Symptom checkers guess at what's wrong. WhereToStart answers a more useful question: what's the right next step — a home test, a clinician, a therapist, or a change at home — and which of those you can get free before you pay anyone.
Every navigator follows the same three-part sequence, and the order matters.
Before any matching, we ask about red-flag symptoms. If you have one, you get the emergency or crisis number for your country and nothing else — no options, no offers.
What's bothering you, how long, and a little about you. There are no medical terms to decode, and nothing you answer leaves your browser.
You see which type of help fits, what each option can and can't tell you, and where to get it free. Paid options are shown after, always marked Sponsored.
No navigator tells you what condition you have or ranks conditions by probability. That's a clinician's job, and in the UK it would make us a regulated medical device — which we're not.
The navigators run entirely in your browser. No account, no database, no cookies from us. Close the tab and it's gone.
Where your GP, insurance, or a public programme covers the next step, we say so before showing anything you'd pay for.
Sponsored links pay us a commission. They appear only after the match is made and never influence which options you see first. How we choose.
No. WhereToStart is educational information that helps you decide what kind of professional or service to approach. It doesn't replace a consultation and creates no clinician–patient relationship. See the medical disclaimer.
Content is written against published clinical guidance (NHS, NICE, CDC, USPSTF, Health Canada) and reviewed before publication. Our editorial policy sets out the sources and the review cadence.
Some links to testing companies, telehealth providers, therapy platforms, and supplement retailers are affiliate links. If you buy through one, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Every such link is marked Sponsored. Full details in our advertising disclosure.
We can't — we never receive them. The navigators run in your browser and send nothing to us. Our privacy policy explains the small amount of anonymous, cookieless traffic data we do collect.
You can read it anywhere, but the free-care guidance, emergency numbers, and services are written for those three countries.
Don't use a navigator. Call your emergency number now — 911 in the US and Canada, 999 in the UK. Crisis lines are listed on our emergency page.