Guide

Oct 1, 2026

Cerbo EHR alternatives for functional medicine practices (2026)

Cerbo EHR alternatives by practice type, with 2026 prices, how to export your Cerbo data, and who should stay. From practices that switched.

Sunita Mohanty
Founder & CEO of Ultralight
Dr. Lexi Gonzales
Medical Reviewer
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Cerbo has been a widely used EHR for functional and integrative medicine since 2010. Its site says it has served more than 5,000 practitioners. When clinicians call us about switching, they are almost always calling from Cerbo. This guide is for clinicians who are considering the switch. It covers what to evaluate, what Cerbo costs, how to get your data out, and which alternative fits which kind of practice.

Every price below comes from the vendor's own pricing page, retrieved September, 2026. Every quote comes from a recorded call with a clinician or practice manager who uses or used Cerbo, reproduced word for word and anonymized.

The shortlist: which Cerbo alternative fits your practice

One recommendation per practice type. Each block gives the fit, the published starting price, and the one thing to confirm in a demo. Details, migration paths, and what you give up are further down.

Ultralight

  • Fits: cash-pay functional and longevity practices with prescribing clinicians, solo or group, that want the AI to read the whole chart and not just write the note.
  • Published price: $525 per prescribing seat, $300 per non-prescribing seat, $50 per month for unlimited admin users.
  • Confirm in the demo: which post-visit tasks the copilot prepares, your lab connections, and the migration scope for your Cerbo export.

Practice Better

  • Fits: coaching, nutrition, and program-based practices. Prescribers can add ePrescribe.
  • Published price: Starter $35, Professional $69, Plus $99, Team $155 per month.
  • Confirm in the demo: client limits per plan, prescribing eligibility, and what the AI add-on does at your visit volume.

Healthie

  • Fits: digital health companies and virtual practices building their own patient experience on an API.
  • Published price: Core $19.99, Essentials $49.99, Plus $129.99, Group from $149.99 per month.
  • Confirm in the demo: the API contract and implementation cost, which is separate from the plan price.

Elation Health

  • Fits: primary care and direct primary care.
  • Published price: not published, quote-based.
  • Confirm in the demo: specialty labs, supplements, and any functional medicine workflow you rely on.

Jane

  • Fits: non-prescribing wellness and multidisciplinary practices that need scheduling and practice management first.
  • Published price: Balance $54, Practice $79, Thrive $99 per month.
  • Confirm in the demo: whether you can live without US e-prescribing.

Four things to evaluate before you leave Cerbo

Switching EHRs costs 30 to 60 days of split attention. It is only worth it if the new system fixes something specific. These are the four areas where practices on Cerbo most often tell us they have hit a ceiling. Treat each as a question to ask in every demo, including ours.

1. How many clicks does the work take?

Cerbo's AI Scribe, launched August 17, 2026, can now write the note. What it does not change is the clicking around the note. A nurse practitioner at a Cerbo practice described the ICD-10 workflow: Cerbo suggests diagnoses, but clicking them does not populate the note, so she types "autoimmune thyroiditis" by hand. Her summary: "The documentation is causing me burnout." A physician who has run her own practice on Cerbo for a decade: "I spend time on the weekends doing my notes."

Ask: run a full visit in the demo, from intake to orders to charges. Count the clicks that are not clinical decisions.

2. Does the chart connect the dots, or only store them?

Cerbo holds a lot of information per patient. The question is whether you can see across it. Cerbo's Lab Tracker graphs numeric values over time for results that arrive electronically from integrated labs; faxed or PDF results have to be entered by hand to be trended (Cerbo help center, retrieved September 17, 2026). The clinical operations lead at a telehealth group with more than 20 clinicians said her team built its own tool to pull values out and chart them, because specialty results in Cerbo live as PDFs. A large functional and acupuncture practice in Ohio: "So we're on Cerbo, and it does some of that for routine, but not for functional."

Ask: show me a DUTCH or GI-MAP result trended against the last three, next to the patient's Oura sleep data and last visit note, on one screen.

