Function Health sells a $499 annual membership covering 100-plus biomarkers across two draws a year, delivered through a consumer dashboard with physician review available as an add-on. People search for an alternative for specific, identifiable reasons — and the right alternative depends entirely on which reason applies to you.
Nine platforms overlap with some part of that description, and none of them overlaps with all of it. All ten — the nine alternatives plus Function Health itself as the baseline row — are listed alphabetically below and measured against the same criteria. They are priced from $249 for a single test to $19,500 a year for an in-person program with imaging, and they are not interchangeable. Roughly half of them include a clinician who can prescribe, which is a different product category rather than a cheaper or dearer version of the same one.
The Verdict
Why people look for an alternative
Five reasons account for most of it, and they point at different replacements.
- Nobody acts on the results. A dashboard flags a value out of range and the next step is yours to arrange. For people who wanted treatment rather than data, this is the deciding gap.
- $499 a year for two draws is more than the use case needs. If you test once annually and hand the PDF to your own physician, a per-test model costs half as much.
- The panel is broad but not deep where it matters. Someone managing hormones wants total and free testosterone, SHBG, sensitive estradiol, LH, and FSH tracked every few months — not 100 markers twice a year.
- The retest cadence is too slow to iterate. Semi-annual works for monitoring. It does not work for adjusting a dose, where an 8–12 week loop is the minimum useful cycle.
- The real worry is structural. Blood panels do not find solid tumors, aneurysms, or coronary plaque. No number of biomarkers substitutes for imaging on that question.
Every alternative, compared
Listed alphabetically by platform name, with Function Health included as the baseline row so the comparison is readable in both directions. Prices are entry-level and exclude medications, which are billed separately on every clinician-led program here except Fountain Life.
| Platform | Price | Panel scope | Physician included | What it does differently | Public litigation | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fountain Life | $19,500+/yr | 200+ markers plus whole-body MRI and coronary CT | Yes — in person, assigned care team | Adds imaging and in-person clinician days | Yes — physician clinic suit (Jul 2023); source | People who want structural screening, not only bloodwork |
| Function Health (baseline) | $499/yr | 100+ markers, two draws per year | Add-on only | The product every row here is being compared against | Yes — plaintiff vs Superpower (Jan 2026); source | People who want a broad panel and will act on it themselves |
| Hone Health | ~$540–$2,640/yr | Hormone-focused panel | Yes — telehealth | Narrow hormone scope with a testosterone therapy pathway | None publicly identified | Men whose question is specifically about testosterone |
| InsideTracker | $249–$589 per test | ~48 markers | No | Pay per test, no membership commitment | None publicly identified | Athletes retesting once or twice a year |
| Lifeforce | ~$1,900/yr | ~40 markers plus hormones | Yes — nurse practitioner, telehealth | Adds a prescription pathway to the panel | None publicly identified | People who want the labs and the treatment in one place |
| Marek Health | $2,500–$6,000/yr all-in | A la carte — you choose the panel | Yes — physician plus a coach | You configure panel depth rather than buying a fixed one | None publicly identified | People who already know which markers they want tracked |
| Maximus | ~$1,800–$3,600/yr plus labs | Protocol-specific panel | Yes — telehealth | Organized around named protocols rather than a broad panel | None publicly identified | Men who want testosterone raised while preserving fertility |
| Opt Health | ~$3,000/yr | 55+ markers | Yes — physician, telehealth | Adds a prescription pathway and a 3–4 month retest cycle | None publicly identified | People who want broad optimization with a prescriber |
| Prenuvo / Ezra | $500–$2,500 per scan | Whole-body MRI, no blood panel | Radiologist read only | Imaging instead of biomarkers | Prenuvo: Yes — malpractice suit (Sep 2024); source. Ezra: none publicly identified | People whose actual worry is structural disease |
| Superpower | $499/yr | 100+ markers | Add-on | Closest match on price and panel size | Yes — defendant vs Function (Jan 2026); source | People who want the same shape of product with a different app |
What each one does differently
Fountain Life
The only option here built around imaging. Whole-body MRI and coronary CT sit alongside a 200-plus marker panel, delivered across in-person clinic days with an assigned care team and quarterly reassessment. At $19,500 and up, what the price buys over the mid-tier programs is the imaging and the in-person access, not additional blood markers. Relevant if your concern is finding structural disease early; largely beside the point if your concern is hormones or metabolic health.
