Why the dimension count is misleading
If you just count wins, Practice Better looks dominant — 10 to 5. But this is the wrong way to read this table. Each dimension matters differently depending on what kind of practice you run. A solo therapist who bills insurance cares enormously about three of SimplePractice's five wins (US insurance billing, ERA posting, therapy note templates) and barely cares about most of Practice Better's wins (food journaling, lab integrations, protocol library).
The honest read is: if you don't bill insurance and don't run a talk-therapy practice, Practice Better is the right call. If you bill US insurance and run a talk-therapy or counseling practice, SimplePractice is the right call. The middle ground is rare.
The pricing reality
Both platforms advertise misleadingly low starting tiers. The practical reality:
- Practice Better Starter ($29/mo) excludes group programs and superbills. Most practitioners end up on Professional ($59/mo).
- SimplePractice Starter ($39/mo) excludes telehealth, insurance filing, and reminders. Most practitioners end up on Essential ($69/mo).
At realistic-use pricing the gap shrinks: $59 vs $69. SimplePractice tacks on a small per-claim fee ($0.25); Practice Better doesn't have an equivalent.
The migration question
If you're already on one and considering the other, the honest answer is: don't switch unless there's a concrete reason. Migration takes a weekend at minimum and sometimes requires a small data-migration project for historical notes. The "better" platform you're switching to needs to be meaningfully better at something you actually do, not theoretically better in the abstract.
What would change our recommendation
The single thing that would make us reconsider this comparison: if Practice Better adds native US insurance claim submission. They've teased it as a roadmap item for two years without shipping. If it ever lands, Practice Better becomes the default recommendation for a much wider range of practices.