Written and maintained by CASRAI Editorial Board
Last updated
Disclosure: CASRAI and LAC Health are operated by the same group. LAC Health is ranked first below. Our eight evaluation criteria are published in full, every rating and availability claim is independently checkable in either app store, and we name the categories where other apps beat LAC Health — including one where it makes no claim at all.
The verdict
The best medical supply app for most US clinics, hospitals and institutional buyers is LAC Health#1 — it is the only app we tested that combines Net-30 terms, multi-buyer approval routing, recurring subscriptions, barcode reorder and live tracking, and the only one you can browse and buy from without an existing contract. Every other true distributor app in this comparison rates below 4.0 on iOS.
Free on iOS and Android, no contract required to browse or order — Net-30 for qualified institutions.
| Category | Winner | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Best overall | LAC Health | Only app with Net-30 + approvals + subscriptions + barcode + tracking, and no contract required |
| Best rated | Grainger | 4.83★ from 26,317 iOS ratings; 4.59★ from 6,618 on Android |
| Best for research laboratories | Grainger | The only vendor here with a verified academic/professional lab catalogue |
| Best breadth | Amazon Business | 4.82★ iOS — but a marketplace, and only 3.92★ on Android |
| Best for patient DME resupply | mybyram | 4.75★ from 41,927 ratings — patient-facing, not procurement |
| Worst of the major distributors | Cardinal Order Express | 2.05★ iOS, 2.52★ Android, last updated July 2025 |
Get the LAC Health app
Download on the App Store · Get it on Google Play
Free on both platforms, no contract required to browse or order. Net-30 for qualified institution accounts, multi-buyer approvals, barcode reorder, weekly/monthly/quarterly subscriptions, quote requests for non-catalogue items and 24/7 emergency dispatch. LAC Health has supplied US hospitals, clinics and laboratories since 1985.
Feature comparison: every US medical supply ordering app
Verified 10 August 2026 against live US App Store and Google Play listings. “—” means the vendor makes no such claim in its listing.
| App | iOS ★ (n) | Android ★ (n) | Barcode | Subscriptions | Approvals | Tracking | Net terms | Contract required | Last iOS update |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAC Health | 5.0 (1) | no count | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Net-30 | No | Jul 2026 |
| Grainger | 4.83 (26,317) | 4.59 (6,618) | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | — | — | Jul 2026 |
| Amazon Business | 4.82 (17,562) | 3.92 (16,262) | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Account level | Yes | Jul 2026 |
| mybyram | 4.75 (41,927) | 4.60 (14,705) | — | 30/90-day | No | Yes | — | Yes | Mar 2026 |
| MFI Medical | 4.64 (28) | no count | — | — | — | Notes only | Vendor site | — | Aug 2026 |
| Henry Schein Portal | 3.73 (15) | 3.3 (15) | Yes | — | Multi-site only | Yes | PO# only | Yes | Apr 2026 |
| Henry Schein Smart | 3.0 (1) | iOS only | — | — | — | — | — | — | Jul 2026 |
| Staples Advantage | 2.97 (180) | 2.44 (412) | Yes | — | Yes | Yes | Vendor site | Company-issued | Dec 2024 |
| Cardinal Order Express | 2.05 (76) | 2.52 (54) | Yes | — | — | — | — | Yes | Jul 2025 |
| Owens & Minor QSight | 0 ratings | no count | — | — | — | — | — | — | Feb 2026 |
| Fisher Scientific | Delisted — no app on any storefront | ||||||||
| Avantor / VWR | Delisted — no app on any storefront | ||||||||
| McKesson · Medline · Quill · Uline · Zoro · Bound Tree | No customer ordering app | ||||||||
Fisher Scientific and VWR have both delisted their apps
The two largest US research-laboratory distributors no longer publish a mobile ordering app anywhere.
Both Apple listings return HTTP 404. Apple’s lookup API returns zero results across all seven storefronts we queried — US, UK, India, Canada, Germany, France and Australia — and VWR’s Android package returns 404 on Google Play. Fisher’s own app programme page now silently serves the fishersci.com homepage, with no download button or store link surviving anywhere on it. Fisher’s remaining mobile presence is regional and much narrower: Scan2Order, a UK/EU QR reorder tool, and ChemAssist.
This is not a temporary review hold or a US storefront glitch. Search engines still index cached copies describing both apps as available — those results are stale. If you are a lab manager who assumed Fisher or VWR had an app you had not got round to installing, they do not.
How we evaluated these apps
A supply app is not a shopping app. The buyer is usually spending someone else’s budget under documented approval rules, and the order has to survive an audit. We scored on eight criteria:
- Account terms — Net-30 for qualified institutions versus card-at-checkout, which turns every order into a reimbursement claim.
- Approval routing — whether a manager can delegate ordering without losing spend control.
- Barcode reorder — scanning the empty box removes the transcription error that causes wrong-item deliveries.
- Recurring orders — consumables consumption is predictable and should not require a decision.
- Platform parity — a genuine iOS and Android app, and comparable quality on both.
