The All-in-One Dream
Every DPC doc has the same fantasy: one app that does everything. Charting, billing, messaging, labs, scheduling, patient portal, e-prescribing — all in one beautiful system. No more tabs. No more context switching. Just... one thing.
Cerbo pitches that dream pretty hard. And honestly, they deliver more of it than most. If you're running a functional medicine or concierge practice and you want maximum customization in a single platform, Cerbo is a legitimate option.
But here's the thing nobody says out loud: even Cerbo clinics still use other apps.
The short version
- Cerbo is good at being a configurable all-in-one EHR platform, especially for functional, integrative, and concierge practices.
- Tabflows is better when a clinic already has tools it likes and needs one shared operating layer for patient context, tasks, follow-ups, messages, labs, billing, and team handoffs.
- Choose Cerbo if your main problem is choosing or replacing the clinical platform itself.
- Choose Tabflows if Cerbo is part of your stack, but the work still spills into Spruce, Hint, lab portals, scribes, supplements, prescriptions, and team task lists.
- The real distinction is that Cerbo tries to centralize more of the clinic in one platform. Tabflows helps the tools a clinic already chose work as one.
The Reality of "All-in-One"
We talk to Cerbo clinics all the time. Great platform. Genuinely powerful charting. And almost every single one of them also uses:
- Spruce for messaging (because patients prefer it)
- A separate lab portal (because LabCorp and Quest have their own systems)
- Hint for membership billing (because most clinics prefer Hint's DPC-native subscription billing)
- A pharmacy tool for e-prescribing
- Sometimes a separate scheduling tool
So the "all-in-one" still ends up being 4-5 apps. And now you're back to 6 browser tabs and a patient you can't find in half of them.
We've seen this movie before. It plays the same way every time.
Where Tabflows Comes In
Tabflows doesn't replace Cerbo. We don't want to. Cerbo is great at what it does.
What we do is give the team one shared operating layer around Cerbo and everything else the clinic uses. Patient context, tasks, messages, lab follow-ups, billing context, and staff handoffs can live in one workflow instead of scattering across tabs and memory.
No migration. No ripping out the chart. No "hold on, let me find that in the other system."
Different Philosophies
Cerbo's philosophy: build everything into one platform.
Tabflows' philosophy: connect whatever you already chose.
Both are valid. But one requires you to migrate your entire workflow into a single vendor. The other works with what you've got, starting today.
Cerbo
- Approach: All-in-one EHR platform
- Setup: Weeks to months (data migration)
- Works with: Its own ecosystem
- Solves: Charting, billing, portal
Tabflows
- Approach: Shared workflow and AI layer around your existing apps
- Setup: Start with Core, then add Patient Assist or Smart Clinic as needed
- Works with: Elation, Hint, Spruce, Cerbo, labs, scribes, and more
- Solves: Patient context, tasks, follow-ups, handoffs, and work between tools
- Price: Core is free forever; Patient Assist and Smart Clinic scale from there
When Cerbo Makes More Sense
If you're starting a practice from scratch and want one platform to rule them all, Cerbo is a strong pick. Especially if you're in functional or integrative medicine where Cerbo's custom forms and protocols shine.
Just know that "all-in-one" is a spectrum, not a destination. You'll still end up with a few extra tools.
When Tabflows Makes More Sense
If you've already picked your tools - maybe Cerbo for charting, Hint for billing, Spruce for messaging, labs and scribes around the edges - and you do not want to blow up your workflow for an all-in-one migration, Tabflows is the play.
We make your existing stack work like it was designed as one clinic system. Without asking you to migrate the whole practice.
The Honest Take
Cerbo is a good EHR trying to be a great platform. Tabflows is a different category entirely - the shared workflow layer that helps your multi-app clinic work like one coordinated clinic.
If you're already on Cerbo and still drowning in tabs, that's literally what we built this for.