If you already pay for practice-management software that includes video, use it. Jane publishes that one-to-one video is included in every plan. Owl Practice publishes video therapy running on Canadian servers. Paying a second subscription for a second video window, when the one you have is connected to your schedule and your chart, is money for nothing.

That covers a large share of Canadian therapists, and it is the answer this page would give most readers.

The question gets interesting for everyone else — practitioners with no EHR, or with an EHR whose video doesn't do what they need, or with a specific requirement their current tool won't meet. Then there are four real shapes to choose between, and the deciding factor is almost never video quality. It is what your client has to do to join, where the data goes, and whether the clinical tools you use during the hour are in the same window.

What are the options, honestly?

Your EHR's built-in video. Jane, Owl Practice and similar platforms. Already paid for, tied to scheduling and charting, and for a solo practitioner running straightforward talk therapy this is usually the end of the search. Owl publishes Canadian server residency; Jane publishes that one-to-one calls connect directly between the two devices rather than passing through their servers.

Dedicated telehealth video. Doxy.me is the best-known. Purpose-built for clinicians, no install for the client, and a long track record. Its own help documentation states its servers are in the United States, with the reasoning that it holds no health information because calls connect directly between the two parties. For some practitioners that reasoning settles the question. For others the server location settles it the other way.

General-purpose meeting tools. Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams. Cheap or free, universally familiar, and technically excellent. The costs are clinical rather than technical: a client who needs an app or an account, a meeting-room aesthetic, no clinical tooling, and — worth testing — a screen share that may replace your camera with the shared content on the client's side.

Platforms built around a therapy practice. Video with the practice's other surfaces attached — the phone line, the waiting room, clinical tools in the same window. Newer, smaller, and only worth the switch if you actually need more than a call.

What should I actually compare?

Not resolution. Five things, in rough order of how often they cause problems.

What the client has to do to join. A download, an account, an app update, a meeting ID — every step is a chance for a first session to become a rescheduled one. The best case is a link that opens in whatever browser they already have.

Where the data lives, and what "data" means. Video that connects directly between two devices is a different question from the account records, scheduling information and session logs sitting on a server somewhere. Ask about both. Treat "compliant" on any vendor page as marketing rather than as an answer.

Whether your face survives a screen share. Many meeting tools replace the sharer's camera with the shared content on the receiving side. If you share worksheets, safety plans or anything emotionally weighted, that matters.

What happens to your practice number. Separate question, same decision. Some platforms are only video; some carry the phone side too.

What it costs when you actually need help. A platform that fails ten minutes before a session is a clinical problem. Support responsiveness is hard to compare from a website and easy to check by asking one direct question before you sign up and seeing how long the reply takes.

Who is each one actually right for?

Stay with your EHR's video if you're doing talk therapy, your clients join without complaining, and your charting and scheduling already live there. This is the majority case and there is no reason to move.

Doxy.me if you want dedicated clinical video with a long track record, no client install, and you've reached your own conclusion about United States server location. A great many clinicians have.

A general meeting tool if cost is the binding constraint and your clients are already fluent in it. It is a real answer, and a practitioner starting out with four clients should not be talked out of it.

Something built around the practice if you're solving more than video — the practice line, the boundary problem, clinical tools in the session, a Canadian residency requirement you can put in writing. If video is the only thing you need, this is the wrong shape and it will cost you more than it returns.

What about prices?

All four show Canadian dollars to a Canadian visitor, which makes this a fairer comparison than it usually is.

Checked in August 2026: Jane's plans were CAD $54, $79 and $99 a month, with one-to-one telehealth included on all three and group telehealth sold separately. Owl Practice's solo plans were CAD $60, $80 and $100 a month plus tax, with video included — and it was running an introductory discount at the time, so the first number you see is not the one you pay in month five. Doxy.me was CA$35 per user a month billed annually, with a free version alongside it. Zoom's paid tiers were CA$19.16 and CA$24.99 per user a month, though both are an annual prepay shown as a monthly rate rather than a monthly bill.

Zoom's free tier comes with the detail that matters more than any of those figures: it caps a meeting at forty minutes. A fifty-minute hour does not fit inside that, which is the practical reason the free tier isn't the answer even though it looks like the obvious one.

Check the vendor's own page on the day you decide, because these move. And check the two things a headline number hides: what "per practitioner" or "per user" means if you might ever add an associate, and whether tax is inside the figure or on top of it.

The one pricing question worth asking that isn't on any of those pages: what happens at the end, if you leave. Whether you can export your records, and whether you can take your number with you, is worth more than a few dollars a month either way.

What if I'm switching?

Two things carry most of the risk, and neither is technical.

Your clients have to learn a new door. Whatever link, room or ritual they use now is a habit, and habits outlive announcements. Tell them once in writing, then again in the session before the switch.

Your old link keeps working for a while, or it doesn't. If it doesn't, a client who bookmarked it lands on nothing at their session time. Find out which before you cancel anything.

The short version

Use the video you're already paying for unless there's a specific reason not to. If there is a reason, name it before you shop — client join friction, data residency, screen share behaviour, or clinical tools in the hour — because the platforms differ far more on those than on the call itself.

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