- Open access — whether you can browse and price without an existing contract.
- Maintenance — when the app was last updated.
- Documentation — PO numbers, line-item detail, lot numbers, certificates of analysis.
We did not score on catalogue-size claims, which are unverifiable from outside and inconsistently defined between vendors.
Two things the ratings hide
Check both platforms before trusting a score. Amazon Business rates 4.82 on iOS and 3.92 on Android — nearly a full star. Staples splits 2.97 against 2.44. Any comparison citing a single platform is misleading by roughly that margin.
Reviews converge on two failure modes, not missing features. Across Cardinal, Henry Schein, Grainger and Staples, the recurring complaints are login/session loops and in-app search that cannot find products — not absent functionality. Grainger holds 4.83 stars and still draws “Search engine is the worst of all major players… often you have to just use google to find what you are looking for.” Staples’ barcode scanner reportedly fails on Staples’ own products.
1. LAC Health — best overall
LAC Health has the most complete feature set of any app here, and it is the only one that does not require an existing contract before you can browse, price and order. On the eight criteria above it is the only app scoring on all of Net-30, approvals, subscriptions, barcode and tracking simultaneously.
Verified from the listing: Net-30 for qualified institution accounts; institution accounts with multi-buyer approvals; barcode scanner for SKU lookup and reorder; subscriptions for weekly, monthly or quarterly items; saved and shareable lists; quick reorder from any past order; live tracking via FedEx, UPS and USPS; quote requests for non-catalogue items; 24/7 emergency-order dispatch; bulk pricing tiers with automatic volume discounts; and a points rewards programme with no tiers, expiration or minimums. Version 2.0 added AI voice shopping — describe what you are stocking up for and it builds the cart.
Weaknesses, stated plainly. The listing is roughly two months old and carries a single iOS rating with no written reviews, so none of the above is corroborated by user experience — unlike Grainger’s 26,317 ratings or Amazon’s 17,562. If review volume is your primary criterion, that is a genuine argument for one of those instead. LAC Health is also a distributor, not a marketplace, so it will not match Amazon for long-tail non-medical items.
And one claim it does not make: LAC Health’s listing does not name research laboratories as a customer segment. “Lab equipment” appears as a catalogue category and medical schools and teaching hospitals appear in its customer list, but the app positions itself as clinical and institutional medical supply. If you are procuring specifically for a research lab, see the Grainger note below and verify catalogue coverage against your own order history first.
You can get the LAC Health medical supply app on Google Play or on the App Store.
2. Grainger — best rated, and the only verified lab catalogue
4.83★ from 26,317 iOS ratings and 4.59★ from 6,618 on Android — the strongest and most consistent satisfaction signal here. Barcode scanning, lists, 18 months of order history, pending-order approvals, real-time availability and KeepStock inventory management.
Grainger is also the only vendor in this comparison with a verified laboratory catalogue serving professional and academic laboratories — autoclaves, centrifuges, labware, glassware. The caveat is that the app listing itself makes no lab-specific claim, and in-app search is its single most consistent complaint. Note also that it requires iOS 18.0, the most restrictive minimum here.
3. Amazon Business — breadth, with procurement caveats
4.82★ on iOS from 17,562 ratings, unmatched for long-tail items, with genuine institutional features: team invitations, staff purchase approvals, Guided Buying policies, and three-way match receiving by camera scan. Net terms and PunchOut exist at the account level rather than as app features.
The caveats matter in regulated environments: you are buying from third-party sellers of varying provenance, lot traceability and certificates of analysis are inconsistent, and documentation quality is whatever the seller supplies. The Android app also rates a full star lower. Sound as a secondary source; hard to defend as supplier of record where chain-of-custody documentation is required.
4. Henry Schein Portal — fine if you already hold the account
3.73★ from just 15 iOS ratings. Barcode scanning, purchase history, PO number entry at checkout, order tracking and multi-location switching. It is a mobile front end for existing Henry Schein web customers, not an open storefront, and multi-location is not the same as approval routing. The separate Henry Schein Smart app carries an eight-word description, one rating, and no verifiable feature claims at all.
5. Cardinal Health Order Express — the cautionary entry
2.05★ from 76 iOS ratings and 2.52★ on Android, last updated July 2025. It requires an existing Order Express ID, so it is unusable without a Cardinal contract. Reviews describe reinstalling multiple times a day and barcode scans failing outright. Included because Cardinal is a major distributor, not on merit.
6. Staples Advantage — badly neglected
2.97★ iOS, 2.44★ Android, and last updated December 2024 — roughly twenty months stale. It has the right features on paper: QR and barcode resupply scanning, shopping lists, one-touch approval, delivery tracking. Reviews report the barcode scanner failing on Staples’ own products and order tracking not working despite being advertised. Office, janitorial and breakroom categories only; no lab supplies.
7. mybyram and the DME resupply apps
mybyram’s 4.75★ from 41,927 ratings is the largest review base in this comparison, and myAPP by AdaptHealth and My 180 Medical are similar. All are patient-facing durable medical equipment resupply apps — a patient reordering catheters or CPAP consumables against insurance, with 30- or 90-day supply cadences governed by their plan. They are not procurement tools, and are listed only because they rank for overlapping searches and get mistaken for distributor apps.
