Updated November 10, 2026 · Prices checked on each vendor's own site
The Software You Need to Start a DPC Practice
You need less software than you think to open a DPC practice, but the setup fees hide in places nobody warns you about. Here's the checklist and a realistic first-month budget.
The short answer
To open, you need four things covered. An EMR, membership billing, a phone and texting line, and a way for prospects to book a call. Hint or Atlas.md covers the first two in one platform, Spruce covers phones, and your EMR or a simple scheduler covers booking. A solo doctor can open for roughly $340 to $400 a month in software, plus one-time setup fees.
Opening-day checklist
- EMR and charting. See the best DPC EMRs.
- Membership billing. Built into Hint and Atlas.md. See billing software.
- ePrescribing and PDMP. Check setup fees per prescriber before you sign.
- Phone, text and fax. See phone systems.
- Booking for prospects. See scheduling.
- Intake forms and consents. Usually in the EMR, or PracticeQ from $54.90 a month.
Launch offers worth knowing
| Vendor | Launch offer |
|---|---|
| Hint | Pay nothing until your practice launches |
| Atlas.md | Free for 30 days before your practice launches |
| Charm | Free plan for 1 provider, up to 50 encounters a month and 1,000 patients |
| Cerbo | New-practice setup fee of $595 instead of $1,195, for part-time solo practices under 30 patients and 6 months old |
| Spruce | 14-day free trial, no credit card |
Setup fees nobody mentions
Atlas.md charges $475 to set up each prescriber for ePrescribing, $400 a year to renew and $525 per clinic for PDMP setup. Cerbo's standard setup fee is $1,195. Hint charges $500 one time for paid onboarding, which Scale requires. Spruce charges $19.50 once to turn on outbound texting.
A realistic first-month budget
A solo doctor on Atlas.md ($300 a month) with Spruce Basic for two people (about $48 a month) spends around $348 a month before card fees. The same clinic on Hint Launch ($290 a month) with Spruce spends around $338. Add the one-time ePrescribing and PDMP setup in your first month.
The part most comparisons skip
Opening day is the easy version of your stack. By member fifty, refills, labs, texts and onboarding steps are crossing three tools a day, and the follow-ups live in your head. It's much easier to set up how work moves between your tools before it piles up than after.
That's the job Tabflows does. Tabflows is a dedicated tech team for DPC clinics. We connect the tools you already chose and give your team one place for chat, tasks and patient context, with managed workflows for the repeat work like refills, lab follow-ups and onboarding. We set it up around the way your clinic already runs, and you keep every tool you picked.
Works alongside the tools on this page. No switching required.
Frequently asked questions
What software do I need to start a DPC practice?
An EMR, membership billing, a phone and texting line, and a way for prospects to book a call. Hint or Atlas.md covers the EMR and billing in one platform, Spruce covers phones and texts, and your EMR or a simple scheduler covers booking.
How much does DPC software cost to start?
A solo doctor can open for roughly $340 to $400 a month in software, plus one-time setup fees for ePrescribing, PDMP and onboarding. Hint's pay-nothing-until-launch offer, Atlas.md's 30-day free trial and Charm's free plan all lower the cost before your first members sign up.
Which DPC software is free to start?
Charm has a free plan for one provider with up to 50 encounters a month. Hint charges nothing until you launch, and Atlas.md is free for 30 days before launch.