If you're choosing between Vithoulkas Compass and Similia in 2026, the short version: Vithoulkas Compass is a focused decision-support web application built around George Vithoulkas's classical methodology and a statistically-derived expert system — no AI. Similia is a broader cloud platform with 7 classical + 7 premium repertories, 12+ classical + 12+ modern materia medica titles, five native AI features, complete cross-device case management, and a free forever tier. Both are web-based and run in any browser. The right choice depends on whether you want guided remedy differentiation in the Vithoulkas tradition, or a wider set of classical and modern repertories with native AI workflows.
Disclosure: I'm the founder of Similia. I've tried to be even-handed below — corrections welcome by email.
TL;DR — Vithoulkas Compass vs Similia at a glance
Vithoulkas Compass is operated by the International Academy of Classical Homeopathy (IACH), runs entirely in the browser, and combines the VC Repertory with a Differentiation Expert System (DES) that proposes targeted remedy questions during a case. Similia is also browser-based, ships seven classical repertories on its free tier plus seven premium repertories on Pro, and integrates five native AI features.
| Dimension | Vithoulkas Compass | Similia |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Usage-based, from €21/mo (4 practitioner + 3 student plans, 1/3/6/12 mo, 24% VAT in EU) | Free forever + Pro from $19.99/mo (14-day trial) |
| Repertories | VC Repertory (single, classical-focused) | 7 classical (Free) + 7 premium (Pro), incl. Complete Repertory 2026 |
| Materia medica | Integrated into VC; no separate listing of titles | 12+ classical (Free) + Jan Scholten's full series on every Pro tier; 12+ modern total with add-ons |
| AI | Expert System (DES) — no AI | Semantic search, Notes-to-Rubric, AI analysis, live audio, photo analysis |
| Case management | Integrated with the DES/Synapse workflow | Complete, simple-to-use, cloud-synced across devices |
| Cloud / desktop | Web-based, no install | Web-based, no install |
| Best for | Practitioners trained in or aligned with Vithoulkas methodology | Students, mobile-first, AI-curious — and busy expert practitioners |
What is Vithoulkas Compass?
Vithoulkas Compass (often abbreviated VC) is an online homeopathic decision-support platform developed by the International Academy of Classical Homeopathy, the academy founded by Professor George Vithoulkas, the Greek classical homeopath whose teaching has shaped much of the modern revival of classical homeopathy. The platform combines, in the IACH's own words, "an exhaustive statistical analysis of thousands of real-world successful prescriptions" with "the methodology of George Vithoulkas," and its development includes collaboration with applied mathematics departments from two universities.
Architecturally, VC has three pillars. The VC Repertory is its in-house classical repertory (current version 0.8 as of late 2014, refined since). The Synapse workflow assists in selecting "the correct rubrics for every theme of questioning." The Differentiation Expert System (DES) proposes "the ideal symptoms for patient questioning" once you've narrowed in on a few candidate remedies — what the IACH calls "an expert brain for remedy differentiation." DES is a rule- and statistics-based expert system, not AI.
VC is web-based and runs without installation on PC, Mac, tablets, and smartphones. A 7-day free trial is offered. VC publishes its pricing openly on the pricing page: four practitioner plans (Unlimited, Intensive, Frequent, Light) starting from €21/month at the lower-usage tier, plus three student plans, with billing periods of 1, 3, 6, or 12 months and reduced rates for students enrolled in homeopathy programs (notably the IACH e-learning program). EU users pay 24% VAT on top.
The product's positioning is narrower and more opinionated than general-purpose homeopathy software: it's a decision-support tool aligned with classical Vithoulkas methodology, not a kitchen-sink reference suite.
What is Similia?
Similia is a modern, cloud-native homeopathy platform with a free forever tier and four Pro editions. Like VC, it runs entirely in the browser on any device. The free tier ships seven classical repertories (Kent, Boericke, Boenninghausen's Therapeutic Pocketbook, Hering's Guiding Symptoms, Boger's Synoptic Key, Ward's and Roberts' Sensations As If), 12+ classical materia medica titles (Kent, Boericke, Clarke, Allen's Keynotes, Hering, Boger, Lippe, Paterson and more), AI-powered semantic search across both repertory and materia medica, and a complete, simple-to-use case management system.
