Nabla’s free tier is a good on-ramp. It’s also capped, and it doesn’t give you a chart, only a note. If you’ve outgrown the free plan or you want more than documentation, the alternative worth naming is an unlimited scribe that bundles a record system. Patient Square’s scribe is unlimited from $79 per clinician per month on annual billing, with a bundled AI EHR from $119/mo at the Copilot tier. No per-note meter, ever. The full ladder is on our pricing page. Want to see a note draft first? Book a demo.
None of this is a Nabla knock. For a resident under the cap, the free plan is hard to beat. Below: where the free tier pinches, a side-by-side, and when Nabla is still the right call.
Key takeaways
- Nabla’s free tier is capped at roughly 30 consultations a month per third-party sites; unlimited use moves you to a paid plan.
- Nabla doesn’t publish a clean self-serve price. Third-party estimates put the paid individual tier near $119/mo; enterprise is custom and sales-led.
- Patient Square charges no per-note fee at any tier. Unlimited visits and notes from $79/mo, published.
- Nabla is a scribe, not a record system. Patient Square’s Copilot tier bundles an AI EHR from $119/mo, so the note lands in a chart.
- If you fit inside Nabla’s free tier and only want a note, keep it. That’s an honest call, and we say so below.
How does Nabla compare to Patient Square?
Here’s the side-by-side. Nabla’s paid figure is a third-party estimate, because Nabla doesn’t publish a clean per-clinician price.
| Nabla | Patient Square | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | Yes, ~30 consults/mo (third-party estimate) | No free tier; 7-day trial |
| Note metering | Free tier is capped | Unlimited at every tier |
| Published paid price | No; ~$119/mo per third-party sites | Yes. $79 / $119 / $199 per clinician/mo, annual |
| Bundled EHR | No, integrates with yours | Yes, AI Copilot EHR from $119/mo |
| Clinical output | SOAP note, ambient capture | SOAP note, ICD-10 suggestions, Rx draft |
| Best fit | Light-volume clinicians under the cap | Practices that want unlimited notes plus a chart |
If your volume regularly clears a free-tier cap, book a demo and see what unlimited plus a bundled chart looks like on your own visits.
Where does the free tier pinch?
Free tiers are a great way to try a scribe. They’re a bad way to run a busy Tuesday. Third-party review sites describe Nabla’s free plan as capped near 30 consultations a month, with unlimited use gated behind a paid tier. That works for a resident or a clinician doing a handful of encounters. For a family doctor seeing 24 patients a day, you’ll hit the ceiling before lunch on the second day, and then you’re either paying or rationing your own documentation.
The paid figure itself is fuzzy. Nabla doesn’t publish a clean self-serve price page, and organizations run through a sales conversation. Third-party sites list an individual paid tier near $119 a month for unlimited consultations, with enterprise pricing custom. Treat that $119 as an outside estimate, not a Nabla-published number.
Patient Square has no meter to hit. Every tier is unlimited visits and notes, no per-note fee, starting at $79 per clinician per month on annual billing. You can read all three prices on the pricing page without talking to anyone.
What does Nabla not give you that a bundle does?
Nabla drafts the note. It doesn’t hold the chart. It’s an ambient scribe that integrates with your existing EHR, which is fine if you already have an EHR you like and only wanted documentation help.
The gap shows up when the note has nowhere good to go. You draft it in Nabla, then paste it into a record system you may also be paying for separately. Two tools, two bills, two vendors to chase when something breaks.
Patient Square’s Copilot tier folds those together. The AI Medical Scribe by Patient Square, one module of Practice Copilot, captures the visit as it happens and hands back a structured SOAP note, ICD-10 suggestions, and a prescription draft, ready to review and sign about two minutes after the visit. At the Copilot tier, a bundled AI Copilot EHR comes with it, so the note lands in a chart instead of your clipboard, all in one $119-a-month line. Audio is processed in memory and discarded once the note drafts, so no recording is kept.
If you’re comparing more scribes, DeepScribe alternatives covers the enterprise, sales-led end, and Ambience Healthcare alternatives looks at the health-system platform. If the Nabla vs Freed head-to-head is the specific question, Nabla vs Freed runs that comparison including the free-tier cap math on both sides.
When is Nabla the better choice?
Be honest about volume and scope. If you’re a resident, an intern, or a clinician doing light encounter counts that stay under a free-tier cap, Nabla’s free plan is genuinely useful and cheaper than anything we sell, because it’s free. If a note drafter is the entire job and you never clear the cap, you may not need to pay us or anyone.
Choose the bundle when the cap starts to bite or when the note is only half your problem. If your front desk is also underwater and your EHR fights you daily, a capped scribe leaves most of that untouched. One subscription that is the scribe, the chart, and the front office solves more of the actual mess.
How to decide in a week
Run the real test, not the demo.
- Count your monthly encounters. If you regularly clear a free-tier cap, the free plan is a trial, not a solution.
- Decide whether you want a note or a note plus a chart. If it’s both, shortlist tools that bundle an EHR.
- Compare unlimited-note pricing, not free-tier headlines. A capped free plan and an unlimited paid plan are different products.
- Ask each vendor the audio question: stored or not, and for how long. Ours is never stored.
- Trial on a real clinic week, at your real volume, so the cap either bites or it doesn’t.
The receipts behind our claims are on the security page, and the full price ladder with no fine print is on the pricing page. Book a short demo to see the note against your own visits, then run the 7-day trial on a real week. If you live under Nabla’s free cap and only want a note, keep it. If the cap pinches or the note needs a chart, the unlimited bundle is what you’re actually shopping for.