Function Health
The baseline. A $499 annual membership covering 100-plus markers across two included draws, delivered through a consumer dashboard with written commentary on each result. Physician review is an add-on rather than part of the price, and there is no prescription pathway, so a finding that calls for treatment routes back to a clinician you supply. Advanced panels run roughly $100–$400 each on top, which is where a member's real annual figure usually separates from the headline number. Judged against the rest of this table, it is the widest panel per dollar and the least clinical involvement.
Hone Health
Hormone-scoped telehealth. The assessment panel is narrow, and for candidates the program manages testosterone therapy with roughly quarterly monitoring. Pricing spans $540 to $2,640 a year because the initial assessment and the ongoing therapy program are priced separately. Narrow scope is the design: you are not paying for a broad metabolic workup. That also means it does not replace a general panel.
InsideTracker
Per-test rather than membership. Packages run $249 to $589 and cover roughly 48 markers, with a recommendation engine built on published research that produces specific dietary and supplement suggestions. No physician, no prescriptions. The trade is straightforward: fewer markers and no ongoing relationship, at roughly half the annual cost, with results you own outright.
Lifeforce
Nurse-practitioner-led telehealth with roughly 40 markers plus hormones, at-home phlebotomy, and prescriptions covering hormones, peptides, and GLP-1s. Membership sits near $1,900 a year. Default reassessment is semi-annual — the longest cadence among the clinician-led options here, which suits a stable protocol and constrains a new one. The NP-led model is why the price sits below the physician-led programs. If Lifeforce is the platform you are leaving rather than considering, that comparison has its own page: Lifeforce alternatives.
Marek Health
A configurable model rather than a fixed panel: you order labs from an a la carte menu, and a physician plus a non-clinical coach work the results with you. Reassessment runs every 8 to 12 weeks. All-in cost lands between $2,500 and $6,000 a year, and the range is wide because you control the lab volume. Configurability suits someone who already knows what they want tracked and makes budgeting harder for someone who does not.
Maximus
Built around named protocols rather than a general panel. The enclomiphene-based testosterone protocol is the best known: enclomiphene acts upstream on the pituitary, so it raises testosterone without suppressing sperm production the way exogenous testosterone does. That mechanism defines the fit — men who want testosterone raised while preserving fertility. Physician-led telehealth, roughly $1,800–$3,600 a year plus labs.
Opt Health
Physician-led telehealth with a 55-plus marker panel, at-home phlebotomy, and prescription scope covering hormones, peptides, GLP-1s, and supplements. Reassessment every 3 to 4 months. Membership near $3,000 a year with medications billed separately. Sits in the same band as Marek Health, with a fixed panel rather than an a la carte menu and a slightly longer retest cycle.
Prenuvo and Ezra
Whole-body MRI programs, $500 to $2,500 a scan depending on scope. They are not substitutes for a biomarker platform — there is no blood panel and no ongoing clinician relationship. They belong on this list because "Function Health alternative" is often shorthand for "how do I catch what a blood test would miss." Worth knowing before you book: whole-body MRI has a meaningful incidental-finding rate, and a share of those findings lead to follow-up imaging or biopsies that turn out to be benign.
Superpower
The closest match on price and shape: $499 a year, a base panel above 100 markers, semi-annual draws, physician consult as an add-on. Differences are interface, onboarding, and release pace. If the Function Health proposition fits and the dashboard is what you did not like, this is the like-for-like swap. Head-to-head: Function Health vs Superpower.
How to pick
Four questions, in order. Price comes last, because it only separates options that are otherwise doing the same job.
- Do you want data or treatment? Data only: InsideTracker or Superpower. Treatment: Fountain Life, Hone Health, Lifeforce, Marek Health, Maximus, or Opt Health.
- Broad or hormone-specific? Hormone-specific narrows it to Hone Health and Maximus, and to Maximus in particular if fertility preservation is a constraint.
- How fast do you need to iterate? Marek Health retests every 8–12 weeks. Opt Health every 3–4 months. Hone Health and Maximus roughly quarterly. Fountain Life quarterly. Lifeforce semi-annually. InsideTracker and Superpower are on your own schedule.
- Is the real question structural? If yes, imaging — Fountain Life bundled, or Ezra and Prenuvo standalone. No biomarker panel answers it.
