Lightning Step Alternative
Need a Lightning Step Alternative Built Around Your Levels of Care?
Lightning Step describes an all-in-one behavioral health platform — CRM, EHR and RCM — for private practices through large multi-location treatment centers, and states on its own site that it is now part of Sunwave. Pricing is not stated on their site.
Unisona Health publishes its pricing and names every level of care it supports, from outpatient through MAT/OTP dosing and sober living, on one patient record that carries admissions, clinical documentation, revenue cycle, compliance and operations.
Unisona Health is not ONC Health IT certified. Lightning Step publishes one.
The short answer
What is an alternative to Lightning Step?
Unisona Health is a Lightning Step alternative for behavioral health and substance use treatment organizations that want the price and the scope stated before the first call. Pricing is published — $70 to $90 per clinical seat a month, $60 for admin and billing seats, $25 for student interns — with unlimited patients, monthly plans, no implementation fee on Solo or Group Practice, and a four-week implementation with parallel running.
Two facts belong up front rather than buried. Lightning Step states on its own site that it is now part of Sunwave, so the two are one vendor, not two options. And Lightning Step publishes an ONC certification in detail, while Unisona Health is not ONC Health IT certified and does not claim to be — if certified EHR technology is a condition of your funding or payer contracts, that difference decides the evaluation on its own.
At a glance
How does Unisona Health compare with Lightning Step?
What each vendor publishes about itself. Where Lightning Step’s site does not address something, the cell says so rather than guessing — and where they publish something Unisona Health cannot match, the row says that too.
| Area | Unisona Health | Lightning Step |
|---|---|---|
| Platform focus | One patient record across admissions, clinical documentation, revenue cycle, compliance and operations, built for behavioral health and substance use treatment. | An all-in-one behavioral health platform combining CRM, EHR and RCM, for private practices through large multi-location treatment centers. |
| Company | Unisona Health Inc, a US (Wyoming) company, with US-only hosting. | States on its own site that Lightning Step is now part of Sunwave. |
| Published pricing | $70 to $90 per clinical seat a month, $60 for admin and billing seats, $25 for student interns. Unlimited patients, monthly plans, and no implementation fee on Solo or Group Practice. | Pricing is not stated on their site, and neither are contract terms. |
| ONC certification | Not ONC Health IT certified, and does not claim to be. Data portability is handled directly instead: API and FHIR access, and a full export at any time with no fee. | Certified and published in detail: Lightning Step 1.0, certified 28 December 2023, number 15.04.04.3183.Ligh.01.00.1.231228, 39 criteria including CPOE, clinical quality measures, security functions and patient data access and export, with Updox for Direct Secure Messaging and no extra charge for the certified functionality beyond contracted fees. |
| Levels of care named | Outpatient, PHP and IOP, residential and detox, MAT/OTP, sober living, and CCBHC or multi-site, each with its own workflow page. | Names the organizations served — substance abuse and addiction treatment centers, behavioral health organizations, mental health clinics and eating disorder treatment. Specific levels of care are not stated on their site. |
| Medication and dosing | Daily dosing and pharmacy pick-ups recorded, take-homes tracked by phase, eMAR, and EPCS live with PDMP checks. | Prescriptions, medication orders, non-medication orders, medication history, contraindications, MAT, and controlled and psychotropic substances. eMAR and EPCS are not stated by name on their site. |
| Revenue cycle | Eligibility and benefits, prior authorizations, claim scrubbing, remittance posting, denials, payer contracts and rates, and patient balances, with the Claim.MD clearinghouse included. | Eligibility and VOB, utilization reviews, claims processing and editing, billing automation, payment matching and posting, error detection, refunds and adjustments, and patient payments by card, ACH and self-pay. A clearinghouse and payer contract management are not stated on their site. |
| Admissions and census | Admissions and intake connected to the clinical record, with a bed and census board for residential and detox. | An admissions dashboard, contact management, a VOB dashboard, bed management and a bed board, marketing analytics, web inquiry forms, online booking, call tracking, referral tagging and attribution, and pre-admissions with a shared calendar. |
| Confidentiality of SUD records | 42 CFR Part 2 consent enforced on export, a seven-year immutable activity log, audit response packets on every plan, and roles and permissions. | HIPAA, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, PCI DSS, encryption with tailored permissions, and a BAA page. 42 CFR Part 2 is not stated on their site. |
| Workforce operations | Roles and permissions, credentials and licensure tracking, a training library, and payroll and timekeeping alongside the clinical record. | Staff HR, payroll and training are not stated on their site. |
Lightning Step is a trademark of its owner and is named here only to describe what that vendor publishes. Based on publicly available information as of September 2026. Confirm current features and pricing with each vendor.
