Epocrates
Epocrates is a digital clinical reference platform serving over one million US healthcare professionals with drug information, interaction checking, and clinical guidelines via mobile and web, monetized through freemium subscriptions and pharmaceutical advertising as an athenahealth subsidiary.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1998
- HeadquartersSan Mateo, United States
- Headcount1,001–5,000
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Epocrates does
Epocrates, Inc., founded in 1998 and headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, is a digital clinical reference platform serving over one million healthcare professionals in the United States, including physicians, nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and medical students. The platform delivers drug monographs, interaction checking, clinical guidelines, pill identification, dosing calculators, and curated medical news across iOS, Android, and web interfaces, with 426,000+ drug lookups processed daily. The service is built on a proprietary content library supplemented by partnerships with BMJ and Natural Medicines, and has progressively added AI-powered clinical decision support capabilities, most recently through an AI Assist Beta feature within its premium tier.
The business operates a freemium model: a free core reference product supported by pharmaceutical advertising, an epocrates+ premium subscription priced at $24.99/month or $179.99/year that adds advanced clinical tools and AI features, and group/enterprise licensing for institutions. Free access is extended to medical students as a pipeline-building channel. Pharmaceutical advertising — monetized through both direct sales and programmatic partnerships with DeepIntent and PubMatic — is the historically dominant revenue stream, leveraging Epocrates' point-of-care distribution to reach clinicians at the moment of prescribing decision, with 92-93% of users reporting changed prescribing decisions based on the platform.
Epocrates was previously public on NASDAQ under ticker EPOC before being acquired and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of athenahealth, operating with 1,001-5,000 employees. The company is restricted to the US market and reports a workforce embedded within the broader athenahealth ecosystem, with no separate financial disclosures available.
Epocrates firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Epocrates
- Legal name
- Epocrates, Inc.
- Website
- https://epocrates.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1998
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1,001–5,000 employees
- Short description
- Epocrates is a digital clinical reference platform serving over one million US healthcare professionals with drug information, interaction checking, and clinical guidelines via mobile and web, monetized through freemium subscriptions and pharmaceutical advertising as an athenahealth subsidiary.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Epocrates industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Clinical Decision Support Software
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Medication Therapy Management (MTM) & Clinical Pharmacy Services Tools (HLACAKAH)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Medication Adherence & Therapy Management Platforms (refills, reminders, MTM) (HLALAIAG)
Keywords
Where Epocrates is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Mateo
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Epocrates business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Subscription Revenue (epocrates+): Premium subscription model offering uninterrupted access to advanced clinical intelligence including disease information, herbs & supplements, ICD-10 codes, infectious disease treatment tools, and labs. Available as monthly ($24.99) or annual ($179.99) subscriptions.
- Pharmaceutical Advertising: Digital advertising revenue from life sciences brands targeting healthcare professionals at point of care within the clinical workflow. Includes programmatic advertising through DSP partnerships.
- Group Licensing: Enterprise licensing to medical practices, groups, and institutions with volume discounts for multiple users. Includes 2-year and 3-year subscription options.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Pay As You Go - Monthly subscription |
| Subscription | Annual | Yearly subscription - Most Popular |
| Freemium | Annual | Medical Student Access |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Group Licensing |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels7 records
Epocrates product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Epocrates delivers a clinical reference platform for healthcare professionals that provides drug information, interaction and allergy checking, dosing calculators, a pill identifier, disease references, and AI-powered clinical intelligence at the point of care. The service is offered through a freemium model with a free epocrates app and an upgraded epocrates+ premium subscription, and is monetized alongside a pharmaceutical advertising platform that reaches its verified clinician audience.
Product overview
Epocrates is a digital clinical reference platform serving over one million healthcare professionals since 1998. The platform operates as a freemium model with a free core offering and a premium epocrates+ subscription. The free tier provides drug information, interaction checking, pill ID, clinical guidelines, formulary access, medical news, calculators, and risk scores. epocrates+ adds disease information (from BMJ), herbs & supplements, ICD-10 codes, infectious disease treatment tools, and labs (mobile-exclusive features). The platform integrates AI-powered clinical intelligence to support faster decisions at the point of care, combining real-time evidence-based guidance with rapid, AI-assisted features. Epocrates also offers a Business Solutions/advertising platform enabling pharmaceutical brands to reach clinicians programmatically.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Epocrates (free clinical reference app) Free mobile and web clinical reference application for healthcare professionals that delivers drug monographs, interaction and allergy checks, pill ID, dosing calculators, disease references, and core point-of-care decision support. It is intended for individual practicing clinicians such as physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacists who need fast, trusted information during patient encounters.
- epocrates+ (premium subscription) Premium subscription upgrade to the Epocrates clinical reference platform providing enhanced and exclusive clinical content, deeper lab and diagnostic interpretive guides, expanded disease references, and curated clinical intelligence for clinicians who want richer point-of-care support beyond the free offering.
