Hims Reviews: Are Hims' products and services legit?

As the telehealth landscape expands, you might find it hard to know which outlet will provide you with the best services. If you’re a man of just about any age, then Hims aims to be your choice for many of your basic health needs. The company offers to help you stop a receding hairline in its tracks, enhance your sexual performance, maintain healthy, young-looking skin, and even address your primary care and psychological needs. You might recognize Hims primarily for its hair loss and erectile dysfunction treatments, but their relatively recent additions position them to be serious players in men’s health for years to come. Is Hims the right men's health choice for you? We did the testing and comparative research to help you decide.

Hims has grown to provide men with a wide array of consultation, prescription, and wellness services. And Hims succeeds as a highly convenient provider of effective prescription treatments with a very customer-friendly system. Prices for individual products and services are competitive, but costs can add up quickly if you need to address a handful of issues or tackle one major problem (like hair loss) comprehensively.

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service we review, including Hims. All told, our team has spent over 240 hours testing and researching the products and services of Hims and its chief competitors in order to provide an accurate, unbiased analysis of how the products and services compare, free of marketing jargon and gimmicks.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions to live healthier lifestyles. We evaluate the service based on adherence to quality, the latest medical evidence and health standards, and a simple question: would we buy the product or service ourselves if it weren’t part of our job, and would we recommend it to family and friends?

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

Hims is a telehealth company that offers subscription services to target hair loss, sexual dysfunction (like ED and premature ejaculation), skincare, and mental health. They expanded their offerings recently to include primary care for everything from allergies to the flu. Their mental health program now includes one-on-one therapy with a counselor, where it previously offered only psychiatry or group counseling.

Hims delivers its products right to your door, including some prescriptions for skincare. However, Hims pharmacies can’t service some regions, either for regulatory reasons or due to a lack of reach in their pharmacy infrastructure. In those instances, you’ll have to go through your local pharmacy.

Hims' product lines

Products and services available through Hims exist in distinct categories you’ll find at the top of the home page. Those categories are:

• Sex
• Hair
• Skin
• Mental Health
• Supplements
• Primary Care

Hims sister site

While Hims intends its products and services for men, the company also has a sister site for women called Hers. You won’t find any erectile dysfunction medication there, but they offer a litany of products ideal for women, including birth control, yeast infection treatment, and more.

At the moment, there don’t seem to be any plans to create a gender-neutral equivalent to the Hims/Hers binary, but representatives told us that anyone could create an account based on their gender rather than their assigned sex. They can then speak with their doctor about any treatments from either site that might be appropriate for them.

We evaluated Hims on objective criteria like cost and efficiency and the efficacy of their goods and services. We gave slightly more weight to well-established products like their hair loss system than their more nascent offerings like their skincare line. We also took their mental health offerings into somewhat greater account than their primary care interface, as the former is a significantly more sensitive area of care.

Cost

Costs will vary widely depending on the treatments you seek, but most of Hims’ offerings are reasonably priced when compared to other choices in the marketplace. They also run about 50-80% less expensive than you’d find at retail. You can get their prescription anti-aging cream for a low monthly rate when you start your subscription. You can also get a 1-ounce bottle of their vitamin C serum for $33. Compared to a similar serum by Kiehl’s that costs over $41 for the same quantity, the savings are obvious.

Certain services are significantly less expensive than you might find elsewhere, as well. In-person therapy, for example, often costs around $150/hour depending on your location, but Hims offers one-on-one therapy for only $99/hour. They also provide psychiatry in a subscription format that covers the cost of any prescribed medications and regular check-ins from your provider for just $85/month.

Things can get a lot more complicated when you start creating comprehensive treatment plans for hair loss or erectile dysfunction, as costs can add up quickly. There are also different billing and shipment options, but we’ll get deeper into Hims’ pricing nuances below.

If you get your insurance company involved, the quality of your coverage will likely determine whether you save any additional cash. Some things are for sure in that department though; insurance will not cover the cost of an initial primary care visit, and card issuers will deny almost every attempt to use a health savings account (HSA) or flexible savings account (FSA).