3. Does the system surface anything, or is it all on you?

Chart Parts let you build templates that tee up diagnoses, lab orders, treatment plans, charges, and handouts in one step, and practices that have built them over years do appreciate them. What Chart Parts cannot do is recommend. The template is only as good as the clinician remembering to reach for it. Nothing in the chart reads the labs, the history, and the messages and proposes what to do next.

Ask: after the labs land, what does the system do before I open the chart?

4. How many systems does your staff log into, and does it all land in the chart?

Most functional practices run a few tools around their EHR; ours do too. The test is whether what happens in those tools ends up in the chart. A practice administrator told us texts to patients "never make it to the chart." An NP described portal messages in one platform, scheduling in another, "and then my EMR is another platform."

Ask: send a patient text, book a follow-up, and recommend a supplement. Then open the chart. Is all of it there?

What Cerbo costs

Third-party review sites publish several different Cerbo prices. Cerbo's own pricing page lists:

  • Prescribing provider: $281 per month full time, $174 part time
  • Non-prescribing provider: $256 full time, $160 part time
  • Supporting provider: $127 full time, $78 part time
  • Additional staff: $63 full time, $39 part time
  • One-time setup: $1,195 ($595 for practices under 30 patients and under six months old)
  • Patient portal: $79 per month
  • Telemedicine: $27 per month per provider ($39 multi-participant)
  • Incoming e-fax: $27 per month for 500 pages, then 10 cents a page
  • AI Scribe: $29 per provider per month for up to 60 notes, or $59 unlimited
  • Data import into Cerbo: "Pricing varies," by patient count and complexity

Part-time rates apply only to multi-provider clinics, and every clinic needs at least one full-time primary provider.

A solo prescribing clinician with portal, telehealth, fax, and the 60-note scribe pays $281 + $79 + $27 + $27 + $29 = $443 per month, or $6,511 in year one with setup ($443 x 12 + $1,195). With unlimited scribing that is $473 per month, or $6,871 in year one. A practice with five prescribing clinicians and two full-time staff pays $1,405 + $126 = $1,531 per month for seats alone, before the portal, telehealth, fax, or scribe.

Cerbo says it has "no long-term contracts." Its help center says it requires 30 days' notice to cancel. Both matter for the next section.

How to get your data out of Cerbo

This is the part review sites skip, and it is where switches go wrong.

Cerbo's own help article on exporting patient data (updated June 12, 2026, retrieved September 16, 2026) says:

  • Exports come as HTML, XML, CSV for specific reports, and original document files.
  • "The XML export is not CCDA compliant. We're not an ONC-certified EHR."
  • Single-patient export is available to Superadmin users. "A bulk export request can only be submitted by your clinic's main contact and charges may apply." No fee amount is published.
  • "Cerbo does not facilitate the transfer of records into external systems."
  • "We require 30-day advance notice for cancellations."
  • Some data sits outside the chart export, including custom vitals, financial reports, and schedules. Past and future appointments export separately through the Calendar Report.

In plain terms: you get your charts, but not in the standard format most EHRs import. Whoever you move to has to parse HTML and XML, and the practice pays for any bulk export unless the original contract says otherwise. Because Cerbo is not ONC-certified, the federal information blocking rules that limit export fees for certified EHRs may not apply. Your leverage is your contract and the HIPAA business associate agreement, which requires the vendor to return or destroy your PHI at termination if feasible. We are not lawyers. Read your agreement before you give notice.

Here is what a live cancellation looks like. An office manager at a functional medicine practice moving to Ultralight told us on September 1: "So I ended up canceling Cerbo. Last Thursday we gave notification." Then: "They came back to us and said that we're done with them on September 25, which is a Friday." The cancellation was "with a form, not speaking to a human." She understood from Cerbo's exit materials that the data would arrive about five days before the end date. That is a tight window if anything in the file is wrong. It is one practice's experience, so get your own delivery date in writing.

Three rules we give every practice leaving Cerbo:

  1. Request your export before you give notice. Agree on the contents, the cost, and the delivery date first. Do not tie the export date to the termination date.
  2. Keep Cerbo running two to four weeks past go-live as a read-only reference. You pay for both. It is cheaper than a missing chart.
  3. Confirm patient email addresses are in the export. Most importers match on email and date of birth.

