Having a nutrition business could mean working 24/7 if you let it, but nutrition coaching software and apps can help you to streamline your processes and win back your time. You didn’t become an entrepreneur to work constantly, did you?
Before you dive in: know that exploring the many features of the different nutrition coaching software programs can quickly become a rabbit hole. You and your business are unique. Before you start getting distracted by what features you might use (and visit with Alice and the Cheshire Cat), think through your current processes to connect with, onboard and bill for your services.
Write down each step in your business and each service that you provide, including meal planning, and you will have a much clearer picture of what coaching software and apps will help your unique business to become more nimble.
And also think about the future – what will happen as you grow and scale?
Now you have a list of what features and services you actually need and will use.
Having these steps documented allows you to more easily support working with an intern, hiring a new team member to your expanding practice and hiring a VA to support your work (and give you more free time!).
One more thing to think about: one software program might not offer all of the features and benefits you’re seeking to manage and scale your business. Be sure to think about not only how well programs and apps solve your problems, but also how well they interact and communicate with any other tool or program you are using now, or may wish to use in the future.
Nutrition Coaching Software and Business Management Tools
What are nutrition coaching software programs? These platforms help nutrition coaches and registered dietitians to manage their client workflow. They may include the ability to message your clients, individually or in group, schedule appointments, collect initial paperwork and bill for services
What makes different platforms unique may be specific features, how user-friendly they are, if you can change the branding (aka white labeling) and of course, price. Some are HIPAA compliant, and some are not.
Practice Better
Better, originally branded as Practice Better, is a popular client management system for registered dietitians. There are different plans, but all plans are HIPAA compliant and allow for client onboarding, scheduling, charting, and billing. The client app is available for Apple and Android.
Additional features depend on your plan and can include group chats for your group program, a fax number, barcode scanning of food packages, video chatting, personalized branding and integration with Zapier.
Your first three clients are free. Beyond that, plans range from $19 to $135 per month. If you decide that this is the best platform to optimize your business, we have templates to save you time getting set up!
Satori
If you sell packages, Satori tracks how many sessions are left, easily.
Appointment scheduling is via the app, so there’s no email back and forth required! Time zones adjust automatically and your calendar syncs with your Google calendar.
The first 30 days are free. Monthly billing ranges from $33 to $83 per month after that; pricing is dependent upon your client load and needs.
Coachific
Do you have a team of coaches in your business? Coachific allows you to have other coaches on your app. It syncs with My Fitness Pal for tracking meals and Fitbits for tracking movement.
Coachific is accessibility friendly for users with physical and cognitive disabilities and can be HIPAA compliant.
Coachific charges $4 to $8 per client, depending on your client volume. There are no set up fees or contracts.
MyPTHub
One unique feature of MyPTHub is that it allows you to share live and recorded videos. If you wanted to share a cooking demo, an exercise routine or something else of benefit to your clients, this platform allows you to do so.
This software also allows you to instant message your clients individually, or as a group.
Pricing is $20 to $49, depending on your client volume.
Healthie
Healthie lets you take care of scheduling, messaging, send automatic reminders to your clients of their appointments and syncs with your Google calendar.
Healthie allows you to chart in ADIME and SOAP formats and will generate your superbills to provide to your clients.
Healthie is HIPAA-, PIPEDA-, and Level 1 PCI-compliant and will integrate with Fullscript, if supplement sales are a part of your business.
Pricing starts at $29 per month and goes up from there, based on the number of providers using the membership and features needed.
Precision Nutrition ProCoach
Precision Nutrition ProCoach describes itself as “Part client-management software, part habit-based coaching curriculum” for nutrition coaches.
You and your clients cultivate lasting changes by breaking down big picture goals into small, doable steps that are all tracked via the software. This is a great feature for coaches seeking to include metrics beyond food intake and movement.
Plans start at $99 per month for up to 20 clients.
Nudge Coach
Nudge Coach allows you to send individual and group messages as well as schedule messages in advance (hooray for batching your work).
Want to meet outside of Facebook? Nudge Coach also allows you to create support groups to develop engagement and enjoyment by having a community.
If you work with 3 or fewer clients, Nudge Coach is free. Pricing is $25 per month for up to 10 clients and $60 per month for up to 50 clients.
Coach Accountable
Like most of the programs we have discussed so far, Coach Accountable also lets your clients schedule their appointments, pay their invoices and book packages. You can work with clients individually and in groups.
One unique feature of this program is that it is web-based. No need to download an app, which may be a benefit to some of your clients. Coach Accountable also allows you to track private notes, for your reference only, as well as track notes that are shared with your client.
Another feature of this software is that you can create courses for students to work through, on their own time. This is really efficient to be able to create a course once and run it again and again.
Coach Accountable is not HIPAA compliant.
Pricing ranges from $20 to $400 per month, for 2 to 100 clients.
MBODY360
MBODY360 is a health and wellness coaching software that allows you to coach on things beyond just nutrition and fitness, it also includes meditation, sleep and supplements. This software is HIPAA-Compliant.
Like many of the apps, MBODY360 allows for coaching individually and in group formats and will sync with several fitness devices, including Fitbit and Apple Health. Chatting options include text as well as video chats.
If cannabis is a part of your practice, MBODY360 might be a good fit for your business. “MBODY360 makes it easy for patients to get the information they need and to track medical cannabis usage and progress as part of an overall treatment that may include a combination of diet, exercise, meditation, supplements and medical cannabis.”
Pricing ranges from $29 to $249 per month for 5 to unlimited clients.
Meal Planning Software
Meal Planning software can really make your business easier. Finding the right software for your unique business, depending on your clients’ needs and goals, is important!
