Mentalyc vs Upheal: AI documentation tool vs mental health EHR

Mentalyc and Upheal are both built for therapists. Both sit alongside the EHR you already use. Only one of them can also become it.

Mentalyc is an AI documentation platform. It records sessions, generates notes, and stores client records with session history, safety plan documentation, and session analytics. Its Alliance Genie™ feature gives you a scored report on the therapeutic alliance after each session, a real differentiator for therapists who want that kind of structured feedback. What it doesn't have: scheduling, billing, telehealth, or a client portal. Mentalyc is explicit that it works alongside your existing EHR, and ships a Chrome extension that pushes finished notes into SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, and other browser-based EHRs. Solo plans are capped at 40 to 330 notes per month.

Upheal is an AI-native EHR, but you don't have to use it as one. Plenty of therapists run Upheal next to SimplePractice or TherapyNotes purely for notes, capturing sessions from any browser tab, Zoom, or the mobile app. The difference is what happens when you're ready for more. Scheduling, billing, telehealth, a client portal, and an AI assistant are already in the product, switched on when you want them. With Mentalyc, the layer stays a layer.

Mentalyc vs Upheal at a glance

Input flexibility and session capture

Upheal captures in-person sessions through the browser or its iOS, Android, and macOS apps, virtual sessions from any browser tab or desktop app (with a Zoom app and a Chrome extension for good measure), and its own built-in HIPAA-compliant telehealth. You can also dictate, type a summary, or upload a recording. It supports individual, couples, family, and child sessions, and produces session analytics and insights from each one.

Mentalyc offers live recording, dictation, typed summaries, and file uploads, all from the browser on desktop or mobile. There is no native app. Mini and Basic plans cap sessions at 75 minutes; Pro and above allow 130. Couples, child, and family sessions need Pro or above; group sessions need Super or the Team plan.

AI documentation

Both platforms understand therapy-specific note formats, like SOAP, DAP, BIRP, EMDR, and others. Mentalyc has a broad template library covering many modalities. On Pro and above it adds GIRP, PIRP, SIRP, and PIE formats, psychiatry and ABA templates, and a Template Builder.

The key differences:

Notes and treatment plans

Both platforms connect treatment plans to session notes, and both use the phrase "golden thread" to describe it. Upheal's Golden Thread auto-links every session note to treatment goals, creating a continuous clinical narrative from assessment through discharge. Goals connect to interventions, interventions connect to progress notes. Mentalyc does something similar on Basic and above: notes reference treatment plan goals and track progress toward them, and the app reminds you when a plan is missing. Customizing treatment plan templates needs Pro or above. On this point the two products are closer than most comparisons admit. The differences are in what surrounds the plan.

Note customization

Upheal's Smart Sections let you build custom AI-powered sections using your own prompts at the section level. Write an instruction like "always capture the DBT skill practiced and the client's response" or "flag any mention of avoidance behaviors in this section" and the AI follows it every time. Mentalyc's Template Builder, available on Pro and above, lets you edit any template and include or exclude expert-made sections. Its published materials don't describe writing your own AI instructions per section. The difference is direction: Mentalyc gives you structure to pick from, Upheal lets you define what the AI captures.

The result is a customized template that always writes in the clinician's preferred style and format.

Compliance checking

Upheal's Compliance Checker audits notes against Aetna and Optum criteria before you sign, and can check PDF notes from other EHRs too. Mentalyc writes medical necessity language and CPT alignment into its notes, but publishes no equivalent tool that audits a finished note and flags the gaps.

Analytics and reflective practice

This is the closest fight on the page, and the two products approach it from opposite ends.

Mentalyc's Alliance Genie™ runs automatically on every session and scores it across five dimensions and 27 areas of the therapeutic alliance, grounded in Bordin's working alliance model. You get a structured report: what strengthened the bond, where engagement shifted, what to try next, tied to moments in the transcript, with trends over time. Couples, family, child and group sessions get additional specialized areas. It's not on Mini, limited on Basic, full on Pro and above. If you want a repeatable score you can take into supervision, this is the stronger tool and Upheal has nothing that produces one.

Upheal comes at it through the Assistant instead. You ask. Plan my next session with me. What patterns keep showing up with this client. Which clients are showing signs of risk. Help me brainstorm anxiety interventions. It answers from the client's full history and can pull evidence-based suggestions, and a lot of therapists use it exactly the way they'd use a consult: to think out loud about a session after it's finished. Alongside that, session analytics chart talk-time ratio, sentiment, cadence and silences across the session timeline, and Golden Thread links interventions to treatment plan goals.

The honest summary: Mentalyc measures the alliance on a fixed scale whether you ask or not. Upheal answers whatever you actually want to know, across your whole practice rather than one session, but won't hand you a score. Which is better depends entirely on whether you want a number or a conversation.

