6 Top-Rated Free Telemedicine Software
Long wait times and crowded waiting rooms are a thing of the past with telemedicine software. These tools enable healthcare professionals to provide remote consultations to patients, especially in emergencies. This enhances accessibility, convenience, and overall efficiency of healthcare delivery. The tool also helps manage patients’ health information, generate bills, and get document approvals via electronic signatures.
If you want to try out the tool before investing, we suggest starting with a free trial or free version to assess whether it is suitable for your practice management. To assist your software search, this article highlights, in alphabetical order, six top-rated free telemedicine software tools based on verified user reviews.
All featured products offer a free trial, a forever free version, or both. They are categorized into dedicated telemedicine solutions with core features, including appointment scheduling and remote treatment planning.
What is free software vs. free trial software?
Free software is software that users can access without incurring any costs. To meet this criterion, a software solution must grant users free lifetime access to either all or some of its features. On the other hand, a free trial allows users to try out the software with complete or partial feature access for a limited period. Unlike free software, which is free forever, a free trial requires payment after a specific timeframe.
We selected products for this article based on their average ratings between June 2022 and June 2024, which may differ from their current overall average ratings.
1. Carepatron
Free trial period | Not available |
Free version | Available |
Carepatron is a telemedicine tool with a free plan. It allows you to conduct secure video calls with patients directly within the platform, eliminating the need for physical appointments and improving accessibility and convenience for patients. The healthcare practitioner can share their screen with patients during calls to display medical images, test results, or educational material. The tool allows both doctors and patients to schedule appointments, which are reflected on the built-in calendar. It also sends automated email and text message reminders to patients and doctors for upcoming appointments.
Free features*:
Online forms: Create forms that meet the unique requirements of the medical practice with a drag-and-drop form builder. The feature allows tailoring each form to capture the exact information needed from patients.
Instant messaging: Exchange messages with patients before, during, or after the video consultation to provide additional information, answer questions, or share reports or prescriptions.
Electronic signatures: Allow patients to electronically sign consent forms or treatment plans directly on their devices (phone, tablet, or computer) within the tool.
Cost to upgrade: $12 per user per month
Billing cycle: Annual
Customer support options: Help center, knowledge base, FAQs, chat, and an online ticketing system
2. Doxy.me
Free trial period | Not available |
Free version | Available |
Doxy.me telehealth software offers a free plan. It lets you generate personalized room URLs to share with patients via email. They can directly join the link from their web browser on any device, saving time from downloading or logging into applications. The tool allows both audio and video calls to connect with patients. Doxy.me can send pop-up notifications directly to your web browser when a patient joins the call for a scheduled appointment. These notifications appear in the corner of the browser window, similar to how other websites and applications display notifications.
Free features*:
Waiting room: Create a virtual waiting room for patients to join in for their scheduled appointments. The feature allows customizing waiting rooms to display practice policies, platform instructions, or links to relevant educational material.
Patient queue: Access the list of patients (names, appointment times, and joining status) waiting in the queue and provide them with an estimated wait time. The feature allows switching between consultations if a session runs a bit longer than expected.
Meeting history: Get a list of all past consultations with date and time, patient name, call duration, and rating and feedback. The feature allows filtering the history by specific time or duration and downloading the records.
Cost to upgrade: $35 per month
Billing cycle: Monthly
Customer support options: Phone, help center, and knowledge base
Pro tip
Consider automated virtual waiting rooms with queue management capabilities if your practice handles high volumes of appointments every day. This ensures that no patient leaves unattended and also reduces the chances of no-shows.
3. DrChrono
Free trial period | Available upon request from the vendor |
Free version | Available |
DrChrono is an electronic health record management system that offers telemedicine capabilities in its free trial plan. The tool generates electronic prescriptions for controlled substances and shares them with patients, pharmacies, labs, and other medical facilities via fax or email. It also allows you to save commonly prescribed medications for future consultations. You can also list the patient’s preferred pharmacies based on medicine availability and geographical location to order medications and ensure on-time delivery.
