Health coaching is a business, and running a business involves lots of moving parts. Many of these parts are easy to overlook or forget completely, especially if you’ve never had a business before.

The clerical side of owning your own business usually involves scheduling appointments, sending invoices, corresponding with insurance companies, and doing your own marketing. So when are you supposed to find the time to actually coach? Don’t worry – you're not alone, and there are plenty of ways to find support as a Health Coach.

IIN’s Health Coach Training Program is set up to support graduates in their pursuit of a wellness career, providing tools and resources to help build their businesses post-graduation. The premade session forms, website and coaching program templates, and IINBiz marketing platform are all important resources to guide new Health Coaches in getting their businesses up and running. In addition to these resources, Health Coaches can explore other ways to dive into building and growing their business.

Going digital is one way to keep your business more organized. By utilizing certain phone apps, you can access your to-do lists, your reminders, your appointments, and everything else while on your phone and other devices. These apps are designed to make your life easier and give you back time to do what you’re passionate about: coaching.

We’ve compared* eight apps based on:

• Key features
• Pricing
• Customer reviews

*The Institute for Integrative Nutrition has no affiliation with any of the apps mentioned in this blog post and receives no compensation for featuring them.

The Eight Best Apps for Health Coaches

1. Best All-Around Coaching App: Healthie

Healthie is an all-in-one practice-management platform created with Health Coaches and wellness entrepreneurs in mind. Healthie offers a platform to house client records, schedule appointments, video chat with clients, and handle billing. Coaches can work with clients to create their wellness goals, set reminders and get encouragement, and track their progress through the Healthie app.

Key features

• Group and one-on-one video chat functionality
• HIPAA, PIPEDA, and GDPR compliance
• Client charts you can customize with your branding and logo
• Secure storage of credit cards in order to process client payments
• Integration with a variety of wearable health trackers, like Fitbit and Apple Watches
• Various appointment types, syncing with existing calendar, and automated appointment reminders
• Ability to record and share your own videos and webinars

Pricing: $29 per month, for individual coaches; up to $149 per month, for businesses with multiple coaches

Customer reviews: 4.6/5 on the App Store, 3.8/5 on Google Play

2. Best for Marketing to New Clients: Mindbody Business

The Mindbody Business app simplifies your workday with built-in automation and marketing tools. Mindbody allows you to either work directly within the Mindbody app or develop your own custom app for clients to use.

Key features

• Setup of automatic recurring payments and reminders
• Connection to your website and social media pages for easy appointment scheduling
• HIPAA and PCI compliance
• An automated messaging system that works as an AI receptionist to answer questions and book appointments
• Built-in marketing and promotional tools
• Comprehensive reporting tool for sales, new clients, retention rates, and more

Pricing: $139 per month, for the Starter plan; offers an Accelerate plan ($279/month), an Ultimate plan ($499/month), and an Ultimate Plus plan ($699/month)

Customer reviews: 4.6/5 on the App Store, 2.6/5 on Google Play

3. Best for Coaches Focused on Physical Fitness: My PT Hub

My PT Hub enables Health Coaches to manage their businesses by creating customizable training. For coaches with nutrition backgrounds, My PT Hub can also be used to plan nutrition programs. The app offers unlimited custom workouts and nutrition plans, and it allows for as many clients as you can handle. My PT Hub also helps both coaches and clients to track progress, and it keeps communication open.

Key features

• A wide variety of client-focused features, including progress photos, medical information, and instant chat
• Apple Watch, Fitbit and Google Fit integration
• Creation of secure, recurring payment plans and invoices
• Branded push notifications to keep clients on track
• “Recent Activity Feed,” to stay current with client activities

Pricing: $20 per month, for a standard plan; $49 per month, for the premium plan

Customer reviews: 4.1/5 on the App Store, 3.9/5 on Google Play

4. Best for Tech-Savvy Coaches: Quenza

A new player in the Health Coach app game, Quenza gives coaches the flexibility to design their own programs from scratch. Quenza includes a range of features to build client engagement, including email reminders, live chat, and real-time client progress tracking.

