Why Cobalt is different.
Traditional interoperability platforms sell you software and services. Cobalt is a unified API. The result: lower cost, faster implementation, and more flexibility.
Traditional interoperability platforms are designed to support the full complexity of healthcare. Many systems, many standards, many stakeholders. They do a lot because they have to.
Cobalt is built for a different use case.
We help health tech teams get specific workflows live quickly and iterate as their product evolves. This isn’t a question of better or worse. It’s a question of fit. And for most health tech companies shipping product today, the traditional model is a bad fit.
The core difference
Traditional platforms are optimized for breadth. Cobalt is optimized for speed and focus.
But the real difference is structural, not just strategic.
Traditional platforms often operate as a combination of software and services. Integrations are scoped, configured, and maintained per customer. There’s a services team involved. There are SOWs. There’s a timeline measured in weeks or months.
Cobalt is a multi-tenant SaaS product with a unified API. Every customer builds against the same standardized interface, similar to how teams build on Stripe or Twilio.
No custom integrations per customer. No professional services engagement required. Improvements we ship benefit every customer immediately.
When your integration layer is a services engagement, every new practice connection is a project. When it’s an API, it’s just a call.
What the numbers look like
These figures are based on a traditional vendor’s published pricing, compared against Cobalt’s current rates.
Traditional platform
- $25,000/year platform fee
- ~$1,750/month minimum usage
- $3,000–$5,000 per practice for one-time connectivity (higher for large practices)
- 3-year contract required
Cobalt (annual pricing)
- $799/month platform fee
- $119/month per connected practice, no limits on providers
- 50,000 API calls included per practice, then $0.005/call
- No connectivity fees, no multi-year lock-in
Here’s how that plays out:
| Scenario | Traditional | Cobalt |
|---|---|---|
| 1 practice, year one | ~$49,000 | ~$11,000 |
| 10 practices, year one | ~$76,000 | ~$24,000 |
| 50 practices, year one | ~$296,000 | ~$81,000 |
Cobalt figures reflect platform + per-practice fees on an annual contract, assuming usage within the included 50,000 API calls per practice. High-volume use cases may incur additional API call costs at $0.005/call.
At scale, the traditional model doesn’t just cost more. It costs multiples more. Every new practice adds a one-time connectivity fee on top of ongoing usage, and the 3-year lock-in means you’re committed before you know if the product even works for your use case.
With Cobalt, the math is simple: $119/month per practice, no matter how many providers are in that practice. 50,000 API calls included per practice, with modest overage pricing if you need more. No surprise fees. No escalating costs as you grow.
Implementation
With traditional platforms, getting started means scoping calls, a statement of work, a services team assigned to your account, and a timeline that stretches weeks to months before you see data flowing.
With Cobalt, you can start building the same day. Sign up, get your API keys, and start making requests. No SOW. No scoping. No waiting for someone to configure something on their end.
That speed compounds. When you can test an integration in a day instead of a quarter, you make better product decisions. You learn faster. You ship faster.
What you’re actually optimizing for
Traditional platforms make sense when you need:
- Breadth across many different systems and standards
- Enterprise-grade managed services
- Someone to handle the complexity for you
Cobalt makes sense when you need:
- Fast time to production
- A unified, developer-friendly API
- Flexibility to iterate without renegotiating contracts
- Lower cost at any scale
- No lock-in
Most health tech startups and growth-stage companies we talk to are optimizing for the second list. They don’t need an interoperability platform that does everything. They need one that does their thing, fast.
Questions to ask any vendor
Whether you’re evaluating Cobalt or anyone else, these are the questions that actually matter.
- Is your product multi-tenant, or do you build custom integrations per customer? This determines whether you’re buying software or buying services.
- What does implementation actually look like? Ask for a real timeline. Ask if there’s a SOW. Ask how many meetings happen before data flows.
- What’s the total cost for 1 practice? For 10? For 50? Get the full picture: platform fees, usage fees, connectivity fees, implementation fees. Add it up.
- What happens if I need to leave? Look at contract length, data portability, and what switching actually involves.
- How do improvements get delivered? With multi-tenant products, every customer benefits from every update. With per-customer setups, you’re on your own timeline.
- Can I start building today? If the answer is no, ask why. The reason will tell you a lot about how the product works.
The bottom line
We built Cobalt because we saw health tech teams spending months and hundreds of thousands of dollars on interoperability before they could validate whether their product even worked in clinical settings.
That felt wrong.
So we built something different. A unified API, transparent pricing, same-day implementation, no lock-in. It’s not the right fit for everyone. But for teams that want to move fast and stay focused, it’s a fundamentally better model.
Try it. Compare it. Ask the hard questions. We’re confident in where we land.