Every Pro tier (Base, Murphy, Complete, Saine) unlocks the full AI suite (Notes-to-Rubric extraction, AI Case Analysis, live audio consultation transcription, AI Photo Analysis), Jan Scholten's full materia medica series (Elements, Lanthanides, Minerals, Mosses, Ferns, Qjure, Wonderful Plants — 7 modern MM books), Materia Medica Search, the Periodic Table, and unlimited cases. Up to seven premium repertories are available across the Pro ecosystem — pick the matching edition for Murphy's MetaRepertory (Pro Murphy), Complete Repertory 2026 (Pro Complete), or Saine Repertory 2025 (Pro Saine); Pro Murphy also bundles Murphy's Nature's MM 4th ed. Add Suggesta 2.1, Qrep5, Mangialavori 100 MM and other extensions as one-time add-ons, bringing the total available modern materia medica to 12+ titles. Pricing is published openly on the Similia pricing page: Free, Pro Base $19.99/mo, Pro Murphy and Pro Complete $29.99/mo, Pro Saine $26.99/mo, all with a 14-day trial.
Side-by-side comparison
Pricing
Vithoulkas Compass publishes its prices openly on vithoulkascompass.com/en/Homeopathy/Pricing per country. The structure is four practitioner plans (Unlimited, Intensive, Frequent, Light) starting from €21/month at the lower-usage tier, plus three student plans (Intensive, Frequent, Light), all sold in 1-, 3-, 6-, or 12-month periods. EU customers pay 24% VAT on top where applicable. A 7-day free trial is available.
Similia publishes USD pricing openly: Free forever, Pro Base $19.99/mo, Pro Murphy $29.99/mo, Pro Complete $29.99/mo, Pro Saine $26.99/mo. Add-ons (Suggesta 2.1 at $299.99 one-time, Qrep5 at $99.99 one-time, Mangialavori 100 MM at $119.99 one-time) extend the library without forcing an edition change.
The honest framing is that VC's pricing reflects a specialised, usage-metered decision-support product — you're paying primarily for expert-system credits, and a heavier caseload pushes you to a higher tier. Similia's pricing is fixed-tier and unlimited at any plan: pick the premium repertory you want and run as many cases, searches, and AI analyses as you need.
Repertories
VC ships the VC Repertory, a classical-focused in-house repertory developed by the IACH. By design it's a single, opinionated repertory rather than a multi-repertory bundle — VC's value proposition is the methodology, not the breadth of source material.
Similia ships 14+ repertories across Free + Pro: 7 classical on the free tier (Kent, Boericke, Boenninghausen, Hering, Boger, Ward, Roberts) and 7 premium on Pro (Murphy's MetaRepertory, Complete Repertory 2026, Saine Repertory 2025, Suggesta 2.1, plus other extensions). For a deeper look at the major repertories, see our Murphy vs Kent vs Complete Repertory comparison.
If you're committed to Vithoulkas methodology, the VC Repertory is the natural reference. If you triangulate across Kent + Boenninghausen + Murphy + Complete, Similia is the broader and more flexible workspace.
Materia medica
VC's public materials don't enumerate the materia medica titles bundled with the platform. Materia medica content appears integrated into the case-analysis workflow rather than presented as a standalone reference library.
Similia's materia medica is itemised and large in both directions. Free includes 12+ classical titles (Kent, Boericke, Clarke, Allen's Keynotes, Boger, Hering, Lippe, Paterson and more). Every Pro edition bundles Jan Scholten's full series (Elements, Lanthanides, Minerals, Mosses, Ferns, Qjure, Wonderful Plants — 7 modern MM books); Pro Murphy also bundles Murphy's Nature's MM 4th ed. Suggesta 2.1, Mangialavori 100 MM, Qrep5 and other modern materia medica are available as paid add-ons, bringing the total available to 12+ modern titles. AI semantic search across the materia medica lets you search every loaded source at once in natural language — no flipping between books, and no need to know the exact remedy or rubric in advance.
