How we score every provider in this guide.

The GLP-1 telehealth market is opaque by design. Pricing pages obscure how costs change as patients titrate up. Pharmacy sourcing is rarely disclosed. Some programs route every intake through a nurse practitioner or screening AI, while presenting themselves as physician-supervised. Patients deserve a yardstick that holds every provider to the same standard.

This methodology is that yardstick. We score every program in our review against fourteen questions grouped into five pillars, weighted by what we believe matters most for patient outcomes and financial protection. Scores are recalculated quarterly. When a provider's pricing or program structure changes, the score moves with it.

The most important thing a methodology page does is force the reviewer to commit, in advance, to what counts. Anyone can declare a winner. The honest move is to publish the rubric first.

The five pillars

I. Pricing Transparency (25% weight)

Why it matters: A patient who starts at a $129/month introductory rate and finds themselves paying $349/month at maintenance dose six months later has been priced opaquely. Predictable, dose-independent pricing is the strongest financial protection a program can offer.

We score four sub-criteria:

• Flat-rate vs. titration-based pricing. Does the monthly cost stay the same as the patient moves to higher doses? Programs that escalate by dose are penalized.
• Hidden fees. Are consultation fees, lab fees, shipping fees, or "starter kit" charges separated from the headline price?
• Intro-rate clarity. If first-month pricing differs from ongoing pricing, is the ongoing rate disclosed at parity (same font size, same prominence) on the marketing page?
• Total annual cost. What does a patient actually pay over twelve months on the most common dose path?

II. Pharmacy Sourcing & Quality (25% weight)

Why it matters: Compounded GLP-1s are prepared at compounding pharmacies, which fall into two regulatory categories. 503A pharmacies are state-licensed and prepare medications on a patient-specific basis under prescriber direction. 503B outsourcing facilities are FDA-registered and operate under more stringent federal manufacturing standards. State boards of pharmacy generally require any 503A pharmacy compounding sterile preparations to comply with USP <797> (sterile compounding) and USP <85> (bacterial endotoxin testing).⁴

We score three sub-criteria:

• Pharmacy classification disclosure. Does the program tell patients whether their medication will be sourced from a 503A pharmacy, a 503B facility, or both?
• USP standards documentation. Are the relevant USP testing standards named on the patient-facing site?
• Independent batch testing. Does the program publicly state that each batch is tested for potency, sterility, pH, and endotoxin levels by independent third-party labs?

III. Clinical Oversight (20% weight)

Why it matters: GLP-1s carry meaningful clinical considerations — gastrointestinal tolerability, gallbladder risk, contraindications with personal or family history of medullary thyroid carcinoma or MEN2, drug interactions with insulin and sulfonylureas. The depth of the clinical review at intake, and the accessibility of a prescriber afterward, materially affects patient safety.

• MD/DO involvement. Is the prescribing provider a physician, or is the program staffed primarily by nurse practitioners and physician assistants?
• Intake review depth. Is the intake reviewed by a human prescriber, or is the initial screening AI-only with provider review only on edge cases?
• Ongoing access. Can the patient message a clinician between scheduled visits without a per-message charge?

IV. Patient Experience (15% weight)

• Onboarding clarity and side-effect support. Are titration schedules, expected GI side effects, and dose-adjustment protocols communicated clearly?
• Cancellation terms. Can patients cancel month-to-month, or are they locked into multi-month plans with non-refundable upfront payments?

V. Access & Coverage (15% weight)

• State availability. 50-state coverage is standard for the leading programs in 2026.
• Eligibility transparency. Is the BMI threshold for eligibility disclosed publicly, or only revealed after the patient completes intake?

How the score becomes a ranking

Each of the fourteen sub-criteria is scored on a 0–5 scale by our editorial team, reviewed by Dr. Kennah for clinical accuracy, and weighted according to the pillar percentages above. The weighted aggregate produces a 0–100 composite score. Editor's Pick is awarded to the highest composite scorer overall. The seven category awards (Best Pharmacy Transparency, Best Clinical Oversight, etc.) go to the highest scorer within that specific pillar — which means a program that wins a category award has not necessarily won overall.

How we handle paid partnerships

GLP Agonists earns commissions when readers sign up to certain providers through links on this site. We disclose this prominently on every page. Critically: partnership status is not an input to the scoring rubric. A provider does not earn a higher position by becoming a partner, and partners are not protected from category losses. Where a partner ranks ahead of a competitor, that ranking reflects the rubric output, not the commercial relationship.

What this methodology does not do

We do not score patient outcomes (weight loss percentages, HbA1c reduction). Outcomes are individual, depend on factors outside the provider's control, and would require de-identified clinical data we do not have access to. We do not score brand familiarity, marketing creative, or app-store ratings. We do score Trustpilot ratings as a tiebreaker within a pillar, with sample-size caveats noted in every citation.

Corrections and updates

If a provider believes a score is inaccurate — pricing has changed, a USP standard has been added, a pharmacy classification has updated — please contact glpagonists@gmail.com with documentation. We rescore quarterly and accept off-cycle corrections at any time.

Methodology v1.0 · Published May 4, 2026 · Next scheduled revision: August 2026