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iPlum is the best SpruceHealth alternative for healthcare professionals who need a secure, HIPAA-compliant phone system that works on their existing mobile devices.
It provides HIPAA-compliant calling, text messaging, web calling and secure voicemail, helping healthcare providers meet essential communication standards in a highly regulated industry.
In addition, iPlum is easy to use, affordable, and built to support growing telehealth teams.
Other SpruceHealth competitors include Nextiva, Grasshopper, Dialpad, and RingCentral.
Before we discuss how these alternatives compare and why iPlum is the only SpruceHealth competitor that delivers true HIPAA compliance, let’s set the stage.
SpruceHealth Reviews: What Are Users Saying About SpruceHealth?
Users have mixed opinions on SpruceHealth’s performance, reliability, and usability. Here’s a snapshot of SpruceHealth reviews from platforms across the web.
Poor customer support
“Their customer support is horrible. You get an automated message before you ever speak to a real person.” – Julie L., Capterra
Limited integrations
“Definitely recommend despite the little integration ability yet…” – Zoe D., Capterra
Lacks a desktop softphone
“You have to use a cellphone. There’s no softphone option for desktop users.” – Julie L., Capterra
The app can be buggy
“Sometimes it won’t ring or show notifications unless you open the app.” – Verified User, G2
Unreliable group messaging
“Group messaging needs work—messages can show up in the wrong threads or go missing.” – Verified User, G2
No scheduling controls for messages
“There’s no way to automatically set office hours or delay messages. That’s tough when trying to separate work from personal time.” – Verified User, Software Advice
On a brighter note, users had this to say about SpruceHealth:
Streamlined document sharing
“Ease of communication with clients. Ability to send large documents.” – Alicia S., Capterra
Helpful for small, understaffed offices
“It does help out with patient intakes and communication when offices are staff-limited.” – Zoe D., Capterra
SpruceHealth Features
SpruceHealth’s feature suite includes:
- Calling – Enables you to make and receive phone calls.
- Texting – Allows you to send and receive SMS messages with patients.
- Voicemail – Lets you access voice messages..
- Team chat – Allows internal messaging between staff members.
- Basic Phone Tree – Allows you to route calls to the appropriate individual or team.
SpruceHealth Pricing
SpruceHealth pricing is structured in two tiers as follows:
- Basic Plan– $24/user/month: Includes HIPAA-compliant messaging, team chat, and onboarding resources.
- Communicator – $49/user/month: Includes phone trees, call routing, API access, admin tools, and integrations.
Why Consider a SpruceHealth Alternative?
While SpruceHealth covers the basics, it isn’t perfect for everyone. Here are some reasons you’d want to look for an alternative to SpruceHealth.
- Complex Integration with Other Systems: Integrating SpruceHealth with certain Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems can be challenging, according to users.
- Feature Limitations on Lower Tiers: Some advanced features are only available on higher-priced plans, which may not be cost-effective for smaller practices.
- Inadequate Customer Support: Users have reported difficulties in getting timely and effective customer support, which impacts issue resolution.
- App Dependency for Secure Messaging: Patients need to download the SpruceHealth app for secure, HIPAA-compliant messaging, which may be a barrier for some.
- Delayed Number Porting Process: Transferring existing phone numbers to SpruceHealth can be time-consuming, which may lead to potential communication disruptions.
- Technical Glitches During Video Calls: Some users have experienced technical issues, such as poor video quality or audio dropouts, during video calls.
- High Pricing Compared to Alternatives: SpruceHealth pricing may be higher than that of other telemedicine platforms, like iPlum, which could be a consideration for budget-conscious practices.
With that out of the way, let’s dive into the best SpruceHealth alternatives comparison.
Top SpruceHealth Alternatives
We’ve rounded up top-rated alternatives to SpruceHealth to help you find a business phone system that fits your workflow, supports patient privacy, and gives you the tools you need.
Let’s start with a quick comparison table.
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1. iPlum (Best Value)
iPlum and SpruceHealth serve healthcare professionals.
But, when you dig into the details, iPlum offers the best value compared to other SpruceHealth competitors.
First, SpruceHealth positions itself as an all-in-one communication platform. It boasts messaging and phone services built for small healthcare practices.
However, many of its core features, such as call routing, auto-attendants, and bulk messaging, are only available on higher-priced tiers. You’ll also need your patients to download the app for secure conversations.
iPlum takes a more direct and mobile-friendly route.
It creates a second HIPAA-compliant phone line on your existing mobile device. The second line comes with its own visual screen, ringtone, voicemail, and caller ID. You don’t need additional hardware, and it doesn’t rely on both ends using the iPlum app.
Patients can communicate via secure channels or regular SMS, depending on the context. This makes iPlum more accessible and flexible for healthcare providers and clients.
From a feature standpoint, iPlum offers a deep list of essentials.