If your daily reading is Scholten or Murphy, Similia is more directly aligned. If you primarily reference materia medica during VC's guided workflow, the integration may be sufficient.
AI
This is the core architectural difference between the two products.
Vithoulkas Compass has no AI. Its Differentiation Expert System (DES) is the centrepiece — a rule- and statistics-based decision-support system trained on outcomes data from successful classical prescriptions. Once you've narrowed in on candidate remedies, DES proposes specific symptoms to question the patient about — symptoms that statistically differentiate those remedies based on the IACH's prescription database. The Synapse workflow guides rubric selection by theme. DES is genuinely powerful inside the Vithoulkas methodology and not replicable elsewhere, but it's not AI: there's no semantic search, no large-language-model symptom extraction, no consultation transcription, and no photo analysis.
Similia ships five native AI features:
- Semantic search across the repertory — accepts natural-language symptom descriptions ("a tight band squeezing my temples") and surfaces matching rubrics across every loaded repertory.
- Semantic search across the materia medica — search every loaded MM source at once in plain language; cross-references and clinical pictures surface without manual book-flipping.
- Notes-to-Rubric — paste consultation notes and let AI extract symptoms and propose matching rubrics for review.
- AI Case Analysis — once a case is built, AI suggests differential remedy lines and flags symptoms that statistically discriminate the candidates.
- Live audio transcription — capture a consultation in real time, get a structured transcript, and have symptoms auto-mapped to rubrics. Add AI Photo Analysis for tongue, skin, and lesion photos.
The two products help with different stages of the workflow. VC helps you differentiate once you've narrowed candidates; Similia helps you find, translate, and capture symptoms before you've narrowed anything — and runs the analysis afterwards. They're not directly substitutable, and many busy expert practitioners use both.
Patient case management
VC includes case management as part of its "comprehensive online toolbox," with data "Secured, encrypted and anonymously stored." The case-management workflow is integrated with the Synapse and DES workflow rather than offered as a standalone feature.
Similia ships a complete, simple-to-use case management system that's cloud-first and standalone: cases live in your Similia account, sync across all your signed-in devices, and remain accessible from any modern browser. The interface is built so a new student can record a first case end-to-end without training, while still giving experienced practitioners full control over rubric weighting, history, follow-ups, and analysis. GDPR compliance and HIPAA-ready handling are documented in our HIPAA & GDPR compliance guide.
Platform & devices
Both products are entirely web-based. No installation, no driver to manage, no platform-specific bug surface. Both work on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android, and ChromeOS through any modern browser. This is one of the few dimensions where VC and Similia are tied; both are explicitly post-desktop.
Support & community
VC provides "fast user support by dedicated professionals" plus "extensive usage support and help features," automatic upgrades, and is backed by the IACH's training infrastructure. The community is naturally tilted toward practitioners and students aligned with George Vithoulkas's classical methodology, particularly graduates of the IACH e-learning program.
Similia provides email support, an evolving knowledge base, and direct contact with the founding team. The community is younger and broader — practitioners come from many schools, including Murphy, Boenninghausen-school, sensation-method, and Vithoulkas-classical streams. If you're comparing VC against a desktop suite as well, our RadarOpus vs Similia post covers another angle.
Updates & roadmap
VC releases incremental updates to the platform and the VC Repertory; the IACH's December 2014 release of VC Repertory v0.8 has been refined in subsequent updates. Major version 3.0 is referenced in the platform documentation as "updated and refined." Updates are included in the active subscription period.
Similia ships continuously — repertory updates, AI improvements, and UI polish land in production weekly without a manual upgrade step. Subscribers always have the latest version.
When Vithoulkas Compass is the better choice
Be specific about who wins:
- You're trained in or aligned with George Vithoulkas's classical methodology. No other software is built around this specific methodology, and the DES is uniquely powerful within that framework.
- You're enrolled in the IACH e-learning program. Continuity with your training materials and methodology is hard to overstate.
- You want guided remedy differentiation in classical practice. If your bottleneck is "I have three candidate remedies — which symptoms differentiate them?" VC's DES is exceptionally well-suited.
- You prefer a focused, opinionated tool over a broad reference suite. Some practitioners — particularly classical purists — prefer software that has strong methodological views rather than presenting every repertory equally.
