Lifeforce and Function Health compete for the same over-40 audience with products built on different premises. Function Health sells breadth cheaply: 100+ biomarkers, two draws a year, $499. Lifeforce sells a narrower panel of roughly 40 markers with expanded hormone coverage, packaged with a nurse practitioner, at-home phlebotomy, coaching, and a prescription pathway, for about $1,900 in year one. Function Health does not include a clinician consult in the membership and does not prescribe. Lifeforce does not attempt Function Health's marker count. Both retest semi-annually.
The Verdict
Public litigation
Function Health is the plaintiff in an open Lanham Act suit against Superpower Health (C.D. Cal., filed January 2026). Allegations only — Justia docket 2:26-cv-00810.
What each platform actually is
Lifeforce
Lifeforce is a telehealth optimization program sold as a monthly membership: about $349 for the first month, which includes the initial panel and consult, then about $129 a month after. That covers roughly 40 biomarkers with expanded hormone coverage, drawn semi-annually by at-home phlebotomy, a nurse practitioner consult with ongoing clinician access by telehealth, and a coaching layer alongside the clinical relationship. Where clinically indicated, Lifeforce clinicians can prescribe testosterone replacement, peptides, and GLP-1 medications. Medications are not part of the membership and bill separately at roughly $50 to $400 or more per month each. The base panel does not reach the broad screening groups a 100+ marker panel covers, and the clinical lead is a nurse practitioner rather than a physician.
Function Health
Function Health is a $499 annual membership. That covers a 100+ biomarker base panel drawn twice a year across heart, metabolic, thyroid, immune, nutrient, hormone, kidney and liver, blood count, and heavy-metal groups, routed through Quest and LabCorp partner sites. Results typically post 7 to 14 days after the draw, carry clinician-written commentary on each value, flag deltas between draws, and download in full as PDF and CSV. Advanced panels, including hormone deep-dives, cost $100 to $400 each. A live physician consult is a $150 to $300 add-on rather than part of the membership. Function Health does not prescribe, does not manage a protocol between draws, and draws at partner lab sites rather than at home.
Side by side on the standard rubric
The same nine criteria applied to every platform on this site, which is the only way to read a $499 product and a $1,900 one against each other without adopting either company's framing.
| Criterion | Lifeforce | Function Health |
|---|---|---|
| Annual price (entry) | ~$1,900/yr | $499/yr |
| Biomarkers (base panel) | ~40 + expanded hormones | 100+ |
| Physician access | Bundled — nurse practitioner | Add-on (~$150–$300 per consult) |
| Prescription pathway | TRT · peptides · GLP-1 | None |
| Retest cadence | Semi-annual | 2 draws/yr included |
| Ongoing reassessment | Coaching + clinician access | Dashboard trends; no clinician follow-up |
| Draw type | At-home phlebotomy | Partner lab (Quest / LabCorp) |
| Hidden costs | Prescription medications | Advanced panels $100–$400; physician consult $150–$300 |
| Public litigation | None publicly identified (as of Aug 2026) | Yes — Plaintiff in Lanham Act / false-advertising suit vs Superpower (C.D. Cal., filed Jan 2026). Allegations only. Justia docket |
| Best for | Mid-tier telehealth optimization with treatment pathway | Data-forward self-directed testers |
What each actually costs
Membership price is where these two look furthest apart. The layers underneath move the gap in both directions.
| Cost layer | Lifeforce | Function Health |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | ~$349 first month, which includes the initial panel and consult, then ~$129/month | $499/year membership, both draws included |
| Typical add-ons | Prescription medications ~$50–$400+/month each where prescribed; labs beyond the semi-annual base panel | Advanced panels $100–$400 each; live physician consult $150–$300 per session |
| Realistic year-one all-in | ~$1,900 membership only; $2,500–$4,500 with one active prescription protocol | $750–$1,200 (base plus one add-on panel and one consult) |
| Year two (ongoing) | ~$1,548 (12 × ~$129). The ~$349 first month is a one-time charge covering the initial panel and consult, so year two drops by that premium | $499 renews. There is no one-time onboarding charge to fall away, so the floor stays $499 |
| What is billed separately | All prescriptions and supplements; any labs outside the semi-annual base panel | Prescriptions (not offered); draws beyond the two included; out-of-network draw fee $30–$80 where no partner site exists |
Lifeforce's pricing is front-loaded. The roughly $349 first month covers the initial panel and the first consult, then the membership settles to about $129 a month, which is why year one lands near $1,900 and year two near $1,548. That first-month premium is a one-time charge and does not repeat. The variable that actually moves the total is medication. Membership buys clinician time, labs, and coaching, not prescriptions — those bill at their own cost, roughly $50 to $400 or more per month for each protocol. A member on one active protocol realistically spends $2,500 to $4,500 in year one.
Function Health's pricing is flat. The $499 covers the membership and both draws, there is no onboarding charge, and year two opens at the same $499 rather than falling. Most members reach $750 to $1,200 in year one because they add one advanced panel and one physician consult. Two costs sit off the pricing page: a draw at a non-partner location, which happens when no Quest or LabCorp site is near your ZIP, adds $30 to $80 each time, and any draw beyond the two included is a separate purchase. Prescription costs never appear because none are offered.