Efficiency

Judging Hims' efficiency, we looked at how easy it was to get started, how quickly we could receive their products or medications, and how readily available they were for questions. With a few minor caveats, this is one of the areas where the company excels.

Clicking on just about any product line will bring you right into a consultation that is fast and easy to complete. From there, you can see products (prescription and non-prescription) that help you address your needs. Then, you can speak to a doctor for more advice or to get a prescription written.

The speed at which you receive the products will have a bit to do with the products in question and where exactly you live, but most customers receive their orders within a few business days. If you want primary care or mental health services, the experience is similar, but medication discussions occur later in the process.

Hims doesn’t exactly plaster their customer service on every page (we had to really dig for it), but they have representatives who are friendly and knowledgeable and can help you with just about anything in short order. Also, they have some of the best hold music in the business.

Products and prescriptions

Hims offers a generous amount of products and prescriptions through their platform, and their primary care physicians can prescribe pretty much anything else you might need. On the product side, they sometimes focus on one or two treatments for a given issue. They primarily offer finasteride and minoxidil for hair loss, along with supplemental products like Biotin gummies and thickening shampoo.

Other ailments, especially sexual ones, can require a different approach. With your doctor’s guidance, you can try different prescriptions for things like ED or premature ejaculation until you find the one that’s right for you. Hims currently offers five prescription options for erectile dysfunction and three products for premature ejaculation, two of which require a prescription.

Services

In addition to their product lines and prescription access, Hims offers primary care and mental health care services. Mental health care was limited to psychiatry and group therapy until recently, but it has grown to include one-on-one counseling.

Insurance does not cover primary care visits with Hims, but at $39/visit, it’s only slightly more expensive than the average copay. And if you want help with your mental health, but you can’t afford any of Hims’ one-on-one services, you’ll be pleased to find that their group therapy sessions are available free of charge. Our testers found that these sessions can be rudimentary in their initial approach, but many are under-attended. That means you can help guide them with pointed questions to go deeper into any subject. Hims also offers a free library of readings and videos that guide you through crucial mental health exercises to help you with anxiety and depression.

One service that doesn’t get as much attention on the Hims website as it once did is their at-home Covid-19 test. A deep dive through their site may make you wonder if it’s even still available, but rest assured that it is. You can access it only if you exhibit Covid-19 symptoms and only through an appointment with one of Hims’ primary care physicians.

For our quick video review of the Hims online doctors visit, watch here:

Profile and questionnaire

Whichever product or service you seek, your Hims experience will almost always begin with a simple questionnaire that establishes a baseline for your visit and provides a little related medical history. At the end of this process and before any direct consultation begins, you’ll use that information to create a profile account. During the initial medical questionnaire, you may need to provide a photo of your ID, a recent selfie for identity verification, and a credit card to order prescriptions or products. For erectile dysfunction medication, you must provide a blood pressure measurement from within the last six months. You can readily obtain this from a doctor, a local pharmacy, an at-home testing kit, or a pharmaceutical care program.

Getting matched with a doctor for consultation

After your online medical questionnaire is complete, you chat with a qualified physician about potential treatments for your particular needs. We found it to be convenient and fast; we were matched with a physician in as little as one minute after our consultation. After the doctor diagnoses your medical issue and you agree to a treatment plan, your prescription and other products can ship directly to your door.

Non-prescription shipments can take about a week to get to your home, and most products arrive in thinly padded shipping envelopes. Fortunately, containers for things like the shampoo and conditioner are thick and sturdy, and many products come in their own boxes, as well. Don’t worry if one of those boxes gets a little beat up on its journey; the contents inside should be fine.

Certain prescription medications available through Hims — like their anti-aging cream — should ship right to your door without issue. When your doctor prescribes you something that isn’t technically a Hims product like an antibiotic during a primary care session, you would typically go through your local pharmacy for pickup or delivery. Frankly, we thought that added step seemed unnecessary, and we weren’t alone in our assessment.

