last updated september 29, 2026
both platforms credential you with insurers and handle billing so you can accept insurance without the back-office. the money works oppositely: Alma charges a flat $125/mo and you keep 100% of reimbursements; Headway is free but keeps an estimated 10–15% of each reimbursement. below roughly 12 insurance sessions a week, Headway is cheaper. above roughly 14–16, Alma wins. neither platform markets your practice much — which is where a directory or community layer (Psychology Today, or our own veisund) sits alongside either one.
Alma and Headway solve the same problem: getting paneled with insurers is slow, and billing them is miserable. both credential you under their group contracts (Aetna, Cigna, Optum, and others, varying by state), verify client benefits, submit claims, chase them, and pay you on a reliable schedule regardless of when the insurer pays. on both, you're a 1099 contractor and — this matters — you don't hold the payer contract. the platform does.
Alma charges a membership: $125/mo, or $1,140/yr (about 25% off). every insurance dollar reimbursed goes to you. cash-pay income is untouched. the fee is fixed whether you see 4 clients or 40. Headway charges you nothing. it makes money on the spread: it negotiates rates with insurers and keeps a portion. Headway doesn't publish the percentage; consistent therapist reports put it around 10–15%. on a $175 90837 session, that's roughly $17–26 per session. you see your exact per-CPT rates before signing, so the number isn't a mystery for you specifically — it's just not public. checked on 2026-09-29: Alma's provider page lists the annual membership at $1,140, currently offered at $600 for the first year, and says Alma takes no cut of cash-pay fees; the monthly price wasn't in the page text we could read, so the $125/mo figure is from our 2026-08-17 check. Headway's site blocked automated reading on 2026-09-29, so its figures here are from the earlier check and therapist reports.
crossover sits around 14–16 sessions/week once you account for Alma's reportedly slightly higher (1–5%) negotiated rates. under ~12/week, Headway's zero fixed cost wins. at a full caseload, Alma's flat fee is dramatically cheaper — but only if the caseload actually materializes.
| weekly insurance sessions | Alma effective cost/session | Headway effective cost/session (est. 12% of $175) |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | ~$7.20 | ~$21 |
| 8 | ~$3.90 | ~$21 |
| 12 | ~$2.60 | ~$21 |
| 20 | ~$1.55 | ~$21 |
neither platform discloses negotiated payer rates publicly, and rates vary by state, license, payer, and CPT code. third-party comparisons and therapist reports suggest Alma's rates run modestly higher than Headway's for the same clinician. in some states, both platforms' negotiated rates beat what a solo clinician could get contracting directly; in others they don't. before signing either, request a sample fee schedule for your NPI, state, and CPT codes — both will provide it pre-contract.
in late 2024, Optum cut reimbursement rates for thousands of platform-affiliated therapists — some by up to 30%, with reported income losses of $6,000–$28,000/yr. therapists on both Alma and Headway were hit, and had no contract to renegotiate and no appeal, because the platform holds the contract. this is the structural trade: you get speed and convenience, you give up leverage. it isn't a reason to avoid both platforms; it's a reason not to build a practice with a single payer dependency through any intermediary.
Alma is the fuller package: EHR, telehealth, and a real community layer — peer consultation groups, a Slack workspace, CEUs, clinical advisory content. for solo practitioners who feel isolated, this is a genuine benefit, not marketing fluff. Headway is leaner: a functional free EHR (notes, scheduling, benefit verification) and that's about it. support is chat/email only — no phone — and the most common complaints (280+ at BBB) involve client-side billing errors like underestimated copays surfacing later. Alma has its own billing-error complaints too; neither is spotless. on directories: both list you in front of insurance-seeking clients. Headway's directory reach is generally considered stronger for referral flow; Alma's is a secondary feature. neither replaces actual practice marketing.
choose Headway if you're new to insurance work and want a zero-risk test, your insurance caseload is under ~12 sessions/week, guaranteed biweekly cash flow matters more than maximizing per-session take, and you're fine with chat-based support and a barebones stack.
