Frequently Asked Questions
Most practices arrive here with the same handful of questions about cost, privacy, vendor contact, and whether this thing is actually free. Below are the straight answers. If you have a question that isn’t here, contact us.
About the service
Q: Is this really free? How do you make money?
Yes — completely free for your practice. A vendor pays us a referral fee only when you choose to engage with them. You never pay anything, ever. If none of the quotes are a fit and you walk away, we earn nothing — and honestly, we’d rather you walk away than be matched with a vendor that doesn’t fit your size, specialty, or workflow.
Q: What software categories do you cover?
Five categories: EHR/EMR (ambulatory and specialty-specific), Practice Management, Medical Billing & Revenue Cycle (RCM), Telemedicine, and Patient Engagement. Most practices are shopping a combination of these — for example, an EHR with built-in PM and an RCM bolt-on. We don’t cover hospital or inpatient EHR systems; that’s a different sales cycle and a different buyer.
Q: How long does it take to get quotes?
You’ll typically see 2–3 quotes within 1–3 business days. Some vendors respond same-day. The 60-second form on our site captures what they need to build a real quote, so there’s usually no back-and-forth before pricing lands in your inbox. You won’t be sitting through 45-minute discovery calls before someone will tell you a number.
Q: What if I’m just researching and not ready to buy?
You’re welcome here. Most of our buyers spend 30–90 days deciding, and Software Advice data shows the most successful buyers shortlist three vendors and decide within twelve weeks. You can sit on the quotes as long as you want. There’s no commitment, no countdown, and no penalty for taking your time.
Your data and privacy
Q: How is my data handled?
Your form submission goes through 360Connect, our form processor. We share what you submit only with the 2–3 vendors you’ve consented to compare. We don’t sell your data, we don’t rent it, and we don’t share it with anyone outside that comparison set. Full details are in our Privacy Policy.
Q: Will my current vendor find out I’m shopping?
No. We never contact your current vendor and we never alert anyone outside the comparison set you chose. Your inquiry stays between you and the 2–3 vendors you selected. If quietly looking around 6–12 months ahead of your renewal is what you need to do right now, that’s exactly what this is built for — and it’s how most practices we work with approach it.
Q: Will vendors call, email, or text me?
Yes — but only within the consent you give. The form has granular consent checkboxes for email, phone, and SMS, and you choose which channels you’re open to. You can opt out of any channel at any time, either by replying to the vendor directly or by emailing us.
Q: Can I opt out after submitting?
Yes, any time. Email us with “REMOVE” in the subject and we’ll halt all matching on our end and request the vendors do the same. Each vendor maintains their own contact list, so you may need to confirm opt-out with each one separately — but we’ll make that as easy as possible and follow up if anyone keeps reaching out.
Q: Do you share my data with anyone besides the vendors I’m comparing?
No. Only the 2–3 vendors you consented to. We don’t sell, rent, or trade your information to third parties, marketing lists, or affiliates. That’s not a soft commitment — it’s the entire premise of the service. The whole reason this works is that practices trust us not to turn their inquiry into a contact list someone else can buy.
The vendors and quotes
Q: Can I see vendor pricing without giving my info?
Honestly, no — and not because we’re hiding it. Vendors don’t publish accurate pricing publicly because real pricing depends on your size, specialty, the modules you need, and how many providers you have. The “starting at $X” numbers you see floating around online almost never match what you’d actually pay. That gap is exactly why this service exists.
Q: Are these real quotes, or just generic price lists?
Real quotes. Each vendor reviews the specifics you submitted — providers, specialty, current software, what’s broken — and builds a quote for your practice. You won’t get a “starting at” number. You’ll get pricing for your situation, including implementation, training, and what’s actually bundled vs. what’s an add-on.
Q: Is Compare Medical Software affiliated with Epic, athenahealth, NextGen, or any other vendor?
No. We’re independent. We don’t take exclusivity deals, we don’t accept payment to favor a single vendor, and we’re not owned by any software company. We’re a buyer’s resource — our job is to help you get out of the sales gauntlet with real options in front of you, not to push you toward whoever paid the most.
Q: What if I don’t like any of the quotes?
Tell us. We can re-route you to a different vendor set — sometimes the right specialty match or price tier was missed on the first pass. If nothing fits after that, you’ve lost nothing: no contract, no commitment, no obligation. The whole point is to give you leverage and clarity, and sometimes the answer is “none of these is right, but now I know what I’m looking at.”
For specific situations
Q: Do you cover specialty practices (behavioral health, dermatology, ophthalmology, etc.)?
Yes. We have specialty-specific vendors for behavioral health, dermatology, orthopedics, ophthalmology, OB/GYN, and several more. Specialty templates and workflows are one of the biggest reasons practices switch in the first place — generic EHRs map poorly to specialty clinical work, and you shouldn’t have to build out workarounds in a system that wasn’t built for your specialty.
Q: My practice has fewer than 5 providers — am I too small?
Not at all. Most of our vendor partners specifically serve 1–25-provider practices, and the pricing and onboarding are designed for your size — not bolted-on enterprise pricing with features you’ll never use. Small and solo practices are the heart of what we do, and the decision fatigue of evaluating dozens of options is why the comparison format works.
Q: We have 25+ providers — is this for us, or just small practices?
Yes, this is for you too. For 25+ providers we route to enterprise-tier vendors with the implementation capacity to handle multi-location, multi-specialty rollouts. The process is different and the timeline is longer (3–12 months evaluation is normal at that scale), but the comparison logic is the same: real quotes from real vendors, side-by-side, no sales pitch.
Ready to see real quotes for your practice?
Side-by-side comparisons from 2–3 vetted vendors. Free, no obligation, no commitment.