That’s why Hims established their own pharmaceutical distribution center in Ohio to cover the middle of the country, and they’ve partnered with Curexa in New Jersey and Truepill in California to cover either coast. If you live within reach of these pharmacies’ delivery radii, you’ll have the option to choose direct shipping for pretty much anything that comes your way through Hims.

There are some caveats, as some shipping distances may be too far for any of the companies to reach. There are also some states where such medical shipments require specific licenses to control the cost of medicine within a state’s borders. Hims may not have those licenses. If you don’t see a direct shipping option for your prescription and would like to know why, the Hims hotline is there to help.

Privacy considerations

Hims takes data privacy very seriously. Personal medical data is encrypted and never shared according to company policies. All data is 256 bit SSL/TLS encrypted in motion and at rest and fulfills SOC2 security requirements.

That said, the Hims website does use cookies and trackers for both user experience and marketing purposes. Opting out of these cookies and trackers isn’t as simple as setting some preferences, either. You actually have to call or send an email explicitly asking to opt out, and Hims warns that doing so will significantly degrade the site’s performance on your account.

Hims treats men for several common sexual health conditions. Men sometimes find these subjects challenging to discuss in person in a doctor’s office, which is one reason so many men prefer the privacy of a telemedicine approach.

Erectile dysfunction

Hims addresses erectile dysfunction (ED) with an array of medications, many available for a fraction of the price you would pay via traditional routes. Pills designed for daily use arrive regularly on a subscription plan. Those intended for use immediately before intercourse are billed per use and come in quantities determined by you and your doctor.

• Sildenafil, the generic form of Viagra, is an FDA-approved medication to treat ED. Hims also carries the branded form of Viagra, but they usually only prescribe it when an insurance carrier won’t pay for generic drugs.
• Tadalafil (generic Cialis, one of the best treatments for ED available) is more expensive than sildenafil but can help maintain naturally occurring erections with a simple daily dosage. Like they do with sildenafil, Hims offers the brand name Cialis as well.
• A fast-acting and recently released alternative to Viagra, Stendra tablets can work in as little as 15 minutes for many men. Its side effect profile is superior to that of Viagra, but it is not yet available in its generic form avanafil. Billed quarterly, Stendra costs $29/use.

Premature ejaculation

An erection is a fine thing to have, but if you suffer from premature ejaculation, your sexual confidence can still suffer. Fortunately, Hims addresses PE with several effective treatments used either separately or in combination.

• Sertraline (the active ingredient in Zoloft) is a pill-based Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) that delayed orgasm for some men in clinical trials. A three-month supply ships quarterly for $207.
• Paroxetine (the active ingredient in Paxil) works by the same mechanism as Sertraline but has fewer common side effects. Its price is also identical. Ultimately the subtle differences between them will determine which is most effective and safe for you to use.
• Hims created a non-prescription, lidocaine-based Climax Delay Spray ($29). It reduces some of the sensitivity that can lead to premature ejaculation without numbing you beyond a point of pleasure. You can try it for free on your first order.

Cold sores and oral herpes

Hims also offers treatment for cold sores, aptly called the Cold Sores Kit". Cold sores can be extremely embarrassing when they flare up. After a free online doctor’s consultation, Hims can prescribe valacyclovir (generic Valtrex), the leading FDA-approved drug to suppress and treat outbreaks.

Valacyclovir is an antiviral suppressive approved by the FDA to treat herpes simplex, also known as HSV-1. Unlike creams available over the counter, valacyclovir is a pill known to reduce the duration and severity of cold sores if taken in the first 24 hours after they appear. If you have outbreaks regularly and need more aggressive treatment, a daily formulation is available that can help prevent cold sores from developing.

Additional products

Hims offers additional items intended for sexual wellness. These include condoms and lubricants, vibrators for men and women, and even themed kits containing multiple valuable products.

