Doximity vs Healthgrades: Side-by-Side Comparison
Doximity is a professional network for physicians, with ~80% of U.S. doctors on the platform. Healthgrades is a consumer-facing rating site. They serve different audiences: Doximity connects clinicians to each other; Healthgrades connects patients to clinicians.
Doximity vs Healthgrades, across 8 dimensions
| Dimension | Doximity | Healthgrades |
|---|---|---|
| Data type | Physician professional network — peer connections, CME, secure messaging, e-prescribing | Patient-facing provider profiles — reviews, ratings, insurance networks |
| Coverage | ~80% of U.S. physicians (publicly disclosed); 2M+ clinicians including NPs and PAs | ~3 million+ provider profiles |
| Refresh cadence | Self-maintained by clinicians; no public refresh cadence | — (not publicly disclosed) |
| License / Cost | Free for physicians; pharmaceutical and B2B advertising — pricing not public | Free for patients; provider marketing — pricing not public |
| API access | Limited partner API for EHR and telemedicine integrations; not a public open API | No public API |
| Source provenance | Self-attested credentials; NPI cross-reference for identity; no field-level provenance chain | Patient reviews + state licensing data; field-level provenance not publicly documented |
| Primary use case | Physician-to-physician communication, referrals, CME, pharma outreach | Patient discovery, doctor research, review reading |
| Pricing | Free for clinicians; pharma and industry — pricing not public | Free for patients; provider packages — pricing not public |
Cells marked “—” indicate values not publicly documented by the respective platform. No data has been estimated or fabricated.
Which platform fits your team
When to use Doximity
Use Doximity when the audience is clinicians — for peer referrals, professional directory lookups, or pharma/medtech outreach targeting specific specialties. Doximity's value is clinician-network depth and its NPI cross-reference for identity, not patient-facing transparency.
When to use Healthgrades
Use Healthgrades when the audience is patients comparing providers. Its review aggregation and insurance-network filters are optimized for the patient decision, not the clinical one.
Common questions
- Is Doximity a public directory of doctors?
- Doximity is primarily a professional network for clinicians, not a public provider directory. Profiles are maintained by clinicians themselves. The canonical public record of any U.S. provider is the CMS NPPES NPI Registry, which is federally maintained, publicly downloadable, and carries no access restrictions.
- Can I access Doximity provider data programmatically?
- Doximity does not publish a public open API for provider data. Partners can access scheduling and EHR integrations through closed agreements. For open programmatic access, CMS NPPES provides a REST API at npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov/api.
- Which platform has more accurate provider information — Doximity or Healthgrades?
- Accuracy depends on the dimension. Doximity profiles are clinician-maintained and cross-referenced with NPI, so professional credential fields tend to be current. Healthgrades sources licensing data from state boards alongside patient reviews. Neither platform publishes a per-field provenance chain — for that, the federal primary sources (NPPES, PECOS) are the authoritative records.
- How are Doximity and Healthgrades used in healthcare research?
- Doximity is occasionally cited for physician demographic studies because of its broad clinician coverage. Healthgrades data is used in patient-experience research. For reproducible academic research, federal primary sources (NPPES, CMS Care Compare, CMS Open Payments) are preferred because the inputs are public, the methodology can be stated explicitly, and the outputs are independently recreatable.
Last updated 2026-05-31. See all comparisons at /compare →
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