Read this first
Lightning Step and Sunwave are one vendor
Lightning Step states on its own site that it is now part of Sunwave. That changes how a shortlist should be read, so it belongs at the top of the page rather than in a footnote.
Their product pages mirror each other’s structure, down to a similarly scoped AI assistant on each. Evaluating both as independent options means weighing the same vendor relationship twice.
Lightning Step publishes an ONC certification in full detail; Sunwave Health’s site does not publish certification details on the pages checked. Sunwave publishes a SOC 2 Type 2 examination; SOC 2 is not stated on Lightning Step’s site.
Pricing, contract length and implementation terms are not stated on either site. Ask for them in writing, for whichever product you are quoted, and compare the total against a published per-seat price.
What Lightning Step publishes
What Lightning Step says it covers
Restated from their own site. Feature names only — their AI capabilities are named, not characterised, and no outcome statistics are repeated here.
Progress notes, assessments, a custom template builder, configurable treatment plans, AI individual and group notes, and AI patient summaries, with AI telehealth transcripts described as coming soon.
Prescriptions, medication orders, non-medication orders, medication history, contraindications, MAT, and controlled and psychotropic substances.
Scheduling including a group calendar, reminders, online booking, integrated telehealth, and a client portal with messaging.
Eligibility and VOB, utilization reviews, claims processing and editing, billing automation, payment matching and posting, error detection, refunds and adjustments, and patient payments by card, ACH and self-pay.
An admissions dashboard, contact management, a VOB dashboard, bed management and a bed board, marketing analytics, web inquiry forms, online booking, secure staff messaging, call tracking, referral tagging and attribution, and a Salesforce integration.
An ONC certification published with its number, date and criteria, plus HIPAA, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, PCI DSS, encryption with tailored permissions and a BAA page.
Where Unisona differs
What Unisona Health states that their site does not
None of this means Lightning Step cannot do these things — only that their site does not say so. Ask them; these are the questions worth asking.
$70 to $90 per clinical seat a month, $60 for admin and billing seats, $25 for student interns, unlimited patients, monthly plans, and no implementation fee on Solo or Group Practice. Lightning Step’s site states neither pricing nor contract terms.
Outpatient, PHP and IOP, residential and detox, MAT/OTP, sober living, and CCBHC or multi-site, each with a page describing the workflow. Levels of care are not stated on Lightning Step’s site.
Daily dosing and pharmacy pick-ups recorded, take-homes tracked by phase, and eMAR. Lightning Step states MAT and controlled substances; eMAR and on-site dosing are not stated by name on their site.
Part 2 consent is enforced when records leave the platform, backed by a seven-year immutable activity log and audit response packets on every plan. 42 CFR Part 2 is not stated on Lightning Step’s site.
A Claim.MD connection for claims, remittances and eligibility is included in the seat price. A clearinghouse is not stated on Lightning Step’s site.
Credentials and licensure, a training library, and payroll and timekeeping sit next to the clinical record. Staff HR, payroll and training are not stated on Lightning Step’s site.
By level of care
Compare on the program you actually run
Feature grids flatten everything. These pages describe the day-to-day workflow for each level of care Unisona Health supports.
MAT & OTP
MAT and opioid treatment
Daily dosing and pharmacy pick-ups recorded, take-homes tracked by phase, eMAR, and EPCS with PDMP checks.
See the workflow →CCBHC & Multi-site
CCBHC and multi-site
Multiple programs and locations on one record, with roles, permissions and reporting that follow the org chart.
See the workflow →Residential & Detox
Residential and detox
Admissions, bed and census board, medication workflows, safety rounds and facility operations.
See the workflow →Trust Center
Security and certifications
What Unisona Health holds, what it does not — including ONC certification — and what it is working towards.
See the workflow →Questions
Lightning Step alternative FAQs.
What is an alternative to Lightning Step?