Free trial features*:
Dosage calculator: Enter the medication name, dose per unit of body weight, and the patient’s weight. The calculator automatically provides the appropriate dosage based on the pre-programmed medication data and select units (microgram/kilogram or milligram/kilogram)
Active and past medications: Access the list of all ongoing and past medications prescribed by the current or previous healthcare provider through the integrated Surescript network.
Drug interaction alerts: Check for potential interactions with the patient’s existing medications and allergies. The system leverages a drug database to compare the prescribed medication with the known allergies or ailments and send high/medium/low-risk alerts.
Cost to upgrade: Available upon request from the vendor
Billing cycle: Monthly
Customer support options: Knowledge base, help center, phone, and email
4. Medesk
Free trial period | Available upon request from the vendor |
Free version | Not available |
Medesk medical practice management software offers integrated telemedicine capabilities in its free trial plan. The tool can schedule remote consultations with patients and store their medical documents within the system. It also provides access to practice performance insights, such as acquisition channel statistics, workload distribution, cash flow, and practitioner statistics. You can also integrate the tool with third-party analytics tools to analyze the patient pathway from where they found out about your healthcare services to the online booking experience, and subsequent appointments scheduled.
Free trial features*:
Flexi-payments: Allow patients to select between complete or partial online payment. The feature enables them to select the preferred payment tenure from the available options.
Secretary statistics: Track the front-desk activities, including call volume, duration, appointment booking, and patient follow-ups. The feature presents this data in charts or graphs for a clear understanding.
Custom branding: Add the practice logo and brand colors to the Medesk account and online booking module. The feature enables creating a smooth and seamless booking journey for the patients.
Cost to upgrade: $20 per month
Billing cycle: Quarterly
Customer support options: Phone, email, and knowledge base
Pro tip
Opt for a telemedicine platform that offers a self-service portal for patients to schedule appointments or request on-demand sessions at their convenience. This way, patients can seek medical assistance in case of emergency instead of waiting for the practitioner’s availability.
5. My Best Practice
Free trial period | 14 days |
Free version | Not available |
My Best Practice offers telemedicine capabilities in its free trial plan. It allows you to modify the medical form templates or create custom forms for clinical questionnaires, intake forms, contracts, and insurance. These forms are electronically shared and signed by the patients. The tool offers manual and automatic credit card billing on the patient’s registered card details. They are charged for the due amount after their session and the bill is shared with them via email or the patient portal. The payment and billing information is automatically stored in the system to generate billing and revenue reports.
Free trial features*:
Session notes: Access clinical note templates with sections for demographics, presenting concerns, treatment plans, interventions used, and progress upgrades.
Agenda setting and reminders: Set automatic alerts for the set agendas and homework for patients during sessions. These prompts appear within the notes, ensuring important aspects are not missed during documentation.
Superbills: Generate detailed bills with the insurance details for patients claiming cashless treatment. The feature allows electronically submitting generated superbills to insurance companies for claim processing and reimbursement.
Cost to upgrade: $39 per month
Billing cycle: Monthly
Customer support options: Knowledge base, help center, and email
6. SecureVideo
Free trial period | 14 days |
Free version | Not available |
SecureVideo telemedicine software solution is available for free trial. It offers a patient-facing portal that functions as a virtual clinic. Patients can request live or recorded online sessions through a dedicated booking URL provided by the healthcare provider. Live sessions connect patients with health providers in real time for interactive consultations. Recorded sessions are pre-recorded educational content from providers or external consultants. Patients can submit their questions and receive recorded video responses. The virtual clinic displays the availability of live consultations based on the pre-configured schedules. Patients can select their preferred slot for a convenient booking experience.
Free trial features*:
Masked calling: Mask the source of the call by making outbound phone calls using VOIP within the system dashboard. Patients can call back on this number if they happen to miss the call.
