The honest comparison.
Every way of going digital has a catch. One-time licences go stale, revenue-share and device financing take a cut, and enterprise HMIS is built for hospitals. Here's how each really stacks up against a neutral, per-branch platform — including where we're not ahead yet.
Three ways to go digital — and their catch.
Each of these is a genuine choice that suits somebody. The question is what it costs you once the novelty wears off.
One-time, single-site licences
The upside. Cheap to buy, and it's yours — the familiar way most facilities went digital first.
The catch. It goes stale. SHA and eTIMS keep changing and a one-off licence doesn't; support is thin, it's usually one branch, and the server is your problem.
Revenue-share & device financing
The upside. Little or nothing upfront, and someone else carries the hardware or stock risk.
The catch. They sit between you and your money — a cut of revenue, or a tie to their devices and supply chain. Convenient until you want to leave.
Enterprise, per-user HMIS
The upside. Powerful and complete — the right tool for a hospital with an IT department.
The catch. Priced and shaped for hospitals. Per-user fees punish you for growing, deployment is heavy, and most of it is overkill for a Level 2–3.
The comparison, in one table.
General characterisations of each model — the details differ by vendor, so treat this as the shape of the trade-off, not a scorecard on any one product.
| Criterion | One-time licence | Revenue-share / financing | Enterprise per-user | Salus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upfront cost | High one-off | Low / none | High | None |
| Ongoing model | Little — but frozen | % of revenue / financing | Per user (scales against you) | Flat, per branch |
| Stays current with SHA & eTIMS | Manual / paid upgrades | Varies | Yes | Yes — SHA live at go-live |
| Clinic + pharmacy as one | Rarely | Pharmacy-led | Modules, hospital-shaped | Built as one record |
| Multi-branch consolidation | Usually single-site | On their terms | Yes | Consolidated financials |
| Takes a cut / supply lock-in | No | Yes | No | Never |
| Right-sized for a Level 2–3 | Sometimes | Pharmacy-first | Built for hospitals | Exactly this |
| Your data / leaving | Varies | Tied to their chain | Varies | Export anytime, no lock-in |
Neutral, per-branch, built as one.
The gap nobody was filling: a flat per-branch subscription that fuses real clinic OPD and real pharmacy depth, keeps up with SHA and eTIMS, and consolidates every branch — without taking a cut of your money or tying you to a supply chain.
See the product- Flat, per-branch — no revenue-share, no per-user penalty, no financing lock-in.
- Clinic + pharmacy on one record, cash-first from day one.
- Kept current with SHA and eTIMS — a cloud subscription, not a licence that freezes.
- Right-sized for a Level 2–3 clinic, chemist or small chain — not a cut-down hospital suite.
The honest part.
We're newer than the incumbents, and we don't pretend otherwise. Our SHA, M-Pesa and eTIMS rails are simulated on synthetic data today and go live once we're DHA-certified and credentialed — certification is in progress. If you need live SHA billing this month, an already-certified vendor can do that today and we can't. We lead cash-first precisely so that gap isn't a blocker: you get real value now — one record, stock, billing, reconciliation — and switch SHA on the day it's ready, without starting over.
See it against your own workflow.
See Salus on your own workflow in 20 minutes — cash-first, no rip-and-replace, no long contract.