Carepatron vs Lightning Step

SimplePractice

TherapyNotes, LLC

Alleva

Kipu

Zanda

Sunwave

Compare Carepatron and Lightning Step based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

EHR YOUR WAY

EHR YOUR WAY is a fully integrated behavioral health and clinical care EHR software. It is configurable for mental health and clinical health specific needs and is an ONC certified cloud-based EHR. EHR YOUR WAY is trusted by mental health professionals nationwide and is suitable for behavioral health agencies with 15 or more users.

Our state-of-the-art platform will take your center into the 21st century and streamline the entire process of EMR. Our platform provides more efficient workflows, reducing burn-out, and improving the quality of care. Insights offers real-time data for better business decisions and easier reporting.

SimplePractice is an all-in-one practice management solution that helps businesses simplify administrative tasks, such as scheduling, billing, and documentation, allowing health and wellness professionals to focus on providing excellent client care. The platform offers a robust set of features designed to help practitioners thrive.

All your healthcare work in one place: Notes, Clients records, Appointments, Billing, Payments, Transcription, Communication & more.

Access Controls/Permissions

Activity Dashboard

Activity Tracking

Alerts/Escalation

Alerts/Notifications

Appointment Management

Appointment Scheduling

Assessment Management

Automated Scheduling

Billing & Invoicing

Calendar Management

Calendar Sync

Care Plan Management

Charting

Chat/Messaging

Claims Management

Client Management

Client Portal

Clinical Care

Coding Assistance

Communication Management

Compliance Management

Confirmations/Reminders

Contact Database

Contact Management

Credit Card Processing

Customer Database

Customizable Fields

Customizable Forms

Customizable Reports

Customizable Templates

Data Import/Export

Data Security

Decision Support

Document Management

Document Storage

Document Templates

Drag & Drop

Electronic Payments

Electronic Signature

Email Reminders

EMR/EHR

Event/Activities Planning

Event Scheduling

Facility Scheduling

Faculty/Staff Management

For Chiropractors

For Healthcare

For Home Care Providers

For Long Term Care

For Medical Purposes

Forms Management

For Nursing Homes

For Occupational Therapists

For Physical Therapy

HIPAA Compliant

Home Health Care Management

Incident Management

Initial Assessments

Insurance Eligibility Verification

Invoice Management

Live Chat

Meal/Nutrition Management

Medical Billing

Medical History Records

Medication History

Mobile Access

Mobile Alerts

Monitoring

Multi-Location

Multi-Provider Practice

Onboarding

Online Booking

Online Payments

Patient Communications

Patient Engagement

Patient Intake

Patient Management

Patient Portal

Patient Questionnaires

Patient Records Management

Patient Scheduling

Payment Processing

Physician Management

Physician Scheduling

Point of Care System

Practice Management

Progress Reports

Progress Tracking

Real-Time Reporting

Records Management

Recurring Appointments

Rehabilitation Management

Reminders

Remote Treatment Planning

Reporting/Analytics

Reporting & Statistics

Rescheduling

Role-Based Permissions

By industry, Carepatron reviewers are most commonly professionals in mental health care (35%). The most frequent use case for Carepatron cited by reviewers is mental health (57% of reviewers).

Users and use cases

Reviewers appreciate Carepatron’s wide range of integrated features at little to no cost, and they find the free plan and affordable pricing accessible. However, some users report high subscription costs and concerns about price increases and limited trial duration.

Value for money

The Carepatron integrations most frequently cited by reviewers are: Zoom Workplace (a video conferencing product rated 4.2 out of 5 for its integration with Carepatron) and Google Calendar (a scheduling product, 5.0).

Integrations

Carepatron is a mental health tool offering key features such as HIPAA compliance, automated confirmations and reminders, appointment scheduling, calendar management, document management, and charting, among others.

Carepatron

Web-based

Android

iPad

iPhone

Windows

Linux

Chromebook

Free

Essential

Plus

Advanced

Certified Professional Homeopath

I can schedule the appointment, send the intake forms, send appointment reminders, do the consultation and write my notes - all on one platform.

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

I like that it automatically sends my client's their links and appointment reminders and you can create your availability for people to reschedule/request appointments.

Practice Manager

there is no capacity to change the default setting of appointments to "unconfirmed" (because of the nature of the centre and our way of booking) which means it has to be done manually every day and that's a hassle.

Psychotherapist

The possibility to allow clients to book or pay, receive an invoice or an intake form in advance of the session is also fantastic.

Psychologist Owner

somewhat cumbersome to bill when I have several CPT codes (would be nice to have a template I can use and just need to provide patient's information, dx, and date of service), I work with kids, and carepatron ALWAYS combines siblings together because they think it is a duplicate due to parent's contact information being the same.

One of the biggest reasons I chose Carepatron was the affordability. As someone who spent a significant amount of time searching for an electronic health record system that was both cost-effective and functional, this platform truly met my needs.

