athenahealth vs Azalea Health

Founded in 1997 in San Diego and now headquartered in Watertown, Massachusetts, athenahealth provides a cloud-based platform that integrates electronic health records, revenue cycle management, practice operations, and patient engagement tools. Their athenaOne suite combines AI-powered features like ambient documentation, predictive analytics, and automated billing workflows to help providers reduce administrative burden and improve clinical efficiency. The platform also supports telehealth, mobile access, open API integrations, and participation in a national provider network, making it highly adaptable for practices of various sizes and specialties. Athenahealth’s percentage-based pricing model aligns with practice revenue, and their Success Community gives users input into product evolution. While users value its automation and flexibility, some report challenges with implementation, usability, and contract clarity. Still, athenahealth’s broad capabilities and ongoing innovation make it a strong contender for modern, data-driven healthcare delivery.

Azalea Health was founded in 2008 in Valdosta, Georgia, and is now headquartered in Atlanta. They provide cloud-based healthcare IT solutions tailored to small practices, rural health clinics, and critical access hospitals. Their platform combines electronic health records, practice management software, revenue cycle management, analytics, and telehealth services into one system designed to simplify operations and improve patient care. Core features include a single patient record that unifies clinical and billing information, a patient portal for engagement, customizable templates, real-time updates, integrated billing workflows, and built-in telehealth sessions. Customer experience with Azalea Health is mixed but leans positive overall. Users often praise the system’s ease of use, responsive customer support, and quick onboarding, with some users reporting full training completed in under a week. At the same time, negative reviews mention long-term contracts, additional fees for features, and occasional performance slowdowns. Azalea does not publish standard pricing; instead, they offer a quote-based model. While some practices found them initially affordable, others reported rising costs due to add-ons and package changes.