Heidi vs Upheal: AI scribe vs mental health EHR compared

Heidi is one of the most widely used AI scribes in healthcare, and it is good at what it does. Physicians, nurses, physios, psychologists and vets all use it. The free tier is unusually generous, the transcription is fast, and it works across specialties without much setup.

It is also designed to sit alongside the system you already keep your records in. There is no scheduling, no billing, no client chart, no telehealth. A therapist using Heidi is also running an EHR. Upheal can be used the same way, as a documentation layer next to your current system, and it can also become the EHR when you want it to. That is the actual difference between these two products.

Heidi vs Upheal at a glance

What Heidi is

Heidi is a general-purpose ambient scribe. It records a consultation, transcribes it and writes a structured note against a template. It publishes dedicated solution pages for family medicine, specialists, nurses, allied health, dentists, veterinarians, trainees and mental health, which tells you how broad the product is meant to be.

Two things about it are worth knowing before you compare, because our earlier version of this page missed both.

Ask Heidi is an AI assistant. Heidi's own help centre describes it as "your AI assistant within Heidi" and lists what clinicians use it for: editing or restructuring a note after generation, creating a shorter handover summary, drafting a referral letter from session context, asking about clinical terminology, and building documents like PDFs or slide decks. It is limited on Free and unlimited on the paid plans.

Heidi Evidence answers clinical questions with citations. Ask a clinical question and get an answer grounded in guidelines, medicine references and primary research, with every key statement linked to the source. Unlimited answers and transparent citations are on every plan, including Free. Inside the EU and UK it works outside sessions only.

Neither of those makes Heidi an EHR. There is still no client chart, no treatment plan, no scheduling, no billing, no claims and no client portal.

Where Heidi wins

The free plan is real, with one condition worth understanding

Heidi's Free tier gives unlimited transcription, unlimited note generation on their standard templates, unlimited Evidence answers with citations, task management and CPD/CME tracking, with no time limit. A clinician can document indefinitely without paying, and very few tools in this category offer that. Heidi is explicit about why: they say making core functionality free lowers the barrier to AI documentation.

The condition is what counts as an action. Heidi's help centre spells it out: generating a note using a custom template including any standard template you have customised uses one action. So does Ask Heidi, form filling, patient and session linking, and advanced in-session Evidence queries. On Free you get ten of those a month, from a single shared pool.

In practice that means the free plan is unlimited if you document Heidi's way, on their templates, unedited. The moment you tailor a template to how you actually write, which is the first thing most therapists do, every note you generate with it draws on a budget of ten. Run out and you keep working, but you are back on the stock templates until the following month.

Heidi's own plan description puts it plainly: Free is unlimited notes with limited access to advanced templates, and limited in-session AI support. That is a fair deal at zero cost. It is just not the same thing as unlimited.

Citation-backed clinical answers

Evidence is the feature Upheal has no equivalent to. Our Assistant answers from your client's record and can pull evidence-based suggestions, but it does not return a literature answer with every statement linked to a guideline or paper you can open and check. If that matters to how you practise, Heidi built it and we did not.

Breadth, and a track record at scale

Heidi lists Beth Israel Lahey Health, Ohio State University, Franciscan Health, MaineGeneral Health and Bupa among its customers. If you work inside a large system that has standardised on one scribe across every specialty, that is a practical reason to use it, and no feature comparison changes it.

That breadth shows up in the product too. Heidi ships Dictate for standalone dictation outside a live consult, apps on iOS and Android, and templates spanning medicine, nursing, allied health, dentistry and veterinary work. If your caseload is not purely therapy, that range is real and Upheal does not try to match it.

Where Upheal goes further

Built for therapy rather than for all of healthcare

Heidi has a mental health solution page and therapists do use it. But the product is built to serve family medicine, surgery, dentistry and veterinary work from the same core. Upheal's note formats are therapy formats, and Smart Sections let you write your own instruction for an individual section so the AI captures the same thing every time. Tell it to always record the DBT skill practised and the client's response, and it will. That customisation is included rather than metered.

Notes that connect to a treatment plan

Upheal's Golden Thread links every session note to treatment goals, so the record reads as one clinical narrative from assessment through discharge. Heidi can link a patient and a session, which is action-limited on Free, but there is no treatment plan for the notes to connect to and no goal progress carried across months.

The Compliance Checker

Upheal audits a note against Aetna and Optum documentation criteria before you sign it, and can check PDF notes exported from another system. If a medical necessity element is missing you find out before the claim goes out. Heidi publishes no equivalent.

An assistant that runs the practice, not just the note

This is the honest version of a comparison we previously got wrong. Ask Heidi edits notes, drafts referral letters and handover summaries, and produces documents. Those are real, and they overlap with what our Assistant does.

