Comparison · Updated May 2026
Vane vs Hims.
Both are men's health apps, approached from opposite ends. Hims is the consumer-marketing-led, single-condition door: cheap, fast, accessible, questionnaire-based, with each condition sold as its own subscription. Vane is one app with three tiers (Free, Basic at $8.99, Premium at $85). Premium is the full clinical layer: labs first, clinician-titrated protocols, an AI Coach with chart memory, and a bundled hormone + GLP-1 pathway. Both can be the right answer. Here is the honest breakdown.
The short answer
Choose Hims if you want a familiar brand, low entry price, and a single prescription (ED pill, hair pill, GLP-1) shipped quickly with minimal friction. Choose Vane if you want one app and one subscription that covers everything: Premium at $85/mo includes labs, clinician-titrated protocols across six programs, quarterly retests, and an AI Coach with chart memory. Both can be the right answer for different men.
Feature-by-feature
Where each platform actually differs.
| What you compare | Vane | Hims |
|---|---|---|
| Company stage | Early-stage men's health app, founder-led | Public company (NYSE: HIMS), founded 2017, ~2M+ active subscribers |
| Positioning | One app, full clinical layer across six programs | First-time-buyer, single-condition, low-friction |
| Entry price | $0 (Free tier with limited AI Coach) | $5 to $10 first-month promo on most condition flows |
| Subscription model | $0 (Free) / $8.99 (Basic) / $85 (Premium, the clinical layer) | $10 to $50/mo per condition, stacks if you treat multiple |
| Cost to cover multiple conditions | $85/mo Premium covers all six programs under one subscription | $80 to $150/mo total if stacking ED, hair, GLP-1, and TRT lines |
| Programs covered | Hormone, Metabolic (GLP-1), Vitality, Sexual Health, Hair, Whole Health | ED, hair, low-T pills, GLP-1, mental health, skincare (each siloed) |
| Lab panel at intake | Required on Premium before any hormone or metabolic prescription | Not required for most flows; their TRT product requires labs |
| Where labs are drawn | Walk-in at Quest Diagnostics or LabCorp (venous) | Lab partner draws on their TRT line only; no labs for ED, hair, or GLP-1 flows |
| Prescribing model | Clinician-titrated, dose-adjusted based on response | Questionnaire-based, flowchart-driven, default-dose-led |
| Retesting cadence | Quarterly on Premium, included in the subscription | Not standard outside the TRT line |
| Hormone formulary | Testosterone cypionate, enclomiphene, clomiphene, HCG, anastrozole | Testosterone (limited line, newer offering) |
| Fertility-preserving option (enclomiphene) | Included in formulary, often first-line for men under 45 | Not a primary offering |
| GLP-1 (metabolic / weight) | Included in the Premium clinical layer alongside hormone protocol | Available as a standalone weight-loss product (separate subscription) |
| AI Coach (lab interpretation + protocol Q&A) | Free (8 messages/day), unlimited on Basic ($8.99) and Premium ($85) | No equivalent AI layer with chart memory |
| Clinician response time | Hours via async messaging in-app on Premium | Variable by product line; mostly transactional refill flows |
| Brand reach + recognition | New, building | Massive, most men have heard of it |
| Marketing register | Editorial, restrained, founder-led | Mass-market consumer brand, ad-heavy, casual tone |
| App platform | Native iOS, Apple Watch companion, Android in roadmap | Established iOS + Android |
| 30-day money-back guarantee | Yes on the first month of Premium | Varies by product line |
Where Hims wins
The honest case for Hims.
Hims has scale and brand recognition Vane does not. Hims is a public company (NYSE: HIMS) with millions of active subscribers and a household-name brand. Most men have heard of it. If your priority is using a service your friends have used, that has a long track record, and that has the operational maturity of a public-company logistics operation, Hims is the safer-feeling door. Vane is newer.
Hims wins on entry price for a single condition. A $5 to $10 first-month promo on sildenafil, finasteride, or a starter GLP-1 dose is a much lower commitment than Vane Premium at $85/mo. If you only want one pill for one condition and you do not need labs, retesting, or clinician-titrated protocols, Hims is straightforwardly cheaper at the entry tier. Vane's comparable on-ramp is the Free tier ($0, 8 AI Coach messages per day) or Basic ($8.99/mo, unlimited Coach). The full clinical layer sits at Premium ($85/mo) and is priced to cover six programs under one subscription rather than to win the single-pill entry promo.