Key features

• Ability to customize emails and client interface with your branding, including your logo
• Secure client-coach communication channels
• Full multimedia support for coaches who provide tutorials via video, photo, text, and podcast
• Goal-setting tools that are completely customizable
• Availability in 16 different languages
• HIPAA and GDPR compliance

Pricing: Free 30-day trial, then from $49 per month to $149 per month, with varying features depending on the plan

5. Best for Holistic Coaches: PracticeBetter

PracticeBetter offers comprehensive tools for booking clients, sending invoices, and tracking client progress. The app also allows coaches to build plans focused on food, lifestyle, and fitness for their clients.

Key features

• Video and voice-recorded coaching sessions
• HIPAA and PCI compliance
• Meetings with clients through video conferencing
• Automatic appointment and task reminders
• Ability to build custom one-off and recurring programs for clients
• Availability settings for client sessions

Pricing: Free plan (three clients) to $135 per month (unlimited clients)

Customer reviews: 3.3/5 on the App Store, 4.3/5 on Google Play

6. Best for Meal Prepping: Meal Garden

Meal Garden focuses on the nutritional side of health coaching. The app helps coaches find, personalize, and share meal plans and recipes, allowing clients to explore their bio-individual diet needs. The recipes on Meal Garden are curated and created by professional chefs and nutritionists. Meal Garden is currently available only as a web app.

Key features

• Easy-to-use ingredient and allergen filters, to help clients find recipes that work for them
• More than 2,500 recipes that have been reviewed by health professionals
• Preparation instructions, shopping lists, nutritional breakdowns, and how the meals fit into dietary goals

Pricing: 7-day free trial, then $30 per month

Customer reviews: Meal Garden is currently available only as a web app.

7. Best for Beginner Coaches: SimplePractice

SimplePractice is made for small business owners in the health and wellness space. The app provides hundreds of templates for coaches to use during intake, for client assessments, and for progress notes; it also allows coaches to create their own custom forms. SimplePractice helps with important business tasks like scheduling, record keeping, billing, and client communication.

Key features

• Integration with website platforms for direct online scheduling and client booking
• Secure sharing of client documents and files
• Automatic billing statements and past-due reminders
• HIPAA-compliant video appointments, including screen sharing
• Ability to file primary and secondary insurance claims right from the app

Pricing: $39 per month Essential plan, designed for a single coach, and $59 per month. Professional plan, designed for more advanced and groups of coaches

Customer reviews: 4.7/5 on the App Store, 4.3/5 on Google Play

8. Best for Keeping Clients on Track: Nudge Coach

Nudge Coach offers personalized reminders and client check-ins for a customized coaching experience. The app provides features like appointment scheduling, messaging, and client goal tracking.

Key features

• Creation of personalized goal trackers based on your program and your client’s needs and goals
• Comprehensive data reporting
• Custom notifications and reminders with your branding
• Community leaderboard for group sessions
• HIPAA and PCI compliance

Pricing: Free plan (up to three clients), $30 per month (up to 15 clients), $60 per month (up to 60 clients), $100 per month (up to 100 clients); after 100 clients, an additional $1 per client, per month

Customer reviews: 3.9/5 on the App Store, 4.8/5 on Google Play

The Bottom Line

Whether you’re just starting your health coaching business or have an established practice, apps can help make coaching easier. Between communicating with clients, chasing down payments, coordinating with insurance, and everything else, you still need to find time to actually coach!

IIN supports Health Coaches from the beginning of their journeys through graduation – and beyond. IIN’s Health Coach Training Program teaches skills for successfully starting and maintaining your coaching business. During the program, you’ll explore marketing and sales techniques, become an expert networker, learn how to partner with healthcare practitioners and wellness professionals, and so much more.

Health Coaches are an important part of the health and wellness industry, and apps can make your business more visible, more efficient, and even more successful in the long run.