Summary
People rarely leave Tandem over note quality. Its pricing page, checked 30 August 2026, still shows a free tier with unlimited note generation and a Pro plan at 125 euros a user a month billed yearly, and it reports more than 5,000 organisations using it with one click transfer to over 100 medical record systems. That is an honest, well built European scribe.
The two reasons buyers look elsewhere are scope and geography. Tandem's product ends where the documentation ends, so the enquiries, the bookings, the recalls and the front desk remain someone else's job. And its market is Europe, which leaves a US practice, or a UK clinic that wants US coverage too, shopping again.
The realistic alternatives are Freed, Heidi, Nabla, Abridge and wai. Here is each one on its published price and its real scope, with sources checked today.
wai covers the consult, the letters and the front desk at one published price. See it on your own workflows.
Book a demo| Product | Published price | Scope beyond the note |
|---|---|---|
| Tandem | Free tier, Pro at 125 euros a user monthly billed yearly | Coding and documents, ends at the documentation |
| Freed | $39 to $119 a month, on the page | Coding, letters and EHR push on the $119 tier |
| Heidi | Tiers listed, figures not shown on the page | Templates, coding and team features by tier |
| Nabla | Not published | Documentation, with the category's only randomised win |
| Abridge | Not published | Enterprise documentation for large health systems |
| wai | $250 a clinician a month, on one page | Letters, coding, front desk and recalls on one record |
Why people look past Tandem
The product ends at the documentation. Notes, documents and coding are covered, and covered well, but a clinic's day includes the phone, the inbox, the recalls and the follow ups, and none of that is Tandem's job. A practice buying one system for the whole day has to keep shopping.
Geography is the second reason. Tandem is built for Europe, and our full Tandem comparison covers what that means in detail. A US practice, or a group with clinics on both sides of the Atlantic, needs a vendor that treats the US as home ground.
Neither reason is a criticism of the scribe itself. The free tier remains one of the most honest ways to evaluate any product in this category, and a European buyer who only needs the documentation should try it before paying anyone.
The scribe for scribe swaps
Freed is the most transparent purchase in the category. Its pricing page, checked today, shows Starter at $39 a month for up to 40 notes, Core at $79 for unlimited notes, and Premier at $119 with EHR push, dictation, ICD-10 and CPT coding and patient letters, all behind a seven day trial with no card. Our Freed comparison goes deeper.
Heidi ships a free plan with unlimited transcription and a fourteen day trial of its paid tiers. What its pricing page no longer shows, as of 30 August 2026, is a figure. The plans are listed, the prices are not, so budget it by asking sales what your tier costs and getting the number in writing. The Heidi comparison covers the rest.
Nabla is the evidence pick. It holds the only randomised win in the category, a 9.5 percent cut in note time in a trial across 238 physicians and 14 specialties, and its site reports more than 85,000 clinicians. It publishes no price, so procurement runs through sales.
The enterprise route
Abridge is the large health system's answer. Its site reports more than 300 health systems and KLAS market leadership in 2025 and 2026, and its integrations run deepest at enterprise scale. There is no published price and no self serve trial, so a small practice is not who it is built for.
A clinic weighing Abridge against Tandem is really choosing between two procurement processes. Both end in a documentation product. The question that should come first is whether documentation is the whole problem.
Price the whole job
Every product above prices the note. The uncovered work, the missed calls, the unchased recalls, the letters typed after clinic, costs more per month than any subscription on this page. Compare on the whole job, and use the price index to see who publishes what.
wai prices the whole job on one public page, $250 a clinician a month for the consult, the letters and the coding, and a published per location price for the front desk. Clinicians still decide what enters the record and what reaches a patient.
The honest verdict
A European clinic that only needs documentation should evaluate Tandem's free tier before paying anyone, and Nabla if evidence decides it. A price sensitive solo clinician should start with Freed. A large health system belongs in the Abridge conversation.
A private clinic that wants the consult and the clinic around it handled, in the UK or the US, is buying a different product. wai is live in days, priced in the open, and built inside a working clinic that runs on it every morning.
Frequently asked questions
Why do people switch away from Tandem?
Scope and geography, not note quality. Tandem's product ends at the documentation, so the front desk, the recalls and the follow ups stay uncovered, and its market is Europe, which rules it out for US practices. Its free tier and published Pro price at 125 euros a user a month billed yearly remain among the most honest offers in the category.
What is the cheapest Tandem alternative?
On published figures, Freed's Starter at $39 a month for up to 40 notes is the lowest paid entry, checked 30 August 2026. Heidi and Tandem both offer free tiers worth testing. Remember that letters, coding and EHR push usually sit on higher tiers, so price the tier you would actually need, not the headline.
Which Tandem alternative has the best evidence?
Nabla. It holds the only randomised trial win in the category, a 9.5 percent reduction in note writing time, about 41 seconds a note, in a trial across 238 physicians and 14 specialties. The same trial found no reduction in after hours work for either product tested, which is worth reading carefully before buying any scribe on time savings alone.
Which alternative covers more than the note?
Freed's $119 Premier tier adds coding, letters and EHR push, and Abridge covers enterprise workflows at health system scale. wai is the option built as a whole clinic system, drafting notes, letters and codes from the consult and running enquiries, bookings and recalls through wai Admin, at prices published on one page, with a human approving anything that touches a patient.
Live this week, not next quarter.
Thirty minutes and you will see the consult, the front desk and the patient record running as one system.