Hims is faster for first-time-buyers. The flow is intentionally low-friction. Questionnaire, clinician sign-off, medication ships. No lab draw, no scheduling a consult, no protocol design. For men who want a familiar pill quickly and have no interest in the clinical layer, this is a feature, not a bug. Vane requires labs first; that is slower by design.
Hims has a mature Android app. Vane v2.0 is native iOS first; Android is in the roadmap. If you only use Android today and cannot wait, Hims supports both platforms with an established product.
Where Vane wins
The clinical and platform case for Vane.
1. Labs before prescribing, not after.
Most Hims prescribing flows are questionnaire-only: you answer a form, a clinician signs off, the medication ships. No blood draw. Vane Premium requires labs before any hormone or metabolic prescription. The full panel is drawn at Quest Diagnostics or LabCorp and the results flow back into the app. Diagnosis of hypogonadism follows the Endocrine Society 2018 guideline (Bhasin et al.): persistent symptoms plus two confirmatory morning fasting total testosterone draws below 264 ng/dL. Mulligan 2006 puts community prevalence of low testosterone in the 24% to 38% range for men over 45, which is the reason we screen before we prescribe.
2. Clinician-titrated protocols, not flowchart prescribing.
Hims runs flowchart-driven protocols designed to scale to millions of subscribers. Vane Premium runs clinician-titrated protocols designed for the individual member. Dose is adjusted to your response: your free testosterone, SHBG, estradiol, and hematocrit trajectory drive the next adjustment. Vane re-tests every 90 days, included in the $85/mo Premium subscription. Hims does not retest as standard outside their newer TRT line. If you want a protocol that actually adapts to your physiology over time, this is the difference.
3. One app and one subscription, not six stacked.
At Hims, hormone, ED, hair, weight loss, mental health, and skincare are each separate subscriptions with separate questionnaires and separate clinicians. Stacking three or four of them turns into an $80 to $150/mo total that nobody is integrating. Vane Premium ($85/mo) covers hormone, metabolic (GLP-1), vitality, sexual health, hair, and whole-health under one subscription with one clinician designing the protocol across all of them. The bundled hormone + GLP-1 pathway under one app is the most differentiated offer in the men's-health-app category.
4. Fertility-preserving option (enclomiphene) as first-line.
For men under 45 with intact HPG function and fertility intent, Vane's clinicians often start with enclomiphene or clomiphene, oral SERMs that stimulate your own testosterone production rather than replacing it. Exogenous testosterone suppresses sperm production; SERMs do not. Hims does not lead with this pathway. Their TRT line is testosterone-first, not SERM-first.
5. AI Coach with full chart memory.
Vane's Claude-powered AI Coach reads your labs in plain English, drafts what the clinician is likely to recommend, and answers protocol questions between visits. It does not prescribe, licensed clinicians do, but it ends the “let me re-explain my history” loop that members at other apps describe as exhausting. The Coach is available on every tier: 8 messages per day on Free, unlimited with full chart memory on Basic ($8.99/mo) and Premium ($85/mo). Symptom screening at intake uses the validated ADAM questionnaire (Morley 2000). Hims does not offer an equivalent AI layer with persistent chart memory; their flows are transactional refill loops rather than a longitudinal clinical relationship.
6. Editorial-noir brand, not consumer-marketing register.
Vane is for the man who finds Hims too casual and consumer-marketing-y, Hone too gym-bro, and Defy too clinical-old-school. The brand register is restrained, masculine, clinically credible. If you find a brand's tone matters to whether you trust them with your labs and your protocol, that may matter. Hims is excellent at what it does; it is not trying to be Vane, and Vane is not trying to be Hims.
Common questions
Worth asking.
Is Vane the same kind of service as Hims?
Both are men's health apps, but they are different products. Hims is a consumer-marketing-led, single-condition platform: you tell them you want sildenafil or finasteride or weight-loss medication, you fill out a questionnaire, a clinician signs off, and the medication ships. It is fast, accessible, and intentionally low-friction. Vane is one app with three tiers (Free, Basic at $8.99, Premium at $85). Premium is the clinical layer: labs first, a clinician-titrated protocol across hormone, metabolic, vitality, sexual health, hair, and whole-health, and an AI Coach with chart memory that reads your labs between visits. Same audience, different depth, the same packaging (an app subscription).
How does Vane pricing compare to Hims now that both are app subscriptions?
