Online hair-loss treatment: five services, compared on the paperwork

Online hair-loss treatment means a telehealth service: you fill in a questionnaire, a licensed clinician reviews it, and if they prescribe, a pharmacy posts the medicine to you on a subscription. We compare the services, not the drugs — the drugs are the same generic molecules you could get from your own doctor, and choosing one is a decision for you and a prescriber.

The short version: Ro publishes the clearest price list, Strut Health labels its compounded products most plainly, Hims and Keeps are clear enough once you know how they bill, and Happy Head asks you to dig. None of them is the cheapest way to fill a generic prescription, and we say below which route is.

The short answer

For a plain generic finasteride prescription, Ro scored highest on our paperwork test at 8.5 out of 10, followed by Strut Health at 7.5, Hims at 7.2, Keeps at 7.0 and Happy Head at 5.6. The score measures how honestly and completely each service tells you what you will pay, who treats you and how to stop — not whether the medicine works.

Two things surprised us. The listed monthly price for generic finasteride sits in a narrow band, $20 to $26.67 at the four services that publish one, so price is rarely the deciding factor. And the service we score highest, Ro, is one we do not link to: it has no affiliate arrangement with us, so it pays us nothing either way.

How we scored the services

We score the paperwork out of 100 across five things you can check yourself before paying, then divide by ten. Price clarity carries 30 points: is a monthly price published, for which plan length, and is it clear how often you are billed. Clinician access carries 20: who reviews you, whether photos are asked for, and how you reach them afterwards. Exit terms carry 20: how to cancel, how much notice, and what happens to money already paid. Compounding labels carry 15: whether custom-mixed products are clearly marked as not FDA-approved. Pharmacy choice carries 15: whether the terms let you fill the prescription somewhere else.

We read only what each service publishes — product pages, pricing pages, FAQs and terms — and we did not sign up, so we cannot tell you how a consultation felt. Nothing here is a test of results, and no score is a medical judgement.

Scores read on a simple scale. From 8.0 up, the paperwork answers your questions before you pay. From 7.0 to 7.9, it is mostly clear, but one or two things only appear at checkout. From 6.0 to 6.9, several things only appear at checkout. Below 6.0, the price or the way out takes real digging.

The five services, side by side

The table below is the comparison in one place. Prices are each service's own figures for generic finasteride, the one prescription all five can supply, and are shown per month with the plan length the service attaches to them.

Four of the five say in their FAQ or terms that they do not take insurance; the Happy Head pages we read do not mention it either way. The visit fee column quotes each service's own wording, because "free" means the questionnaire and review cost nothing — you pay when a prescription is approved and shipped.

Service by service

Each service below gets the same treatment: what its own pages say, what they leave out, and the score that follows. Partner links, where we have them, sit at the end of each section and are marked.

Ro: the clearest price list, and no link from us

Ro publishes a single pricing page with every hair-loss plan priced per month at three lengths. Generic finasteride is $20 a month on the quarterly plan, $18 on six months and $16 on twelve; topical minoxidil is $16, $14 and $13; its compounded Ro Mane Spray is $50 on the quarterly plan and $43 on six months, and Ro labels it "Compounded medication. Not FDA-approved." Hair-loss treatment ships quarterly only, which Ro explains rather than hides.

Its FAQ says the online visit is free, that you upload photos of your hair, that a doctor or nurse practitioner reviews you, and that you are charged only once a treatment plan is approved. Ro's terms add two useful things: you may have the prescription filled at a pharmacy of your choice, and you are refunded automatically if you are judged unsuitable. We took points off because the terms say other fees are non-refundable and the cancellation cutoff is shown at purchase rather than published. We have no affiliate link to Ro; read the full Ro hair-loss review.

Strut Health: labels every compounded product

Strut Health prices generic finasteride at $25 a month for a one-month supply, and says that price includes physician consultations and shipping. Its hair-loss page tags every custom-mixed product "(Compound)" and repeats the FDA notice that compounded drugs are not approved or evaluated. Its FAQ says the online visit is typically complimentary and that you pay only if a physician decides treatment is appropriate.

The weaker points: the FAQ says some states do not require a phone consultation, so your review may be written only, and prescriptions cannot be returned once they leave the pharmacy. Subscriptions can be cancelled with 48 hours' notice before processing. Its FAQ also says you may pick up the prescription from your own pharmacy instead, a choice few services spell out.

Hims: the biggest range, "starting at" prices

Hims lists finasteride "starting at $22 per month", topical minoxidil serum from $15 and foam from $19, and a range of combination sprays, serums and chews from $35 a month. Its own cost guide describes the $22 as the monthly rate on a three-month supply, but the hair-loss page itself does not say which plan length unlocks each "starting at" price, and that cost it points on price clarity. The same page carries a plain notice that its Hair Hybrids are compounded and not FDA-approved, and labels its customer quotes as paid testimonials whose results have not been independently verified.