Hims’ hair loss program utilizes finasteride as its primary prescription offering, the results of which have been clinically proven. It comes in both topical and oral forms. While short-term results of the two forms are comparably effective, longer-term studies show the oral application consistently outperforms its topical counterpart.

Some men prefer topical finasteride solutions regardless of the difference in efficacy since oral finasteride may have a negative impact on libido and sexual performance. Topical finasteride, by comparison, yields few to no meaningful adverse reactions in clinical studies.

Hims offers finasteride in a handful of products and packages, often alongside non-prescription minoxidil since a combined approach tends to yield the most impressive results.

• Finasteride is the active ingredient in Propecia and comes in a convenient prescription pill form.
• Minoxidil (also known by the brand name Rogaine) is a topical solution that can help prevent hair loss when applied once or twice per day. It comes as either a foam or a solution depending on your application preference. The foam is slightly more expensive, but it takes a lot of the guesswork out of its use.
• Topical spray contains both finasteride and minoxidil in a convenient spray bottle. It’s clean and easy to use, but finasteride is generally less effective when applied topically compared to its consumption in pill form.
• Shampoo+ is formulated with saw palmetto to help reduce the levels of DHT on the scalp. At $19, this is a compelling option for men concerned about balding but wary of more intense treatments. The conditioner ($22) is similar, as it aims to complement the DHT-blocking shampoo while providing a smooth and clean feel for your hair.
• Biotin gummies act as a supplement to your overall regimen, providing you with a vitamin that’s linked with thicker hair.

Finasteride and minoxidil work in different ways to fight hair loss, so you can maximize your chances of success by using them both simultaneously. Hims' Hair Power Pack ($22) combines finasteride and minoxidil, along with the thickening shampoo and biotin gummies. The doctor’s consultation to receive the prescription is entirely online and free. Hims also offers a non-prescription kit ($37), which helps fight hair loss and promote healthy hair using only minoxidil, Hims Shampoo+, and the biotin gummies.

Our testers spent some time with the non-prescription kit, and found its contents to be effective and easy to use. They reported a shampoo with an invigorating aroma reminiscent of tea tree oil. It lathers nicely, but the lather fades as you massage it into the scalp. While this may dismay some users at first, it’s a good signal to know when you can stop massaging and let the shampoo sit before rinsing.

Our testers really appreciated the conditioner, as well. It had next to no aroma save the vaguest hint of lavender. It left our testers’ hair feeling exceptionally smooth and manageable, and one tester reported that its niacinamide helped with his dandruff.

The biotin gummies were tasty, but it was difficult to judge their effectiveness over a short consumption period.

Learn more about hair loss treatments at our complete guide dedicated to the subject.

As men age, so does their skin. Hims products include prescription anti-aging and acne creams in addition to non-prescription offerings like a Vitamin C serum, a wrinkle cream, and an everyday moisturizer.

• Hims' Acne Cream ($19) is a stand-out product of its skincare offerings, and because it comes as a prescription, it contains stronger and more effective active ingredients than what you would get over the counter.
• Anti-Aging Cream ($19) helps reduce fine lines while also helping to make the skin appear firmer.
• Morning Glow Vitamin C Serum ($33) works as a topical antioxidant to help your skin look bright and tight.
• Goodnight Wrinkle Cream ($24) contains caffeine, letting the skin regenerate while the body sleeps. Don’t worry; it doesn’t keep you awake.
• Everyday Moisturizer ($18) is self-explanatory. Still, moisturizing is essential for healthy skin, and this product has an added benefit: it keeps the skin from getting too oily during the day.
• Blur Stick ($17) is a concealer available in eight shades. Men might shy away from makeup at first, but when razor burn or small outbreaks disappear, they should appreciate it.
• Small Batch Scent ($64) is a subtle cologne with notes of salt air, pink peppercorn, tobacco, and leather.

