# NextStep Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra

> Is NextStep the right Mental Health solution for you? Explore 11 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice.

Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/88788/NextStep/reviews

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NextStep

4.5 (11)

Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/)

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Last updated March 13th, 2026

# Reviews of NextStep

Ease of use

4.5

Customer Service

4.3

## Showing most helpful reviews

Showing 1-11 of 11 Reviews

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Most Helpful

Rating

Company Size

Reviewer's Role

Length of Use

Frequency of Use

Zura G.  
VIP technical support  
Telecommunications  
Used the software for: 6-12 months

### "An easy way to access the problem yourself"

September 7, 2021

5.0

Overall with it flexibility I think that its very ease of use and customized to the customer

Pros

Most of all l like reporting capabilities , self service portal ,price , treatment planing and price overall it’s a good one

Cons

Sometimes it makes mistakes and but technical support always helps me

Switched from

[Kipu](https://www.capterra.com/p/156391/Kipu-EMR/)

Dashboard, self service portal, planning, price

Review Source

MM

Michael M.  
Informatics Director  
Mental Health Care  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Incredible performance at an affordable price point"

February 25, 2020

5.0

Next Step has been our fifth EMR in the past fifteen years for our company. Since we started with them four years ago, we have truly enjoyed our relationship with them. Their support is timely and they are very responsive to their customer's needs. Like with any software, things will go wrong at times, but the Next Step team is always there to try to trouble shoot. I truly appreciate the commitment they show to their customers.

Pros

We absolutely love the flexibility Next Step gives us to customize the software to our different business lines. The reporting abilities of this software are phenomenal as well.

Cons

We are not that fond of the web scheduler module associated with this software. To be fair, the web version has been in development over the past year and a half, and it has been slowly improved over time with each additional upgrade they have rolled out.

Alternatives considered

[Epic](https://www.capterra.com/p/122278/EpicCare-EMR/)[DrCloudEHR](https://www.capterra.com/p/142327/Dr-Cloud-EMR/)[Valant EHR Suite](https://www.capterra.com/p/81298/Valant-Behavioral-Health-EHR/)[CyberArk Privileged Access Management Solutions](https://www.capterra.com/p/119742/Privileged-Account-Security-Solution/)[Oracle Health Ambulatory Suite](https://www.capterra.com/p/2341/Cerner-Ambulatory-EHR/)

Reason for choosing NextStep

We could not find a better alternative in terms of flexibility and value.

Switched from

[MacPractice MD](https://www.capterra.com/p/77177/MacPractice-MD/)

For years, we could never find a product that allowed us to integrate our outpatient services with our other lines of business. So we had two EMRs, one for our crisis and other emergent services and one for outpatient. Next Step allowed us to move into one software with all of our lines of business.

Review Source

JL

Josh L.  
Director of Information Technology  
Health, Wellness and Fitness  
Used the software for: Less than 6 months

### "Next Step Solutions has opportunity "

March 5, 2020

2.0

NSS has potential but overall our experience has been disappointing, to say the least. We were sold a piece of software that was supposed to help our agency but it has been such a struggle because all the pieces (Scheduler, Clinical, Billing) don't talk to each other like we were told.

Pros

NSS is easy for users to use but it offers a ton of room for mistakes to take place. Some items are straight forward while others are a bit too tedious for the average user to get the hang of.

Cons

Customer support, reporting, dashboards, backend billing, Digital RX and the emar are all terrible pieces of this software. This has caused issues across the entire agency that I work with. NSS Support does not communicate very well and is not super tactful. We have never been where we should have been with Billing as the NSS billing implementation person is unhelpful and does not completely work when they state it will be complete.

Reason for choosing NextStep

We were promised features that don't exist or were described incorrectly...

Review Source

TS

Thomas S.  
Senior Vice President, Operations  
Hospital & Health Care  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "NS Review"

March 9, 2020

4.0

Love working with \[SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN\], some minor setbacks

Pros

Dashboards, Notes Section, Interface Ability

Cons

Medical Component, eMAR, eScribe interface, treatment planning a little cumbersome

Alternatives considered

[Sigmund Software](https://www.capterra.com/p/69928/Sigmund/)

Reason for choosing NextStep

Dashboards, reporting, and API abilities

Switched from

[Kipu](https://www.capterra.com/p/156391/Kipu-EMR/)

lack of reports, dashboards, excessively expensive, lack or ability to interface

Review Source

LM

Lynn M.  
CEO  
Health, Wellness and Fitness  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "Outcomes / Reporting Capabilities"

March 2, 2020

5.0

We have been able to create our own reports and move toward value based reporting. It has also allowed up to link with other platforms to increase workflow efficiencies such as lab work.

Pros

From an administrative perspective the reporting capabilities to track outcomes and create data reports for our process improvement initiatives. The staff of NextStep has been amazing to work with in tailoring the system to meet the unique needs of our organization.

Cons

Fulling integrating the billing, scheduling and medication module within the clinical so all client information only needs to be entered once and controls for user access to limit what is view-able in the client record.