With iPlum, you get HD calling, secure texting, voicemail transcription, business hours, call forwarding, phone tree, and secure faxing. It also supports auto-replies, call recording, email alerts, text archiving, and secure developer integrations via API.
These features are available across both individual and team plans, and you can easily scale by adding HIPAA-compliant sub-lines for your associates.
In addition, iPlum allows you to convert your current number into a HIPAA-compliant line. It supports domestic and international communication, and it’s compliant not just with U.S. standards like HIPAA and HITECH, but also Canadian standards like PIPEDA and PHIPA.
So, while SpruceHealth is a capable platform, iPlum gives you more control over how you run your practice’s communications, especially if you want to keep things mobile, scalable, and cost-effective.
iPlum Pricing
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iPlum pricing is structured in three tiers as follows:
Standard Plan – $8.99/user/month
Includes mobile app calling and texting in the U.S. and Canada, voicemail, auto-replies, business hours, and phone tree.
Professional – $14.99/user/month
This plan adds to the Standard plan with web-based calling and texting, secure encrypted texting, voicemail transcription, group and broadcast messaging, text archiving, and HIPAA compliance with a BAA for healthcare.
Premium – $19.99/user/month
Offers everything in the Professional plan, plus call recording and compliance features for finance, insurance, legal, sales, and support sectors.
How to Port Your SpruceHealth Number to iPlum
You can port your SpruceHealth number to iPlum in a few steps. Watch the video below to see how to submit your request and activate your new line.
Port Your SpruceHealth Number to iPlum
2. Nextiva
Nextiva is a worthwhile alternative to SpruceHealth for large healthcare teams that need a business-grade phone system.
SpruceHealth is purpose-built for healthcare. However, Nextiva gives medical practices more control over call routing, team communication, and workflow management, especially as they grow.
Like iPlum, Nextiva includes essential phone system features in its entry-level plans. Clinics can set up auto attendants, call forwarding, voicemail transcription, and business hour routing at an affordable price.
Although Nextiva has more features than SpruceHealth, it has a significant drawback.
Its HIPAA compliance comes with some trade-offs.
Once the HIPAA mode is active, Nextiva disables several features to meet the required standards. These include voicemail transcription, voicemail-to-email or SMS, and visual voicemail. The app also blocks voicemail playback.
For healthcare providers, this creates bottlenecks. First, you’ll lose quick access to messages. On top of that, you can’t read voicemails at a glance, and have to change how your staff handles routine communication tasks.
These limitations, in turn, slow down response times and create extra steps for providers who depend on fast, mobile-friendly business phone systems to keep up with their patients.
Nextiva Pricing
Nextiva pricing is available in four tiers, structured as follows:
- Digital: $25/user/month
- Core: $36/user/month
- Engage: $50/user/month
- Power Suite: $75/user/month
Compared to iPlum:
iPlum pricing starts at $8.99/month and includes calling, texting, voicemail, and phone tree setup. Nextiva locks similar features behind the $36 Core tier. iPlum also offers HIPAA compliance for $14.99—less than half the cost of Nextiva’s higher plans.
3. Grasshopper
Grasshopper is a good SpruceHealth alternative for solo healthcare providers and small practices looking for a simple virtual phone system.
Unlike SpruceHealth, it’s not built specifically for healthcare. But it does give you a dedicated business line, call controls, voicemail transcription, and texting.
Where SpruceHealth bundles everything into one platform, including secure messaging, video visits, and internal notes, Grasshopper focuses only on voice and text. That can be a limitation if you need built-in telehealth tools, but it’s also what makes Grasshopper easy to use and budget-friendly.
Setup is quick. You choose a number (local, toll-free, or vanity), download the app, and start calling and texting. You can also forward calls to your phone, use extensions to separate departments, and create professional greetings to improve your patients’ experience. Grasshopper also comes with features like instant response, voicemail transcription, and virtual fax.
However, like Nextiva, Grasshopper has a critical downside—it isn’t HIPAA-compliant. That makes it unsuitable for transmitting protected health information. If you’re using it purely for admin calls, appointment reminders, or non-sensitive communication, it works well.
But for practices that require full HIPAA compliance or secure messaging, Grasshopper is not the right fit.
Grasshopper Pricing
Grasshopper offers three pricing tiers structured as follows:
- True Solo: $14/month
- Solo Plus: $25/month
- Small Business: $80/month
Compared to iPlum
Compared to iPlum's HIPAA-compliant plan at $14.99/month, Grasshopper's entry-level plan is slightly cheaper. However, the platform lacks healthcare-specific compliance. Besides, higher-tier Grasshopper plans offer more numbers and extensions, but at a significantly higher cost without additional healthcare features.
4. Dialpad
Dialpad is a SpruceHealth alternative for healthcare providers that prioritize internal collaboration and AI-powered productivity.