Hims' terms, updated 31 August 2026, are unusually specific: subscriptions renew automatically, you cancel in the app, through the help centre or by phone, and you must do it at least two days before the renewal is processed. Partly used periods are not refunded as a rule, and disputes go to binding arbitration unless you opt out in writing within 30 days. Our Hims hair-loss review goes through each of those clauses.

Keeps: per-month prices, billed per shipment

Keeps shows generic finasteride at $26.67 a month on the three-month plan, $22.50 on six months and $20 on twelve. A footnote says medicines are shipped and billed every 3, 6 or 12 months, so the three-month plan is an $80 charge per shipment, and a twelve-month plan is $240 in one go. A first-order discount of up to 30% was running when we looked, which lowers the first bill only.

Keeps offers a free one-time consultation with a licensed medical provider and says messaging is unlimited for one year. Cancelling is done in your account, online or by phone, and Keeps asks you to call if your next refill is due within 24 hours. It labels its Minoxidil+ Spray as compounded, but its chews and drops are listed without the same plain label on the product grid we read, and we found no statement about filling the prescription elsewhere. The Keeps review has the detail.

Happy Head: dermatologist-led, the least clear bill

Happy Head's selling point is its clinicians: it says a board-certified dermatologist assesses you and that follow-up visits cost nothing. Its prescriptions are mostly custom formulas compounded to order, priced from $59 to $119 a month depending on the ingredients; cheaper standalone tablets exist, but no price for them is published on the pages we read.

Two clauses in its subscription terms matter. "Monthly" plans are billed and shipped every 25 days by default, so a year holds 14 or 15 charges rather than 12. And cancelling needs contact at least three days before the next billing date; an order already processing cannot be cancelled. Its footer also claims topical finasteride carries a lower risk of side effects, which sits awkwardly beside the FDA's 2025 caution on compounded topical finasteride. Read our Happy Head review before you sign up.

The option that pays us nothing

The cheapest way to fill a generic finasteride prescription is usually not a subscription at all. If your own doctor or a dermatologist writes the prescription, a cash-price pharmacy can fill it for far less: Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company lists 30 tablets of generic finasteride at $5.83 before shipping, and a local pharmacy's cash price with a free discount card is worth asking about. Topical minoxidil needs no prescription in the US and is sold as a store brand in most pharmacies.

That route pays us nothing, and we recommend it first when you already have a doctor you can see. What a subscription adds is convenience and a clinician without a waiting room. Our guide to what finasteride costs lays the routes side by side, and how to get a finasteride prescription covers every way of getting the prescription itself.

What an online consultation can't do

An online consultation can confirm that pattern hair loss looks likely from your answers and photos; it cannot examine your scalp or run blood tests. Thyroid problems, low iron, alopecia areata, scarring conditions and shedding after illness or a new medicine can all look like thinning, and they need a doctor who can examine you.

Go in person, or ask the service to refer you, if your hair is falling out in patches, suddenly or in clumps, if your scalp is sore, red or scaly, or if you are a woman or under 18 (finasteride's label is for men only). A good service will tell you when you are not a candidate; Ro's terms, for example, refund you automatically if you are judged unsuitable. We describe what the questionnaire covers in what an online hair-loss consult asks you.

Compounded products and the FDA caution

A compounded product is one a pharmacy mixes to a prescription instead of a manufacturer making it to an approved formula; the FDA does not review compounded drugs for safety, effectiveness or quality before they are sold. All five services sell some; at these services the multi-ingredient sprays, serums and chews are the products to ask about.

On 22 April 2025 the FDA warned about compounded topical finasteride sold through telehealth. It said there is no FDA-approved topical finasteride, that it had received 32 adverse-event reports between 2019 and 2024, and that some patients said prescribers had told them a topical product carried no risk. We explain the alert in topical finasteride and the FDA caution.

Before you pay: five checks

Whichever service you choose, run these five checks against the checkout page, not the advert. They are the same checks our scores are built from.

1. Find the billing interval, not only the monthly price: every 25 days, every 3 months or once a year changes what leaves your account.
2. Find who reviews you and whether you can message them later without paying again.
3. Find the cancellation notice period and put the date in your calendar the day you sign up.
4. Ask whether a product is FDA-approved or compounded, and ask the clinician about side effects before it ships.
5. Ask whether you can have the prescription sent to a pharmacy of your choice.

If anything on that list is missing or evasive, our red flags in online prescribing explains what to do next.