Which alternative fits which situation
| Your situation | Where to look | Why |
|---|---|---|
| "I want the same thing, cheaper." | InsideTracker | A $249 single test covers ~48 markers with no membership. You give up panel breadth and the second annual draw. |
| "I want the same thing, better app." | Superpower | Same $499 price and a comparable 100+ marker panel. The difference is interface and onboarding, not coverage. |
| "I got my results and nobody would act on them." | Lifeforce, Marek Health, or Opt Health (alphabetical) | All three bundle a prescriber. This is the most common reason people leave a diagnostic-only platform. |
| "My question is only about testosterone." | Hone Health or Maximus (alphabetical) | Both are hormone-scoped. Maximus specifically if fertility preservation matters, since enclomiphene works upstream and does not suppress sperm production. |
| "I want to retest every few weeks while adjusting a protocol." | Marek Health | An 8–12 week cycle with an a la carte lab menu. A twice-yearly platform cannot support iteration at that pace. |
| "I am worried about something a blood test would miss." | Fountain Life, or Ezra/Prenuvo standalone | Blood panels do not detect solid tumors, aneurysms, or coronary plaque. Imaging is the tool for that question. |
| "I only need one snapshot to bring to my own doctor." | InsideTracker | One test, no subscription, exportable results. Cheapest route to a broad baseline you own. |
| "I have a specific symptom that started recently." | Your primary care physician first | A 100-marker panel is a poor first move for an acute symptom. Get the symptom worked up, then decide whether a broad panel adds anything. |
What is not a real alternative
- A standard annual physical panel. A typical insurance-covered wellness draw runs a lipid panel, CMP, and CBC — roughly 25 to 30 reportable values, without ApoB, Lp(a), fasting insulin, hs-CRP, or a full thyroid or hormone panel. Useful, and not equivalent.
- An at-home finger-prick kit alone. Dried blood spot testing is valid for some analytes and unreliable for others, particularly hormones. Check which method a service uses before treating the result as comparable to a venous draw.
- A supplement subscription with a "test" attached. If the panel exists to generate a product recommendation, the panel is marketing. Look at whether you can get the raw results in a form you can take elsewhere.
- A genetic test. Genotype tells you about predisposition, not current state. It answers a different question and does not replace a blood panel.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the closest alternative to Function Health on price and panel size?
Superpower. Both run $499 a year for a base panel above 100 markers with a semi-annual retest cadence and a physician consult sold as an add-on. The differences are interface design, onboarding flow, and how fast each ships new panels — not coverage or cost.
Is there a genuinely cheaper alternative?
InsideTracker's single-test packages start at $249 for roughly 48 markers with no membership. You are buying a snapshot rather than a platform, which is the right trade if you retest once a year and want to own the result. Below that price point you are into individual lab orders through a direct-to-consumer lab, where a targeted panel of 10–15 markers often costs under $150.
Which alternatives include a physician who can prescribe?
Fountain Life, Hone Health, Lifeforce, Marek Health, Maximus, and Opt Health — listed alphabetically — all bundle a clinician with prescribing authority. Function Health, InsideTracker, and Superpower sell physician review as an add-on or not at all. That is the single largest functional split in this category.
Is there an in-person alternative?
Fountain Life runs in-person clinic days with an assigned care team and adds imaging, at $19,500 a year and up. Below that, the practical in-person route is a local longevity clinic or a direct primary care practice, where an annual membership commonly runs $1,200–$3,000 and you order labs through your physician.
Can I just ask my doctor to order these labs?
Often yes, and it is the cheapest path if your insurance covers the draw. The limits are real, though: insurers typically will not cover ApoB, Lp(a), fasting insulin, or a full hormone panel without a documented indication, and many physicians will not order markers they do not routinely manage. Expect to get some of the panel covered and to pay cash for the rest.
How many biomarkers do I actually need?
Fewer than the marketing implies. The markers that change management for most adults number well under thirty: a lipid panel with ApoB, Lp(a) once in your life, fasting glucose and insulin, HbA1c, hs-CRP, a full thyroid panel, a comprehensive metabolic panel, a CBC, ferritin, vitamin D, B12, and — if relevant — total and free testosterone with SHBG and estradiol. A 100-marker panel adds breadth, not necessarily decisions.
Does switching platforms make my old results useless?
No, but it complicates trending. Different labs use different assays and different reference intervals, so the same blood can produce meaningfully different numbers for hormones, vitamin D, and thyroid markers in particular. Keep the PDF or CSV of every result, note which lab ran it, and treat a platform switch as a new baseline for those markers rather than a continuous line.