- Epocrates Pharmaceutical Advertising Solutions End-to-end pharmaceutical advertising platform that enables pharma brands and agencies to reach Epocrates' verified, opted-in HCP audience through direct placements, sponsored content, programmatic, and video across mobile and desktop. It includes an HCP Planner offering media kits, audience sizing, and past campaign performance insights for media planning.
- Enterprise Group Licensing for Epocrates Group licensing program that lets medical practices and healthcare organizations deploy Epocrates and epocrates+ across their clinician workforce under a unified contract with volume pricing and enterprise onboarding, standardizing clinical reference across the organization.
Quantifiable outcome
- 92-93% of users have changed a prescribing decision based on information in epocrates
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Epocrates
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Epocrates technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability3 records
Feature5 records
Epocrates partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered supporting and core.
- PubMaticsupportingPartnership with publisher monetization company PubMatic to enable programmatic advertising capabilities within the epocrates platform, complementing the DeepIntent partnership.
- DeepIntentcoreFirst-to-market partnership making epocrates clinical advertising inventory programmatically available through DeepIntent's healthcare DSP. Enables pharmaceutical advertisers to reach verified healthcare professionals at point of care using real-time contextual signals including drug lookups and clinical activity within the logged-in epocrates workflow.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Epocrates competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- ClinicalKey (Elsevier): ClinicalKey is Elsevier's clinical search engine and reference platform combining drug information, clinical guidelines, journals, and multimedia for clinicians — overlapping with Epocrates' content and decision-support positioning.
- IBM Micromedex: IBM Micromedex provides evidence-based drug reference, interaction checking, and comparative efficacy tools used by hospitals and clinicians. It competes with Epocrates in the core drug information and clinical decision support category.
- DynaMed (EBSCO): DynaMed provides evidence-based clinical reference content with drug information and decision support tools, frequently integrated into EHR workflows. It competes directly with Epocrates in clinical decision support for practicing clinicians.
- Medscape (WebMD): Medscape is a flagship HCP portal offering drug reference, clinical news, CME, and point-of-care decision tools — directly comparable to Epocrates' core clinical reference and pharmaceutical advertising platform for clinicians.
- Lexicomp (Wolters Kluwer): Lexicomp is a leading drug information and clinical reference solution commonly embedded in hospital EHR systems. It directly competes with Epocrates' drug interaction, dosing, and pediatric/neonatal reference capabilities at the point of care.
- UpToDate (Wolters Kluwer): UpToDate is the leading evidence-based clinical decision support resource for physicians, offering drug information, treatment recommendations, and clinical references. It is the most direct competitor to Epocrates in the HCP clinical reference category.
Broad incumbents
- GoodRx: GoodRx provides drug pricing, formulary, and medication information primarily to consumers but increasingly to clinicians. While more consumer-focused, it competes with Epocrates in the medication information and pharmaceutical advertising ecosystem.
- Sermo: Sermo is a physician community and HCP insights platform used by pharma for audience research and engagement. It competes with Epocrates' pharma advertising and HCP engagement offerings for life sciences marketing budgets.
- Doximity: Doximity is the largest professional network for U.S. physicians, offering news, references, and a point-of-care digital companion (Docs) that includes drug information — competing for clinician attention and pharma advertising dollars alongside Epocrates.
Emerging players
- VisualDx: VisualDx is a clinical decision support platform focused on visual diagnosis, drug reactions, and dermatologic reference. It overlaps with Epocrates' point-of-care decision support mission for a specialty-focused clinician audience.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Epocrates social profiles
Digital presenceEpocrates financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Epocrates leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
Epocrates funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds3 records
Investors5 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Epocrates M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A1 record
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Epocrates
What does Epocrates do?
Epocrates delivers a clinical reference platform for healthcare professionals that provides drug information, interaction and allergy checking, dosing calculators, a pill identifier, disease references, and AI-powered clinical intelligence at the point of care. The service is offered through a freemium model with a free epocrates app and an upgraded epocrates+ premium subscription, and is monetized alongside a pharmaceutical advertising platform that reaches its verified clinician audience.
Is Epocrates a public or private company?
Epocrates is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was Epocrates founded?
Epocrates was founded in 1998. It employs 1,001 to 5,000 people.
Where is Epocrates based?
Epocrates is headquartered in San Mateo, United States, in the North America region.
How does Epocrates make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Subscription Revenue (epocrates+) is the primary driver. The others are pharmaceutical Advertising and group Licensing.
Who are Epocrates's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are ClinicalKey (Elsevier), IBM Micromedex, DynaMed (EBSCO), Medscape (WebMD), Lexicomp (Wolters Kluwer) and UpToDate (Wolters Kluwer). Broad incumbents are GoodRx, Sermo and Doximity. VisualDx is listed as an emerging player.
Does Epocrates have an API?
No public API is recorded for Epocrates.
What industry is Epocrates in?
Epocrates's product category is Clinical Decision Support Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLACAKAH, Medication Therapy Management (MTM) & Clinical Pharmacy Services Tools, with a secondary code of HLALAIAG, Medication Adherence & Therapy Management Platforms (refills, reminders, MTM). Its NAICS code is 51821 and its SIC code is 7372.