Every person gets one health story, and one private Family Stork email address every clinic already knows how to use. Fasten is an open-source personal health record you install and run on your own hardware. Both aim to put your medical records in your hands — they take radically different paths to get there.
Last updated: October 10, 2026
Fasten Health is actually two things now, and understanding the split matters:
A free, self-hosted personal health record you run on your own computer. You install it via Docker, then manually enter health data or upload FHIR bundles exported from other sources. It cannot connect directly to EHRs or clinics — it's a local vault you fill yourself. Community-maintained.
An enterprise API platform for developers who need access to patient-authorized medical records from 80,000+ healthcare systems. It's built for clinical trials, research, and digital health companies — not for families organizing their own records.
When articles recommend "Fasten" as a personal health record app, they typically mean Fasten OnPrem — the open-source version. That's what we're comparing here.
| Feature | Fasten OnPrem | Family Stork |
|---|---|---|
| Setup | Install Docker, configure server, run locally | Sign up, start adding family members |
| How records arrive | Manual entry or FHIR bundle upload | Clinics email to private address, auto-filed |
| Direct clinic connection | ✗ Cannot connect to EHRs directly | ✓ Any clinic that can send email |
| Paper record scanning | ✗ Manual data entry | ✓ Snap a photo, AI extracts the data |
| Data format | FHIR standard (structured medical data) | Any format — email, photos, documents |
| Family members | Multiple records supported | ✓ Each person gets their own timeline + email |
| Ask questions about records | View and browse medical data | ✓ AI answers from the full history |
| Hosting | Self-hosted (you manage the server) | Cloud — accessible from any device |
| Technical skill required | Docker, command line, server management | None |
| Price | Free (open source) | Free to organize; $99/year for full service |
| MyChart / portal connect | ✗ No EHR integration in OnPrem | ✓ Connect supported portals |
| Audiences | Tech-savvy individuals | Parents, adult children caring for aging parents, adults, helpers |
Fasten is a genuine option for technically skilled users who want maximum data sovereignty. Your records live on your hardware, under your control, with no cloud dependency. The FHIR-native format means your data is structured and portable — if you can export FHIR bundles from another system, Fasten will store and display them cleanly.
The open-source model means anyone can audit the code. Privacy-first users who run their own servers will appreciate that nothing leaves the machine unless they choose to share it. And it's free — no subscription, no premium tier.
For developers or healthcare professionals who already work with FHIR data, Fasten provides a clean, local interface for viewing consolidated medical records.
The core trade-off is effort vs. automation. Fasten gives you full control — and full responsibility. You install it, maintain it, back it up, and feed it data manually. Family Stork gives you an email address and records arrive from clinics without you doing anything.
You're the administrator, the data entry operator, and the backup manager. Maximum privacy. Maximum effort. Best for people who already run home servers and understand FHIR.
Give the pediatrician a @familystork address. Give the cardiologist the same family's address. Give the camp nurse an emergency card. Records from every provider build one timeline, automatically. Nothing to install.
Self-hosted personal health records like Fasten OnPrem offer genuine privacy advantages. But they come with practical limitations families should understand:
None of this makes Fasten bad — it's genuinely good at what it does. But "self-hosted" and "family-friendly" serve different needs.
You're technically skilled, already run Docker, want your health data on your own hardware with zero cloud dependency, and don't mind manual data entry. You value open-source code you can audit. You're building a personal health record primarily for yourself.
You want records to arrive automatically from any clinic that can send email. You're keeping records for a family — kids, aging parents, yourself. You want to ask the record questions and get answers from years of history. You need to share with helpers, siblings, schools — without managing a server. $99/year, or about $10/month.
Every person gets one private Family Stork email address shown on their record. Give it to any clinic, lab, or hospital. They email records to it — visit summaries, test results, vaccine updates — and the timeline files them automatically. No portal logins. No uploads. No Docker. Nothing for the clinic to learn.
Tired of managing health records for yourself and everyone you love? Family Stork organizes them for you automatically. $99/year, or about $10/month.
Start your family's record — freeNo. Fasten Connect is a commercial B2B API for developers and healthcare companies to access patient-authorized records from 80,000+ systems. Fasten OnPrem is the separate, open-source, self-hosted personal health record app — community-maintained, no direct EHR integration, manual data entry only.
No — Fasten OnPrem cannot receive records from clinics directly. You would need to manually enter data or upload FHIR bundles exported through another tool. With Family Stork, every family member gets a private email address. Give it to the pediatrician, and visit summaries file themselves on the timeline automatically.
It depends on what you mean by "safe." Self-hosted means no third party holds your data — but you're responsible for backups, security updates, and uptime. If your server fails, the data fails with it. A cloud-based service like Family Stork handles infrastructure, backups, and security — but your data lives on their servers. Both approaches have trade-offs. Choose based on your comfort with managing servers.
Fasten OnPrem supports multiple records, but sharing with family members, nannies, or camp nurses would require network configuration and access management you'd set up yourself. Family Stork is built for multi-member families — parents manage children's records, adult children manage aging parents' records, and helpers see only what the family chooses to share.
Fasten OnPrem is free and open source — no subscription. Family Stork is free to organize your records, $99/year (or about $10/month) for the full service where records arrive automatically from clinics. The trade-off: free with manual effort vs. paid with automatic intake.
Last verified: October 2026