Vane has three tiers: Free ($0, includes 8 AI Coach messages per day), Basic ($8.99/mo, unlimited AI Coach with chart memory), and Premium ($85/mo plus medication cost, the full clinical layer with labs, clinician-titrated protocols, and quarterly retests). Hims runs per-condition subscriptions at $10 to $50/mo each. If you only want one pill for one condition, Hims has the cheaper entry promo. If you have more than one thing going on, stacking two or three Hims subscriptions ($80 to $150/mo total) compares directly to Vane Premium at $85/mo, with Vane covering all six programs under one clinician.
Does Hims offer testosterone replacement therapy?
Yes, Hims launched a TRT product, but it is a newer and smaller line compared to their flagship ED and hair offerings. The Hims TRT flow does require labs, unlike most of their other prescribing flows. The clinical depth, retesting cadence, formulary breadth (enclomiphene, clomiphene, HCG), and titration approach are narrower than Vane Premium. If TRT is your primary need and you want full clinical depth, Vane Premium is the more substantive offer. If you want a familiar brand and a simple per-condition subscription, Hims is the more accessible door.
Can I get hormone optimization and GLP-1 at Hims under one subscription?
Not as an integrated protocol. Hims offers both lines, but they are separate purchases with separate questionnaires and separate clinicians. Vane Premium ($85/mo) includes hormone optimization and GLP-1 under one subscription, with one clinician designing the protocol around both panels. For members who want testosterone optimization and metabolic support together in one app, this is the most differentiated offer in the men's-health-app category. If you only want a GLP-1 prescription and nothing else, Hims is more accessible.
Where does Hims win?
Hims wins on brand recognition, scale, low-friction onboarding, and entry-tier price for a single condition. Most men have heard of Hims. The signup is fast, the medication ships quickly, and the app works on both iOS and Android. If your priority is the cheapest possible on-ramp to a single-condition medication (sildenafil for ED, finasteride for hair, semaglutide for weight), and you do not want labs, retesting, an AI Coach, or a multi-program protocol, Hims is the cheaper and more accessible door. Vane is not trying to compete on that axis.
Is the AI Coach a replacement for a clinician?
No. The Vane AI Coach is Claude-powered and reads against your full chart, but it does not diagnose or prescribe. Licensed clinicians do (on Premium). The Coach drafts the lab read, suggests likely next moves, and routes anything material (a flagged lab, a side-effect signal, a dose-adjustment request) to your physician. It is the layer between visits, not a replacement for one. The Coach is available on every tier: 8 messages per day on Free, unlimited on Basic ($8.99) and Premium ($85). Hims does not offer an equivalent layer; their flows are transactional refill loops.
Is testosterone therapy lifelong on Vane?
For primary hypogonadism, often yes. For secondary or age-related decline, many Vane Premium members cycle on and off based on goals and labs. Clinicians design the protocol around physiology, not a default script. Younger members with intact HPG function and fertility intent are typically started on enclomiphene or clomiphene (oral SERMs), which is fertility-preserving and reversible. Diagnosis follows the Endocrine Society 2018 guideline (Bhasin et al.): persistent symptoms plus two confirmatory morning fasting total testosterone draws below 264 ng/dL. Symptom screening uses the validated ADAM questionnaire (Morley 2000) and the prevalence frame from Mulligan 2006.
What states does each operate in?
Both operate across all 50 U.S. states + DC via state-affiliated professional corporations. Specific medication availability, particularly for scheduled testosterone therapy, varies by state for both. Vane lists per-state details at https://www.vanehealth.com/states.
Start here
The free symptom check first.
Before committing to either platform, the Vane Clarity symptom check is the fastest way to see whether labs are the right next step. Three minutes. Built around the validated ADAM hormone questionnaire (Morley 2000). Free.
DISCLOSURES
Available in all 50 states + DC →- Compounded medications are prepared by 503A pharmacies based on individual prescription. Compounded medications are not FDA-approved in the same way as branded products.
- Not all patients qualify. Eligibility is determined by a licensed clinician based on intake, labs, and medical history.
- GLP-1 medications: prescribing decisions are made in the sole professional medical judgment of the prescribing clinician. Availability and formulations may change based on regulatory and supply conditions.
- Vane Health is the technology platform; clinical care is provided by independent licensed clinicians through an affiliated medical group and, where applicable, its state-affiliated professional corporations.