Alternatives considered

[NextGen Office](https://www.capterra.com/p/31268/NextGen-Ambulatory-EHR/)

Reason for choosing NextStep

Customer service, cost and reporting capabilities

Review Source

NF

Nicolas F.  
Clinical Director  
Mental Health Care  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Not Your Average EHR"

March 4, 2020

5.0

Very good. NextStep is a team. I get regular communications from \[SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN\], sometimes one of the supervisors over the programmers \[SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN\] - it is incredible because these are all leaders in the organization and they are very approachable and very easy to work with. If I have an urgent issue, which is very rare such as a shut down, I can just call and NS is right there for me in a few minuts. Incredible turnaround time if I really need them right now. I do not normally need to do that because of the way NextStep is designed - if you let them train you on how to use it thoroughly and learn all of the features, you can fix most problems yourself unless it is a coding issue or something with programming. NextStep works with you to identify the best work flows and to solve problems so you can work smarter not harder which I absolutely love. I do not want to have to ask for help to fix little issues that are day to day types of things that have to keep running - I can generally handle that kind of thing.

Pros

Flexibility - I have the power to totally modify almost any parts of the EHR to meet any regulatory needs that I have. This EHR makes my job easier and makes it easy to get the data I need to oversee various different sites with different programs.

Cons

Customer service with NextStep is very effective, they just take a long time with certain types of issues. With some of the features I would like to see (not needs, but I have some preferences) I cannot get them just because of some of the coding on how the Tx plan wizard works and other areas. These are minor issues in my opinion and do not impact the overall functioning of the EHR (example, I would like a search function in the Tx plan Wizard to make it faster to find objectives you want, etc., not a huge game changer).

Reason for choosing NextStep

n/a - we only had one other interview as a behavioral health network and I cannot remember their name, it was not fully operational and especially their billing module was not ready to go.

Review Source

AS

Amanda S.  
Project Coordinator  
Mental Health Care  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "DRP"

March 2, 2020

5.0

Over all we have really found this product useful. It has increased our ability to promptly review practitioner documents and charting. It also eases the process of reviewing a clients entire chart. We have had to audits using Next Step and our auditors also found it easy and useful for them. It would be nice if there was an auditor 'how to' since any behavioral health provider likely experiences audits. We also need to slowly roll out the use of the EHR. We have not yet pulled outcomes or set up our dashboards, because of our staff needs. The flexibility and willingness of \[SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN\] and the Next Step Team in that process has been very helpful.

Pros

The software is intuitive and user friendly. For people with basic computer skills it is very easy to pick up. It is also very easy to create forms.

Cons

As a behavioral health software it did not address specific needs common for behavioral health, such as groups notes, obtaining multiple signatures for multiple clients at one time.

Reason for choosing NextStep

I cannot remember the names of who else we reviewed at this time. But the reasons we selected Next Step are: 1) Cost 2) Next Steps familiarity with our needs locally and our working with the Wayne Health Authority 3) It is local so we were able to access in person training and slow implementation 4) We could obtain client signatures 5) We could easily provide communication between practitioner and supervisor 5) It was flexible software, and since we provide Peer Recovery Services many other EHR's did not know or have the flexibility to work for a non-clinical service like this 6) Familiarity with the state 7) the option to access and add billing later for private insurances 8) the ability to directly bill Medicare and Medicaid 8) HIPPA approval I did review 10 other EHR's, none had the capacity to be as flexible, individualized, user friendly and mobile as Next Step, very few had the same level of affordability and even fewer had the HIPPA approval. All together I did not find one EHR that had everything Next Step did. For the the EHR's that had most of it, you had to pay extra for everything you added on. Next Step does charge for the different systems (billing/mobile contacting/EHR) however they are straightforward and it not an extra fee for every small item. Also we have been able to continuously access help at no cost, which is wonderful since we had a staff that really struggled integrating to non-paper charting.

Review Source

VR

Verified Reviewer  
Clinical Director  
Mental Health Care  
Used the software for: 1-2 years

### "NextStep"

April 28, 2020

4.0

Pros

Easy customization and customer support.

Cons

Updates not communicated regularly and the testing must not be fully done with some updates because sometimes it doesn't do what is intended.

Review Source

EP

Ella P.  
Executive Director Clinical Services  
Mental Health Care  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "Review feb 2020"

February 25, 2020

4.0

Very responsive for requests for changes and updates; CS / Tech support is on top of things

Pros

Accessible on multiple devices; houses documents for complete record of individuals

Cons

PCP wizard can be difficult to navigate for new users

Review Source

KR

Kenny R.  
President  
Health, Wellness and Fitness  
Used the software for: 2+ years

### "The Best software"

March 11, 2020

5.0

The best software we have ever used and looked at.

Pros

The ability to customize the software for our needs.

Cons

At first very little support. That has changed.

Review Source

JG

John G.  
  
Mental Health Care  
Used the software for:

### "NextStep and its crew are fantastic!"

April 9, 2014

5.0

Pros

NextStep is easy to use, and it takes very little time to create a thorough treatment plan for my clients. The staff are exceptional in their support of the product and always timely in response to support inquiries. The system is extremely flexible and has met the multitude of our needs!

Cons

It doesn't write my treatment plans for me! I hear they are developing a feature to do so in the near future.

Review Source

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