Heard Review (2026)

Pricing (2026)

✓ Pricing re-verified 6 Oct 2026

Three plans, billed upfront per year with the monthly equivalent shown: Lite $129/mo or $1,548 a year, Essential $169/mo or $2,028, Premium $255/mo or $3,060. Lite covers done-for-you bookkeeping, financial reports and quarterly and annual tax support for solo sole proprietors; Essential adds personal tax preparation and filing; Premium is for group practices and S corps and brings payroll in as an add-on.

Annual tax prep and filing is a $750 one-off add-on on Lite. Two costs sit outside the plan price: catch-up bookkeeping, required when you join, at $99 for each month you have been in business this year (advertised in September 2026 as a 50% limited-time offer, and on 6 October 2026 as free for 2026 books in a World Mental Health Day offer), and payroll for S corps at $39 a month plus $6 per person.

The 30-day free trial the page offered in September was no longer on it on 6 October 2026. Heard bundles business banking at no extra cost; its own llms.txt (read 6 October 2026) gives the rate as 1.00-2.50% APY, tiered, with FDIC insurance up to $3M through partner bank i3 Bank. Plans change — always verify the live price on their site.

Correction after re-checking: No free tier and no free trial; every plan is paid. The headline rates on Heard's pricing page are the annual-billed ones: Lite $129/mo (billed annually), Essential $169/mo (billed annually), Premium $255/mo (billed annually); the Heard Lite page states these as $1,548 per year and $2,028 per year for Lite and Essential. Monthly billing is not annual-only as previously recorded: Heard's own FAQ distinguishes monthly subscribers, who can cancel at any time, from annual subscribers, who commit to the full year upfront, but the monthly rate itself is not published. Lite excludes annual tax filing (1040, Schedule C); having Heard file while staying on Lite costs a one-time $750 fee. Essential adds personal income tax prep and filing. Premium covers S corps and group practices and adds business tax filing, with payroll as an add-on. The pricing page put the standard payroll fee at $45/month when we re-read it on 20 August 2026, up from the $39/month plus $6 per additional person we recorded on 4 August; on 6 October 2026 the pricing page and Heard's help centre were back at $39 a month plus $6 per person. Onboarding carries a one-time catch-up bookkeeping fee of $99 per month of catch-up required. (re-verified 2026-08-04)

Heard’s pricing page, as we read it

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The video version of this review, from our YouTube channel.

What Heard does

Done-for-you bookkeeping and taxes built for therapists and a growing range of health-and-wellness practices — SLPs, dieticians, chiropractors, audiologists, coaches, massage and physical therapists: monthly books, quarterly tax estimates, annual filing and S-corp support by specialists who know the niche.

What buyers report about Heard

Hands-on: not tested by usReported by buyers: Trustpilot and therapist-community reviews, read August 2026

Themes from the buyer-review sites listed at the foot of this page, read in August 2026. We have not run Heard ourselves, so this is other buyers' experience rather than ours. We summarise it here because the complaints are usually the part a vendor page leaves out.

When the paid plan is worth it

The step from Lite to Essential is $40 a month, and it pays for itself on arithmetic Heard prints itself. Lite at $129 a month billed annually ($1,548 a year) excludes annual tax services, which cost "$750 one off cost" if you stay there. Essential at $169 ($2,028) includes personal income tax prep and filing. Paying $480 more a year to avoid a $750 fee leaves you $270 ahead, so for anyone who will have Heard file their return, Lite is the more expensive plan.

Premium at $255 a month ($3,060) is the S corp and group-practice tier: business income tax prep and filing, S corp compliance with salary and distribution guidance, and an accountable plan. S corp election guidance already sits on every tier including Lite, so upgrading is not what lets you elect — it is what supports you afterwards. What Premium does not fold in is payroll: it stays an add-on at $39 a month plus $6 per person (read 6 October 2026), on the very tier sold for S corps.

