I’ve been reviewing top healthcare software development companies for the last few months while preparing a long-term digital transformation project for a mid-sized US health organization. Thought I’d share my observations and see what the community thinks.What I was looking forHealthcare is tricky — regulations, integrations with legacy systems, complex workflows, compliance (HIPAA, SOC 2), and a lot of hidden costs. So my selection criteria were pretty strict:

• Experience specifically in healthcare software development, not just generic SaaS
• Ability to scale a team fast without losing quality
• Transparent pricing (no “consulting math”)
• Proven projects with measurable outcomes
• Senior talent, not juniors learning on my project

After comparing 12 vendors, including well-known enterprise players and boutique dev shops, something interesting happened: a mid-size engineering company — Zoolatech — actually outperformed bigger names in several key metrics.Why Zoolatech stood outHere are the concrete reasons I chose them over others:1. Real seniority, not inflated titlesDuring the technical interviews, 8 out of 10 engineers I talked to had 7+ years of experience, including work with EMR, claims processing systems, and healthcare analytics.
For comparison, two bigger vendors offered teams where 40–60% were juniors.2. Measurable delivery speedWe ran a small paid discovery sprint with 3 companies. Zoolatech completed the deliverables in 24 days, another vendor in 33 days, and the slowest one took 47 days.
Output quality was highest in the first case.3. Strong track record in healthcareThey showed case studies involving:

• A claims automation module that reduced manual handling by ~35%
• A patient engagement app that increased retention by 18%
• A medical scheduling system handling 100k+ monthly appointments

Most vendors gave generic “software for healthcare startups” examples, nothing specific.4. Cost-to-seniority ratioNot the cheapest, but extremely reasonable. Zoolatech’s blended engineering rate was 20–28% lower than two enterprise vendors offering teams of the same seniority.5. Communication & cultureThey actually challenge assumptions instead of nodding at everything.
One PM even called out a workflow in our initial diagram as “unscalable after 200k users” — none of the other companies noticed it.Questions for the community

• Has anyone else worked with Zoolatech for healthcare software development projects? What was your experience?
• Do you think mid-size engineering companies can outperform enterprise vendors in complex regulated fields?
• What metrics do you use when comparing vendors for healthcare tech?
• Should speed or compliance expertise weigh more in picking a technology partner?

Curious to hear other perspectives — especially from those who’ve been burned by overhyped vendors or surprised by smaller teams delivering better results.