HANS
Get Started
Learn MorePricingResearchTeamLog InGet Started
All Articles

Practice Efficiency

Cerbo EMR Alternative for Functional Medicine: HANS vs Cerbo

Cerbo EMR vs HANS: compare published pricing, AI documentation, labs, and billing, and see when to switch EHRs or add HANS beside the Cerbo EHR you run.

By Andrew Le, MDReviewed by Andrew Le, MDOctober 7, 202611 min read

Cerbo calls itself "The EHR for Functional & Integrative Medicine" (Cerbo functional medicine page), and HANS is a desktop clinical assistant for functional-medicine practitioners that is not a full record system today (How HANS works). So the choice is between switching to another EHR and keeping Cerbo with HANS added beside it, which is how most HANS practitioners work (How HANS works). Cerbo's pricing page says Cerbo does not lock you in with long-term contracts or hefty cancellation fees, and that the one-time setup fee can be paid in full upfront or in two installments (Cerbo pricing page). The HANS How it works page also says HANS does not order labs, prescribe, fax, or bill today (How HANS works).

This comparison was written by the HANS team. Every Cerbo fact below comes from Cerbo's own public pages, named in Sources. Vendor prices change, so confirm current rates with each vendor before you decide.

Quick comparison

Cerbo HANS
What it is Cloud EHR for functional and integrative medicine, direct primary care, IV and BHRT, med spa, and cash-based practices Desktop clinical AI copilot for functional medicine practitioners
Record of care Yes, Cerbo is the EHR Not a full record system today. Most practitioners run it beside their EHR
Pricing model Per user, per month, by role. Full-time prescribing provider $281/month Per practitioner license. Solo $297/mo billed annually
Setup fee $1,195 one time ($595 new-practice special for qualifying practices) None listed. 30-day money-back guarantee, no trial
AI documentation AI Scribe add-on with notes in the chart and provider review, from $29 per provider per month Drafts SOAP notes, patient handouts, action plans, and referral letters from the chart and your documents
Research support No cited research assistant listed on Cerbo's pricing or feature pages Answers from a curated clinical library with numbered citations you can open
Labs Lab integrations, including Genova, Vibrant, and Rupa, with longitudinal tracking of integrated results Extracts lab values from documents you drop in. No lab ordering or result interfaces
e-Prescribing and fax eRx, EPCS, compounded medications, integrated fax None
Insurance billing Not directly in Cerbo. Syncs one way to third-party billing platforms, plus superbills and HCFA-1500 forms None
Templates Chart Parts templating system. No shared template library, each clinic builds its own Repeated workflows saved as reusable Skills
Platform Cloud-hosted on a private dedicated server macOS 14+ or 64-bit Windows desktop app

What Cerbo is

Cerbo's functional medicine page is titled "The EHR for Functional & Integrative Medicine" (Cerbo functional medicine page), and Cerbo's home page says it has helped more than 5,000 practitioners (Cerbo home page). Cerbo's functional medicine page lists supplement ordering with dosing profiles, treatment plans for IVs, injections, hormone pellets, and lifestyle recommendations, inventory management, a HIPAA-compliant patient portal, integrations with 50+ labs, and in-depth intake forms that pull into the encounter note (Cerbo functional medicine page).

On charting, Cerbo's EHR features page centers on Chart Parts, a templating system for chart entries that include text, diagnoses, lab orders, treatment plans, charges, and handouts (Cerbo EHR features page). Cerbo's pricing FAQ states that there is no shared library of charting templates today and that each clinic builds its own (Cerbo pricing page).

Cerbo's EHR features page lists e-prescribing, including controlled substances and compounded prescriptions, and integrated outgoing fax with optional incoming fax (Cerbo EHR features page). Cerbo's pricing FAQ adds automated subscriptions through integrated merchant services and appointment requests through the patient portal (Cerbo pricing page). For insurance, Cerbo's pricing FAQ says claims are not billed directly inside Cerbo and instead sync one way to third-party billing platforms (Cerbo pricing page).

Cerbo also sells an AI Scribe add-on (Cerbo pricing page). Cerbo's pricing page lists it with a consent prompt in the workflow and notes in the chart with provider review (Cerbo pricing page).

