Side-by-side comparison · Productivity & Notes
Abridge vs Heidi vs Linear
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Pick it if: Hospital and health-system leaders choosing an AI scribe for their doctors and nurses.
Pick it if: GPs, specialists, psychologists and allied health practitioners who spend their evenings writing up notes.
Pick it if: Startups and product teams who build software and want a fast, clean place to plan and track the work.
Overview
| Attribute | Abridge | Heidi | Linear |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Turns doctor and patient conversations into notes inside the hospital's health records. | AI medical scribe that listens to a consult and writes the notes and letters. | Fast project tracker for product teams, with an AI agent that can code your issues. |
| Pricing model | Paid | Freemium | Freemium |
| Starting price | See website | Free | $0 |
| Free plan | No | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | No | No | Yes |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Abridge | Heidi | Linear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.2 | 4.2 | 4.5Winner |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.5 | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 5.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Abridge | Heidi | Linear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop app | – | Yes | Yes |
| Browser extension | No | Yes | No |
| API access | – | – | Yes |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | No | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | – | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | – | – | – |
| Makes images | No | No | No |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | No | No | Yes |
| Runs agents or automations | – | – | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | – | Yes | – |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | No |
| Capabilities score | 5/ 17 | 10/ 17 | 10/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Abridge | Heidi | Linear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | EnterpriseOur pick Custom Health systems rolling it out across many clinicians. | Free Free A single clinician trying it on real consults. | Free $0 Small teams getting started. |
ClinicianOur pick See website (14-day free trial) A clinician who uses it every day. | BasicOur pick $10/user/mo billed yearly Small product teams. | ||
Practice Custom Clinics with several practitioners. | Business $16/user/mo billed yearly Growing teams with support requests and private work. | ||
Enterprise Custom Health services and large groups. | Enterprise Custom Large companies with security needs. | ||
| Which plan to pick | There is only one way to buy it: a contract between your organisation and Abridge. If you are a single clinician or small practice, look at Heidi instead. | Start on Free for a couple of weeks of real consults. If it saves you time every day, trial the Clinician plan; if you need notes to flow into your practice software or want one bill for the clinic, ask about Practice. | Start free, then move to Basic when you pass 250 issues. Go to Business when you want AI triage, support-tool integrations or private teams. Add AI credits only if you plan to have Linear Agent write code; top-ups start at $10. |
Key features
| Attribute | Abridge | Heidi | Linear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standout features |
|
|
|
Pros and cons
| Attribute | Abridge | Heidi | Linear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pros |
|
|
|
| Cons |
|
|
|
Who each one is for
| Attribute | Abridge | Heidi | Linear |
|---|---|---|---|
| Best for |
|
|
|
| You'll find it used by |
|
|
|
Questions people ask
Which is better, Abridge, Heidi or Linear?
Linear scores highest overall in our ratings (Abridge 4.2/5, Heidi 4.2/5 and Linear 4.5/5). Abridge is best for large health systems on Epic and cutting after-hours note writing. Heidi is best for writing up consult notes and drafting referral and specialist letters. Linear is best for tracking bugs and feature requests and planning product roadmaps and sprints.
Which is cheaper, Abridge, Heidi or Linear?
Abridge: Pricing isn't published; check the vendor's site for a quote. Heidi: It's free to use. Linear: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $0.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
Swap in another tool
More tools from Productivity & Notes in the library.
