Comparison
Psy180 vs. bilateralstimulation.io
A straight, side-by-side look — including the places they're still ahead. Every row is a real question clinicians asked us, answered without spin.
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01 · Free tier
A free tier that grows into your practice.
bilateralstimulation.io
A genuinely free plan — visual, auditory, and basic tactile BLS, unlimited, no signup. But it's anonymous: with no account, nothing carries from one session to the next.
Psy180
A permanent free tier with email-only signup. The same bilateral stimulation engine the paid plans run on — visual, stereo audio, and controller haptics, all unlimited — and the account is what lets your work persist and grow into the clinical workflow when you're ready. No card, no expiration.
Why this matters
Both tools are free to start, so the real question is what “free” leads to. Their free plan is a capable anonymous animation you open and close. Psy180's free tier is an account — the same BLS engine, plus a place for client profiles, session history, and check-ins to live if and when you want them. Free shouldn't be a dead end.
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02 · HIPAA BAA
Sign a BAA at signup on every tier — even free.
bilateralstimulation.io
BAA gated behind the $15/mo paid plan.
Psy180
Click-wrap BAA available at signup on every tier, free included. Once signed, we store an immutable encrypted copy for the full 7-year HIPAA retention window.
Why this matters
Your clinic deserves the option of a BAA in writing before you ever pay us a cent — not after a sales conversation. The free tier itself doesn't store PHI, but if you want the BAA already in place so you can upgrade later without re-papering, sign at signup. It's the same Section 3 of our Universal Services Agreement that every paid clinic signs (publicly readable at /baa).
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03 · Clinical workflow
More than the animation — a clinical record that lives between sessions.
bilateralstimulation.io
Saves a client's BLS preferences on the paid plan — but not a clinical record: no session history, no pre/post check-ins, no outcome tracking over time.
Psy180
A clinical record that travels with each client: saved profiles and BLS preferences, session history with your notes, pre- and post-session emotion and distress check-ins, longitudinal tracking across weeks or months, and an in-session PDF script viewer.
Why this matters
Showing therapy outcomes gets easier when you can compare a client's distress score across eight sessions — or notice the shift between week one and month three. Psy180 captures that structurally so you don't have to track it in a separate spreadsheet, and so it's there for you when a client asks 'am I actually getting better?'
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04 · ART support
Built for both EMDR® and ART® — not just EMDR.
bilateralstimulation.io
Built and marketed around EMDR; ART therapists adapt an EMDR-shaped workflow to their protocol.
Psy180
ART-first as well as EMDR. Self-attested ART certification at signup, trademark-correct ART® language throughout, and a session structure — pacing, phases, and a viewer for your own protocol scripts — shaped to fit how ART sessions run. You bring the clinical protocol; Psy180 is the tool around it.
Why this matters
ART uses different session phases and visualization cues than EMDR. Software built for EMDR only quietly asks ART therapists to translate in their head, every session. We don't want you doing that — both modalities are treated as equals here, and the ART-specific phases your sessions actually use are on the active roadmap. If there's a phase you'd like prioritized, tell us.
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05 · In-app video
Video and BLS in one tab — not Zoom in another window.
bilateralstimulation.io
A standalone BLS animation. To see your client’s face, you run it alongside a separate video platform — Zoom, Doxy, SimplePractice — in another tab, juggling the two the whole session.
Psy180
1:1 video built into the session itself. The client’s face sits in a tile you can drag and resize — small while the ball moves, full-size when you talk — over the same BLS the paid plans run. Peer-to-peer, encrypted in transit, and never recorded. (Solo and up; free-tier therapists can still share their own telehealth link.)
Why this matters
Running the stimulus and the video in separate windows means alt-tabbing through the session and losing the client’s face the moment a set starts. Keeping both in one view lets you watch the client while the stimulation runs — the way you would in the room — with no second tool to set up. Best on a desktop browser today.
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07 · Pricing for clinics
Volume pricing built into the invoice — never a sales call.
bilateralstimulation.io
Flat $15/seat; bulk discount only through a sales conversation.
Psy180
Graduated per-seat tiers, applied automatically: $25 (1–4 seats) → $19 (5–19) → $15 (20–49) → custom (50+). Add or remove clinicians and the next invoice reflects it.
Why this matters
Group practices shouldn't have to email a salesperson just to find out what they'd pay. Our tiers apply automatically — bring on a seventh clinician this month and your invoice already shows you the 5+ rate.
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08 · Pacing controls
A continuous tempo slider, not a fixed dropdown.
bilateralstimulation.io
Tempo via preset speed levels / fixed Hz options.
Psy180
A continuous horizontal tempo slider from 0.5 to 2.5 Hz in fine 0.1 Hz steps — plus independently configurable ball color, ball size, and background color, all adjustable live mid-session without breaking the set.
Why this matters
Different clients tolerate different speeds. Some need 0.7 Hz where 0.5 feels too slow and 1.0 feels too fast. The continuous slider lets you find the exact sweet spot live, instead of picking the nearest dropdown option and hoping it works.
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09 · Tactile hardware
Use the controller your client already owns.
bilateralstimulation.io
Proprietary $129 wired buzzers, ordered and shipped to each client.
Psy180
Live today, free on every tier: pair a PS5 DualSense or Xbox Wireless Controller — the left and right grips pulse with the ball as bilateral haptics, side for side. No proprietary hardware to buy or ship.
Why this matters
Most clients already own a game controller. Asking them to buy $129 of dedicated buzzers per client to do BLS at home is a real friction point — and a real reason clients skip take-home practice. Psy180 lets them use what's already in their living room, working in the browser through the Gamepad API — free and unlimited, including on the free tier.
Try Psy180 without committing
Permanent free tier — email-only signup. No card, no license verification, no BAA required (the free tier doesn't collect PHI, so a BAA isn't legally needed). Upgrade only when you want the clinical workflow features.
Paid plans start at $25/clinician/mo · 2 months free annually · clinic volume discounts at 5+ seats
EMDR® is a registered trademark of the EMDR Institute, Inc. Accelerated Resolution Therapy® and ART® are registered trademarks of IS-ART, LLC. Psy180 is independent software and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by either organization. The product name "bilateralstimulation.io" is used here for nominative comparison only.