OhMD and Yodl solve different problems: OhMD is for talking to patients, with two-way texting, a text-enabled landline, voice and video calls and AI phone agents, starting at $300 a month. Yodl is for your staff talking to each other, with a signed BAA, for $10 a month. If you need both patient messaging and staff chat, the two can run side by side.
At a glance
OhMD is a patient communication platform for medical practices, FQHCs, health systems and payers. Yodl is internal team chat for small healthcare teams. They overlap on HIPAA and almost nowhere else, which makes the comparison useful: it tells you which problem you are actually trying to solve. In the table, BAA means Business Associate Agreement, the contract in which a vendor agrees to protect patient information.
| What matters | Yodl | OhMD |
|---|---|---|
| Price for a 5-person office | $10 a month (5 users and one location included) | Core plan starting at $300 a month; OhMD does not state whether that is per user or per practice |
| How it is priced | Flat per location; $2 per extra user; $10 per extra location | Monthly plans from $300 (Core) and $500 (AI & Automation); Enterprise custom with minimums; calling usage billed separately on higher plans |
| Signs a BAA, and on which plans | Yes, every plan, including the $10 plan | Yes; a BAA is listed in OhMD's plan comparison table, though the page does not make clear which plans include it |
| Free tier or trial | No free plan or trial | No free trial or free tier mentioned |
| Built for | Staff-to-staff chat in small healthcare teams and small businesses | Patient-facing communication: texting, calling, web chat, forms and AI phone agents |
| File storage | 20 GB per location | Not published |
| API | $20 a month per workspace (REST API, webhooks, bot users) | Yes, a separate Developer API for HIPAA-compliant SMS, priced on request |
| Apps and devices | Any browser on phone or computer; Mac app; iPhone app (beta) | Not recorded in our research; check OhMD's site |
Pricing in detail
As of November 2026, OhMD's pricing page lists a Core plan "Starting at $300" per month, with two-way SMS, a text-enabled landline, voice and video calling, voicemail transcription and MFA. The AI & Automation plan starts at $500 a month and adds AI voice and text automation, routing, workflows, broadcast calling and scheduling, with calling usage billed separately. Enterprise & scale is custom pricing with minimums, an annual billing incentive, SSO and multi-location support. The Developer API is priced on request. The page does not say whether the $300 is per user or per practice, and no free trial or free tier is mentioned. Prices change, so verify on OhMD's site.
Yodl is $10 a month for one location, with 5 users and 20 GB of file storage included. Extra users are $2 each per month. Each additional location is another $10 a month with 5 more users and 20 more GB. API access is $20 a month per workspace. There is no free trial, and you can cancel any month.
The gap between $10 and $300 is not a pricing trick. OhMD sells phone lines, patient texting and AI agents that answer calls; Yodl sells a chat room for your staff. A practice that needs patient texting will pay for it somewhere. A practice that only needs staff chat should not pay $300 to get it as a side effect.
HIPAA and the BAA
HIPAA requires a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) before a vendor handles protected health information (PHI). PHI is any health information tied to a person, which covers nearly every message a practice sends to a patient and most of what staff say to each other about one. The BAA is the contract in which the vendor agrees to protect that information.
OhMD signs one. Its pricing page lists a Business Associate Agreement under core communication in the plan comparison table, and its FAQ says OhMD is designed for healthcare and supports HIPAA-compliant communication across all supported channels. The plan column next to the BAA is not clearly indicated in the page text, so ask OhMD to confirm in writing that the plan you are buying includes it. Encryption details are not described on the pricing page.
Yodl signs a BAA with every customer on every plan, including the $10 plan. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest on HIPAA-eligible infrastructure with subprocessor BAAs. Yodl is not end-to-end encrypted, by design, the same model as Slack and Microsoft Teams, so that search, retention, the audit viewer and admin controls can work. A 13-gate HIPAA readiness checklist in the admin panel walks you through the settings a practice should turn on.
