For a Canadian therapist the practical shortlist is short: Owl Practice and Jane, both Canadian, and SimplePractice, which is American and widely used here anyway.

Owl is built for mental health specifically and publishes that it is "Built in Canada" with "All data stored in Canada". Jane is Canadian, prices in Canadian dollars, and comes out of multi-disciplinary allied health, so it suits a clinic or a mixed practice better than it suits a lone counsellor. SimplePractice is the biggest of the three and states plainly that "All of our data servers are located and backed up in the United States."

That last sentence is the fork in the road for most Canadian practitioners, and it is worth deciding before you compare a single feature.

Start with the two questions that actually decide it

Where do you need your records held? If your College's guidance makes you cautious about storing client information outside Canada, the Canadian two are the shorter conversation. Nothing in PIPEDA or PHIPA requires Canadian storage, and records held elsewhere stay subject to your obligations — but you are the one who carries that, not the vendor.

How many appointments do you book a month? Both Canadian options cap their entry tier at around twenty a month. Under that, the cheap plan is genuinely cheap. Over it, you are pricing the tier above and the gap between products narrows.

Answer those two and the shortlist usually collapses to one.

The case for none of them, for now

Worth putting properly rather than as a footnote, because it is the right answer more often than the category admits.

If you are seeing a handful of clients, a records system is solving problems you do not have yet. A calendar, a way to take payment, a secure place for notes, and a number clients can reach — that covers a small practice, costs a fraction, and does not need a fortnight of setup.

Buy practice management software when the admin starts hurting: when you are double-entering appointments, chasing payments manually, or losing track of who is owed a receipt. That moment is obvious when it arrives.

Starting with the software and hoping the practice grows into it is how solo practitioners end up paying a subscription for an empty calendar.

What the category does not include

All three cover notes, scheduling, billing and forms. Most cover video at some tier.

None of them gives you a phone number. The messaging they publish is a client portal or automated appointment reminders — outbound notifications, not a thread a client can reply to and not something that rings.

This matters because "practice management software" sounds comprehensive, and practitioners reasonably assume client communication is inside it. The most common gap found when a solo practice audits its tools is that every job is covered twice except answering the phone, which is covered by the practitioner's personal mobile.

Electronic insurance claim submission is worth checking separately if you direct-bill. SimplePractice's runs to US insurers only.

How to compare without losing a week

List the jobs, not the tools: who books, who reminds, who takes payment, who holds the notes, who answers the phone, where video happens. Then check which tier of which product covers each one.

Do that and the comparison takes an afternoon, because most of the feature grid is answering questions you did not ask. Comparing feature lists directly takes a week and still does not tell you what you will be paying in six months.

Trial both Canadian options if you are between them. They both run free trials, and half a day inside each tells you more about fit than any comparison page, this one included.

If you are switching rather than starting

Export before you cancel anything. Access usually ends the day the subscription does, and the records stay your responsibility afterwards.

Move in this order: export, set up the new system, move the number if there is one, then close the old account. Doing it in a different order is how people lose records they are still accountable for.

And be honest about why you are switching. A specific unmet need justifies it. Dissatisfaction that turns out to be about workload rather than software follows you to the new product.

The short version

Solo psychotherapist, Canadian storage matters, mental-health-native fit: Owl. Multi-practitioner or multi-discipline, or you want room to become a clinic: Jane. Already on SimplePractice and it works for you: add the consent-form line about US storage and carry on.

Very small caseload: none of them yet.

About Rivet

Rivet is a Canadian practice line built for therapists — a separate number for calls, texts and voicemail, with video sessions and clinical tools in the same place. Your data stays in Canada, and transcription runs on Rivet's own hardware rather than a third-party AI service.

One plan, $65 CAD a month, everything included. Fourteen-day trial, no card.

See what's included · Start the trial