choose Alma if you run (or will soon run) 14+ insurance sessions/week, you want the peer community, consultation groups, and CEUs, you'd rather pay a predictable flat fee than a percentage forever, and you want one integrated stack for telehealth, notes, and billing.
here's the thing both platforms quietly assume: clients find you somehow. Alma and Headway are back-office infrastructure with a directory bolted on. most therapists on them still pay Psychology Today $29.95/mo, or run a website, or both — because billing platforms don't build your reputation. veisund is not an insurance platform, and we won't pretend otherwise. we don't credential, don't bill, don't have an EHR. veisund is a peer-support community centered on interpersonal conflict — relationships, family, roommates — where therapists answer real questions, build a public track record with reviews, and receive consultation requests. it's the marketing and reputation layer that sits alongside Alma or Headway, the way Psychology Today does — except participation, not payment, is what makes you visible. honest caveats: we're new, our consumer audience is still small, and referral volume is unproven. the offer reflects that: listings are free, and the first 50 are capped — a waitlist after that.
| Alma | Headway | veisund | |
|---|---|---|---|
| what it is | insurance billing membership | free insurance billing | community + reputation + directory |
| cost | $125/mo flat | ~10–15% of reimbursements | free (veisund has no revenue) |
| insurance billing | yes | yes | no |
| EHR/telehealth | yes | yes (basic) | no |
| client acquisition | directory (secondary) | directory (stronger) | community engagement + directory |
| best for | full insurance caseloads | testing insurance work | relational-conflict specialists; reputation building |
| replaces the others? | no | no | no — complements either |
Below ~12 insurance sessions/week, Headway's free model usually costs less. Above ~14-16 sessions/week, Alma's $125/mo flat fee beats a 10-15% cut. Alma adds community and CEUs; Headway adds zero-risk entry and stronger referral flow. Request sample fee schedules from both before deciding.
Headway does not publish its cut. Consistent therapist reports estimate 10-15% of each insurance reimbursement — roughly $17-26 on a $175 session. Therapists see exact per-CPT rates before signing.
Headway pays you its negotiated insurance rate for each CPT code, and you see those rates for your state, license and payers before you sign. It does not publish them, and they vary by state, license, payer and code. Headway charges no membership fee; what it keeps is the spread between what the insurer pays it and what it pays you, reported by therapists at around 10-15%.
Neither publishes its negotiated rates. Third-party comparisons and therapist reports put Alma modestly higher (roughly 1-5%) for the same clinician, but rates vary by state, payer and CPT code. Ask both for a sample fee schedule for your NPI, state and codes before signing; both provide it pre-contract.
Two different guarantees get conflated. For therapists, Headway's pay schedule is guaranteed regardless of when insurers pay. For clients, the upfront cost is an estimate from benefits verification, and the most common complaint category in public reviews is an underestimated copay or deductible resurfacing later as a balance once the insurer processes the claim. Alma has billing-error complaints too; neither is spotless.
No. On both, you are a 1099 contractor credentialed under the platform’s group contracts; the platform holds the payer contract. That is why the late-2024 Optum rate cuts left platform therapists with no contract to renegotiate. Holding your own contracts means credentialing directly with each payer.
That is the client-side question, and this page is written for therapists choosing a billing platform. Both run searchable directories of in-network clinicians. For people looking for a therapist, our client-side comparisons cover Headway vs Psychology Today and Headway vs Zocdoc.
Yes. Alma and Headway handle insurance billing; veisund is a community and directory for building reputation and receiving consultation requests. They solve different problems, and veisund's listings are free.
Alma does not — cash-pay income is yours, and the fee is flat. Headway is built around insurance billing; private-pay clients generally sit outside its model.
listings are free. no contracts, never a percentage of your session fees, and a waitlist once those 50 seats are claimed.
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