Privacy and data handling

Both platforms clear the compliance bar. Upheal is HIPAA, PHIPA, PIPEDA, GDPR, and DPA compliant, has completed a SOC 2 Type II audit, and is continuously externally tested. Mentalyc's security page states HIPAA, PHIPA, PIPEDA, PIPA and PHIA compliance, the Australian Privacy Principles, New Zealand's Privacy Act and SOC 2 Type II, so its list of named Canadian provincial laws is the longer of the two. Both put a BAA in place at signup. The differences are in the details, and both sets of documents are worth reading before you sign.

Where Mentalyc wins

A scored alliance report after every session

Alliance Genie™ runs on every session without being asked and scores it on a fixed scale. If you want a repeatable number you can take into supervision or track across months, Mentalyc has it and Upheal does not. The section above covers the trade-off in detail; the short version is that this is the one feature on the page Upheal has no direct answer to.

Supervision and group notes

Mentalyc has supervision notes built in, which Upheal does not offer. It also documents group therapy as a modality on Super and the Team plan, producing a collective note on group dynamics alongside an individual progress note for each member. Upheal runs group telehealth, but does not yet produce that per-member group documentation. If either supervision notes or group documentation is central to how you work, that is a real reason to choose Mentalyc today.

The cheapest paid way in

Mini at $14.99 a month billed annually is the lowest paid entry price in this category. It caps at 40 notes, excludes Alliance Genie™, and covers individual adults only, so it suits a very light caseload rather than a working practice. Upheal's free plan costs nothing and has no note cap, so "cheapest" depends on whether you want to pay at all; but among paid plans, nobody starts lower than Mini.

Where Upheal goes further

The AI assistant

Mentalyc has no assistant. There is no chat in their product line, their help centre, or their plan comparison grid, which runs to over a hundred rows.

Upheal's AI assistant is a HIPAA-compliant chat that already knows your clients, notes and treatment plans, so nothing gets pasted into ChatGPT. Ask it to pull a client's history, open goals and what hasn't shifted before your next session. Ask it to draft a discharge summary, referral letter or resource list from the actual clinical record. Ask it to think through an intervention with you.

It also takes action rather than just answering. Rescheduling, invoices, superbills, client messages: it shows you what it's about to do and waits for your approval before anything happens. That is the difference between an assistant that drafts text for you to paste somewhere and one that finishes the task.

Two ways to run it, not one

Mentalyc is explicit on their own website that it's designed to work alongside your existing EHR. That's a deliberate product decision, not a gap, and for a therapist who likes their EHR it's a perfectly good answer. The limit is that it's the only answer available. The notes live in one system, the schedule and the money live in another, and a browser extension carries text one way between them.

Upheal runs either way. Keep SimplePractice or TherapyNotes and use Upheal for notes alone, capturing sessions from any browser tab, your Zoom calls, or the mobile app. Or switch scheduling, billing, telehealth, the client portal and intake forms on and let it replace the EHR, at which point the AI is working from the whole record rather than the transcript. You don't have to decide on day one, and you don't have to migrate anything to start.

Pricing

Mentalyc has five plans. Mini, Basic, Pro and Super for solo therapists, plus a Team plan, each at a different price monthly versus annually: $14.99 to $99.99 a month billed annually, $19.99 to $119.99 billed monthly, and $49.99 to $59.99 per seat for Team, which is sold through a demo. Which plan you need is decided by things that are easy to miss until you hit them. Note caps of 40, 100, 160 or 330. Session length capped at 75 minutes below Pro. Couples, child and family clients from Pro. Group therapy from Super. Alliance Genie™ absent on Mini and partial on Basic. Custom templates from Pro. It's a lot to model before you know how you'll actually work, and the caps bite sooner than they look: a therapist seeing 25 clients a week reaches 100 sessions a month, which is the Basic ceiling. Only the Team plan, sold to group practices through a demo, lifts the cap, and that is subject to a fair usage policy.

Upheal is $1 per session, capped at $69 a month, and every clinical and practice feature is included at that price. A light month costs less. A heavy month never costs more. There is no tier to outgrow and no feature waiting behind an upgrade.

Two caveats worth stating plainly. A session is counted when you generate a note or schedule a client, and telehealth calls count too, because the fee covers the whole platform rather than the note alone. And card payments carry Stripe's 2.9% plus $0.30, while insurance billing is $0.30 per claim and $0.15 per eligibility check.

Insurance billing is live now, with claims submission, ERA processing, and eligibility checks built directly into the platform. See the insurance billing page for current fees.

What therapists think about Upheal

Therapists who switch to Upheal tend to talk about two things: how much time they get back, and how the notes actually hold up once they're written.

