For a solo Canadian therapist, either will run your practice. Both are Canadian companies, both quote in Canadian dollars, both cover notes, scheduling, billing, forms and video. Choosing between them is not a decision you can get badly wrong.

The honest difference is who each one was built around. Owl Practice is built for mental health specifically. Jane started in multi-disciplinary allied health — physiotherapy, massage, chiropractic — and grew into mental health, so it carries more of a clinic's machinery, which is either useful or extra depending on whether you are a clinic.

Pick on that, not on the feature grid. The grids look nearly identical because at the solo tier they nearly are.

Where each one is stronger

Owl leans therapy-native. The vocabulary, the note structures and the defaults are built around counselling rather than adapted to it. Owl also publishes that it is "Built in Canada" and that "All data stored in Canada" — which is their claim about their own service, and worth reading directly if data location matters to your College or your consent form.

Jane leans broader and more configurable. More surface area, more settings, and a stronger fit if your practice has several practitioners, several disciplines or a front desk. That same breadth is why a solo counsellor can open it and find a lot of switches that are not for them.

If you share space with allied-health colleagues and want one system across the suite, that pushes toward Jane. If you are a psychotherapist working alone and want the software to already speak your language, that pushes toward Owl.

What both of them cost

Both publish solo pricing in Canadian dollars, and both run an entry tier that caps how many appointments a month you can book — around twenty on the lowest plan for each, with the cap lifting on the tier above. That cap is the number to check first, because a part-time practice can sit under it comfortably and a growing one will hit it in a season.

Exact figures move, so read them from the source rather than from any page that lists them, including this one. There is a separate guide on what each costs and where the tier boundaries fall.

The thing neither of them does

Neither gives you a phone number.

This is the most common surprise, and it is not a criticism of either product — they are records systems, and a phone line is a different kind of thing. But it means "my practice software handles client communication" is usually true only in one direction.

Both publish SMS as appointment and payment reminders: automated messages going out on a schedule. Jane notes that SMS availability varies by region. Owl lists email and SMS reminders across its solo plans. Neither is a thread a client can reply to, and neither rings.

So if you are choosing practice software partly to solve "clients keep texting my personal number", it will not solve it. The secure messaging both offer runs through a client portal, which means the client has to log in — and the practical finding across Canadian practices is that clients who want to text will text, not log in.

Where the money actually leaks

Not in the difference between them. In buying one, then buying a second thing to cover video, then a third to cover the phone, and never noticing the overlap.

Before you switch or add anything, list the jobs rather than the tools: who books, who reminds, who takes payment, who holds the notes, who answers the phone, where the video happens. Most solo practices find one or two jobs covered twice and one covered by nobody. The uncovered one is almost always the phone.

If you are already on one and wondering about the other

Switching costs more than the price difference. Export before you cancel anything, because access usually ends the day the subscription does, and the records are still your responsibility afterwards.

The switches that are worth it are the ones driven by a specific unmet need — you have grown into a group, or you need something your current system genuinely does not do. "The other one looks a bit nicer" is not that, and it costs a fortnight of your evenings.

The short version

Solo psychotherapist working alone: Owl is the more natural fit. Multi- practitioner, multi-discipline, or you want room to grow into a clinic: Jane. Either way, check the appointment cap on the entry tier, and plan the phone separately, because neither one covers it.

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