Where Lifeforce leads
- Clinician time is in the price. A nurse practitioner consult and ongoing telehealth access sit inside the monthly membership rather than being sold per session.
- Prescription pathway. Testosterone replacement, peptides, and GLP-1 medications can be prescribed where clinically indicated, so a hormone result can be acted on without recruiting a separate prescriber. This is the part of the comparison with clinical consequences rather than convenience ones: read TRT side effects and risks and TRT and fertility before treating a prescription pathway as a feature.
- At-home phlebotomy. The draw comes to you. There is no partner-site trip to schedule and no out-of-network collection fee to hit if you live away from a lab. A mobile phlebotomist takes the same venous sample a lab does, so the convenience costs nothing in accuracy; our at-home blood test accuracy guide covers which collection routes do change a result.
- Hormone depth in the base panel. Expanded hormone coverage is included rather than sold as a separate deep-dive, so the axis Lifeforce is built around is fully measured at the base price.
- Coaching alongside the clinical relationship. A non-clinical support layer that continues between the two semi-annual panels, when there is no new data arriving.
Where Function Health leads
- Panel breadth. 100+ base markers against roughly 40, covering heavy metals, immune, nutrient, kidney and liver, and blood count groups that a hormone-focused panel does not include.
- Entry price. $499 a year is roughly a quarter of Lifeforce's year-one membership, and unlike Lifeforce's it does not have a higher first month built into it.
- Same cadence, lower cost. Two draws a year are included, matching Lifeforce's semi-annual rhythm, so the extra Lifeforce spend buys the care layer rather than more testing.
- Data portability. Full PDF and CSV export of raw results means any outside physician can read the panel, and nothing in the record is tied to an ongoing care relationship.
- Two lab networks and a published turnaround. Quest and LabCorp put a draw site within reach in more ZIPs, and Function Health states a 7 to 14 day window from draw to result.
Trade-offs to weigh
Lifeforce trade-offs
- Panel scope. Roughly 40 markers. Screening groups outside the hormone and metabolic focus are not in the base panel, and additional labs bill separately.
- Medication is the larger cost. Prescriptions run $50 to $400 or more per month each, which is why a year with one active protocol lands at $2,500 to $4,500 rather than $1,900.
- Nurse practitioner, not physician. The clinical lead is an NP. That is a real distinction if you want physician-level oversight of a complex or multi-system picture.
- Cancellation risk mid-protocol. The membership is monthly, so stopping is easy — but stopping ends the prescriber relationship, and a medication you are actively taking needs continuity arranged first.
Function Health trade-offs
- No prescription pathway. An out-of-range result needs a prescriber you supply. If you do not already have one, the panel produces a finding with no route to treatment.
- Clinician time costs extra. A live consult is $150 to $300 per session, and a hormone deep-dive panel adds $100 to $400, so matching Lifeforce's coverage of that axis raises the total.
- Nothing happens between draws. There is no ongoing clinical relationship in the membership, so the six months between panels carry no follow-up and no coaching.
- Annual prepayment and draw logistics. Canceling does not refund an undrawn panel, a non-partner draw site adds $30 to $80 each time, and access has historically opened in waves rather than immediately.
Who should pick each
Pick Lifeforce if: you are over 40, have symptoms pointing at the hormone or metabolic axis, and want the labs, the clinician, and the prescription route inside one membership rather than assembled from three vendors. It also fits people who will not reliably make it to a lab, since at-home phlebotomy removes that step entirely. Budget about $1,900 for membership alone, and $2,500 to $4,500 if a protocol starts.
Pick Function Health if: you want the widest marker set at the lowest price, you are self-directed enough to read a lab report, and you already have a physician who can act on anything out of range. It also fits anyone screening broadly rather than chasing one symptom, since heavy metals, immune, and nutrient markers are in the base panel. Budget $750 to $1,200 for year one.
Who should pick neither
Both are remote, blood-only services. Neither examines you, images you, or manages a condition you already carry a diagnosis for. If your question is structural rather than biochemical, or if you want a physician rather than a platform, the money is better spent elsewhere. These fit different versions of that, listed alphabetically.
- Fountain Life — a concierge program built around imaging and in-person assessment as well as blood work, at a materially higher price.
- Hone Health — hormone-focused with a prescription pathway, at a narrower scope than either platform here.
- Opt Health — a physician-led telehealth membership with testing and treatment inside one price and a shorter reassessment cadence.
- An in-network physician, through insurance. If you have a specific complaint rather than general curiosity, a primary care visit or an endocrinology referral orders the relevant markers, examines you, and owns the follow-up. The panel is far narrower — often 10 to 20 markers — but nothing about it is self-directed.
Can you use both?
