online pharmacy
As part of the Frosts Pharmacy Group, a family run business established in 1925 by John Frost and now run by his grandson Stuart Gale, we are a fully registered UK pharmacy and adhere to the standards set by the General Pharmaceutical Council. We run successful high street pharmacies in Banbury and Oxford, in the UK, as well as our online chemist services.
Which online pharmacy is best UK?
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
We know trying to find the best online pharmacy can be challenging, with the overwhelming number of pharmacies operating online these days, how do you know which one to choose? Well, you will be pleased to know that we have decided to do all the work for you, analysing the most popular online pharmacies by looking into their different functions for example, their process, cost, services and reviews.
So, what is the best online pharmacy UK? This could depend on many things and your personal preference; however, many people say that legitimacy is the most important concern when looking for an online medicine order as unfortunately, there are a lot of not-so-legitimate pharmacies online.
How do you tell whether it is a legitimate online pharmacy?
The first thing that you should always check is whether the pharmacy is registered with the GPHC (General Pharmaceutical Council), the pharmacy's registration number should be displayed clearly on their website. This is just one of many things you can do to check whether a UK pharmacy is legitimate.
Check out our blog on how to spot fake medications for more information.
How do I compare online pharmacies?
Once you are satisfied that the pharmacy is legitimate, there are many factors you may want to look at, such as the price of medicines, services, customer loyalty schemes, introductory discounts, regular discounts, range of products, prescription fees, customer reviews and product information.
Using some of our competitors we will provide you with a brief analysis of some of the factors above, this is so you can make an informed decision about which online pharmacy is best for you.
Please note: The information below is as of 17.08.23 and is subject to change.
Online pharmacy comparison
Why do online pharmacies charge a prescription fee?
Like brick-and-mortar stores, a company must cover the cost of their overheads, such as their staff salaries. Therefore, they will include a small charge to cover this somewhere in their prices.
Some online pharmacies used to request a small online prescription fee, this is normally the amount charged by the doctor for online prescribing.
Some online pharmacies did request a small prescription fee, however, these days it’s rare to find many online pharmacies still doing this. This is mainly due to the considerable amount of online competition.
So, let’s look at whether any online pharmacies are still charging a prescription fee:
| Online Pharmacy | Prescription Fee |
| Oxford Online Pharmacy | No |
| MedExpress | No |
| The Independent Pharmacy | No |
| Pharmacy2U | No |
| Dr Fox | Yes, up to £4 charge |
| Chemist4U | No |
As already mentioned, it is quite common these days that online pharmacies do not charge an online prescription fee. In the table above, as an example, you can see that Dr Fox still charges a prescription fee of up to £4 depending on how much you spend with them.
So now I'm sure you’re wondering why most online pharmacies do not have an online prescription fee so why does Dr Fox? Well, Dr Fox has a different marketing strategy than most online pharmacies. Their prices are one of the cheapest online BUT a prescription fee will be added to your order during checkout when you order medication online, ultimately not making them as cheap as they appear to be.
Dr Fox's prescription fees:
| Order value | Prescription fee |
| up to £10 | £1.00 |
| up to £20 | £2.00 |
| up to £40 | £3.00 |
| over £40 | £4.00 |
Online pharmacy price comparison
Using five of our competitors, we have compared two of our top-selling products, sildenafil tablets, for the treatment of erectile dysfunction and orlistat capsules, a weight loss aid.
| Online Pharmacy | Sildenafil 25mg 4 tabs | Orlistat Price 120mg 42 Caps |
| Oxford Online Pharmacy | £5.89 | £17.49 |
| MedExpress | £9.99 | £21.99 |
| The Independent Pharmacy | £6.99 | £19.99 |
| Lloyd’s Pharmacy | £16.00 | £25 |
| Pharmacy2U | £16.00 | £40 (only branded version) |
| Dr Fox | £5.90 (inc. £1 script charge) | £17.50 (inc. £2 script charge) |
Which is the cheapest online pharmacy?
As you can see from the table above, Oxford Online Pharmacy is offering the lowest price for these medicines.
Although, at first glance, Dr Fox looked like the cheapest online pharmacy, once we added the prescription fee this wasn’t the case.
So, if you are looking for the lowest price treatments, always check to see whether you will be charged a prescription fee on top.
Visit Oxford Online Pharmacy
Shop NowHow do we compare to subscription sites?
To see how our prices compare to subscription sites, we are going to compare the most common subscription sites such as Numan, Hims and Sons. We will look at the price of finasteride 1mg tablets for the treatment of hair loss to see whether you really are saving with a subscription.
Numan
- Introductory discount – 60% off your first order.
- 1 month - N/A
- 3 months - £84 (£28pm)
- 6 months - £144 (£24pm)
- 12 months - £240 (£20pm)
Hims
- Introductory discount – Can’t see one.
- 1 month - £37
- 3 months - £99 (£33pm)
- 6 months - £156 (£26pm)
- 12 months - £276 (£23pm)
Sons
- Introductory discount – 10% off your first treatment.
- 1 month - £29
- 3 months - £55.98 (£18.66pm)
- 6 months – £109.98 (£18.33pm)
- 12 months - £210.00 (£17.50pm)
Oxford Online Pharmacy
- Introductory discount – 10% off your first order.
- 1 month - £13.94
- 3 months - £34.19
- 6 months - £58.94
- 12 months - £117.88
Looking at the price differences above we can see that Hims is the most expensive subscription site, compared to Numan and also Sons. Sons is the cheapest out of the three. We could not see an obvious introductory discount for Hims, the other sites offered a first-time discount, Numan’s being the most attractive at 60% off. Even though this big discount is offered by Numan, they are still more expensive than Oxford Online Pharmacy.
Oxford Online Pharmacy is much cheaper than Numan, Hims and Son’s, this is also the case as they are more expensive than other non-subscription online pharmacies such as Dr Fox and MedExpress.
So, from our analysis above, we have concluded that it is not worth buying your medicine from a subscription site.
For more information on how we compare to subscription sites, check out our dedicated blog post here.
Online pharmacy Trustpilot reviews
People often check a company's reviews when looking for a pharmacy online, the main site used is Trust Pilot, a reliable and verified company.
It is important to check a company’s review score as it doesn’t just give you peace of mind, you can normally tell whether the website is legitimate.
Below you can find a list of online pharmacies and their trust pilot review and score.
| Online Pharmacy | Reviews |
| Oxford Online Pharmacy | 18,793 reviews with a 4.8-star rating |
| Boots | 2,113 reviews with a 3.2-star rating |
| MedExpress | 5,720 reviews with a 4.7-star rating |
| The Independent Pharmacy | 16,089 reviews with a 4.8-star rating |
| Lloyd’s Pharmacy | 12,954 reviews with a 4-star rating |
| Dr Fox | 240 reviews with a 4.5-star rating |
As you can see from the table above, we have over 18k reviews and a trust pilot rating of 4.8 /5 stars! You can head over to the Oxford Online Pharmacy Trust Pilot page to find out what our customers think about our products and services.
Reviewed on 27 March 2024