Patient messaging, scheduling, training, and practice types in Cerbo

Cerbo's patient portal page says patients can send and receive secure messages with your practice, and that the portal's secure two-way communication automatically records interactions in the patient's chart (Cerbo patient portal page). The same page says patients can view lab results, handouts, and other documents you share with them, and can upload old records or outside labs to share those documents with you (Cerbo patient portal page).

Cerbo's practice management page says Cerbo has a full calendar and scheduling dashboard to manage patient appointments, provider on-call schedules, patient reminders, and tasks, and that configurable appointment types are color-coded (Cerbo practice management page). The same page says tasks can be assigned to any user and may have a set due date (Cerbo practice management page). Cerbo's pricing FAQ says patients get an initial email notification, an email reminder, and a text reminder if they have a cell phone number on file (Cerbo pricing page).

Cerbo's home page links to API Documentation, described as detailed documentation and examples for using its API (Cerbo home page). Cerbo's pricing page lists 6 weeks of training and 2 weeks of post-go-live support under the one-time set-up fee (Cerbo pricing page).

Cerbo's home page lists Med Spa & Aesthetics among the practice types it serves, described as practices who specialize in medical treatments and cosmetic procedures such as skin rejuvenation, laser treatments, and non-surgical enhancements (Cerbo home page).

The HANS How it works page says HANS is a practitioner tool today (How HANS works). For training, the HANS How it works page says HANS offers live onboarding, group sessions, and short task-focused videos (How HANS works).

What HANS is

HANS is a desktop clinical assistant for functional medicine practitioners. You drop in the intake, labs, and records you already have. HANS builds the patient's chart, extracts lab values, answers questions about the case from a curated clinical library, and drafts the visit note, patient handouts, and letters for you to review and sign. The HANS How it works page says every note HANS drafts is checked section by section by a separate reviewing model against the patient's chart data, and a source value of "twice daily" written as "daily" is flagged (How HANS works).

Three facts matter for a Cerbo comparison:

  1. HANS is not a full record system today. Most practitioners run it alongside the EHR they already have. There is no integration with Cerbo or any other EHR, so you copy a finished note across or export it as PDF or Word.
  2. HANS cites its sources. When it answers from the clinical library, each claim carries a numbered marker and a Sources list you can open in the app. The library spans 109 Clinical Intelligence Guides with more than 5,000 citations. Web search is removed from the assistant.
  3. HANS has limits you should know before buying. It has no drug and supplement interaction database, does not order labs, prescribe, fax, or bill, and has no free trial. Every purchase carries a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Pricing side by side

Both vendors publish prices. The structures differ, so compare the total for your practice shape.

Cerbo (per user, per month, from Cerbo's pricing page):

  • Prescribing provider: $281 full-time, $174 part-time
  • Non-prescribing provider: $256 full-time, $160 part-time
  • Supporting or alternate provider: $127 full-time, $78 part-time
  • Additional staff: $63 full-time, $39 part-time
  • One-time setup: $1,195, or $595 for new, part-time solo practices with fewer than 30 patients and under 6 months in business
  • Add-ons: patient portal $79/month (at the 1,000-patient setting shown), telemedicine from $27/month per provider, incoming e-fax $27/month, AI Scribe $29/month per provider for up to 60 notes or $59/month unlimited at Cerbo's introductory price

HANS (per practitioner license, from HANS pricing):

  • Solo: $297/mo billed annually ($3,564/yr)
  • Growing: $549/mo billed annually, 2x the Solo usage allowance, links licenses into one practice
  • Established: $799/mo billed annually, 3x the Solo usage allowance, newest features first
  • Clinic: volume licenses with SSO and one invoice, priced on request
  • Admin accounts: $49/mo each, with at least one Growing or Established license in the practice

A worked example from published prices. A solo, full-time prescribing physician on Cerbo with the patient portal and the 60-note AI Scribe would pay Cerbo $389 a month ($281 + $79 + $29), plus the $1,195 setup fee in year one. That is $5,863 in year one before telemedicine, fax, or data import fees. Adding HANS Solo on top of that EHR adds $3,564 for the year. Run the same math with your own roles, part-time providers, and add-ons.

