Thivelab Alternatives

ThriveLab is a telehealth company that focuses on hormone and testosterone balancing programs, connecting you to bioidentical hormones and nutrition coaches. They offer prescription delivery, too, but also work with health insurance for most of their prescriptions. 

I’ve seen issues with no prescription refunds, cancellation fees, and perhaps most importantly, a reliance that focuses too much on your symptoms and optimal ranges. So if you are looking for an alternative that perhaps doesn’t use insurance, uses a more holistic approach, or saves money, you have several options. 

• LifeForce: Someone who wants to be proactive about longevity and health optimization
• The HRT Club: Someone who wants to avoid high costs without insurance
• Winona: Women who want 24/7 medical support and compounding pharmacies
• Henry Meds: Someone whose focus is weight management with clear monthly fees
• HIMS/HERS: Someone who wants a digital health platform with easy app usage
• Joi: Someone prioritizing in-depth diagnostics

So how do they each compare? 

LifeForce: Best for proactive health optimization and longevity

• More In-Depth Diagnostics: The sheer volume and range of biomarkers tested by LifeForce mean that patients and clinicians have more data points from which to create a treatment plan. This is a big leg up on ThriveLab, and it means clients can get potentially more nuanced and comprehensive interventions for issues like TRT, cognitive function, HRT, weight management, and so forth.
• Convenience and Personalization: LifeForce is the only alternative that offers at-home blood draws. Moreover, these blood draws happen quarterly, included in your membership costs. Quarterly data is then reviewed with the clinicians and integrated into your patient dashboard, where you can access long-term data. The combination of at-home lab draws and a dedicated, accessible health coach provides a high level of personalized service and convenience that many find superior to more standard telehealth models.
• Proactive Approach: For those who want to be proactive about their health and understand their current biological baseline, LifeForce’s extensive testing and coaching model are better suited. ThriveLab might give you a holistic look at your current biomarkers, but as noted, LifeForce focuses on detailed knowledge over time, from regular blood draws, to help you make long-term preventative changes.
• Proprietary Supplements: LifeForce also manufactures its own line of clinical-grade nutraceuticals (supplements). You can find supplements tailored to patient needs based on lab results and recommendations.

Why It’s a Good ThriveLab Alternative

LifeForce is heavily focused on proactive health optimization. You don’t just get a set of tests like Joi or a set of prescriptions like ThriveLab. Instead, you get extensive lab testing, the convenience of having a phlebotomist come to your home to do your quarterly blood draws, which are all included in the cost, and a dedicated health coach who works with you to provide a personalized health plan accessible through the app. 

The white glove service is just the tip of the iceberg as to why LifeForce is a good ThriveLab alternative. The app also gives you ongoing comparative data for each of your blood draws and each of those data points, helping you to manage your progress and adjust things like supplements, lifestyle, and medications accordingly. 

The HRT Club: Best for avoiding high costs without insurance

• Significant Cost Savings: The HRT Club is set up with an annual membership for a flat fee. This means you get medications at near-wholesale prices, which can potentially save up to 90% on prescriptions by working directly with manufacturers. This is achieved because the HRT club bypasses PBMs (Pharmacy Benefit Managers), and if you don’t have insurance, you still get those discounts. 
• Extensive Provider Network: The HRT Club connects patients with a broad network of over 700 clinicians who specialize in HRT.; This is far superior to the network size and specialization focus of ThriveLab for those interested in HRT. 
• Insurance Freedom: No insurance is needed to use the HRT Club, so you don’t have to wait for prior authorizations and deductibles. This makes it faster and easier to get treatment. 

Why It’s a Good ThriveLab Alternative

If you don’t have insurance, Thrivelab costs can be pretty high because they tend to go through insurance. The HRT Club, by comparison, has a direct-to-manufacturer model, and they offer near-wholesale pricing on prescriptions. This means if you don’t have insurance, you can drastically cut the cost of medication for things like hormone therapy compared to the self-pay rates offered by ThriveLab. 

Winona: Best for women who want 24/7 medical support and compounding pharmacies

• Compounding Pharmacy: ThriveLab relies on a compounding pharmacy, as does Winona. If that’s important to you as a woman, then Winona might be worth investigating. These compounding pharmacies are where the pharmacist mixes the ingredients on-site to make your pills, basically like It’s a Wonderful Life. This means great control over the production and an ability to immediately address your health concerns. 

