“You get what you pay for.” Such advice, so commonplace, hardly seems fitting on a health technology website, where sophisticated topics such as predictive analytics and cross-platform connectivity hold sway. Yet even here, this sage advice holds true. You get what you pay for. Why do I bring this up? Too many practices, especially smaller practices, are falling for the ruse of a “free” EHR. But just as freedom isn’t free, neither is a “free” EHR. Vendors that offer “free” EHRs must recoup their costs. To do so, they may use less-straightforward approaches, such as the following: Seeing ads in the context of using an EHR may be disruptive to your work. What’s more, online advertisers commonly mine user data to promote relevant products based on online searches and other trackable information. EHR vendors that rely on advertising revenue may allow data mining to target ads.