Verdict summary
| Numan | Manual | Sons | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Model | Recurring subscription | Recurring subscription | Recurring subscription |
| Consultation fee | Free (bundled into treatment) | Free | Free |
| Delivery | Free | Free, ~2 days | Free |
| Parent company / prescribing partner | Vir Health Limited | Part of Voy | Prescribing via The Independent Pharmacy (ABSM Healthcare Ltd) |
| GPhC registration shown | Yes, premises 9011408 | Unconfirmed format shown | Yes, via The Independent Pharmacy (9012559 / 1120908) |
Service model differences
All three run on a subscription model rather than one-off orders, which is the norm for this segment: you’re billed on an ongoing basis for repeat treatment rather than paying per order. Numan and Manual operate their own prescribing and branding end-to-end; Sons is notable for being upfront that it uses The Independent Pharmacy, a separate GPhC-registered pharmacy business, as its prescribing partner, disclosed directly in its own footer.
Fees and subscription terms
Numan lists per-tablet pricing openly on its site (finasteride from £1.00/tablet) with a “50% off first order” promotion at the time we checked. Manual doesn’t display specific hair-loss prices on its main pages, showing only a percentage-off promotion, so we can’t give an exact comparable figure for Manual. Sons doesn’t display a hair-loss price directly either at the URL we checked; both should be confirmed on-site before you commit. All three offer a straightforward cancel-anytime subscription model, which is the industry norm for this type of service.
Ownership and registration checks
Worth knowing before you choose: none of the three are fully independent operations in the way their separate branding might suggest. Manual is part of the Voy group. Sons prescribes through The Independent Pharmacy, an entity we separately verify and list in our own clinic comparison. Numan is owned by Vir Health Limited and displays its own GPhC premises registration directly. None of this is a red flag on its own, brand groups and prescribing partnerships are common in this market, but it’s exactly the kind of thing that isn’t obvious from a service’s marketing pages alone.
Sons also advertises a “94% of men” success claim and a money-back guarantee on its own site. That figure is Sons’ own marketing claim rather than independently published trial data, so we’re reporting it as their claim, not verifying it as an independent fact.
Who each suits
If openly published per-tablet pricing matters to you, Numan is the most transparent of the three on that specific point at the time we checked. If you’d rather use a service that’s explicit about which pharmacy is actually doing the prescribing, Sons discloses that directly. Manual’s page didn’t give us enough pricing detail to compare confidently, so check current figures directly on their site. See our full UK hair loss clinic comparison for a wider set of options, including non-subscription, pay-per-order alternatives.