You’re already paying for an EHR. Then Freed took another $79 to $119 a month per clinician to write the note.1 Charting got faster. The draft still sits outside the chart until you push it in.
If you’re shopping for a Freed AI alternative, you probably like the speed. You don’t like stacking a general-medicine ambient AI scribe on SimplePractice or TherapyNotes and hoping SOAP notes cover a 50-minute therapy session. This guide covers why clinicians look, what behavioral health actually needs, how Freed AI vs PIMSY compares, and which other tools are worth a demo.
Why Clinicians Look for Freed AI Alternatives
Freed is easy to like. You start a visit, it listens, and you get a draft in about a minute. You can be live in a day without an IT ticket.3 That workflow fits family medicine. Behavioral health practices start shopping for different reasons.
The first is math. Freed’s 2026 public plans are Starter at $39 a month for 40 notes, Core at $79 with unlimited notes, and Premier at $119 monthly ($104 billed annually).1,2 Forty notes is about two per working day. A therapist seeing six clients a day blows through Starter in the first week. The real bill is Core or Premier, on top of the EHR you already pay for.
The second is where the note goes. Freed’s EHR Push is a Chrome extension. It maps a finished note into browser-based systems like SimplePractice, Athenahealth, and Practice Fusion.3 That feature sits on Premier.2 On Core you copy and paste. Either way, the scribe is a sidecar, not the chart.
The third is the note itself. Freed publishes Mental Health and Psychiatry pages and can learn a template.4 It is still a medical scribe. The training set spans family medicine, pediatrics, and the rest of those visit types. An LPC in Asheville running six sessions a day often spends the “saved” time rewriting SOAP into DAP notes or BIRP notes. Then she ties the note to a treatment plan and strips medical phrasing that never belonged in a therapy chart.
Those three issues are why a Freed AI alternative search starts after a few months on Core. Freed can still be the right tool. A BH practice can outgrow it when the specialty and the stack don’t match.
What a Real Alternative to Freed AI Has to Do for Behavioral Health
Don’t start with logos. Start with the job.
The note format has to match how you document. SOAP is table stakes. DAP and BIRP are not optional extras for a lot of agencies, and the progress note should be able to see the treatment plan sitting next to it. Put a HIPAA compliant EHR and a signed BAA on the checklist before you record a single session.
The draft has to land in the chart. A window that generates pretty text you then paste into SimplePractice is a different product from documentation that posts into the record your auditor, biller, and covering NP will open tomorrow.
Compliance is more than a HIPAA badge. Freed signs BAAs, holds SOC 2 Type I and Type II, stores data in the US, and deletes recordings by default.3 That is solid. Practices that treat substance use also need 42 CFR Part 2, which restricts SUD records beyond HIPAA.5 A SUD counselor in Durham recording a MAT session is not running a 15-minute primary care visit. Some states also require all-party consent before you record a session at all.
Then look at the bill. An ambient AI scribe at $79 to $119 per clinician, every month, is a second software relationship. An AI medical scribe alternative included in the EHR removes the stack, the second BAA, and the “which system is source of truth” question.
Freed AI vs PIMSY: Sidecar Scribe or Notes That Live in the Chart
Freed listens to the visit, drafts a note, and waits for you to review it. Then you push or paste into whatever EHR you already use. Setup is measured in minutes. That is the pitch, and for a lot of outpatient medical clinics it holds up.
PIMSY is the EHR. PAISLY AI drafts AI therapy notes from the structured clinical data you already entered. Ambient Scribe, when you want session audio, transcribes the visit and fills the practice’s existing PIMSY template. You review on the chart, then release. The transcript does not sit in a second vendor.
Price is the comparison people feel first. Freed Core or Premier is $79 to $119 per clinician on top of SimplePractice or TherapyNotes.1
Freed still wins on one thing we should say out loud: you can keep SimplePractice. Switching to PIMSY is an EHR project, not a cancelled subscription. Picture an 8-clinician outpatient group in Portland, Maine. They want therapists and a psychiatric NP on one record, plus group notes and a treatment plan module. A solo family physician who loves Freed and Athena should stay put.
If you want a Freed AI alternative that is the EHR, not a plugin, that is the split.
Other Freed AI Alternatives Worth Evaluating
PIMSY is not the only Freed AI alternative. If you want another sidecar, these are the ones BH clinicians actually demo.
Mentalyc is therapy-first. Public 2026 plans run Mini at $19.99 a month for 40 notes up to Super at $119.99 for 330. Higher tiers add SOAP, DAP, and BIRP.6 Caps bite on a full caseload, and you still move the note into your EHR.
JotPsych is behavioral health only. The Basic plan starts at $135 a month billed annually for unlimited notes. Pushing into an EHR is an $8-a-month extension.7 Strong templates. Still a sidecar.
Heidi is the general-medicine off-ramp with a free tier for basic documentation. Heidi lists Clinician at $110 per user per month on annual billing ($150 month-to-month).8 Not built as a BH EHR.
Nabla does not publish list pricing. It shows up in roundups as a stronger native-EHR option for general medicine. Confirm the number on a demo.
DeepScribe sells through sales and tunes models for specialty medicine (oncology, cardiology, and similar). That is a different buyer than a counseling practice.
Every one of those can be a fair pick. Ask the same question you asked of Freed: is the note born in the chart, or in an app you pay extra to empty into the chart?
Who Should Switch, Who Should Stay, and How to Move
Keep Freed when SOAP plus a Chrome push is the whole job. Stay if you like the drafts and you are not running Part 2, group notes, or therapist-prescriber coordination on one chart.
Stay on your current EHR and change scribes if you are a solo therapist who will not migrate. Mentalyc or Heidi may be the smaller move.
Look at PIMSY if documentation, billing, telehealth, and treatment planning should live in one BH system, and you are tired of paying a scribe to feed another database.
Cancelling Freed is straightforward. It runs through the end of the billing cycle, and existing notes stay attached to the Freed account.2 Moving to PIMSY is a phased implementation, typically around six weeks, with US-based support. Time the cutover to your Freed renewal so you are not writing two checks for the same note.
Conclusion: Stop Paying Twice for the Same Note
A Freed AI alternative is not automatically a cheaper recorder. A lot of behavioral health practices are better off stopping the double pay: once in the EHR, and again in a sidecar that has to be pushed in.
PIMSY puts PAISLY and Ambient Scribe inside a behavioral health EHR. SOAP, DAP, and BIRP sit with treatment plans on the same chart, and therapists and prescribers look at one record. Want that stack? We’ll show you a note generated inside the template, not in a browser extension.
Schedule a demo when you’re ready.
Sources
2 Freed Pricing, Discounts, and Referral Program (Freed Help Center)
3 FAQ: All About Freed’s AI Scribe (EHR Push, HIPAA, recordings)
4 Freed AI Scribe for Mental Health
5 SAMHSA: Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Records (42 CFR Part 2)
8 Heidi Health: Nabla Copilot alternative (Heidi Clinician pricing)