And no tier absorbs catch-up bookkeeping, billed separately at $99 per month of catch-up. Both are calculated at checkout, so a Premium quote is the floor rather than the bill.

How to actually use Heard

The shortest route to value does not begin with a self-serve signup. Heard gates entry behind a booked consult, presented on its own site as a "30-minute call · no obligation". Accepted practices then sign up, connect the designated business bank account, and schedule an onboarding webinar that walks through the platform. That connection is read-only and exists so statements can be pulled every month automatically, which means it has to be the account the practice actually runs income and expenses through, not a personal one.

The real wait is catch-up bookkeeping. Heard brings the current tax year current for a one-time fee of $99 per month of catch-up required, and says catch-up typically takes 2 weeks. Two constraints regularly bite here. Catch-up covers only the current tax year, so older gaps still need a separate accountant. And the Lite plan ships an "Allocation guide for personal-use expenses", a sign that commingled accounts add sorting work up front.

Once live, day-to-day questions run through in-app messaging, which Heard answers within 1-2 business days.

The natural comparison is Bench or a local CPA — Bench wins on general small-business bookkeeping breadth, a good local CPA on complex situations; Heard wins on therapy-practice specialization and S-corp guidance.

Visit Heard →

Frequently asked questions

What does Heard cost a therapist in private practice?

$129 a month for Lite, $169 for Essential and $255 for Premium, all billed annually — $1,548, $2,028 and $3,060 for the year. Read on 17 August 2026. Budget the annual tax filing separately: the page prices that as a $750 one-off on top.

Which plan actually includes my tax return?

Essential is the first one that includes personal tax preparation and filing. Lite covers bookkeeping, reports and quarterly tax support but leaves the annual filing as the $750 add-on, which closes most of the gap to Essential — so if you were going to pay for the filing anyway, compare $1,548 plus $750 against $2,028 rather than $129 against $169.

Is it really cheaper than a CPA?

Heard's own claim is that it replaces a CPA, bookkeeper and payroll provider that would typically cost $5,000 or more a year, against $3,060 for their top tier. That is their arithmetic, not ours, and it assumes you would otherwise buy all three. The honest test is what you pay now for bookkeeping alone — if that is under about $130 a month, the saving is smaller than the headline suggests.

Can I cancel at any time, and do I get money back?

You can cancel, but it runs to the end of your term. Heard's help article How can I cancel with Heard? (updated 1 October 2026, read 6 October 2026) schedules every cancellation for the end of the current billing period, unless other terms bind you; those are shown when you try. The annual plan paid monthly is a one-year commitment, per the pricing FAQ. Since the June 2026 Terms of Service, a monthly plan cancelled within 30 days of sign-up is credited toward future Heard services, not refunded. You can leave without owing future fees only if the practice closes, in case of death or incapacity, or if Heard leaves a material breach uncorrected for 14 days. Two practical limits: Heard only files your return if your subscription runs through the end of tax season, and a Heard Business Banking account has to be closed before the cancellation date.

What can I take with me when I leave?

Download your data before access ends. The cancellation article (read 6 October 2026) says you lose access to the account, including your Profit & Loss and other reports, when the cancellation takes effect. Under Plan and Billing a Download Account Information button sends you a copy and files it under Documents > Other, but only after you have started the cancellation. Which files and formats that copy contains is not described: not confirmed.

Can I move to a cheaper plan later?

Only in narrow cases. Heard's article on changing plans (updated 1 October 2026, read 6 October 2026) allows upgrades at any time. Moving down to Lite is open to sole proprietors and single-member LLCs on a monthly Essential plan who have not used, or opted into, annual tax filing that year; once Heard has filed for you, Lite is closed. Annual plan members cannot downgrade until the commitment renews, and Premium cannot move down to Essential or Lite at all, because S corps and group practices must stay on Premium.

Is this a hands-on review of Heard?

This is a researched assessment, not a hands-on test — where we've used a tool ourselves, we say so explicitly. We name what each tool is good and bad at, and we earn a commission only if you sign up, at no cost to you.

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