Everything on this site follows the same process: verify the number at the source, date-stamp it, and apply the identical criteria to every product in the category. This page documents that process in enough detail to check our work.

Pricing

Every price is pulled from the vendor's own public pricing page and carries the date it was last verified. We record the entry-tier price — what you pay if you never upgrade — because that is the number a buyer compares across platforms. Where a vendor quotes monthly billing, the annual figure shown is twelve times the monthly rate unless an annual plan is advertised separately, in which case both appear.

Three details are recorded alongside the number, because each changes the real cost. Whether the price requires an annual commitment or is month-to-month. Whether the first period is a discounted introductory rate that steps up on renewal — common enough in this category that a first-year price is frequently not the ongoing price. And whether lab work is included in the fee or billed separately, which is the single largest source of surprise on hormone-focused programs.

Prices change. If you see a discrepancy between this site and a vendor page, the vendor's page is authoritative and we want to know.

Hidden costs — how we find them

A hidden cost is any out-of-pocket line item that appears between the landing page and the payment screen, or shortly after purchase, and is not disclosed in the advertised price. We find them by walking the actual signup flow to the final checkout step for every platform we review, then noting every charge that surfaced along the way.

The recurring categories are consistent across the industry:

  • Draw and phlebotomy fees. Mobile phlebotomy typically adds $50–$150 per draw where a partner lab visit is free.
  • Consult charges. Physician or NP review sold as an add-on rather than bundled, often $100–$300 per session.
  • Retest charges. The second and third panels billed separately from the membership. This is usually the largest hidden cost, and it scales with cadence — a quarterly program bills four times what an annual one does for the same panel.
  • Prescription costs. Medication billed outside the membership. On hormone and GLP-1 protocols this routinely exceeds the program fee itself.
  • Add-on panels. Markers advertised in headline biomarker counts that turn out to sit behind an upgrade.

Where a charge is genuinely optional and clearly labeled before checkout, it is listed as an optional cost rather than a hidden one. The distinction is disclosure timing, not whether the charge exists.

The ten-row comparison rubric

Every platform comparison uses the same ten rows, in the same order, with the same row labels: annual price at entry tier, biomarkers in the base panel, physician access, prescription pathway, retest cadence, ongoing reassessment, draw type, hidden costs, public litigation, and best-for audience.

The rows are fixed in a shared component, so a page cannot add a criterion that flatters the product it covers or drop one that does not. That constraint is the point. A rubric that varies by page can be shaped after the fact to produce whatever conclusion the page wants, and the reader has no way to detect it. Identical rows also make cross-page reading possible: the biomarker row means the same thing on every comparison, so numbers from two different pages can be compared directly.

Three rows need definitions, because vendors use the words loosely. Physician access distinguishes bundled, paid add-on, and none — and states the format, since an asynchronous message review and a scheduled video visit with the same clinician each quarter are both marketed as physician-led. Ongoing reassessment records whether anyone revisits the protocol after the first read, which is what separates a program from a test. Public litigation records open civil lawsuits or major regulatory actions that are public record — not private disputes, and not resolved complaints. Allegations are not findings; where a case has been settled or adjudicated, the outcome is stated. Every litigation claim on this site must include a citation linking to the court filing, regulatory notice, or a major news outlet that reports it. Where no public litigation has been identified, the cell states that with a search date.

Scorecards

Every review carries a scorecard with 5–7 categories scored out of 10. Scores are directional judgments, not measurements — a 7 versus an 8 is a soft distinction, while a 4 versus a 9 is not. Categories are chosen to reflect what matters for the product type: biomarker breadth and clinician access for platforms, sensor accuracy and battery life for wearables, evidence quality and dose adequacy for supplements. Within a product type, the same categories are applied to every product, so scores are comparable across reviews in that category but not across categories.

Scores are assigned from the same evidence that appears on the page. If a scorecard row is not supported by something stated in the body text, the row is wrong and should be reported.

Ordering and neutrality

Any table, list, or roundup containing three or more platforms is ordered by a key stated on the page — alphabetical by default, or by price or biomarker count where the page says so. No product appears first without a printed reason. Comparison pages give both sides equal treatment: matching section structure, matching bullet counts, and the same register. Trade-offs come from the rubric, not from tone.

What we don't do

  • Diagnose or treat conditions — this site is editorial, not medical.
  • Accept free memberships or products in exchange for coverage.
  • Break ties for sponsors when two products deserve the same category placement.
  • Publish a single ranked "best" verdict where products serve genuinely different constraints.

Affiliate disclosure

Where we use affiliate links, we say so on the page carrying them, not only in a site-wide footer. Affiliate relationships do not affect scoring, ordering, or category placement, and no platform receives coverage — favorable or otherwise — as a condition of one.

Update cadence

Pricing across all reviewed platforms is revisited at least quarterly, because entry tiers in this category change several times a year. Reviews are revisited when a platform changes its panel, its tiers, or its clinician model, and comparison pages are refreshed whenever either side of the comparison changes. Every page shows a published date and an updated date; when those differ, the page has been materially revised since publication.

Corrections

If a price, feature, or fact on this site is wrong, email us and it gets corrected. We prefer visible corrections to quiet edits — every meaningful change carries an updated date on the page, and factual corrections that changed a conclusion are noted in the body rather than silently rewritten. Disagreement with an editorial judgment is not a correction, but we will still read it.