• Continuous Support: Patients have 24/7 messaging options with their assigned doctor. There is also the patient care team if you have any questions or concerns.
• Flexible Payment: Winona operates on a month-to-month subscription model, which offers more flexibility for some people, especially compared to annual models.

Why It’s a Good ThriveLab Alternative

Winona is a good alternative for women who want a month-to-month subscription and 24/7 medical support. The ongoing chat function and access to an in-house pharmacy and medical team can make you feel a lot more supported than the communication model offered by ThriveLab. 

Henry Meds: Best for weight management with clear monthly fees

• Affordable GLP-1s: Henry Meds offers competitive pricing for compounded GLP-1 medications for weight loss, and they have better weight management programs than ThriveLab.
• Comprehensive Care: Instead of a regular membership, the fees are a monthly pricing model, and that pricing model includes complementary medications and shipping, so costs are predictable. 
• Focus on Specific Needs: Henry Meds is heavily focused on women’s HRT, men’s TRT, and weight management, and as such, they have more specialized programs for these areas compared to ThriveLab. 

Why It’s a Good ThriveLab Alternative

If your focus is weight management, particularly with GLP-1 medications, you’re going to have the best option with Henry Meds because they have a clear, monthly fee that includes all of your costs. This means you also get free shipping and things like anti-nausea medication to help manage the side effects of your medication, and you don’t have to worry about additional costs stacking up against you. This makes it a potentially cheaper alternative to the weight loss program from ThriveLab. 

HIMS/HERS: Best for a digital health platform with easy app usage

• Dedicated Mobile App: HIMS/HERS has a dedicated mobile app that includes trackers for nutrition, movement, and sleep, along with unlimited provider messaging, which provides more interactive tools and makes it easier to manage prescriptions and health changes right from your phone. 

• Pricing/Structure: HIMS/HERS uses transparent, flat-rate pricing for primary care and therapy visits. There are no memberships required to use the model, and services/prescriptions can be cancelled at any time. Thrivelab’s model is centred on a comprehensive program, the cost of which can change, and cancellation of prescriptions can be harder. 
• Hormone Approach: Thrivelab emphasizes a highly personalized approach using compounded bioidentical hormones, but HIMS/HERS offers access to both generic FDA-approved “body-identical” prescription like estradiol and progesterone and off-label compounded medications when appropriate. 

Why It’s a Good ThriveLab Alternative

HIMS/HERS (for men/women) is a more comprehensive digital platform so if you are dealing with things like TRT, hair loss, or ED as a man, you get a dedicated mobile app that helps you message someone in the event of a concern regarding your medication or your symptoms, shop online for the medications you want, and manage all of your prescriptions very easily. The app is much more gamified and removes the need to deal with a doctor in person or work through your insurance like ThriveLab requires. 

Joi: Best for in-depth diagnostics

• Deeper Diagnostic Insights: Joi/Blokes has support for men and women, with comprehensive biomarker labs. This is a deeper dive into your comprehensive health compared to the standard tests from ThriveLab, but you can also control the level of biomarker analysis you want and the amount of time you prefer with your consultations.
• Holistic Care Team with Coaching: Joi emphasizes a 1:1 care model with a dedicated provider and health coach. You have control over this by choosing the diagnostic test you want. Each of the different tests comes with a set amount of time for your consultation with a doctor, but they all offer continuous guidance and a proactive, data-driven approach to wellness.
• Specific Solutions for Niche Issues: Joi + Blokes has extensive products for specific patient concerns like libido (a la carte wellness products like “Scream Cream” for libido can be added at any time), providing solutions that aren’t integrated into the standard program from ThriveLab. 

Why It’s a Good ThriveLab Alternative

Joi/Blokes is a better option for prioritizing in-depth diagnostic data. They have several options for the type and quantity of biomarkers that are tested, with the most extreme being a test that handles 110 biomarkers. This is a significantly deeper look into your health then you get with the standard panels from ThriveLab. As such, it gives you a more comprehensive baseline when you are just starting out with the treatment plan.

Summing Up

There are a lot of ThriveLab alternatives for those who want better policies without insurance (Henry Meds), deeper diagnostics (Joi), or a proactive approach to overall health (LifeForce). 

LifeForce is the best Thrivelab alternative for someone focused on proactive health optimization and longevity because of all the regular diagnostics they take and their ongoing support structure. Joi might have deeper diagnostic options, but their policies are a la carte, and you are responsible for buying additional tests on a regular basis—which doesn’t come with the LifeForce database and tracker app.