Last year, Hims launched primary care telemedicine visits for men. A primary care consultation costs $39, but insurance will not cover it. Still, this is only slightly higher than the insurance copay many people would see for a traditional doctor’s visit. Here’s how it works:

1. Answer a brief questionnaire to give Hims an idea about your health concerns and what prompted you to seek care.
2. Within 24 hours, Hims connects you with a healthcare provider licensed to practice in your state. You and your provider go over your situation and discuss treatment options, including prescription medications.
3. Your Hims healthcare provider sends the prescription to your local pharmacy. If there is a Hims pharmacy in your region, you can also get convenient and direct delivery.

In our experience, the Hims messaging platform seemed a little unpolished. New messages would not automatically load, so our testers would receive text or email alerts telling them they’d gotten a reply when the screen in front of them hadn’t changed. Follow the prompts in those emails or simply reload the messaging screen, and you’ll have the most up-to-date communication.

The doctors seem like they might be spread a little thin, as well. The messages felt less like a live conversation than they did an exchange of short emails, so the experience wasn’t terribly personal. One of our testers actually had their doctor switch on them three times throughout the messaging associated with a single visit, with some of the communications coming at odd hours like 11:30 pm.

While Hims can’t work with your insurer to cover the cost of your primary care visit, you can still present your insurance information to whichever pharmacy processes your order to see if your carrier can reduce your out-of-pocket expense.

Hims' primary care services include but are not limited to:

• Dermatological issues (rashes, hives, bug bites, fungal infections, and more)
• Allergies
• Common infections (UTIs, sinus infections, etc.)
• Cold/Flu care
• Headaches (cluster headaches, migraines, and more)
• Digestive issues (acid reflux, stomach discomfort, bloating, constipation, diarrhea)
• Refills for prescriptions

Psychiatric care (including prescriptions)

At Hims, telemedicine now includes telepsychiatry. You can schedule virtual sessions with a psychiatric professional who can prescribe treatments if appropriate. Such treatments might include:

• Bupropion (generic Wellbutrin)
• Citalopram (generic Celexa)
• Fluoxetine (generic Prozac)
• Paroxetine (generic Paxil)
• Sertraline (generic Zoloft)
• Duloxetine (generic Cymbalta)
• Escitalopram (generic Lexapro)
• Venlafaxine (generic Effexor)
• Propranolol (a beta-blocker that helps with performance anxiety or other anxiety-related issues only available by prescription)

Here’s how Hims’ psychiatry works:

1. Answer some questions up-front. These are questions you’d typically answer in an office setting when you first seek treatment. You’ll share information about your medical history and your current symptoms.
2. Choose a time slot to have a video meeting with a psychiatric professional. Depending on your state, this could be a psychiatrist or a different psychiatry provider, such as a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
3. In your video session, your psychiatric provider will determine a potential course of treatment. If this is a prescription treatment, the provider will prescribe it to you.
4. Your prescription arrives at your door. Packaging will be entirely nondescript to protect your privacy appropriately.
5. Check in with your provider as your treatment progresses. Hims’ providers will work with you as your treatment continues, answering questions and monitoring progress and efficacy.

Hims' initial psychiatry session is an attractive deal for online psychiatric service. In addition to covering the cost of medications, your $85/month psychiatry subscription includes regular check-ins to ensure the course of treatment is working and to address any questions that might arise.

Keep in mind that there are sacrifices for that added convenience and savings. At this time, you don’t have a say in which psychiatric professional Hims assigns to you. Also, since psychiatric visits and medications costs are tied to the same charge, getting insurance to cover them can be nearly impossible.

Group therapy

Hims began offering group therapy for free during the COVID-19 pandemic. Licensed mental health professionals lead the groups, which form to discuss specific subjects. During these group therapy sessions, you can be anonymous if you wish, using an alias and turning your camera off.

Here’s how it works:

1. Choose sessions of interest. You can view a dated list of group therapy sessions organized around various subjects. Find the subject and time slot that works for you, and reserve your spot.
2. If you have a specific question or concern you’d like the mental health professional to address, there may be a form through which you can submit your questions before the session. For the sessions our testers attended, no such forms were provided.
3. Attend the session. During the session, you can ask additional questions, talk with fellow attendees, or simply listen to the advice and guidance.

