An EkaCare alternative for clinics that would rather live in WhatsApp than in an app.
EkaCare is ABDM-native and plays on both sides: a consumer health app for patients and an EMR for doctors. Saaro Health is clinic-only and puts the patient side in the WhatsApp thread they already have with you. The differences are real, and this page lays them out.
| Capability | EkaCare | Saaro Health |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer health app for patients | Yes | No |
| Brand recognition with patients | Yes | Partial |
| Patient-held records and vaccination history in an app | Yes | Partial |
| ABDM-native design | Yes | Yes |
| AI consult notes (scribe) | Yes | Yes |
| Owned WhatsApp Business infrastructure | Verify | Yes |
Choose EkaCare if
- You want your patients to hold their own health records, vaccination history and ABHA in a consumer app, and you want your clinic to appear inside that app.
- ABDM is your first requirement and you want a vendor that built the product around it from day one rather than adding it later.
- You value a brand that patients may already have on their phone, which makes onboarding them to a record feel familiar.
- You want a large product surface — patient app, doctor app, scribe, vaccination tracking — from one vendor.
Choose Saaro Health if
- You do not want to ask patients to install anything. Prescriptions, reminders, reports and refills go to WhatsApp from your clinic's own number.
- You want that messaging to run on infrastructure the vendor owns, bundled into the plan rather than metered, with no external template-approval queue.
- You dictate prescriptions in Hindi and English and want structured rows with interaction checks, filed to the record automatically.
- You run several locations and want one patient record with per-branch billing and central reporting.
- You want GST billing, lab and pharmacy modules in the same product as the record.
| Capability | EkaCare | Saaro Health |
|---|---|---|
| Consumer health app for patients | Yes | NoPatients use WhatsApp, no app |
| Brand recognition with patients | Yes | PartialNewer brand |
| Patient-held records and vaccination history in an app | Yes | PartialSent to WhatsApp, held in the clinic record |
| ABDM-native design | Yes | YesConsent artefacts, FHIR push |
| AI consult notes (scribe) | Yes | YesHindi and English |
| Owned WhatsApp Business infrastructure | Verify | YesSaroConnect, run by Lumotis |
| Patient messaging bundled, not metered | Verify | Yes |
| Voice prescription in Hindi and English | Verify | Yes |
| One patient record across locations | Verify | Yes |
| GST billing, lab and pharmacy modules | Verify | Yes |
| AI follow-up flows (no-show, chronic care, refills) | Verify | Yes |
| Data hosted in India | Verify | YesMumbai region |
Where EkaCare is the better choice.
EkaCare's consumer app is the thing Saaro deliberately does not have. If your patients are the kind who want their records, lab reports and vaccination schedule in one place they control, and you want your clinic to be a presence inside that app, EkaCare offers that and we do not. Our view is that most Indian patients will not install an app for a clinic, but some will, and for a paediatric or chronic-care practice with engaged families that can be worth a lot.
EkaCare also built around ABDM from the start rather than adding it, and it shows in the depth of the ABHA and consent flows. Saaro supports ABHA linking, consent artefacts and FHIR record push, but if your practice is in a state programme that leans hard on ABDM and you want the most mature implementation available, look at EkaCare closely.
The breadth of EkaCare's surface — patient app, doctor app, scribe, vaccination tracking, records — comes from one vendor, and for a clinic that wants all of it from one place that is simpler than assembling tools. Saaro covers the clinic side of that list and puts the patient side on WhatsApp instead.
Pricing side by side.
Pricing, verified competitor verified 2026 08. Saaro prices are per clinic per month, billed annually, excluding GST. Patient messaging is included in every Saaro plan.
| Tier | EkaCare | Saaro Health |
|---|---|---|
| Solo (1 doctor) | competitor ekacare tier1 | ₹1,499 |
| Clinic (2–5 doctors) | competitor ekacare tier2 | ₹3,999 |
| Chain (6–50 locations) | competitor ekacare tier3 | On call |
| WhatsApp patient messaging | competitor ekacare messaging | Included, not metered |
Swipe to see every tier
What switching from EkaCare involves.
