Sorted by what you can find out before a sales call
The top AI tools for clinical documentation
Sorted by how much you can learn before speaking to a salesperson. Freed publishes its full feature set, EHR push and coding included. Suki names its EHR integrations — Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth and MEDITECH. Heidi publishes its templates but not how notes reach the chart. Nabla and Abridge publish little beyond the fact that integrations exist — for a health system that is normal procurement, but for a clinician comparing options on a Sunday evening it means they cannot be evaluated. The feature to ask about first is EHR write-back.
§Our position, stated. Scriben is not in this ranking. Our clinical console is in preview, not for sale, and a page that ranks an unavailable product above available ones is an advert. Every fact below was read off the vendor’s own site, checked on 15 September 2026. Where a vendor does not publish something, this page says so rather than repeating a third-party estimate.
The ranking
5 scribes, in order, and why.
01 / Freed
Individual clinicians, self-serve
- Publishes — Its full feature set, including EHR push and ICD-10 and CPT coding.
- Does not publish — Deployment detail for larger groups, which is still a conversation.
- What that means for you — You can see what it does, and whether it reaches the chart, before you speak to anyone.
02 / Suki
Clinicians, organisations and platform partners
- Publishes — Its EHR integrations by name — Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth and MEDITECH — plus a developer toolkit for partners.
- Does not publish — Any self-serve route. “Chat with our Sales team” is the only way in.
- What that means for you — You can check whether it fits your EHR before booking a call, which three of the others do not allow.
03 / Heidi
Clinicians and practices, self-serve
- Publishes — Its transcription and standard templates, and that Clinician and Practice versions exist.
- Does not publish — How notes reach an EHR. The route is a 14-day trial and then “Talk to us”.
- What that means for you — You can try the workflow first, but you learn how it reaches the chart only after you have moved across, which is the wrong way round.
04 / Nabla
Clinicians and organisations
- Publishes — That integrations exist, and that there is a free trial.
- Does not publish — Integration detail and coding.
- What that means for you — Almost nothing is checkable in advance, so evaluating it means starting a sales conversation.
05 / Abridge
Health systems only
- Publishes — Its deployment footprint — “trusted by 300+ health systems” — and that integration is deep and enterprise-grade.
- Does not publish — Any self-serve route, and detail beyond the deployment footprint.
- What that means for you — Normal for enterprise procurement, and of no use at all to an individual clinician on a Sunday evening.
Side by side
The same facts, in a table.
- Freed
- Individual clinicians, self-serve — publishes: Its full feature set, including EHR push and ICD-10 and CPT coding. Source: getfreed.ai
- Suki
- Clinicians, organisations and platform partners — publishes: Its EHR integrations by name — Epic, Oracle Health, athenahealth and MEDITECH — plus a developer toolkit for partners. Source: suki.ai
- Heidi
- Clinicians and practices, self-serve — publishes: Its transcription and standard templates, and that Clinician and Practice versions exist. Source: heidihealth.com
- Nabla
- Clinicians and organisations — publishes: That integrations exist, and that there is a free trial. Source: nabla.com
- Abridge
- Health systems only — publishes: Its deployment footprint — “trusted by 300+ health systems” — and that integration is deep and enterprise-grade. Source: abridge.com
All facts checked on 15 September 2026 against each vendor’s own site. Where a vendor does not publish a detail, this table says so rather than quoting an estimate. Products change — check theirs before you buy, and tell us if anything here has gone out of date.
Before any of them
Consent, records and the thing nobody can certify.
Recording a patient encounter is governed by state law, by your professional obligations and by your employer’s policy, and the tool you choose does not change any of them. Fourteen US states require every party to consent; where you and the patient are in different states, assume the stricter rule. Our guide to recording people lawfully sets out which applies where you are. There is no such thing as HIPAA certification, so no vendor on this page holds one and none can — what you should ask for instead is a signed Business Associate Agreement, and confirmation of where audio is processed and how long it is kept. This is general information for practitioners, not medical or legal advice.
Where this comes from
What we make, and why it is not ranked above.
Scriben is a real ballpoint pen that records the room to its own storage for up to 18 hours with no phone and no network. Scriben’s clinical console is in preview and not yet available to buy. The pen ships today at $99; the healthcare workflows described on healthcare.scriben.ai are not live yet. Every tool ranked above is built for the consultation itself; a pen reaches the conversations around it — the corridor handover, the call from the car, the family meeting — which is the part none of them capture. If that is the gap you have, join the healthcare preview; if you need a scribe in the exam room today, buy one of the five above.