What Upheal's AI Assistant adds is everything outside the document. It reads the whole client record, so it can prep you for the next session from history and open goals. It reschedules appointments, generates invoices and superbills, chases outstanding balances, sends forms and drafts client messages, showing you what it is about to do and waiting for approval. Heidi has nothing to reschedule and nothing to invoice, because it does not hold your calendar or your money.

Two ways to run it, not one

Heidi is a layer on top of whatever you already use, and it is a good one. The limit is that it is the only mode available. Upheal runs either way: keep SimplePractice or TherapyNotes and use Upheal for notes alone, capturing sessions from any browser tab, your video calls or the mobile app, and pushing the finished note back with the Chrome extension. Or switch on scheduling, telehealth, the client portal, forms, messaging, payments and insurance claims and let it replace the EHR. You do not have to decide on day one.

Privacy and data handling

Heidi's security posture is strong and worth stating first. Their policies confirm data localisation for users in Australia, Canada, the US, the UK and the EU. Sensitive health information is pseudonymised. No protected health information goes to third-party analytics tools. Health information is not used for marketing without consent. They hold SOC 2, ISO 27001 and ISO 42001, the last being the AI management standard and rarer than the other two, and their help centre states that nobody at Heidi can access your data without express permission, with any support access logged and audited.

Their AI training commitment depends on where you are

This is the part worth reading carefully, because Heidi publishes different privacy policies by region and they do not say the same thing.

The EU and Ireland policy is unambiguous. On sensitive health information it states: "No patient data is used to train, develop, or improve any of our AI models." It repeats the commitment in the section on de-identified data, saying that for Scribe, platform improvement "does not include the use of any sensitive health information." It also says sensitive health information is retained only for as long as the practitioner asks. That is about as clean a promise as exists in this category.

The US policy does not contain that sentence. Instead it says Heidi may de-identify your health information and use it "to improve the Platform and other services," that de-identified information including health information may be used to "develop and improve the Platform," that de-identified information may be disclosed to third parties where platform functionality involves them, and that de-identified or aggregated personal information may be used "for other purposes that may not be set out in this Privacy Policy." The explicit no-model-training language in the US version is written for Heidi Evidence query data, not for Scribe consultations.

Both documents carry a footer reading "Effective: October 2024," while the EU version is bylined 30 April 2026 and the US version October 2023, so the dates are not a reliable guide to which is current. Both were read on 5 September 2026.

None of this says Heidi trains on American clinicians' sessions. It says a therapist in Dublin and a therapist in Denver are agreeing to materially different terms, and only one of them has the commitment in writing. If you are in the US and this matters to you, ask Heidi to confirm it directly rather than relying on the help centre, which states the stronger EU position globally.

How Upheal handles the same question

We do use de-identified session data to improve the AI, and we say so plainly rather than varying it by region. The control is consent. Nothing is used unless the client actively opts in. A client who never sees the request is opted out. Consent can be withdrawn and the data is deleted. Therapists on paid plans can switch the request off for every client at once. Session recordings are deleted by default once the note is generated, or kept if you choose. That is set out in our provider privacy policy, last updated 3 December 2025. Upheal is HIPAA compliant, PHIPA and PIPEDA compliant, GDPR and DPA compliant, SOC 2 Type II certified, and continuously externally tested.

If your position is that no session data should ever contribute to a model, Heidi's EU policy commits to exactly that and ours does not. If you are in the US, the comparison is different: their policy permits de-identified improvement without describing an opt-out, and ours permits it only with a consent your client can give, refuse or withdraw.

Pricing

Heidi restructured its plans in early 2026. As of 5 September 2026 its pricing page shows three self-serve tiers: Free, Clinician with a 14-day trial, and Teams, which is sold through sales.

Older comparisons, including our own earlier version of this page, quote an Evidence Plus plan. That plan is no longer on their pricing page and their help centre refers to Evidence Plus subscribers as grandfathered, so treat it as a legacy tier you can no longer buy.

Heidi prices per user in local currency and does not publish a fixed rate in the page text, so check their pricing page for yours rather than trusting a figure quoted in a review.

What you can compare without a number is what the money buys. On Heidi, the paid tier removes the action limits, so customised templates and Ask Heidi stop being metered, and adds priority support and premium evidence sources. Their pricing grid puts EHR integration on Teams as a custom item, while their help centre says lite EHR integrations may be available on Clinician depending on your EHR partner, so confirm that directly if it matters to you. None of the tiers add scheduling, billing, claims, a client portal or a treatment plan, because Heidi does not do those things at any price.