Cloud recording: Record and store telehealth sessions in cloud storage. This feature allows searching for recordings based on keywords related to their names.
Interpretation: Translate live and recorded sessions in 240 spoken languages and dialects, as well as American Sign Language (ASL).
Cost to upgrade: $50 per month
Billing cycle: Monthly
Customer support options: Chat, knowledge base, email, phone, and help center
Pro tip
Check for the reporting capabilities of software, such as custom reports with metrics specific to your current practice management and telemedicine requirements. This enables you to track detailed KPIs instead of a complete overview, which can be confusing.
What is the cost to upgrade from free telemedicine software to paid software?
Telemedicine software upgrades can be as low as $12 per month or up to $420+ per month, depending on various factors—number of users and practices, deployment model, integration capabilities, customization options, and more. Most telemedicine software solutions typically include the following subscription plans:
Free trials: Range from 14 to 30 days and give users temporary access to either complete or limited software features. These no-cost trial plans are ideal for businesses that wish to try out a tool before purchasing it.
Free versions: Offer perpetual access to limited software features. These free plans are ideal for small businesses or individuals on a budget.
Entry-level plans: Start at $12 per month and offer access to standard features. They are recommended for small businesses or teams with basic feature requirements, such as video conferencing and session scheduling.
Mid-tier plans: Range from $19 to $193 per month and offer advanced features such as billing and invoicing, reporting and analytics, financial management. They are suitable for businesses that have outgrown basic telemedicine solutions but don’t require the full range of functionality offered by enterprise-level tools.
High-end plans: Cost over $298 per month and offer a range of advanced capabilities, including unlimited access to entry-level and mid-tier features, priority customer support, and advanced reporting. They are suitable for large practices and healthcare providers that need a customized solution for multiple practices and healthcare staff.
Hidden costs associated with telemedicine software
Besides the software license, additional costs may include:
Implementation costs: Setting up the system, configuring it, and customizing features to fit specific business requirements may require additional resources.
Data migration costs: Transferring existing data from various sources, such as spreadsheets and databases, into a new telemedicine software system can be complex and may require specialized services.
Training costs: Complex telemedicine software with extensive features requires dedicated training resources, including on-site training and e-learning modules, which might come at an extra cost.
Frequently asked questions when selecting free telemedicine software
Here are some questions to ask telemedicine software providers when finding a tool for your small business.
What are the essential telemedicine features offered by the free plan?
Telemedicine software that offers free or free trial plans limit the number or features or their usage. You need to look for the essential features that help provide telemedicine services to your patients. This way, you get to test the selected software for its core capabilities before investing in the paid plan.
What data security measures are implemented by the software provider?
Selecting a telemedicine solution requires considering data security measures to protect patient’s privacy. Ensure that the software adheres to strict regulations that safeguard patients’ protected health information (PHI). This includes HIPAA (Health Information Portability and Accountability Act) certification, AES encryption for data transmission during transfer and in storage, and secure login and access control for user authentication.
Does the free plan limit the number of users and sessions?
Certain free telemedicine software plans offer access to multiple healthcare practitioners to conduct sessions or manage medical documents. Some even allow conducting group sessions or multiple individual sessions. However, these capabilities vary between tools, and you must check for the available capabilities that match your practice’s requirements. This includes considering the sessions scheduled per day, follow-ups, and on-demand appointments.
Methodology
To be considered for this list, products had to:
Have at least 20 unique product reviews published on Software Advice within the past two years, with an average rating of 4.0 or higher (as of June 28, 2024). We selected the six products with the highest ratings to feature in this article.
Offer either a free stand-alone version of the software or a free trial that needs to be purchased after the trial period.
Meet our definition of 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..”
*Our research team identified these free features from vendor websites (as of June 28, 2024) based on their analysis of what users find valuable in or expect from telemedicine software. This list is not exhaustive. For additional free features, refer to the vendor's website.
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 June 28, 2024, were considered for pricing calculation.
Product research for this article was contributed by Rakshat Chhokar.
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.