When to stay on Cerbo, switch, or add HANS

Stay on Cerbo if your practice depends on its EHR jobs: e-prescribing, compounded prescriptions, lab interfaces, supplement inventory, subscriptions, and the patient portal. Those are the jobs HANS does not do.

Switch EHRs if the system of record itself is the problem, for example billing workflows, portal limits, or price per user as you add staff. Compare other EHRs on those points in our functional medicine EMR comparison and EMR software reviews.

Add HANS beside Cerbo if the record works but the thinking work around it still runs late: reading a stack of outside records, connecting labs across years, checking what the evidence says, and writing a note and a patient plan that match. HANS drafts that work. You review, edit, sign, and copy the final note into Cerbo.

Running HANS alongside Cerbo

A typical split looks like this:

  • Cerbo: scheduling, the legal chart, prescriptions, lab orders and results, billing, and the patient portal
  • HANS: pre-visit case review from the documents you drop in, cited research questions, the visit note draft, and patient handouts or plans

Budget time for the copy step. HANS does not write into Cerbo, so a signed note moves across by export or copy and paste. If your team cannot accept any double entry, an EHR-native scribe such as Cerbo's own AI Scribe is the closer fit.

Questions to settle in a trial

  1. How many minutes does a complex new-patient note take today, from sitting down to signed?
  2. How much of that time is reading outside records and labs versus typing?
  3. Does Cerbo's AI Scribe cover your need, since its notes land in the chart for provider review?
  4. Do you need cited answers about the evidence, or only a transcript turned into a note?
  5. Can your team accept a copy step between HANS and Cerbo?

If questions 2 and 4 carry most of your time, HANS is worth a 30-day test with real patients. If question 3 settles it, Cerbo's add-on may be enough.

Frequently asked questions

Is HANS a replacement for Cerbo?

No. The HANS home page describes HANS as your AI copilot for functional medicine (HANS home page). The HANS How it works page says HANS is not a full record system today, and most practitioners run it alongside the one they already have (How HANS works). The same page says HANS does not order labs, prescribe, fax, or bill today (How HANS works). It says HANS builds patient charts from your documents, extracts lab values, drafts SOAP notes and protocols, and produces patient handouts (How HANS works).

How much does Cerbo cost compared with HANS?

Cerbo's pricing page lists $281 per month for a full-time prescribing provider, a one-time setup fee of $1,195, a $79 per month patient portal, and an AI Scribe add-on at $29 per month per provider (Cerbo pricing page). The HANS pricing page lists Solo at $297/mo billed annually, Growing at $549/mo billed annually, and Established at $799/mo billed annually, and says every plan is one practitioner license (HANS pricing page). The same page lists Clinic for a whole team, with volume licenses, SSO, and one invoice (HANS pricing page).

Does HANS integrate with Cerbo?

No. The HANS How it works page says there is no integration with any EHR (How HANS works). The same page says you can export individual notes and documents as PDF or Word and copy notes to the clipboard (How HANS works).

Does Cerbo have an AI scribe?

Yes. Cerbo's pricing page lists an AI Scribe add-on at $29 per month per provider for up to 60 notes per month, with a consent prompt in the workflow and notes in the chart with provider review (Cerbo pricing page). The same page lists AI Scribe Unlimited at $59 per month per provider with no monthly note limit, at an introductory price held for a limited time (Cerbo pricing page).

Who is HANS the wrong fit for?

The HANS How it works page says HANS fits worst in a practice that cannot move off a centrally chosen record system, because HANS does not integrate with one (How HANS works). The same page says that is the most common reason HANS is not the right tool (How HANS works).

Sources

Author and medical review

Written by Andrew Le, MD. Andrew Le, MD is the founder and CEO of HANS and the founder of Buoy Health and Renew Health.

Medically reviewed by Andrew Le, MD.

Related comparisons

Next step

Compare the plans on HANS pricing and test HANS beside Cerbo for 30 days with your own complex patients.