Meal plans can be used as an opt-in (aka lead magnet) for your list, as part of a nutrition service package, a consulting option to provide meal plans to gyms and doctor’s offices and as a premium service to provide to your own clients, individually.
That Clean Life
That Clean Life has a wide range of menu plans that are ready for you to add your own branding and use, right away. They also have a variety of options to make your own custom menu plans from their database of recipes. In addition, you have the ability to upload your own recipes and photos.
You may find it helpful to know that you can scale recipes down for single clients or up to feed large families. Displaying calories is optional.
With That Clean Life you can make cookbooks and other digital products to gain and support your clients. You can also add a personalized message to let your clients get to know you better.
This is a great plan to use if your clients have food allergies and sensitivities, as many of their recipes and plans work for a range of needs, including AIP, vegetarian, dairy-free and gluten-free.
That Clean Life is $60 per month or $600 per year.
Virtuagym
Virtuagym is a coaching and meal planning app that can be customized to your client’s goals. This program is geared towards athletes, including boxers and dancers.
Using the app, clients can track their meals and the coach can quickly create meal plans.
Virtuagym is used by gym owners to track their members. If you are a CSSD dietitian, this could be a good fit for you and your clients as well as partners.
Virtuagym also has a corporate arm of their business, which may be a good fit for dietitians in corporate wellness.
Pricing is available upon request.
Eat Love Pro
Eat Love Pro is a meal planning tool that is designed to be effective for a range of environments, including dietitians in private practice, but also inpatient, corporate wellness and in grocery stores.
Eat Love Pro is built by dietitians, for dietitians and is HIPAA compliant.
One cool feature of Eat Love Pro is the app guides clients through any advance meal prep to help their actual meal time cooking to be minimal. Where available, online ordering and delivery of your groceries (wow!) further enhances the client experience.
Pricing is available upon request; you can explore this software with a free 14-day trial.
Work Week Lunch
For dietitians in the Intuitive Eating space, you may want to consider Work Week Lunch. It is very affordable and there’s nary a mention of calories, points or other restrictions. This is also a great fit for single clients, college students, and those with very little time to cook during the week.
Each week a new meal plan with recipes, photos and shopping lists becomes available. And members have access to all previous plans.
Recipes are simple and don’t use complicated ingredients. Recipes come with many options to customize to your client’s needs, for example, gluten-free and vegetarian.
Pricing is $7.99 per month.
Marketing Tools and Apps
Raise your hand if you’ve ever gone onto Instagram or Facebook, just to schedule one little business post, and find yourself down a rabbit hole 27 minutes later and have no idea where the time went?
Batching and scheduling your social media posts, in advance, is a wonderful way to spend way less time getting your business posts out there and minimize distractions. You get to show up for your audience, consistently, without so much effort.
CoSchedule
The purpose of CoSchedule is to be able to coordinate all marketing efforts, all in one place, including email campaigns and social media posts.
This is also really helpful if you work with other team members or interns. Tasks can be delegated, tracked and managed all via the software.
Note: you can plan your social media posts on the Canva calendar, but Canva does not currently post directly to Instagram.
Pricing starts at $14 per month.
Hootsuite
Hootsuite can be used to create, schedule, post and analyze your social media streams.
Note: your Instagram profile needs to be a pro account.
Plans range from $29 per month up to $599 per month, depending on the number of users on the account and number of social media profiles.
MeetEdgar
MeetEdgar automates content for your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and LinkedIn accounts. This platform even helps you to write your posts with their automatic software!
One unique feature of MeetEdgar is that all posts are saved once posted, not gone. This makes it easy to repost and repurpose content for later.
Pricing starts at $19 per month and includes 3 social media accounts.
Later
Later focuses on Instagram posting management, but can also be used to schedule posts for other social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
With Later, you can also schedule your first comment on your Instagram posts, plus they have suggestions for hashtags for you to use. And you can make and save lists of hashtags to use again and again.
Pricing starts at $9 per month.
Content Studio
Like other scheduling apps, Content Studio allows you to compose, schedule and post to many social media channels and track analytics. Content Studio is integrated with Canva. You can access your Canva designs as you are creating posts, saving you a lot of time.
One interesting feature of this software is that it allows you to translate your captions into different languages or into different regions. It can also suggest topics for you to cover in posts and blogs based on your business.
Plans range from $49 to $299, depending on the number of team members, social media accounts and number of blogs. If you have more than one blog, this may be a good software program for your business.
Canva
Canva is a great tool for making images for your social media. The free option is robust, but you’ll want to upgrade to pro if you want access to all images and additional features, such as being able to resize images easily.
Canva can also be used to make client handouts, forms and trifold brochures for your business.
If you’re ready to become your own designer, we have an article to help you to get comfortable with the software. We also have 18 Canva Templates you can get started with, today.
Other Helpful Resources
The right nutrition coaching software and tools can save you time and frustration. Having a streamlined process, without hiccups or chasing down rogue emails or signatures, reduces your fatigue and provides a more enjoyable experience for your clients. Having a professional, seamless process is a great first impression to make. You do not need to spend so much time on managing your business when the right tools are available to help you streamline.
If you are starting or growing your nutrition private practice, check out our collection of tools right here on WellResourced. What you may love best are our customizable templates that can plug into the software platform that you choose!
2 comments
Thank you so much Megan, this is exactly what I’ve been lost in as I start up my nutrition & health coaching business! I appreciate the info: pros, cons & pricing. You helped get me out of the rabbit hole, thank you! Heather, RDN
Soul, Mind & Strength LLC
I’m so glad you found the article helpful. There is lots to consider when choosing software. Best of luck with your new business. Exciting time for you!