While the promise of that question form is lovely, none of our testers received one or a link to any such platform before starting a session. Our testers also often found themselves alone in their sessions with the group therapist. Perhaps the sessions are routinely underattended, and maybe we just got unlucky. Whatever the case, when we were the only participants, the therapists engaged with us directly and stayed the whole session so long as we still had questions.

It may be important to note for some that all moderated group therapy sessions are currently co-ed. The offerings you see on Hims exist on Hers in the same calendar. If you’re looking for an exclusively male experience, Hims is about to unveil a gender-exclusive peer-to-peer support group. Therapist Eric Lavalle will oversee the system, but users will essentially be in charge of it. It has yet to launch at the time of this writing but will be free to use for the early weeks of its existence.

Individual counseling

Hims recently launched their individual counseling platform. It’s easier to understand than just about any other offering on the site, as you pay $99 for a one-hour session with a licensed therapist. If you like that therapist, you can become a regular patient for a continuing $99/session rate. If not, you can try someone else.

Hims therapy sessions don’t necessarily adhere to a strict schedule. If you and the therapist you select want to set a recurring date and time to talk, you can. If you prefer to just reach out for a session whenever you feel the need or have the money to spend, that’s fine, too.

Compared to one-hour therapy sessions in most major cities, $99 is a bargain. Still, Hims counselors mainly cover behavioral health, relationship, substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. If you require the care of a specialized trauma therapist, for example, this program may not be for you.

Free tools and knowledge

One of the most impressive things Hims offers is its selection of teachings and techniques to help you connect with yourself, acknowledge and manage anxiety and depression, and take the necessary steps toward improving your quality of life. The Hims site has a small library of videos and blog posts on these topics and more available for anybody to use.

Men looking to strengthen their immune systems, prevent chronic illness, and fight off the fatigue that naturally comes with age will make good use of Hims’ wellness products.

• Collagen protein powder ($27) aids in muscle recovery while also helping the skin retain its youthful elasticity.
• Immunity gummy vitamins ($19) help fend off colds and flu with a complex solution of vitamins and minerals that boost immunity.
• Sleep gummies ($19) provide a healthy dose of the hormone melatonin, which helps most people get off to dreamland in short order.
• Biotin gummies ($16) help grow thicker hair and stronger nails while promoting healthier, more youthful skin.

Hims offers an at-home COVID-19 saliva test, designed by RUCDR Infinite Biologics (which is associated with Rutgers University). The FDA gave RUCDR emergency-use authorization for this test to become available.

As vaccines rolled out in the United States, Hims removed most of the information about testing from their website, but the at-home kit is still available through their primary care system. If you’re presenting symptoms of Covid-19, simply make a primary care appointment with a Hims provider and ask for a test. The test only works for those who are symptomatic.

The total cost of the at-home Covid-19 test is $150, which includes the $39 cost of your primary care visit.

Men should know that a majority of Hims products arrive as a subscription service. For example, candidates for erectile dysfunction prescriptions will buy a recurring subscription to the medication based on their doctor’s recommended dosage.

Subscription plans can run monthly, quarterly, bi-yearly, or yearly depending on the product in question. For example, certain skincare products contain fresh ingredients that would spoil if kept for more than a few months, limiting their potential subscription length.

Many Hims medications come in a range of potencies, as well. Sildenafil (the generic form of Viagra) can ship in doses from 20 to 100mg, and in quantities from four to 16 doses per month. You and your doctor will decide which regimen is proper for you.

For pricing, things can get confusing quickly, especially in the sexual health department. Your doctor can prescribe each potential treatment for things like ED or PE in a slew of dosages and delivery options like those in the sildenafil example. On top of that, each combination of dosage and billing cycle has its own price, with savings available when you set up billing in longer cycles (i.e., quarterly instead of monthly).