Membership on both sides runs about $2,399 in year one before any medication, and the overlap is real: both draw semi-annually, both cover the common metabolic and lipid markers, and both cover hormones, with Lifeforce going deeper on that axis and Function Health going wider everywhere else. For most people that is a duplicated purchase. If the goal is simply hormone depth on top of breadth, Function Health's own hormone deep-dive add-on at $100 to $400 reaches part of the same ground for a fraction of a second membership.
The situation where running both is defensible is an active Lifeforce protocol plus an annual screening sweep. Lifeforce's roughly 40 markers are chosen for hormone and metabolic optimization, which means heavy metals, immune markers, and nutrient status are not being watched while a protocol runs. One $499 Function Health membership covers that gap twice a year and produces an exportable file you can hand to the Lifeforce clinician. Run it the other direction and the logic fails: adding a Lifeforce membership purely to interpret Function Health results costs more than buying Function Health consults outright.
What the rubric does not capture
The rubric row reading "Bundled — nurse practitioner" against "Add-on (~$150–$300 per consult)" compresses the largest experiential difference between these two products into eight words. At Lifeforce there is a person, they have your file, and messaging them is included. At Function Health there is written commentary attached to each value, and a conversation is a purchase. The trade-off runs both ways and the table shows neither side of it: bundled clinician time means you talk to someone without deciding whether it is worth $150, and it also means you are paying about $129 a month in the stretches when you have nothing to ask.
How fast a protocol can change is the second thing the table hides, and it applies to both. Semi-annual retesting is the included cadence at each, and semi-annual is too slow to titrate a dose. Start testosterone replacement through Lifeforce and the next included panel is six months out; interim labs to check where a dose landed are billed separately. Change a supplement based on a Function Health result and the next included draw is likewise six months away, with an extra draw a separate purchase. The included clinician at Lifeforce shortens the conversation loop, not the measurement loop. Anyone titrating something should assume additional lab spend at either platform, and should ask what an interim panel costs before starting.
What you hold after canceling differs more than the price rows suggest. Leaving Function Health means losing a dashboard and keeping an exported PDF and CSV — nothing clinical unwinds, because nothing clinical was running. Leaving Lifeforce mid-protocol means losing the prescriber while the medication is still in your body, which is a continuity problem rather than a billing one: a new prescriber has to be found, and they will want their own labs. That asymmetry is worth pricing into the decision before month one, not month six. It is also the clearest illustration of what each membership is actually selling. Function Health sells a record you own outright. Lifeforce sells a relationship that stops when the payments do.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lifeforce or Function Health better?
They are priced and built for different jobs. Function Health delivers 100+ biomarkers twice a year for $499 and does not include a clinician consult or prescribe. Lifeforce covers roughly 40 markers with expanded hormone coverage and includes a nurse practitioner, coaching, at-home draws, and a prescription pathway for about $1,900 in year one. Neither is better in the abstract — the question is whether you are buying breadth of data or a care relationship.
Which has more biomarkers?
Function Health, at 100+ vs Lifeforce's ~40 with expanded hormones. Lifeforce's narrower panel is deliberate — it focuses on the biomarkers most actionable for hormone and metabolic optimization. Function Health's extra breadth covers screening groups such as heavy metals, immune markers, and nutrient status that a hormone-focused panel does not reach.
Is Lifeforce more expensive than Function Health?
Yes at membership level — roughly $1,900 in year one and about $1,548 in year two, against $499 a year that does not change. The two prices cover different things, so the gap narrows once you add what Function Health bills separately: a physician consult at $150 to $300 and a hormone deep-dive panel at $100 to $400. Prescriptions are separate at Lifeforce and unavailable at Function Health, so medication cost sits outside both figures.
Which one prescribes TRT?
Lifeforce. Its clinicians can prescribe testosterone replacement, peptides, and GLP-1 medications where clinically indicated, with the medications billed separately. Function Health does not prescribe. If your Function Health labs indicate low testosterone, you bring the results to a prescriber yourself.
What happens if I cancel?
The structures differ, and so does the risk. Lifeforce bills monthly, so canceling is quick — but if you cancel while a prescribed protocol is running, you lose the prescriber along with the membership, so line up continuity before you stop paying. Function Health bills annually; canceling stops the renewal but does not refund an included draw you never booked. Export your raw results before either account lapses.
Can I use insurance, HSA, or FSA?
Neither platform bills insurance; both are cash-pay direct-to-consumer services. Function Health states that its membership is HSA and FSA eligible for many users. Eligibility turns on your specific plan rules, so confirm with each platform and your plan administrator rather than assuming, and remember that prescription costs at Lifeforce are billed separately from the membership.
How long until I get results?
Function Health states a typical 7 to 14 day turnaround from draw to posted results, with advanced panels running longer. Lifeforce does not publish a comparable figure; its at-home phlebotomy visit has to be scheduled first, which adds time at the front of the process rather than the back. Plan on a few weeks from signup to a usable result at either.
Do I need a doctor already?
At Function Health it helps considerably, because an out-of-range result routes back to a prescriber you supply. At Lifeforce a nurse practitioner is included, so you do not need to bring one — though the membership is not a substitute for a primary care physician, and neither platform performs a physical examination or imaging.