5 Top-Rated Affordable Telemedicine Software
Medical practitioners often face challenges connecting with patients, particularly when they don’t reside in the same area. Issues like secure communication and patient privacy can make this harder—but investing in affordable telemedicine software can help bridge these gaps.
A telemedicine platform allows for remote consultations, helping practitioners overcome these challenges. Additionally, features like built-in loyalty programs and gift cards can boost patient engagement and increase retention.
To help you choose the right tool, we highlight the top five affordable telemedicine software options for efficient practice management, based on verified user reviews and pricing found on vendor websites. Per our research, we’ve considered products with base plans priced less than $43.38 per month as affordable software and arranged them in ascending order of their prices.
All products mentioned in this article are either telemedicine or electronic medical records (EMR) software that offer the following core features: appointment scheduling and remote treatment planning.
We selected products for this article based on their average ratings between July 2022 - July 2024, which may differ from their current overall average ratings.
1. Carepatron
Carepatron is an electronic health record and telemedicine platform that offers high-quality video and audio call functionality, along with a secure dashboard for sharing files between practitioners and patients. The unlimited storage option allows practitioners to store as many patient records and medical documents as needed within the software. They can also use the telemedicine app's appointment scheduling feature to manage their virtual care consultations and the built-in instant messaging platform to discuss patients’ treatment plans.
Base plan features*:
Clinical notes: Use predefined templates to maintain clinical record accuracy, minimize charting errors, and enhance the quality of patient documentation.
SMS reminders: Automate the process of sending appointment reminders to patients. This reduces the administrative burden on staff and ensures patients are constantly reminded of upcoming appointments.
Group video chat: Set up a group video meeting, send out invites to participants via email or SMS, and manage RSVPs from within the telehealth platform.
Starting price: | $12 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | $19 per user per month |
Billing cycle: | Annual |
Customer support options: | Chat, emails, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider Carepatron?
Carepatron offers individual and group video calling, making it ideal for practitioners who run coaching or informative sessions for multiple patients. The tool’s built-in scheduler helps simplify telehealth session booking and patient intake. It also provides HIPAA-compliant patient intake forms to capture patient information.
2. Power Diary
Power Diary is a practice management solution that offers telehealth video calls to conduct virtual meetings with patients. The platform offers encrypted peer-to-peer connections during video calls and also provides screen-sharing capability to help medical practitioners explain treatment plans to patients. A client portal gives patients the ability to book appointments and pay invoices that practitioners upload on the dashboard. Power Diary also provides a no-show option that helps patients cancel or postpone appointments.
Base plan features*:
Unlimited consultations: Offers unlimited client consultations and the ability to conduct telehealth appointments. The software also provides up to 100 GB file storage.
Progress notes templates: Provides ready-to-use progress notes that help practitioners record patient symptom observations and analysis.
Automated appointment reminders: Helps set automated appointment reminders via email and SMS to prevent last-minute cancellations and changes.
Starting price: | $19 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | $49 per user per month |
Billing cycle: | Monthly |
Customer support options: | Chat, emails, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider Power Diary?
Power Diary is ideal for practitioners who frequently face conflicting schedules due to high client volume, varying appointment lengths, and last-minute changes. The software lets users set availability exception rules to specify times when they are not available, and appointment warnings that showcase potential scheduling conflicts to patients looking to book appointments. Such measures during scheduling ensure there are no clashes and missed appointments. Power Diary also lets practitioners create and manage a patient waitlist and notify them when they are available for an appointment.
Pro tip
Choose a tool that lets you offer pre-consultation reminders with detailed, easy-to-follow instructions regarding medication or procedures patients can follow.
3. Pabau
Pabau is a practice management solution with telemedicine functionality. The platform offers online appointment booking, calendar management, and the ability to maintain digital client records. Pabau also lets you create and share loyalty programs with patients to help incentivize engagement and improve retention. The software enables medical practitioners to simplify staff management by creating employee profiles. You can set and track KPIs for individual profiles and also provide a dashboard to let them view the KPIs they’ve met so far.
Base plan features*:
Automated emails: Send automated pre- and post-care emails with personalized diagnoses, medical suggestions, and exercises based on your discussions with patients.
Appointment reminders: Send appointment reminders to patients to avoid no-shows. The tool can also automate the process for recurring patients, helping you streamline appointments.
Stock management: Maintain inventory and stock levels for prescriptions and medicines available at your clinic for patients. This feature lets you automate the process of ordering medicines when you are running out.
Starting price: | $28 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | Available upon request from vendor |
Billing cycle: | Monthly |
Customer support options: | Chat, emails, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider Pabau?
Pabau is ideal for medical practices who require a robust system for managing patient prescriptions and inventory in real time. Dermatology clinics, pain management centers, and physiotherapy practices—where maintaining a precise inventory of treatment supplies is crucial—will find Pabau valuable. Additionally, practices that want to engage patients with personalized aftercare through automated emails and loyalty programs will benefit from Pabau’s features.
4. Doxy.me
Doxy.me is a telemedicine solution that provides an online clinician dashboard for practitioners. The dashboard allows you to conduct virtual meetings with patients, start a live chat, and manage patient queues with a built-in waiting room. The software also keeps track of the date, time, and duration of every online meeting so you can maintain records of virtual consultations.
Base plan features*:
HD video calling: Conduct high-definition video calls with patients and take notes during the meeting to provide accurate diagnoses. All video calls conducted via Doxy.me come with security and encryption protocols and are GDPR and HIPAA-compliant.
