Report updated Apr 16, 2026
healow
For patients of medical practices using the eClinicalWorks EHR system who need to manage records and communicate with providers digitally.
healow is a challenged medical app that is completely free. With a 4.7/5 rating from 870.9K reviews, it faces significant user friction. Users particularly appreciate care team connectivity, though technical instability & login failures remains a common concern.
What is healow?
Current Momentum
v7.5 · 1w ago
MaintenanceThe app is currently in maintenance mode, with recent updates limited to performance improvements and bug fixes.
Active Nemesis
MyChart
By Epic
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
MedicalRating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User MoodAI-powered deep analysis surfacing high-signal insights. Still in beta, accuracy improves daily. For informational purposes only.
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
How Is The App's Momentum Right Now?
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What Are The Key Features?
Initiate and attend virtual video consultations directly with healthcare providers.
Manage and view health records for multiple family members under a single account.
Monitor vitals, weight, activity, and sleep patterns to track trends.
Complete documentation and medical questionnaires before arrival.
How much does it cost?
- Free access for patients of participating eClinicalWorks providers
The app is a B2B2C utility; monetization is handled through provider-side EHR licensing rather than direct consumer fees.
Who Built It?
eClinicalWorks
Providing a digital bridge between patients and their healthcare providers. Facilitating telehealth, record management, and clinical communication.
Portfolio
5
Apps
Who is eClinicalWorks?
eClinicalWorks leverages its position as a major electronic health record (EHR) provider to anchor its mobile strategy in B2B2C utility. Their moat is built on deep integration with existing clinical workflows, ensuring that patient adoption is driven by the necessity of managing records within the eClinicalWorks ecosystem rather than consumer-facing marketing. The primary strategic tension lies in balancing the high-volume, utility-driven nature of their flagship portal with the specialized needs of niche patient segments like expectant mothers.
Who is eClinicalWorks for?
- Patients of medical practices utilizing the eClinicalWorks EHR system
- Healthcare professionals managing administrative workflows
Portfolio momentum
Released 7 updates across 5 apps in the last 6 months, maintaining consistent development activity for their primary patient-facing tools.
What other apps does eClinicalWorks make?
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 100 of 148 total reviews analyzed · Based on 148 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a frustrated sentiment. Users appreciate care team connectivity, but report technical instability & login failures and missing appointment management.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What is the competitive landscape for healow?
How's The Medical Market?
How does it evolve in the Medical market?
| Country | Category | Chart | Rank | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸 US | Medical | iOSFree | #4 | |
| 🇺🇸 US | Health & Fitness | AndroidFree | #27 | ▼3 |
The rivals identified
The Nemesis
Head to Head
To defend against MyChart, healow must move beyond being a 'window into eClinicalWorks' and become a 'health hub' that can ingest or share data with external systems to match MyChart's interoperability.
What sets healow apart
Wider adoption among small-to-mid-sized private practices, making it the default for independent primary care vs. MyChart's heavy hospital/health-system bias.
Integrated 'healow Pay' features often provide a more direct billing experience for outpatient services compared to enterprise-scale billing modules.
What's MyChart's Edge
Superior data liquidity through the 'Happy Together' initiative, pulling in records from outside providers to create a holistic patient timeline.
Self-service 'Check-In' and 'Arrival' features are more deeply integrated with hospital hardware (kiosks/geofencing) than healow's software-only approach.
Contenders
Trend Analysis: Provides interactive graphing of lab values over time (e.g., cholesterol trends), whereas healow often displays static PDF-style results.
Direct-to-Consumer Testing: Allows patients to order their own labs without a doctor's visit, bypassing the traditional provider-gatekeeper model healow relies on.
athenaPatient
★4.9 (133.9K)athenahealth
🚀A high-velocity direct rival (6 releases in 6 months) that serves the same private-practice market as healow with a more modern UX.
Streamlined 'Check-in' UX: Focuses heavily on reducing office wait times through digital forms and pre-visit documentation.
Modern UI/UX: Features a cleaner, card-based interface compared to healow's more traditional, menu-heavy navigation.
