and offers a full client data export as a ZIP. If your work requires a BAA, use a clinical system for that work, such as SimplePractice or Healthie.

What is Coachful's free white-glove build service?

On every plan, you can describe what you want built, such as a website, funnel, program, course outline or email sequence, and the Coachful team builds it in your account, usually within about 24 hours. You can attach up to 8 links and 10 files. It leaves gaps for you to fill and does not invent credentials or testimonials. It excludes recording videos, logo design, ad management and ongoing marketing.

Can I export my data if I leave SimplePractice?

SimplePractice's FAQ describes a window of around 60 days after closing an account to export client records, notes and dates of service, after which the data may be removed. We have not tested the export ourselves. Do it before you cancel, and confirm the current steps with its support team.