A physician who moved a multi-provider practice off Cerbo this summer said the overlap cost was the part he wished had been laid out earlier: "I just have a system that's just going to sit here for 30 days that I'm paying for." Budget for it.

For the general playbook, including when not to switch, see How to switch EHRs (and when you shouldn't).

The best Cerbo alternative, by practice type

There is no single best alternative. There is a best fit for what your practice does. Below, one recommendation per practice type, with price, AI, and what migrating from Cerbo looks like. "Not published" means the vendor does not state it publicly.

For cash-pay functional and longevity practices, solo or multi-clinician, with prescribers: Ultralight

This is our product, so read the others too. Ultralight is built for the practice described in the four questions above: prescribing clinicians, specialty labs, supplements, long visits, patients who message, and groups where several clinicians share the same patients.

  • Price: Core plan $525 per prescribing seat per month, $300 per non-prescribing seat, $50 per month for unlimited admin users. Implementation $995 per practice. Data migration custom priced by record count and complexity. Launch plan with special pricing for practices under 50 patients. (pricing)
  • Included in the seat, no add-on fees: patient app and portal with messaging, telehealth, e-fax, the AI copilot, the scribed note, and dedicated onboarding with a shared Slack channel. Cerbo sells the portal, telehealth, fax, and scribe separately. Two things are not in the seat: HIPAA-compliant SMS to a patient's phone, which practices that need it add through an outside app, and the Hint Health membership billing integration, which is $100 per month.
  • AI copilot and scribed note: Two things, both built into the chart. The scribed note drafts the visit note from the conversation. The copilot summarizes the history, pre-populates the chart, reads the labs, wearable data, prior notes, and patient messages, and prepares the visit before you open it. After the visit it drafts the after-visit summary and a structured care plan covering supplements, nutrition, lifestyle, and other interventions, and it reduces the steps in lab orders, prescriptions, and follow-up. A bolt-on scribe does the first part. The rest is what changes the click count.
  • Integrations: Quest and Labcorp, with BioReference for New York and New Jersey; specialty lab results parsed from the PDF into trended values; supplement dispensaries, wearables, e-prescribing, and payments.
  • Migration from Cerbo: We parse Cerbo's HTML and XML export into structured labs, notes, medications, documents, and demographics, run a dry run, and give you a report of what we found before you approve the full migration. We rebuild your Cerbo Chart Parts as Snippets so you keep that workflow. You get filled-in, usable charts, not a folder of PDFs.
  • Not built yet: connections to additional diagnostics beyond our current lab integrations, IV ordering, and inventory tracking. All three are on the roadmap. If any is core to your practice today, ask us for dates before you sign.

A functional medicine physician who had been on Cerbo for years said this the first time she saw a chart in Ultralight: "It's so intuitive, like, finally."

For coaching, nutrition, and program-based practices: Practice Better

  • Price: Starter $35 (10 clients), Professional $69 (300 clients), Plus $99, Team $155 per month. Team includes two practitioner licenses; additional practitioners are $50 each. ePrescribe is a $49 per month add-on with an optional $99 onboarding fee, and EPCS is included with it. AI Charting Assistant from $10 per practitioner per month for 20 hours. (pricing)
  • Migration from Cerbo: Basic migration free, premium $500, average five business days. Practice Better publishes a Cerbo-specific migration guide. Confirm whether your clinical data becomes structured fields or stays attached as documents.
  • What you give up against an AI-native chart: The AI is a metered charting assistant, not a copilot that reads labs and messages. Prescribing is an add-on, so a prescribing practice can use it, but lab depth is thin. Strong on programs and client engagement.