The features a small practice actually uses
OhMD's feature list is about the patient side of the practice: two-way patient SMS and a text-enabled landline, voice and video calling with voicemail transcription, AI voice agents that answer routine calls and move requests to text, web chat, broadcast messages and forms in one inbox, automatic message routing and custom workflows, and appointment scheduling automation. If your front desk is drowning in phone calls, that list is the point.
Yodl's feature list is about the staff side:
- Public and private channels, direct messages, group DMs, threads, reactions, @mentions and saved messages.
- Channel roles: Manager, Member and Viewer, so a medical assistant can read the providers' channel without posting in it.
- File previews for images, PDFs, spreadsheets and voice notes, a team files library with 20 GB per location, and full-text search scoped to your rooms.
- An audit viewer with CSV export, retention controls and legal hold, passkeys (Face ID or Touch ID), and a 15-minute inactivity lock.
- Any browser on a phone or computer, a Mac app, an iPhone app in beta, and an optional AI teammate from PhiClaw that is a separate product, not part of the $10 plan.
Yodl does not text patients, does not send SMS, and has no voice or video calls. It is staff-to-staff only. Patient messaging is sold separately by PhiClaw, Yodl's parent company, not by Yodl.
Where OhMD is the better choice
OhMD is the right buy when the problem is patients reaching you and you reaching them.
- You want patients to text the office and get answers, with a text-enabled landline instead of a separate number.
- Your phones are the bottleneck and you want AI voice agents to answer routine calls and move them to text.
- You need voice and video calls, voicemail transcription and broadcast messages to patients, with forms and web chat in one inbox.
- You are an FQHC, a health system or a multi-location group that needs SSO and multi-tenant setup.
Where Yodl is the better choice
Yodl is the right buy when the problem is your own team: handoffs, questions between rooms, the schedule change at 7:55 in the morning, the photo of the fax that needs a decision.
- You need a place for staff to talk about patients that signs a BAA and costs $10 a month, not $300.
- You want channels and roles so conversations stay organized instead of one long thread, with an audit log, retention and legal hold and no implementation project.
- You already have patient messaging, through OhMD or anyone else, and your staff are still using a group text for everything internal.
- You run several locations and want each one to be its own $10 with 5 users and 20 GB.
Who should choose which
| Team type | Better fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Practice whose phones never stop ringing | OhMD | AI voice agents, text-enabled landline, routing |
| Practice whose staff use a group text internally | Yodl | Signed BAA, channels, roles and audit log for $10 |
| Practice that needs both | OhMD and Yodl together | The patient side and the staff side are different products |
| Five-person office watching every dollar | Yodl first | $10 a month; add patient texting when the budget allows |
| Health system or FQHC | OhMD | Enterprise plan with SSO and multi-tenant support |
If staff chat is the gap, see Yodl pricing: $10 a month for 5 people, a signed BAA.
OhMD is patient texting and phones from $300 a month; Yodl is staff chat with a signed BAA for $10 a month. They are complementary, not rivals, so choose based on which conversation you are trying to fix.
Frequently asked questions
Is OhMD HIPAA compliant?
OhMD says it is designed for healthcare and supports HIPAA-compliant communication across all supported channels, and its pricing page lists a BAA. Because the page does not clearly show which plans include the BAA, confirm it in writing for the plan you buy. HIPAA does not certify any app; the signed BAA plus your own policies are what matter.
How much does OhMD cost for 5 users?
As of November 2026, OhMD's Core plan starts at $300 a month, and the pricing page does not state whether that is per user or per practice, so a 5-user price is not published. Ask OhMD for a quote and verify on its site. Yodl is $10 a month for 5 users.
Can Yodl text patients?
No. Yodl is staff-to-staff chat only. It does not send SMS and has no patient-facing messaging.
Can we use OhMD and Yodl together?
Yes. OhMD handles the patient conversations and Yodl handles the staff conversations about them. Sign a BAA with each vendor.
Does OhMD include internal team chat?
OhMD's published features are patient-facing: texting, calling, web chat, forms and AI agents. Our research did not find a published staff-to-staff chat feature, so ask OhMD directly if that matters to you.
Does OhMD have a free trial?
OhMD's pricing page mentions no free trial or free tier. Yodl has no free trial either; plans are month to month.