FollowMyHealth®
★4.8 (187.2K)Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc
🚀A long-standing direct competitor in the EHR-tethered portal space with a massive installed base and consistent update cadence.
Health Journaling: Includes more robust tools for patients to manually track daily health metrics (weight, BP) alongside clinical data.
Provider Search: Integrated directory for finding new providers within the Allscripts ecosystem directly from the dashboard.
Peers
On-Demand Access: Connects users to a random available doctor in minutes, whereas healow is built for scheduled visits with the patient's own doctor.
Employer-Sponsored Focus: Distributed primarily through corporate benefits packages rather than clinic-by-clinic adoption.
Adherence Gamification: Uses 'Medfriends' (caregiver alerts) and streaks to ensure pill compliance, a much deeper feature set than healow's basic medication list.
Drug Interaction Warnings: Real-time alerts for potential contraindications between different prescriptions.
Price Transparency: Real-time coupon and pricing engine for local pharmacies, a feature healow lacks in its prescription management module.
Gold Membership: Subscription-based model for deeper discounts, creating a different monetization and loyalty loop.
Zocdoc - Find and book doctors
★4.9 (156K)Zocdoc Inc
⚡Dominates the 'discovery' phase of the patient journey, whereas healow focuses on the 'retention' phase.
Marketplace Model: Optimized for finding *new* doctors based on insurance and reviews, while healow is built for managing *existing* relationships.
Insurance Checker: Real-time AI-powered insurance card scanning to verify coverage before booking.
New Kids on the Block
Carby Health
★4.8 (16K)Carbon Health Technologies, Inc.
🚀A rising threat representing the 'vertically integrated' clinic model where the app and the physical clinic are designed together.
Omnichannel Integration: The app is the primary interface for the entire clinic experience, from booking to in-room vitals tracking and post-visit follow-up.
Unified Billing: Eliminates the 'surprise bill' by integrating real-time insurance adjudication directly into the app's checkout flow.
PlushCare: Online Doctor
★4.9 (141K)Accolade, Inc.
⚡Rapidly scaling telehealth-first primary care model that emphasizes long-term patient-doctor relationships over one-off visits.
Membership-First Model: Positions healthcare as a subscription service, providing a more 'concierge' feel than the utility-focused healow.
In-App Care Coordinators: Provides a dedicated human 'Care Team' via chat to handle referrals and insurance hurdles, reducing patient administrative burden.
The outtake for healow
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Massive install base and high rating volume
- Deep EHR integration with eClinicalWorks
- Robust multi-profile family management
Critical Frictions
- Unreliable MFA and authentication flows
- Inability to cancel appointments in-app
- Friction in linking multiple providers
Growth Levers
- Interoperability with external health systems (MyChart model)
- Interactive lab trend visualization (MyQuest model)
- AI-powered insurance card scanning (Zocdoc model)
Market Threats
- Modern UX of athenaPatient attracting younger demographics
- Vertically integrated clinics like Carbon Health offering unified billing
- On-demand telehealth leaders like Teladoc
What are the next best moves?
Stabilize MFA and Authentication
Technical instability and login failures are the #1 complaint theme, causing users to be 'kicked off' and unable to access records.
Implement In-App Appointment Cancellation
Users report frustration and financial risk (no-show fees) due to the inability to cancel appointments within the app.
Refine Provider Search and Linking
Users report that practice codes often return incorrect locations, preventing successful account setup.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Interoperability/External Data Sharing (available in MyChart)
- Interactive Lab Trend Graphing (available in MyQuest)
- Real-time Insurance Verification (available in Zocdoc)
- Unified Billing/Surprise Bill Prevention (available in Carbon Health)
Key Takeaways
healow is a high-utility incumbent protected by its deep EHR integration, but it is currently vulnerable to modern competitors due to critical authentication failures. To defend its #3 ranking, the PM must prioritize fixing the login/MFA 'death loop' and closing the self-service gap by adding appointment cancellation.
Where Is It Heading?
Stable
Recent sentiment is Frustrated due to persistent login failures and MFA bugs.
v7.5.3 focused on maintenance/bug fixes rather than feature expansion.
Maintains a top 3 position in the Medical category, indicating strong continued adoption.