LMFT

Carepatron is super easy to manage clients with documentation, billing, sensing messages, video, worksheets, diagnosis  and connecting with others forms.

Therapist

The all-in-one setup is helpful since you can manage notes, scheduling, and documents in one place without feeling overwhelmed.

Owner

You only have a certain amount of memory and you don't know what takes up the memory, its also impossible to see what is taking up memory because they start you out with all of the perks and no info about the memory you're taking up.

Executive Administrator

Each counselor is able to record their session notes, and they love the ability to use voice with the app.

The system has also lagged or stopped working while completing notes. While support does respond, it often takes time for issues to be fully resolved, and it can feel like there are constant workarounds.

For one of the practices I work for, we have had a few bugs. Either the cameras would not connect (and it was not because of our camera or internet) or it would seem like me and a client were waiting on each other to log in (although we were both actually logged in).

Audiologist

It scan attachments in, it's just a shame you can't store some under clinical and others as photo attachments of the ear from before and after earwax removal.

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

I like that it integrates my emails and calendar making everything HIPPA compliant and all in one place.

Owner Director

The calendar sync and automated emails and text are some of my favourite features.

occupational therapist business owner

Carepatron  has provided a reasonably priced product that does all I need it to do.   If I grow in size I have the option to upgrade for more extensive services.

There are still some features that feel a bit basic compared to more established EHRs, especially when it comes to customization and more advanced workflows.

I had to update my credit card information, and when I did so, my monthly payment changed for the same type of account.

Clinician

There is some issue with ensuring each appointment is attached to an insurance claim, which requires manual correction when that happens.  

Owner and founder

Additionally, I often have to clear cookies and cache to resolve issues, and even then, I still encounter errors like “something isn’t right,” which can be frustrating.

Speech-Lanuage Pathologist

I can't figure out how I reached my storage limit when I only had 2 active clients in the system, both who I saw for less than 8 months total.

It may be a good option for those prioritizing affordability, but for practices that need a dependable, consistent platform—especially for telehealth—it may fall short.

Licensed Professional Counselor

I really wish that they had automatic billing, like a setting where it would automatically charge 24 hours before the appointment, for instance.

CEO Marriage and Family Therapist

I appreciate the Low cost, the ai feature and the fact that I can add multiple places of service to one platform.

Excellent value for money, responsive customer support and I really appreciate being able to have appointment management and patient records all in one place.

Counsellor and Clinical Supervisor

I mostly use the calendar for appointment bookings and reminders and the notes features which saves me 1 - 1.5hrs time previously spent on this each week.

Also, I would like to be a be able to manage "groups" or types of clients for different services through Tags, so I can bunch/group onboarding documents related to the service, even is clients might be accessing different services like Psychotherapy, and Neurofeedback.

Director of Social Services

create an intake form packet that get automatically sent to clients when we schedule an intake (phq9,GAD) and these forms should be able to be completed and when the client hit submit, they should be loaded to their chart for us to review…

It meets my operational needs, continues to improve, and provides a level of accessibility that is hard to find at this price point.

A pro and a con is the customizability of forms, documents and notes.

Director

It has all of the features I need for my practice - video, EHR, payment, upcoming AI capability, editable forms

Owner and Therapist

Updates that I would like for you to consider include: 1) place for a client photo on the personal information page, 2) place for clients to upload a photo ID, 3) ability to create and save a custom signature for use with templates, 4) option to schedule electronic payouts to once per week rather than when processed.

I would like a place to onboard employees - not to process payroll, but to have the same option of sending a folder with all required documents to sign, and a place to store them all similar to client records - just for staff, and Therapy practice specific templates for adding therapist's as employees, business associate, or partner etc.  

All functions required for a practice are in one place— scheduling, billing, client database, notes, and more.

Sometimes I am unable to access my client list which is frustrating when you need to access their details for a session.

Dietitian

It is missing certain features that could be used in dietetic practice such as webinar hosting, course building functionality, and digital, food moods and symptoms diary.

License Professional Counseling

My clients are able to utilize the system to schedule their appointments without waiting.

Psychologist

It was slow for clients to fill in their intake forms, the software would pause or glitch halfway through and they would loose their form or get frustrated and not submit, so had to do in session time, and also waste time in session checking if they had read and signed essential documents consent signatures

Diag.

CarePatron combines features like scheduling, billing, client management, and documentation in one place, reducing the need for multiple tools.

It is generally very easy to book appointments, create invoices, and the automated appointment reminders are helpful to clients.

Additionally, the AI scribe and note-taking tools are excellent—they save time and make documentation much more efficient.

therapist

It offers a lot of value, especially with the AI note-taking feature, which is excellent and saves time.

I can clearly see updates being made regularly, and it shows that the company is actively investing in making the platform better for its users.

Carepatron vs Lightning Step Comparison (2026)

Carepatron

Lightning Step

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives