Helvy vs Function Health.

Function Health launched in the US in 2023 with a clear thesis: comprehensive blood testing should be a subscription, not a one-off. Their flagship is 160+ lab tests a year — a 100+ marker first panel plus a 60+ marker six-month re-test — at $365 for the first year and $499 on renewal. The product is positioned for the US wellness optimiser who wants the widest possible marker spread for a flat annual fee. The headline claim is breadth.

Function Health UK was incorporated 2025-11-12 (Companies House number 16849907) and is heavily venture-funded. As of May 2026, the UK product is not yet live. The US product is the comparison anchor. The product positioning is unlikely to change materially when the UK launches; the price point may.

Helvy takes a different shape. The Helvy thesis is that the value of biomarker testing is not in counting markers but in producing an actionable output. The output is a plain-English read of every marker with a supplement protocol routed directly from the results. The panel set is curated to five — Hormone Balance, Complete Male Hormones, General Energy & Wellness, Advanced Heart Health, Metabolic Health — each curated to answer one question well. The marker counts are 5 to 17 per panel, with up to 60 across the General Energy & Wellness baseline.

The mental model difference matters more than the numbers. Function Health sells comprehensive data. Helvy sells a routed product. If your starting question is "how many biomarkers can I get for the lowest dollar," Function Health is built for that question. If your starting question is "what should I actually do about my results," Helvy is built for that question.

Function Health's product loop is built around comprehensive measurement. The customer pays $365 in year one ($499 from year two), the kit arrives, the venous draw happens at a partner lab, the results come back in one to two weeks as a large dashboard. Markers are flagged against reference ranges with brief commentary on each. Six months later the re-test happens at no extra charge. The thesis is that the customer pulls value from the data themselves: they look at the dashboard, they ask their physician, they decide what to do. Function Health is the comprehensive substrate; the action sits with the customer.

Helvy's product loop starts the same way and ends differently. A finger-prick at home (no clinic visit), posted back the same day, lab work at a UKAS-accredited UK laboratory to ISO 15189. Results in your inbox in five days. The results page leads with what needs attention and expands into every individual biomarker with optimal-range commentary. The Helvy Plan layer routes the results into a supplement protocol: which supplements, which doses, which forms, which timing, all derived from the biomarker pattern. The action sits in the product.

The biomarker counts make the difference look starker than it is. Function Health's 100+ marker number is real but front-loaded with markers whose marginal predictive value is small once you have the first 30-40 if they are chosen well. Helvy's General Energy & Wellness panel covers 17 biomarkers and the Advanced Heart Health profile adds 13 more, including the markers Function Health does and the markers your NHS GP usually does not (ApoB, Lp(a), hs-CRP, HbA1c). The Helvy Plan re-routes those into a supplement protocol the customer can act on. The output is different shape, not different quality.

The geographic constraint is real. Function Health is a US product with a UK launch pending. Helvy is a UK product. If you want a UK home blood test today, with results posted to a UK address from a UK lab to UK reference ranges, with a UK regulatory framework around the data handling (UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018), Function Health is not yet available. When Function Health UK launches, the comparison gets clearer: it will likely be a different price point, possibly a different marker count, almost certainly the same subscription-required model.

The transparency layer is the third major difference. Helvy publishes the optimal ranges it reads against and the evidence behind them (NICE CG181 and JBS3 for cardiovascular thresholds; Endocrine Society guidance for thyroid and hormones), with sources per marker. Function Health does not publish their methodology in the same shape. The customer can see the raw numbers but not the algorithm that converts them into a wellness output. This is a deliberate Function Health choice and a deliberate Helvy choice.

Finally, the supplement routing. Helvy ties the biomarker result to a supplement protocol on the same page. Function Health does not. Function Health is a measurement product; Helvy is a measurement-plus-routing product. The supplement decision is the highest-value follow-on from a blood panel for most customers, and Helvy bundles it. Function Health customers either work out their own supplement stack from the data or work with a separate practitioner.

Function Health is built for the US wellness optimiser who wants the widest possible biomarker spread for an annual flat fee, who is happy to interpret the data themselves, and who already has the supplement routing handled elsewhere. The 100+ marker number is real. The six-month re-test cadence is included. The subscription model is fair value if you would otherwise pay per panel.

If your starting question is "can I get the widest possible biomarker spread for the lowest per-marker dollar", Function Health answers yes. If you already work with a physician or a longevity practitioner who turns the data into a protocol, Function Health is the data substrate and the practitioner is the routing. That stack works.

Helvy is not the right choice if you live in the US (we do not ship to US addresses), if you want the widest possible marker count above all other criteria, or if you already have a supplement protocol you are happy with and you only want the underlying data feed.

Helvy is built for the UK customer who wants a finger-prick at home, a result in five days explained in plain English, and a supplement protocol routed from the biomarker pattern. The marker set is curated to what the longevity literature treats as predictive; the panel choice is curated to five concrete routes (Hormone Balance, Complete Male Hormones, General Energy & Wellness, Advanced Heart Health, Metabolic Health). The Helvy Plan layer adds the six-month retest cadence and the supplement protocol.

The plan is the wedge. Most UK testing products end at a PDF of numbers. Function Health's UK launch is on a 6-18 month horizon. Helvy is built for that window: the customer who wants results that end in an action, from a UK lab, with the methodology published.

Helvy is the curated UK option. Function Health is the comprehensive US option. They are different products, designed for different purchasing decisions. The comparison is not better-or-worse; it is which-shape-fits.