For digital health companies building their own patient experience: Healthie

  • Price: Core $19.99, Essentials $49.99, Plus $129.99, Group from $149.99 per month plus $50 per clinician. DoseSpot e-prescribing $40 per clinician per month. Fullscript included; Rupa on Plus and above. AI Scribe is an add-on for Plus and above, 40 shared hours per month, fee not published. The plan price does not cover an API deployment; ask for that quote separately. (pricing)
  • Why it fits that practice: Healthie is API-first. Its own line: "If you see it in our UI it can be accessed via API." (Healthie API) A team with developers can build a consumer-facing product on top of it.
  • What you give up against an AI-native chart: The scribe is a metered add-on and there is no copilot. Healthie's product pages market to behavioral health, nutrition, and women's health; functional medicine appears in its blog.

For direct primary care: Elation Health

  • Price: Not published; quote-based. Note Assist includes 10 AI notes per month free; unlimited is a paid upgrade, price not published. (pricing)
  • Migration from Cerbo: Not published. Ask for a Cerbo-specific scope and timeline in writing.
  • What you give up against an AI-native chart: Elation is built for primary care and DPC, with no specialty lab or supplement dispensary story and no copilot across labs and messages.

For non-prescribing wellness practices: Jane

  • Price: Balance $54, Practice $79, Thrive $99 per month, each including the first practitioner. AI Scribe $15 per month per opted-in practitioner, unlimited notes. Free data imports with a published Cerbo import guide; historical billing does not come over. (pricing)
  • What you give up against an AI-native chart: Jane does not support US e-prescribing. For a prescribing practice, that is disqualifying.

Ultralight vs Cerbo pricing, on the same configuration

Compare the configuration you need, not the lowest number on either site.

Solo prescriber plus one staff seat. Cerbo: $281 seat + $63 staff + $79 portal + $27 telehealth + $27 fax + $29 scribe = $506 per month, or $536 with unlimited scribing. Ultralight: $525 seat + $50 admin = $575 per month, with the patient app, telehealth, fax, copilot, and scribed note in the seat. The recurring gap is $69 per month against the 60-note scribe, or $39 against unlimited.

Year one, with setup. Cerbo: $506 x 12 + $1,195 = $7,267 ($7,627 with unlimited scribing). Ultralight: $575 x 12 + $995 = $7,895. Both exclude migration and any outside texting app. Add $100 per month to Ultralight if you bill memberships through Hint.

Five prescribers plus two staff. Cerbo: $1,405 + $126 = $1,531 per month for seats, before portal, telehealth, fax, and scribe. Ultralight: five seats + unlimited admin = $2,675 per month, everything in.

The remaining question is whether the new workflow saves enough clinician time, or retires enough paid tools, to cover the difference. Count a saving only after you have confirmed you can cancel the tool.

A demo checklist for Cerbo practices

Bring this to every demo. It takes 20 minutes and it is the difference between a switch that pays for itself and one that does not.

  1. Record a five-minute mock visit. Does the system produce a complete note, or a transcript you still have to structure?
  2. Upload three prior specialty lab results for one patient. Ask to see one marker trended next to the patient's wearable data.
  3. Order a Quest panel and a specialty panel. Count the clicks and the portals.
  4. Send a patient message, book a follow-up, and recommend a supplement. Then open the chart and check that all three landed.
  5. Ask whether your Cerbo Chart Parts can be exported and rebuilt, and who does that work.
  6. Ask how many Cerbo practices they have migrated and what came over.
  7. Ask for the all-in monthly price for your exact headcount, add-ons included, in writing.

We built Ultralight to pass this list. Run it on us.

Who should stay on Cerbo

Some practices should not switch, and we would rather say so than onboard someone who will be unhappy.

If Cerbo's lab integrations are the backbone of your practice. Cerbo lists more than 40, including Genova, Doctor's Data, Precision Analytical, ZRT, Vibrant, and Cleveland HeartLab. One physician told us the Cleveland HeartLab connection alone gave her pause: "It's integrated into Cerbo." Another valued the order tracker: "We all know in the order section that they've had a microbiome test. They've had a Dutch test and it's like still pending." Confirm which of your labs are live before you move.

If you dispense and track inventory in the chart. A practice administrator who moved off Cerbo described what she gave up: "You could add drugs, you could add supplements, you could add supplies." Cerbo required NDC, lot, and expiration on every drug and dispensed oldest lot first. We do not have inventory tracking today.