"Upheal is more expensive than some other similar programs but it's well worth the money. I paid for a year's subscription for Mentalyc but couldn't figure out how to use it even after spending 45 minutes with a team who tried to help me."
Lisa Talcott, Trustpilot

"Upheal has revolutionised my experience as a therapist. It has freed up a significant amount of time, particularly around notes, summaries and admin, while also improving the quality and consistency of my work."
User MancBiker, Trustpilot

Is Mentalyc right for private practice therapists?

Mentalyc is one of the more capable documentation tools built specifically for mental health. If you want note quality, modality coverage, and alliance feedback without switching your EHR, it's a reasonable choice.

Choose Mentalyc if:

• You want a documentation layer and are certain you'll keep your EHR
• You want an automatic, scored alliance report after every session
• You run supervision or group therapy and want those note types built in (Super or Team plan for groups)
• Your caseload fits inside a solo-plan cap, or you're a group practice on the Team plan
• You're not looking to change your practice management setup

Choose Upheal if:

• You want the option to replace your EHR later without changing tools again
• You want notes that connect to treatment goals and prior clinical history
• You want a compliance checker that catches documentation gaps before the payer does
• You want unlimited notes regardless of caseload
• You want one price with no tiers, caps, or features to unlock

Both tools will sit next to the EHR you have today. The difference is where you can go from there: Mentalyc stays a documentation layer by design, on one of five plans you'll need to pick correctly. Upheal is one price, no caps, and the EHR is already in the box for whenever you want it.

Sources: Mentalyc's pricing page and plan comparison grid, AI Note Taker page, Alliance Genie™ page, security page, privacy policy (updated March 2026), and Business Associate Agreement, read on 5 September 2026, with pricing re-checked on 7 September 2026 and the security page re-read on 15 September 2026. Upheal claims are from upheal.io feature pages, the support center, and the privacy policy for providers (updated 3 December 2025). Absence claims about Mentalyc reflect its published plan comparison (over 100 features listed tier by tier), its full help-article index, and its FAQ categories; none of the three mention an assistant or chat feature.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mentalyc an EHR?

Not quite. Mentalyc has client records, treatment plans, progress tracking, and alliance analytics. It's more than a basic notes tool, but it has no scheduling, billing, or telehealth, and it is designed to sit alongside your existing EHR rather than be one. 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.

How does Mentalyc pricing compare to Upheal?

Mentalyc solo plans range from $14.99/month (Mini, 40 notes) to $99.99/month (Super, 330 notes) billed annually, or $19.99 to $119.99 billed monthly. The Team plan is $49.99 to $59.99 per seat with unlimited notes. Upheal is $1/session capped at $69/month with unlimited notes, scheduling, billing, treatment plans, compliance checking, and telehealth included.

Does Mentalyc support couples, family, and group sessions?

Yes, on the higher tiers. Couples, child, and family client types are on Pro and above; group therapy notes are on Super and the Team plan. Mini and Basic support individual adults only. Upheal supports individual, couples, family and child sessions, and runs group telehealth; per-member documentation of a therapy group, where each member gets their own progress note alongside a note on group dynamics, is not yet supported.

Does Mentalyc integrate with EHRs?

Yes. Mentalyc is designed to work alongside your existing EHR. Its Chrome extension inserts a finished note into SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, TheraNest, Jane, and other browser-based EHRs with one click. It's one-way, from Mentalyc into the EHR. Upheal also works next to your existing EHR, and if you later turn on its scheduling, billing and records, there's nothing left to copy between systems at all.

How does Upheal handle session recordings?

Upheal gives you full control over recordings. You can choose to keep them for supervision, peer consultation, or training, or have them deleted automatically after the note is generated. Mentalyc stores audio for up to three days in case a note needs reprocessing, then deletes it automatically.

Are Mentalyc and Upheal HIPAA and PIPEDA compliant?

Yes, both. Upheal is HIPAA, PHIPA, PIPEDA, GDPR, and DPA compliant, has completed a SOC 2 Type II audit, and is continuously externally tested. Mentalyc's security page states HIPAA, PHIPA, PIPEDA, PIPA and PHIA compliance, the Australian Privacy Principles, New Zealand's Privacy Act and SOC 2 Type II.

Can I use Upheal alongside my current EHR instead of replacing it?

Yes. Many therapists run Upheal purely for notes next to SimplePractice, TherapyNotes, or whatever they already use, capturing sessions from any browser tab, Zoom, or the mobile app. Scheduling, billing, telehealth, and the client portal are there when you want them, and ignored until then. The difference from Mentalyc is that the option exists at all.

Can Upheal replace Mentalyc and my current EHR?

Yes, when you want it to. Upheal covers AI session notes, treatment planning, scheduling, billing, intake forms, telehealth, and client records in one platform, and AI-assisted migration imports your clients and notes from your existing EHR.