Key takeaways
- Online birth control services offer a discreet and easy way to get prescriptions, with or without insurance.
- You can get a wide range of birth control options online, such as pills, rings, and patches, and medical guidance is available.
- We’ve evaluated 14 birth control services, and our testers put Nurx on top as the best birth control service for convenience and affordability.
What’s good about getting birth control online
- Prices are cheaper or comparable, and you get to skip the doctor’s visit.
- Prescriptions were granted within a couple of days after initial signup, sometimes sooner.
- Testers always received medication in 5 days or fewer, plus had discreet shipping options.
- These services also offer other sexual health treatments should the need arise.
- There is just as much variety online as going through a doctor.
- These options are more affordable for people without insurance.
What to be aware of
- Sometimes there is a consultation or ongoing membership fee, so it’s worth comparing that to the cost of your office visit copay at your doctor.
- The process may not feel as personal if you have several questions or concerns.
- These do not replace the need for regular visits to an OB-GYN.
- You may still need to visit a clinic or pharmacy to obtain a blood pressure reading or purchase a home blood pressure monitor.
In our experience, online birth control services offer low cost options and subscriptions to make getting birth control significantly easier, even if you don’t have insurance.
For example, Hers does not take insurance but tends to offer cheaper prices than paying out of pocket elsewhere.
Lemonaid also does not take insurance if you use its mail-order pharmacy (you’ll pay $15 per pack out of pocket). However, it offers an option to pick it up at a local pharmacy, which will accept your insurance and render the medication free — you skip the doctor’s visit but not the pharmacy trip.
For any service, you will need to know your blood pressure. You can do this at home if you already have a blood pressure monitor. If not, here’s one we recommend that’s reasonably priced.
With that in mind, here’s our full review of the top online birth control services considering affordability, ease of use, medication variety, and care access.
When shopping online, you want to make sure that the online birth control delivery is legitimate and features medical professionals who specialize in birth control and women’s health. All of the services in this article are highly regarded, vetted by Healthline, and offer legitimate birth control medication.
- research which options are available
- evaluate medication safety, price, customer service, insurance coverage, and the variety of birth control offered
- talk with medical professionals
- try the services ourselves
Our Medical Standards and Insights team has carefully researched and vetted over 11,000 products and services. We evaluate services for consistency with standards of care and best practices, and we look into each brand’s reputation before sharing products and services on Healthline.
To choose the services on this page, we considered all the birth control services that passed our vetting process. Then, we scored each service to narrow down our list even further.
• $0 for medication with insurance
• $15+ without insurance
• ring
• patch
• shot
• emergency contraception
• condoms
• $12+ for medication without insurance
• pill
• ring
• patch
• $0 for meds if delivered by mail
• $20 to $30 if delivered to pharmacy
• patch
• ring
• emergency contraception
• abortion pill
• $0 for medication with insurance
• $18+ without insurance
• patch
• ring
• shot
• internal condom
• emergency contraception
• $0 for medication with insurance
• $7+ without insurance
• patch
• ring
• emergency contraception
• $10+ for medication without insurance
• ring
i = Accepts insurance
Each service varies slightly, but in general:
- You answer some health questions and create an account.
- A healthcare professional reviews your information. You might also schedule a virtual consultation with them to review your information, ask questions, and determine the best birth control method for you.
- Once your prescription is approved, it gets shipped to your door or a local pharmacy.
“Readers should be prepared that they will need to provide up-to-date medical information [for example, a blood pressure reading],” said Brooke Murad, Healthline team member and tester, when she started using Nurx for online birth control.
“It is easy to obtain this info or get a reading done at a drugstore, so while you will be able to register for the service/product, you will not be able to receive the prescriptions until all info is in and assessed by their medical staff,” she said.
Yes, it’s safe to get birth control online. However, it’s important to use a vetted platform that works with credentialed medical professionals to avoid counterfeit pills and poor medical advice.
Fake birth control pills are designed to deceive consumers. They’re rampant, sold online every day, and could even be contaminated. Also, they may not:
- have the right ingredients
- have the right active ingredients
- contain the wrong dose of the right ingredients
Fake pills could seriously harm you or result in an unplanned pregnancy.
For these reasons, it’s very important to practice due diligence. Do your research and be careful where you buy birth control online. The packaging of many fake pills looks almost identical to the real thing, but you can see the difference when you compare the actual pills.
If you have contraindications to taking estrogen-containing birth control pills, consider getting a prescription in person instead of ordering birth control online.
- high blood pressure
- a history of blood clots
- a history of lupus with clotting antibodies
- breast cancer
- liver cancer
- being older than 35 years and smoking
- having diabetes with complications
- a history of migraine with aura
Meanwhile, using progestin-only birth control, including pills, patches, injectables, and IUDs, may increase the risk of breast cancer.
Visiting a healthcare professional in person for birth control prescriptions can be beneficial for discussing your medical history and assessing any health risks. The healthcare professional can take and monitor your blood pressure and administer any needed exams.
In-person visits can provide an opportunity for a more thorough health evaluation, which can be particularly important if you’re starting birth control for the first time or the first time in a long time.
According to our tester feedback and ranking system, Nurx comes out on top as the best birth control site. We rank it highly for its wide range of affordable birth control options, fast delivery, and medical support. It also has birth control options for transgender and nonbinary people.
Our testers said that Nurx was more convenient and affordable than other services, and it beat visiting the doctor, too.
Yes, you can easily and safely order birth control online. Most birth control still requires a prescription, but you don’t need to visit a doctor’s office to get it. You may be able to keep your current prescription by uploading it to a service, or get a new prescription altogether.
You may be eligible for free birth control online with Medicaid, depending on where you live and your birth control needs. Some health clinics, including sexual health clinics, may also offer free birth control.
Many of the online services on our list provide birth control pills for less than $15 a month if you pay out of pocket. Pandia Health has options beginning at $7 a month.
If you have insurance, you may not pay anything for birth control.
When taken as prescribed and directed by a doctor, birth control delivered by Nurx should be safe.
Its website states: “Drugs prescribed and sent through Nurx are prescribed using the same rules and medical standards as your family physician. A Nurx medical professional will only prescribe a medication if it is safe to do so based on the information provided by the patient.”
It depends on where you live. For example, in the United States, there are different laws across states about whether doctors can prescribe birth control to teenagers without parental consent.
Currently, 25 states and the District of Columbia allow all minors to get birth control without permission from their parents or guardians.
Yes, it can be safe to order birth control online. You should prioritize companies such as Nurx, Wisp, and Hers, which all provide medical support from qualified healthcare professionals and a wide range of FDA-approved birth control options.
Take time to research companies and protect yourself against unsafe, counterfeit birth control medication, which can pose significant health risks.
Obtaining birth control online can be a convenient and effective way to prevent unwanted pregnancy. The services and options on our list are widely respected, offer a range of birth control options, and may offer things like health consultations, prescription delivery, and more.
Mainly, online birth control services help remove barriers to access by offering a convenient and affordable way to obtain birth control, with or without insurance coverage.
When shopping online, it’s best to apply caution and research companies before ordering.
While not suited for people with certain health conditions, online birth control services can be an easy and time-saving way to get birth control.