Because EkaCare is ABDM-native, most clinics arriving from it already have ABHA IDs against a good share of patients. Those carry across unchanged. Saaro stores ABDM consent artefacts in the record and pushes FHIR records where consent exists, so patients who linked ABHA in EkaCare keep that link in Saaro. Setup is typically within a day and migration from another EMR is typically about two days.
The patient experience changes shape. Instead of a notification inside an app, the prescription, the follow-up date, the report and the refill nudge arrive in the WhatsApp thread with your clinic, sent from your own WhatsApp Business number on SaroConnect, which is Lumotis's own WhatsApp Business Solution Provider infrastructure. There is no third-party BSP, messaging is bundled into your plan rather than metered, and there is no external template-approval queue.
Patients who liked holding records in the EkaCare app can keep using it for their personal records; ABDM is designed so that a record pushed from Saaro is visible in any ABDM-linked personal health record app the patient chooses. Your clinic simply stops being the thing that requires the app.
Everything is hosted in India, in the Mumbai region, with role-based access and an audit trail. Billing, lab and pharmacy modules sit in the same workspace as the record, so the counter does not need a second system.
- Patients, ABHA IDs, visits, prescriptions, reports, billing and future appointments are the data types we move.
- Your existing WhatsApp Business number is verified on SaroConnect during setup.
- Specialty templates are loaded on the demo call, before migration starts.
Export, map, import, verify.
- 01Day 1
Export
You export patients, ABHA links, prescriptions and appointments from EkaCare. We send a checklist of which exports to run.
- 02Day 1
Map
We map EkaCare's columns to Saaro's fields, with particular care over ABHA IDs and consent records, and confirm ambiguities with you.
- 03Day 2
Import
Records are imported into your Saaro workspace. Duplicates are merged on phone number and name, with a merge list for review.
- 04Day 2
Verify
You spot-check a sample, confirm ABHA links resolve, run one OPD session in parallel, and sign off. EkaCare stays read-only until then.
Your questions answered.
The things clinics ask first.
What EkaCare exports — patients, ABHA IDs, prescriptions, visits and appointments — is imported and verified against a sample before you sign off. Records patients hold in their own EkaCare app are theirs and stay with them; ABDM lets them see records pushed from Saaro in that app too.
Setup is typically within a day and migration typically about two days: export and mapping on day 1, import and verification on day 2. We check that ABHA links resolve as part of verification.
Yes. Your clinic's WhatsApp Business number is verified on SaroConnect, our own WhatsApp infrastructure, so patients keep the same thread and clinic name. Patients who used the EkaCare app will now get messages on WhatsApp instead of app notifications.
Saaro's Solo plan is ₹1,499 per clinic per month and the Clinic plan for 2–5 doctors is ₹3,999, billed annually and excluding GST. Setup, migration and patient messaging are included. EkaCare's own terms are between you and EkaCare.
Yes. Run Saaro as the working system for about a week with EkaCare open read-only, compare a few patients a day, and cut over when the front desk and the doctors are comfortable. ABHA links work in both during that week.
Keep reading.
- FeaturesWhatsApp automationSaaro runs on SaroConnect, Lumotis's own WhatsApp Business infrastructure. Reminders, prescriptions, reports and refills go out from your number, patient replies come back to the desk, and messaging is included in every plan.
- FeaturesVoice prescriptionSpeak it in English, Hindi, or your mix of both. Saaro structures the drug, dose and duration, flags interactions, files it to the record and sends it from your clinic's number.
- FeaturesPatient recordsA record built from every visit, not a spreadsheet row. Prescriptions, reports, notes and follow-ups sit in one timeline, linked to the patient's ABHA if they have one.
- FeaturesBilling & GSTBilling is generated from the consult, not typed in separately. GST-compliant, auto-numbered per branch, and reconciled at the end of the day without a separate spreadsheet.
- SolutionsMulti-doctor clinicFor clinics with 2–5 doctors under one roof. Every doctor keeps their own templates and their own collections report, and every patient has one record that all of them can see.
- CompareBest EMR India 2026Every other page ranking this query is written by a vendor ranking itself first. This one is too — Saaro Health publishes it — so read the disclosure below before the table, and judge the table on its own terms.
See the two side by side on your own patient flow.
Twenty minutes. Bring an EkaCare export and we will show you the mapped result, ABHA links included.