If your staff love the face sheet. An ER physician running a concierge practice said: "It saves for me like pharmacies, the patient's pharmacy I last used." He picks the compounding pharmacy from a dropdown, hits fax, and it goes. "It's really quite nice." He also preferred Cerbo's compact calendar. Small things, until you lose them.

If your only complaint is the note. Pay $29 for Cerbo's scribe and revisit in a year.

Where to start

If the four questions at the top of this article describe your practice, we built Ultralight for it: a scribed note and a copilot that reads labs, wearables, and messages before the visit, supplements and messaging in the same record, and a migration team that has parsed Cerbo's export before.

See Ultralight in action and bring your Cerbo invoice. We will tell you honestly whether the math works for your practice.

FAQ

Is Ultralight a good alternative to Cerbo?
For cash-pay functional and longevity practices with prescribing clinicians, solo or group, yes. Ultralight puts the scribed note, an AI copilot, lab trending, supplements, messaging, telehealth, and billing in one system with no add-on fees. Practices that are mainly coaching, direct primary care, or building their own patient app usually fit Practice Better, Elation, or Healthie better.

How does Ultralight migrate data from Cerbo?
You request Cerbo's export (HTML, XML, CSV, and documents). We run a dry run, give you a report of what we see, and after your approval parse it into structured labs, notes, medications, documents, and demographics, then help you rebuild your Chart Parts as Snippets. Two things in Cerbo's export do not carry over cleanly: future appointments, and free-text fields such as preferred pharmacy. We tell you both before you sign. Migration is custom priced by record count. You get filled-in, usable charts, not empty charts with PDFs attached.

Ultralight vs Cerbo pricing: what is the real difference?
For a solo prescriber with one staff seat, Cerbo with portal, telehealth, fax, and the 60-note scribe is $506 per month plus $1,195 setup. Ultralight is $575 per month plus $995 implementation, with the patient app, telehealth, fax, AI copilot, and scribed note in the seat. The gap is $69 per month, or $628 in year one, before you count the tools you cancel.

Does Ultralight have an AI scribe like Cerbo's?
Yes, and a copilot. The scribed note drafts the visit note, the way Cerbo's AI Scribe does. The copilot also trends labs and wearable data, prepares the visit, summarizes patient messages, and drafts the after-visit summary and care plan. Cerbo's scribe is a $29 to $59 add-on for notes only.

Which labs does Ultralight integrate with?
Quest and Labcorp, with BioReference for New York and New Jersey. Specialty lab results are parsed from the PDF into trended values. Ask us for the current list and check it against the labs you order most.

How much does Cerbo EHR cost per month?
$281 per full-time prescribing provider, plus $79 patient portal, $27 telemedicine, $27 incoming fax, and $29 to $59 AI Scribe, per Cerbo's pricing page on September 24, 2026. Setup is $1,195. A solo prescriber with all add-ons pays about $443 per month.

Does Cerbo have an AI scribe?
Yes. Cerbo launched a native AI Scribe on August 17, 2026, at $29 per provider per month for up to 60 notes or $59 unlimited. If the note is your only problem, try it before you switch.

Did Cerbo merge with OptiMantra?
Yes, announced December 3, 2025, with Jeff Hindman as CEO of the combined company. Whether the products will be combined has not been announced. OptiMantra is a sister product, not an alternative vendor.

Can I export my patient data from Cerbo?
Yes. Cerbo exports charts as HTML and XML (not CCDA), plus CSV reports and original documents. Bulk export goes through your clinic's main contact and "charges may apply." Cerbo requires 30 days' notice to cancel, so request the export before you give notice.

How long does it take to switch from Cerbo?
Plan on 30 days of overlap, because Cerbo requires 30 days' notice and delivers the export near the end of that window. Ultralight schedules the migration for a clean switchover; how long it takes depends on the amount and quality of the data.

Sources

All retrieved September 16, 2026 unless noted. Cerbo, Practice Better, Jane, and Ultralight pricing re-checked September 24, 2026.

Sunita Mohanty
Founder & CEO of Ultralight
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