Pricing can also change depending on the purpose of the prescription. You may notice that paroxetine and sertraline are available on both the mental health and sexual health pages. These selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) primarily target depression, but they have an off-label use as treatments for premature ejaculation. If your psychiatrist prescribes you either, they’ll cost $85/month under Hims psychiatric subscription plan. But as PE medications, they bill quarterly at $207 every 90 days (for a savings of $16/month).

The bottom line is that you should talk to your consulting physician about the various dose and billing options for the medications they prescribe.

Important prices

We don’t think Hims means to obscure their prices for any nefarious reasons. The system has simply grown too complicated for its own good as the company continues to expand. Having a quick conversation with your doctor or a Hims representative is likely less complicated than combing through price lists and trying to determine the savviest course of action.

Still, there are some essential price points and details we want to highlight:

With the exceptions of prescriptions written through the primary care system, insurance will not cover most of Hims’ products and prescriptions. Without getting mind-numbingly deep into the requirements of the American insurance industry, we can simply say that Hims does not provide insurance companies with the specific forms and itemized receipts they demand. Part of this is the result of Hims’ unique structures, like their psychiatric subscription plan.

HSAs and FSAs have it even worse. Hims states on their website that most HSA and FSA card issuers reject claims made through Hims. This explanation is technically accurate, but the reality is that Hims forces their hand in rejecting claims. A Hims representative told us that it would place an undue burden on Hims affiliated physicians to have them fill out and submit the necessary paperwork to satisfy such accounts.

Whether this was at the doctors’ request or a choice made by Hims executives is unclear. The result is the same, however. It’s best to go into any Hims session assuming you will not get any help from an insurance provider, HSA, or FSA.

A few other players in the men’s telehealth space offer similar products and services to those found on Hims. Most have a more limited purview than Hims, which can be both a strength and a weakness.

Keeps

When Hims first started, their focus was much narrower than today, and one of their primary offerings was hair loss treatment. Keeps is a company committed to staying focused on that service instead of expanding the way Hims did. Neither approach is necessarily better than the other, but Keeps’ hair loss products are almost universally less expensive than those found on Hims. Find out more about Keeps here, or check out our full comparison of the two companies.

BlueChew

One of Hims’ primary competitors in the sexual health department is a company called BlueChew. Their selection is a bit more limited than Hims’, with a staunch focus on the erectile dysfunction medications sildenafil and tadalafil. However, their subscription plans are well-priced and undeniably straightforward, and BlueChew offers a free trial. There are only two states in the country in which you can’t access BlueChew; for everyone else, the medications are delivered straight to your door. But what might be most interesting about BlueChew are the pills themselves. That’s because they aren’t pills, per se; they’re chewables. They taste sweet, but have a distinct chemical essence, with no overt flavoring like blueberry. We think many men may find chewables more convenient than traditional pills. Find out more about BlueChew.

Mood, BetterHelp, and Cerebral

Hims is hardly the first provider of online mental health services, and the companies Mood Health, BetterHelp, and Cerebral are dedicated solely to that. Some are more comprehensive than others, as Mood limits its services to anxiety and depression. BetterHelp and Cerebral offer therapy for things like personality disorders or insomnia, but utilize a subscription structure for their talk therapy instead of Hims’ per session system. And BetterHelp only offers talk therapy; none of their doctors can prescribe medication. At first glance, many of their costs may seem lower than Hims’, but those are almost universally introductory costs, like Mood’s $45 initial psychiatry visit. After that, the psychiatric subscription plan is $95/month compared to Hims’ $85 price point.

Ultimately, Hims offers greater treatment diversity than much of the competition. They continue to grow in ways that make them a serious contender in the telemedicine space. Starting out with product categories many other telemedicine providers would shy away from gave Hims an edge in attracting male customers and providing genuinely better care. Perhaps that one-stop-shop approach complicates their pricing a bit, and it might even result in higher costs than some competition. But if you want something convenient and comprehensive, we think Hims is well worth it.