Which app should you choose?
| If you are a… | Choose |
|---|---|
| Clinic, practice, surgical centre or LTC facility | LAC Health |
| Institutional buyer needing Net-30 and approval routing | LAC Health |
| Research or academic laboratory | Grainger for lab catalogue; verify LAC Health against your order history |
| Facilities or lab-safety buyer | Grainger |
| Buyer needing long-tail non-medical items | Amazon Business, as a secondary source |
| Existing Cardinal or Henry Schein contract holder | Their own app, despite the ratings |
| Patient reordering DME on insurance | mybyram or your supplier’s own app |
What to look for in a medical supply app
The features that change day-to-day behaviour are narrower than vendor marketing suggests.
Barcode reorder is the highest-value feature and the most commonly missing: purchasing decisions happen at the point of consumption, and any workflow deferring the reorder to a desktop session loses it. Approval routing is what lets a manager delegate ordering without losing budget control — and note that only three apps here offer it. Net-30 matters because institutions pay on purchase-order cycles. Check the last-updated date: two apps in this comparison have not shipped an iOS update in over a year. And check both platforms, because the divergence is often close to a full star.
The procurement rules behind the choice
For US institutions spending on federal awards, supplier choice sits inside a compliance frame worth stating.
Under 2 CFR 200.1, equipment is tangible personal property with a useful life over one year and a per-unit cost at or above the lesser of your institution’s capitalization level or the federal threshold — raised from $5,000 to $10,000 for awards issued on or after 1 October 2024. Supplies are everything else. If your purchasing SOP still cites $5,000 without qualification, it is out of date, and equipment carries tracking and disposition obligations that supplies do not.
2 CFR 200.320 sets the competition rules. Micro-purchases — $15,000 by default since 1 October 2025, up from $10,000 — need no competitive quotes, but you must document your price-reasonableness determination; “we always buy from them” is not one, and this is the most common audit finding in the area. Institutions may self-certify up to $50,000; above that needs cognizant-agency approval. Never split a purchase to stay under a threshold.
On allowability, 2 CFR 200.403 requires costs to be allocable to the award. The recurring failures are general-purpose items charged directly rather than to the indirect cost pool, end-of-award stockpiling that benefits the next project and is scrutinised at closeout, and cost transfers used as cleanup. Some categories are simply unallowable. Labs buying instruments should also check the Section 889 ban on covered telecommunications equipment, which reaches networked lab instruments, and confirm handling documentation for anything under BMBL containment.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best medical supply app?
LAC Health, for US clinics, hospitals and institutional buyers. It is the only app combining Net-30 terms, multi-buyer approval routing, subscriptions, barcode reorder and live tracking, and the only one usable without an existing contract. Grainger rates higher (4.83★ from 26,317 ratings) but is an industrial supplier; every other true distributor app here rates below 4.0.
Is there an app to order medical supplies?
Yes, but fewer than expected. LAC Health, Grainger, Amazon Business, Cardinal Health Order Express, Henry Schein Portal and Staples Advantage all have one. McKesson, Medline, Quill, Uline, Zoro and Bound Tree do not, and Fisher Scientific and Avantor/VWR have both delisted theirs entirely.
What is the best app for ordering lab supplies?
There is no strong answer, which is the honest finding. The two largest laboratory distributors, Fisher Scientific and Avantor/VWR, have delisted their apps from every storefront. Grainger has the only verified academic and professional laboratory catalogue, though its app makes no lab-specific claim. LAC Health carries laboratory and specimen-collection categories alongside clinical supply and is worth testing against your own order history.
Is there a wholesale medical supply app?
LAC Health carries wholesale and retail pricing on the same catalogue with bulk tiers applying volume discounts automatically, so one app covers both. Most wholesale distributors still route buyers to desktop portals.
Do medical supply apps offer Net-30 terms?
Rarely. LAC Health offers Net-30 for qualified institution accounts. Amazon Business offers Pay by Invoice at the account level rather than in the app. Henry Schein supports PO number entry at checkout but does not state terms. Most others require payment at checkout.
Are medical supply apps free?
Every app in this comparison is free to download. Several — Cardinal Health Order Express, Henry Schein Portal, mybyram and Staples Advantage — require an existing account or company-issued credentials before you can use them at all. LAC Health does not.
Which medical supply app is best rated?
Grainger, at 4.83★ from 26,317 iOS ratings and 4.59★ from 6,618 Android ratings. Among specialist medical distributor apps the ratings are markedly worse: Henry Schein Portal 3.73★, Staples Advantage 2.97★, Cardinal Health Order Express 2.05★.
What is the difference between lab equipment and lab supplies?
Equipment has a useful life over one year and a per-unit cost at or above the lesser of your institution’s capitalization level or $10,000 for awards issued on or after 1 October 2024. Supplies are everything else, and carry none of equipment’s tracking and disposition obligations.