Like most SpruceHealth competitors we’ve reviewed above, its functionality isn’t healthcare-specific.
However, Dialpad delivers a unified app for calling, texting, video meetings, and messaging, with a modern interface and real-time features tailored to remote health teams.
And, unlike SpruceHealth, Dialpad focuses on optimizing communication workflows across teams. It also has an all-in-one app that works across desktop, mobile, and browser.
Furthermore, you can transfer calls between devices, hold video meetings, and send messages within the platform.
But what truly sets Dialpad apart is its AI capabilities.
Dialpad AI offers live speech-to-text transcription and post-call summaries, so providers and staff don’t have to take manual notes. Meanwhile, AI Recap allows team members who miss a meeting or call to get up to speed quickly.
That said, Dialpad’s HIPAA compliance depends on your plan. Besides, you’ll need to request a Business Associate Agreement (BAA), and some AI features may be restricted for privacy reasons.
In addition, you’ll need to enable the correct settings and review which features to disable.
Dialpad Pricing
Dialpad pricing is available in three tiers, structured as follows:
- Standard: $27/user/month
- Pro: $35/user/month
- Enterprise: Contact sales
Compared to iPlum:
Dialpad’s Standard plan is $27 per user/month, while iPlum’s HIPAA-compliant plan is just $14.99. That’s a 44% price difference.
Although Dialpad’s annual discount drops the price to $15, iPlum still includes HIPAA compliance and secure texting at that rate. Besides, with Dialpad, HIPAA requires additional setup and isn’t guaranteed on the base plan.
5. RingCentral
RingCentral is a notable SpruceHealth alternative for large healthcare organizations that manage multiple locations or remote teams.
It offers an all-in-one communication system with calling, video, messaging, SMS, fax, and built-in AI tools.
RingCentral takes a broader approach than SpruceHealth’s messaging and calling, combining business-grade call management with AI-powered collaboration tools.
It offers intelligent call routing, multi-level IVRs, and delegation tools to help teams handle high volumes efficiently. You can also route calls by department, business hours, or custom rules, from a centralized dashboard.
SpruceHealth, in comparison, offers phone trees, but with fewer customization options and less admin control.
Notable AI features include automatic call transcriptions, meeting summaries, and automated SMS replies. The platform also supports over 400 integrations.
However, like Nextiva and other SpruceHealth competitors, HIPAA compliance requires a signed BAA. Plus, Dialpad restricts some AI tools under the compliant configurations. And, like Dialpad, you need to adjust account settings to comply with healthcare privacy standards manually.
RingCentral Pricing
RingCentral pricing is available in three tiers, structured as follows:
- Core: $30/user/month
- Advanced: $35/user/month
- Ultra: $45/user/month
Compared to iPlum:
RingCentral’s Core plan starts at $30 per user/month—double the cost of iPlum’s $14.99 HIPAA-compliant plan.
And, even as RingCentral adds AI tools and integrations, it requires a separate HIPAA configuration. iPlum offers healthcare-ready phone service with voicemail transcription, call routing, and a signed BAA at half the price.
Best Alternatives to SpruceHealth: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Does SpruceHealth Support Group Messaging?
Yes, but users report issues like messages landing in the wrong threads.
That said, if group messaging is a fundamental part of your workflow, iPlum offers a smoother and more reliable experience, especially when coordinating with multiple providers or departments.
Can Patients Use SpruceHealth Without Downloading The App?
No, patients must download the SpruceHealth app for secure messaging.
With iPlum, patients can communicate via secure channels or regular SMS—no app required—making it easier for all patients to stay connected.
Is SpruceHealth HIPAA-Compliant By Default?
Yes, HIPAA compliance is built in. But iPlum also offers full HIPAA compliance with a signed BAA and secure texting—at a lower cost, and more importantly, without locking essential features behind premium plans.
SpruceHealth Alternatives: Why Choose iPlum Over SpruceHealth Competitors?
When choosing a communication platform to engage your patients and teams, you must strike the right balance between security, flexibility, and affordability.
Sure, SpruceHealth has carved out a niche in the healthcare messaging space.
However, its limitations in phone system functionality, pricing, and app dependency leave room for better options.
iPlum stands out as the best alternative to SpruceHealth, offering HIPAA-compliant communication at a lower cost, without restricting key features to premium tiers.
It’s easier to set up, works on your existing device, and doesn’t require your patients to download an app.
When compared to other platforms like Nextiva, Grasshopper, Dialpad, and RingCentral, iPlum consistently delivers more value for healthcare teams.
So, whether you’re a solo provider or a growing practice, iPlum gives you the tools you need without bending your budget.
Want to try iPlum?
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Disclaimer: This article is intended for general informational purposes and may not reflect the most current features or capabilities of the products or companies mentioned. For the most accurate and up-to-date information, please refer to the official sources of each company.
