OrbDoc vs ScribeMD (2026)
Two self serve scribes competing for the solo clinician, where the buyer is a physician with no IT department and no procurement process. OrbDoc is iOS first and aimed squarely at that user, recording on the phone, identifying speakers and returning a structured draft in real time with an explicit review step before anything leaves. ScribeMD is broader and better documented commercially, with a complete published ladder including a free tier, a directly named certification and the most specific multi speaker claim in this category. Ignore the accuracy percentages circulating for ScribeMD, which have no methodology behind them. For a single clinician the decision is mostly about the phone workflow, so run both for a week. What matters more than either feature list is getting a written answer on whether your recorded audio trains anything.
- It is iOS first and built for solo clinicians and small practices, with speaker identification and a structured draft returned in real time, which is the right shape for a clinician working without IT support.
- The review step is explicit before the note goes anywhere, which for a single handed practice is the only control in the workflow.
- Setting coverage is wide for a product this small, so a mixed practice is not forced into a specialty specific tool.
- The published ladder includes a genuine free tier with stated limits, so the product can be evaluated at zero cost before any commitment.
- Certification is named directly rather than implied, which is unusual at this end of the market.
- The multi speaker capability is stated specifically, which matters for family visits, interpreter present encounters and team based care.
This comparison is published by AI Health Index, an independent research platform that compares healthcare AI vendors objectively. OrbDoc and ScribeMD are each graded against the same capability taxonomy, from each vendor's own public materials and the regulatory record, under the AI Health Index verification standard. No vendor pays for placement, and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded
Plain facts
| Fact | OrbDoc | ScribeMD |
|---|---|---|
| Primary category | Ambient Scribes | Ambient Scribes |
| Founded | 2023 | 2023 |
| Headquarters | Not recorded | Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Website | orbdoc.com | scribemd.ai |
Side by Side
Select any grade to read the note behind it.
Each vendor in one paragraph
Written to be quoted whole. Each paragraph opens the AI Health Index profile of the vendor: what the product is, who buys it and what it does.
iOS first ambient scribe from OrbDoc, shipped as the OrbVoice app and aimed principally at solo clinicians and small practices, with an enterprise offering marketed alongside it. The clinician records the encounter, the system identifies speakers and returns a structured draft in real time, and the note is reviewed before it goes anywhere, with the workflow spanning phone and tablet so a note started on rounds can be finished at the nurses' station.
Source: AI Health Index, August 2026
ScribeMD is a self serve ambient scribe claiming more than 3,000 physicians, generating notes in under 30 seconds across a stated 50 or more specialties including dentistry, psychiatry and cardiology.
Source: AI Health Index, August 2026
Questions buyers ask
How do OrbDoc and ScribeMD work with the EHR?
For OrbDoc, the vendor's own support material describes a mobile application, and the application store listing describes export to major record systems including Epic, Cerner and athenahealth. Export is not write-back, and a mobile application does not perform bidirectional exchange with an on-premise Allscripts Sunrise Acute Care instance.
With ScribeMD, the public interface is the one surface where the answer is checkable: what it exposes, whether it writes as well as reads, and what authentication it uses say more than the integrations page does. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How are OrbDoc and ScribeMD priced and sold?
In OrbDoc's case, the vendor operates a freemium model on the application store, stating that core transcription stays free while premium features are introduced as paid additions, and it promotes a free trial prominently.
For ScribeMD, the free tier is 10 conversations a month with nine speaker support and a 48 hour support response commitment. The paid tier is $99.99 a month for unlimited conversations, adding analytics, custom note formatting and a 24 hour support response. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
How do OrbDoc and ScribeMD handle patient data?
With OrbDoc, retention is given specifically.
In ScribeMD's case, one commercial structure qualifies the retention answer rather than contradicting it. The ability to customize retention and deployment is listed as a custom enterprise tier feature, so the fifteen-day default applies as given on the free and standard plans and cannot be extended or shortened there. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Which settings and specialties do OrbDoc and ScribeMD cover?
For OrbDoc, coverage spans emergency departments, inpatient services, ambulatory clinics, cardiology, pediatrics, family medicine and mental health, sold to integrated delivery networks and academic medical centers at one end and to rural hospitals, small practices and community care teams at the other.
With ScribeMD, language reach is also real rather than gestural. The vendor states capture across more than thirty languages, and its own site is localized into eight, including Korean, Japanese, Arabic and Greek. From the AI Health Index, drawn from each vendor's own published materials and the regulatory record, verified August 4, 2026. No vendor pays for placement.
Related comparisons
Other published head to head assessments involving these vendors or their closest peers. The full set for this category is on the Ambient Scribes page.
Both are self serve products aimed at clinicians who will not run a security review, which makes the published disclosures the entire protection. The performance figures circulating for ScribeMD carry no methodology, reference standard or denominator. Neither vendor publishes an evaluation methodology, a subgroup or accent performance analysis, or a retention schedule reachable outside its commercial pages.
For a solo clinician, the practical protections are a business associate agreement that applies on the tier you are actually paying for, and a written answer on whether your audio trains anything; get both before recording a patient.