Screen sharing: Share your screen during video consultations to better explain the diagnosis and treatment plans to patients visually. You can also use screen sharing to show test results, medical diagrams related to their diagnosis, and educational material such as instructional videos and rehabilitation steps they need to take.
Teleconsent: Conduct teleconsent sessions and acquire electronic signatures of patients to maintain compliance, reduce the risk of misfiling documents, and reduce paperwork and administrative burden.
Starting price: | $35 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | $50 per user per month |
Billing cycle: | Monthly |
Customer support options: | Chat, emails, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider Doxy.me?
Doxy.me is well-suited for therapists and mental health professionals who conduct virtual sessions. Its HD video calling, screen sharing, and teleconsent features support effective communication and help manage the administrative aspects of telemedicine. The platform is also suitable for healthcare providers who need to maintain detailed records of virtual consultations in a straightforward and organized way.
Pro tip
Ensure that the patient data from intake forms can be automatically transferred to your practice management and telemedicine software without manual entry. This helps reduce paperwork and administrative burdens.
5. My Best Practice
My Best Practice is an electronic health record and telemedicine service platform. The software offers customizable intake forms for practitioners providing niche services, appointment scheduling, routine outcome measures, and billing and payment processing. You can also conduct custom surveys to gather feedback from patients and improve your services.
Base plan features*:
Intake forms: Customize patient intake forms to add, remove, or modify fields and gather patient information, such as medical history, insurance details, and consent details. This flexibility ensures the forms remain relevant and comprehensive.
Custom surveys: Design surveys with specific questions relevant to your practice or research objectives. This customization ensures the surveys gather precise and useful data from patients.
Client portal/messaging: Provide patients with access to a client portal through a web or mobile app, allowing them to complete intake questionnaires, sign consent forms, share medical history files, and message their doctor in emergencies.
Starting price: | $39 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | $19 per additional user per month |
Billing cycle: | Monthly |
Customer support options: | Chat, emails, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider My Best Practice?
Since My Best Practice offers customizable intake forms and survey forms, it’s ideal for niche practitioners such as dermatologists, pediatricians, and cardiologists who need specific information from patients to accurately diagnose them and create treatment plans. The telehealth app is also helpful for therapists and psychologists who take virtual sessions and require teleconsent functionality.
How much does telemedicine software cost?
A telemedicine software solution can cost as low as $12 per month or up to $298+ per month, depending on various factors—features, number of practitioners, infrastructure requirements, practice size/type, training availability, deployment options, integrations, and storage. Most telemedicine solutions typically include the following pricing plans:
Free trials: Range from seven to 14 days and give users access to either all or limited features of the software. These no-cost trial plans are ideal for small practitioners who wish to try out a tool before purchasing it.
Free versions: Offer perpetual access to limited software features. These free plans are ideal for practitioners on a budget.
Entry-level plans: Start at $12 per month and offer access to standard features. These are suitable for practitioners with basic feature requirements, such as scheduling, charting, and billing/invoicing.
Mid-tier plans: Range from $19 to $193 per month and offer advanced features such as patient management, automated patient scheduling, and integrated payment processing. These plans are suitable for practitioners who have outgrown entry-level telemedicine solutions but don’t require the full range of functionality offered by enterprise-level tools.
High-end plans: Cost more than $99 per month and offer a range of advanced features, including multi-language support, advanced patient analytics, remote patient monitoring, and integrations with third-party systems. These are suitable for large medical practitioners with multiple specialists.
Hidden costs associated with affordable telemedicine software
Besides the license, additional costs can include:
Upgrade requirements: Lower-tier plans may lack essential features such as advanced reporting, security, or multi-user access, requiring costly upgrades.
Limited support: Limited customer support may slow down issue resolution, potentially impacting productivity.
Data storage: Surpassing initial storage capacity could involve extra costs.
Frequently asked questions when selecting affordable telemedicine software
How customizable are the intake forms?
Customizable intake forms are essential for capturing specific information, especially for practitioners in niche fields like mental health, post-traumatic stress disorder, and pediatrics. The software should allow users to adjust these forms by adding fields relevant to their specialty (such as specific mental health symptoms) or removing those that aren’t necessary.
Are there multiple support channels available?
Choose a telemedicine software provider that offers multiple support channels—email, chat, and phone—to quickly resolve bugs and enhance user experience.
What type of multi-device access does the software provide?
Having a platform that provides multi-device access via laptop and mobile phones can help streamline communication with clients and ensure seamless diagnosis and patient care.
Methodology
To be considered for this list, products had to:
Feature in Software Advice’s FrontRunners Report 2024 for telemedicine software.
Include remote treatment planning and appointment scheduling as the core features.
Meet our market definition for telemedicine software: “Telemedicine software provides remote care capabilities to medical providers enabling them to reach more patients. Patients can access quality medical care from the convenience of their homes. Care providers can connect with patients via audio/video calls and text or in-app messages and provide online consultation.”
For all the 24 products included in the FrontRunners report, we assessed the monthly subscription price of the base plans and found the average price to be $43.38—we considered only products with publicly available pricing information. We then shortlisted products with a monthly base price lower than $43.38 for this article.
*Our research team identified these features from vendor websites (as of July. 21, 2024) based on their analysis of what users find valuable in or expect from telemedicine software. This list is not exhaustive. For additional features, refer to the vendor’s website.
Editorial independence: We select and rank products based on an objective methodology developed by our research team. While some vendors may pay us when they receive web traffic or leads, this has no influence on our methodology.
Note: Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Software Advice’s telemedicine software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Software Advice directory that offer them. Only products with publicly available pricing information, as of July 21, 2024, were considered for pricing calculation.