Upheal is $1 per session, capped at $69/month, billed after the sessions happen, with everything included: AI notes, treatment plans, the Compliance Checker, scheduling, telehealth, client portal, forms, messaging, payments and insurance claims. A light month costs less. A heavy month never costs more.

Two things worth stating rather than burying. A session counts when you generate a note or schedule a client, and telehealth calls count too, because the fee covers the platform rather than the note alone. And money movement carries its own fees: Stripe at 2.9% plus $0.30 on card payments, $0.30 per insurance claim, $0.15 per eligibility check.

What therapists say

"When [Heidi] works, it works well but when it doesn't, it causes excessive catch up work. It also takes a long time to generate a note so I have to stand around waiting for it sometimes for several minutes when I'd prefer to just get started with the next client/patient." Verified Reviewer, Trustpilot

"I feel that the rates are more reasonable than other services and that what Upheal offers is a great value!" Lark Lovejoy, LPC, Trustpilot

Is Heidi right for a therapy practice?

Choose Heidi if:

• You are happy documenting on Heidi's stock templates, in which case the free plan really is free and unlimited
• Citation-backed clinical answers are something you would use regularly
• You work across medicine as well as therapy, or inside a system that has standardised on one scribe
• You have an EHR you intend to keep and only want the notes handled

Choose Upheal if:

• You want note formats and language built for therapy rather than adapted from medicine
• You want notes that connect to a treatment plan and to prior sessions
• You want a compliance check against payer criteria before you sign
• You want the assistant to handle scheduling, billing and client messages, not just the document
• You want the option to replace your EHR later without changing tools again

Frequently asked questions

Is Heidi an EHR?

No. Heidi is an ambient AI scribe with an assistant and a clinical evidence tool. It has no client chart, treatment plans, scheduling, billing, insurance claims, client portal or telehealth, so therapists using it keep a separate practice management system.

Does Heidi have an AI assistant?

Yes. Ask Heidi edits and restructures notes, drafts referral letters and handover summaries from session context, answers clinical questions and builds documents. It is limited to a shared pool of 10 actions a month on the Free plan and unlimited on paid plans. Upheal's Assistant does the documentation work as well, and additionally takes action on scheduling, invoices, superbills, forms and client messages.

Is Heidi's free plan actually usable?

Yes, if you use their templates as they ship. Unlimited transcription, unlimited notes on standard templates, unlimited Evidence answers with citations, no time limit. The catch is that customising a template changes the maths: Heidi counts generating a note from any customised template, including a standard one you have edited, as one of your 10 monthly actions, shared with Ask Heidi, form filling and patient linking. Tailor your documentation and the free plan effectively becomes ten notes a month. Upheal's free plan gives unlimited notes from typed summaries, dictation and uploaded recordings, plus HIPAA-compliant video calls.

Does Heidi train its AI on session data?

It depends where you are. Heidi's EU and Ireland privacy policy states that no patient data is used to train, develop or improve any of its AI models, and that Scribe platform improvement excludes sensitive health information. Its US privacy policy contains no equivalent sentence and permits de-identified health information to be used to improve the Platform, with a further clause covering purposes not set out in the policy. Their help centre states the stronger position globally. If you are in the US, ask them to confirm which applies to you.

How does Heidi's pricing compare to Upheal?

Heidi has a free plan, a paid Clinician plan with a 14-day trial, and Teams pricing through sales, quoted per user in local currency. Upheal is $1 per session capped at $69/month and includes the EHR. Because Heidi has no scheduling, billing or claims at any tier, a like-for-like comparison has to add whatever EHR you run alongside it.

Was Heidi built for therapists?

Not specifically. Heidi is built for healthcare generally and publishes solution pages for family medicine, nursing, allied health, dentistry, veterinary work and mental health among others. Upheal is built only for mental health, which shows up in the note formats, the language, and what the AI is looking for in a session.

Can Upheal replace Heidi and my current EHR?

Yes. Upheal covers AI session notes, treatment planning, scheduling, billing, insurance claims, intake forms, telehealth, secure messaging and client records in one platform, and AI-assisted migration imports your clients and notes from your existing system.

Sources: Heidi claims are taken from its pricing page and plan comparison grid, its help centre articles on pricing plans, plan selection, Ask Heidi and data protection, its US and EU privacy policies, which differ, and its published compliance and solution pages, all read on 5 September 2026. Where this page says Heidi does not have something, that reflects its own published plan grid. Upheal claims are from upheal.io feature pages, the support centre, the privacy and compliance page (read 15 September 2026) and the provider privacy policy, updated 3 December 2025. Pricing and features change on both sides; confirm current terms with each vendor before deciding.