Hero Health vs. iPlato

What’s it all about?

We’ve already taken on Accurx and Swiftqueue. As two leading providers of online booking and patient messaging, we didn’t shy away from competition. Now, it’s iPlato’s turn!

iPlato is perhaps the longest-standing patient messaging provider in the NHS. If you’ve not heard of them before, here’s a quick summary:

“iPlato is a digital health company that focuses on mobile health solutions, offering messaging, appointment booking, medication reminders, and remote monitoring tools. Their platform prioritises improving patient engagement and self-management, ultimately aiming to transform healthcare delivery.”

Sounds great, right? So, what about Hero?

“Hero Health is an online appointment scheduling software designed to delight patients and improve admin efficiencies. It supports patient messaging, appointment booking, reminders, online booking, and cross-organisational booking. Focused on reducing admin workload and improving patient experience, Hero Health also aims to transform healthcare delivery with accessible and user-friendly technology.”

At a glance, ChatGPT might say they’re nearly the same. But as we’ve seen before, the truth is in the details. Let’s explore how these platforms really stack up.

Hero Health vs iPlato: The overview

iPlato is best known for its messaging facilities. Having served practices for over 15 years, iPlato offers a sturdy messaging platform that features file attachments, and the ability to code patient responses back into the clinical record. For primary care, this helps ensure clinicians have everything they need in one place.

Hero Health, on the other hand, stands out due to its multi-dimensional approach. In addition to robust messaging (including SNOMED coding for first, second, and third messages), Hero has an integrated online booking solution. This makes the scheduling side of patient communications much easier, saving considerable admin time.

Single vs. batch messaging

Both Hero Health and iPlato allow you to send batch messages. This is especially important in autumn and winter when flu or COVID vaccination programmes ramp up, and staff need to mass-invite patients. So far, so good.

With Hero, the batch messaging process is as simple as:

• Pull a CSV list of patients from EMIS or SystmOne
• Upload it into Hero with one click
• Compose your message (and attach a link for booking, questionnaires, or other forms)
• Hit send
• Watch happy patients book, complete questionnaires, or get updated in record time

All these steps feed back into your clinical system, meaning no double-recording or manual data entry. For more details, check out our Batch Messaging feature.

What are the benefits?

So, you might be thinking: “These features all sound lovely, but what’s the real benefit?” Let’s break it down by organisation type.

At a GP Practice level, both Hero Health and iPlato will significantly reduce administrative workload. Think fewer phone calls, less chasing patients, and a big boost in staff satisfaction. However, Hero also offers an integrated online booking system, so patients can schedule their own appointments through the very messages they receive, which iPlato can’t match.

For PCNs, Federations or ICBs, batch messaging still saves considerable time and money. Practices can easily upload cohorts of patients to send invites for everything from flu clinics to structured medication reviews. Appointment reminders, such as Hero’s Reminders, also help lower DNAs. On top of that, Hero’s cross-organisational booking capabilities allow a PCN to list enhanced access appointments across multiple practice sites, letting patients book directly into the PCN’s EMIS diary. This is where Hero really sets itself apart.

How much are SMS costs?

We get asked this a lot, and for good reason. Some ICBs have been known to spend over a million pounds a year on SMS. So, it’s an important expense to keep an eye on. Every provider (Accurx, iPlato, Hero, etc.) typically charges around 1.99p per SMS when using third-party SMS providers, although some PCNs have part or full funding from the ICB.

Hero gives you two SMS provider options (Firetext and BT) to help you integrate with existing setups more easily. You can either bring your own SMS account or let us help you set one up. Either way, you only pay for what you use.

The verdict

So, is iPlato better than Hero Health? It depends on your priorities. If you only want a robust messaging solution with coding capabilities, iPlato is a solid, well-established choice. But if you want messaging and online booking that syncs smoothly with EMIS and SystmOne, Hero Health is the clear winner.

With Hero, you get an end-to-end solution: messaging, scheduling, reminders, triage, batch invites – you name it. All at 45p per patient per year, integrated with the major NHS GP clinical systems. If that sounds good, maybe it’s time to give Hero Health a closer look.

Fancy reading up on how Hero compares to other providers? Check these out:

• Hero Health vs. Accurx
• Hero Health vs. Swiftqueue