When Similia is the better choice
- You want native AI tools — five of them. Semantic search across repertory and materia medica, Notes-to-Rubric extraction, AI Case Analysis, live audio transcription, and AI Photo Analysis. VC has none of these; its DES is a rule- and statistics-based expert system, not AI.
- You're a busy expert practitioner. Live transcription + auto-mapping saves 10–15 min per consultation; Photo Analysis turns a tongue picture into rubrics in seconds. VC is metered by expert-system credits; Similia is unlimited at every tier.
- You want broad-repertory coverage in one workspace. Similia's free tier alone includes seven classical repertories, and Pro adds seven premium repertories. VC ships the VC Repertory only.
- You don't follow Vithoulkas methodology specifically. Most of VC's value is methodological — if your school is Murphy, Sankaran, Sehgal, or simply eclectic-modern, that value is muted.
- You want a free forever tier. Similia's free plan is permanent. VC's free trial is 7 days.
If you're still weighing options, our best homeopathic software 2026 roundup covers RadarOpus, Complete Dynamics, and Hompath Zomeo alongside Similia and a Vithoulkas-Compass-style category.
FAQ
Is Vithoulkas Compass free?
A 7-day free trial is available. There is no free-forever tier. After the trial, paid subscription is required, starting from €21/mo at the lower-usage tier, with reduced student pricing for those enrolled in homeopathy programs (notably the IACH e-learning program). Prices are published openly per country on the VC pricing page; EU customers pay 24% VAT on top. Similia's free plan, by contrast, never expires.
Can I switch from Vithoulkas Compass to Similia?
Yes. There is no automated case-import path between the two products, but the case-management structure is conceptually similar (chief complaint, modalities, observations, repertorisation, prescription, follow-up). Most practitioners who migrate keep VC active for ongoing differential-analysis work in classical Vithoulkas cases and run Similia alongside for daily multi-repertory work and AI-assisted notes. If you're migrating from a desktop suite as well, see our RadarOpus vs Similia comparison.
Does Vithoulkas Compass have AI features?
No. VC's Differentiation Expert System (DES) and Synapse workflow are expert systems — rule- and statistics-based decision-support layers built on the IACH's prescription database — not AI. There is no semantic search, no large-language-model symptom extraction, no consultation transcription, and no photo analysis. Similia ships semantic search across both repertory and materia medica, Notes-to-Rubric, AI Case Analysis, live audio transcription, and AI Photo Analysis as native features.
Which has more repertories?
Similia. VC ships the VC Repertory (single, classical-focused). Similia ships 14+ repertories across Free + Pro: 7 classical on the free tier (Kent, Boericke, Boenninghausen, Hering, Boger, Ward, Roberts) + 7 premium on Pro (Murphy / Complete Repertory 2026 / Saine 2025 / Suggesta 2.1 / extensions).
Which is better for students?
It depends on your training. If you're enrolled in the IACH e-learning program or trained in Vithoulkas methodology, VC's student pricing and methodological alignment are unbeatable. If your training is more eclectic or you're still discovering your style, Similia's free plan gives you seven classical repertories and AI semantic search at no cost — useful regardless of which methodology you eventually settle on. Many students use both.
Verdict
Vithoulkas Compass and Similia complement each other more than they compete. VC is the right answer if you're a Vithoulkas-trained practitioner or IACH student who wants guided remedy differentiation rooted in classical methodology and statistical analysis of successful prescriptions — and you're comfortable with usage-metered subscriptions. Similia is the right answer for the much larger group of practitioners — students, mobile-first practitioners, AI-curious clinicians, and busy expert practitioners — who want a broad, multi-repertory, AI-native workspace with five clinical AI features, complete cross-device case management, and a free forever tier.
Several practitioners use both — VC for differential analysis in classical cases, Similia for daily multi-repertory work, AI-assisted consultation notes, and case management. If you're starting out, start with Similia's free plan. You can layer VC on top later if your practice tilts toward classical Vithoulkas methodology specifically. And if you want to widen the field, the best homeopathic software 2026 roundup compares five tools side by side.