Unisona Health is a Lightning Step alternative for behavioral health and substance use treatment organizations, with published pricing of $70 to $90 per clinical seat a month, $60 for admin and billing seats and $25 for student interns, unlimited patients and monthly plans. It names every level of care it supports, including MAT/OTP with daily dosing and sober living. Lightning Step describes an all-in-one CRM, EHR and RCM platform for private practices through large multi-location treatment centers; pricing is not stated on their site.
Is Lightning Step part of Sunwave?
Yes — Lightning Step states on its own site that it is now part of Sunwave. If both products are on your shortlist, you are evaluating one vendor twice, so compare the commercial terms once and judge each product on the workflows you actually run.
Is Lightning Step ONC certified?
Yes, and they publish the detail: product Lightning Step 1.0, certified 28 December 2023, certification number 15.04.04.3183.Ligh.01.00.1.231228, against 39 criteria including CPOE, clinical quality measures, security functions and patient data access and export, with Updox for Direct Secure Messaging and no extra charge for the certified functionality beyond contracted fees. Unisona Health is not ONC Health IT certified and does not claim to be, so if your funding, grants or payer contracts require certified EHR technology, raise it early in any evaluation.
How much does Lightning Step cost?
Lightning Step does not state pricing on their site, and neither are contract terms. Unisona Health publishes everything: $90 per seat a month on Solo, $85 to $75 per seat on Group Practice as the team grows, $70 per clinical seat for qualifying nonprofits, $60 for admin and billing seats, $25 for student interns, unlimited patients, monthly plans and no implementation fee on Solo or Group Practice.
Does Lightning Step support opioid treatment program dosing?
Their site states prescriptions, medication orders, medication history, contraindications, MAT, and controlled and psychotropic substances; on-site daily dosing, eMAR and EPCS are not stated by name on their site. Unisona Health records daily dosing and pharmacy pick-ups, tracks take-homes by phase, includes eMAR, and has EPCS live with PDMP checks.
Which levels of care does Unisona Health support?
Unisona Health supports outpatient, PHP and IOP, residential and detox, MAT/OTP, sober living, and CCBHC or multi-site organizations, each with its own documented workflow. Lightning Step names the organizations it serves — substance abuse and addiction treatment centers, behavioral health organizations, mental health clinics and eating disorder treatment — and does not state specific levels of care on their site.
Should we choose Unisona Health or Lightning Step?
Choose Unisona Health if published per-seat pricing, named levels of care including OTP dosing and sober living, an included Claim.MD clearinghouse connection, 42 CFR Part 2 consent enforced on export and a four-week implementation matter more to you than ONC certification. Choose Lightning Step if a certified EHR is a condition of your funding or payer contracts, because they publish a certification and Unisona Health holds none.
Keep Comparing
Continue Your Behavioral Health EHR Comparison
Every platform starts from a different place. Explore how Unisona Health compares across the rest of the guide, or step back to the full comparison hub.
Comparison
Unisona Health vs. Kipu Health
How Unisona Health connects clinical care, revenue cycle, compliance, and operations for organizations evaluating Kipu Health alternatives.
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Unisona Health vs. SimplePractice
How Unisona Health supports behavioral health organizations that have grown beyond individual-appointment practice management into multiple programs, levels of care, and revenue cycle complexity.
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Unisona Health vs. TherapyNotes
How Unisona Health supports behavioral health organizations that need deeper revenue cycle, compliance, utilization, and facility operations alongside clinical documentation across multiple levels of care.
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Unisona Health vs. TheraNest
How Unisona Health adds operational depth for behavioral health organizations growing into multiple programs, levels of care, revenue cycle complexity, and compliance oversight.
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Unisona Health vs. Sunwave Health
How Unisona Health compares for organizations weighing an AI-native EMR, CRM and RCM suite against published per-seat pricing and named levels of care.
Explore comparison →Comparison
Unisona Health vs. Alleva
How Unisona Health compares for treatment centers weighing a behavioral-health-specific EHR on pricing, opioid treatment dosing, sober living and an included clearinghouse.
Explore comparison →Comparison
Unisona Health vs. BestNotes
How Unisona Health compares with a vendor that also publishes its rates, on total cost once modules are added, and on on-site daily dosing.
Explore comparison →Get started
Ask Us the Question You Would Rather Not Ask a Salesperson
What it costs, what is not included, and what we do not hold — the ONC answer is on this page. Bring an admission, a group, an authorization running out or a Part 2 record leaving the building, and we will run it in Unisona Health.