How Soma compares with Neko Health

Neko Health opened its first clinic in the United States on September 24, at 300 Lafayette Street in SoHo, after more than 25,000 New Yorkers joined its waitlist. A scan costs $499 and takes an hour. Neko says more than 100,000 members have had one in Sweden and the UK since its first clinic opened in Stockholm in 2023.

Neko and Soma both ask you to step into a room full of sensors, so here's how they differ. The first difference is simple: Neko's clinics are open, and Soma Axon is a prototype we're still building. What follows describes Axon as we're designing it today.

What happens in a Neko scan

About 30 minutes go to measurements and the other 30 to a clinician, who goes through every result with you before you leave. You take off your robe, showing as much skin as you choose, while nine cameras take more than 6,000 photos so a dermatologist can review your moles. There's a 12-lead ECG, blood pressure at four points and a look at circulation in your feet, along with body fat, grip strength and the pressure inside your eyes. A blood sample is tested for more than 50 biomarkers in a lab inside the clinic before your consultation.

What a visit to Soma Axon will look like

A visit is meant to take about as long as getting a coffee. You'll change in a private room and step in wearing underwear, or a fitted garment if you'd prefer, though the skin it covers won't be photographed. You'll stand with your hands on two grips and your feet on a plate while cameras, thermal imaging, EEG and ECG read your skin, heart and breathing, body composition, balance and strength. Partway through, you'll turn a quarter turn at a time so a camera can photograph your skin all the way around. A recovery part follows, with warmth, cool air, light and a slow breath.

The pod will show you one calm number on your way out. The rest will be in the Soma app, with a margin of error on every value.

Once a year, or every week

Neko's clinicians decide with you how often to come back, and most members do: Neko says 75% book their next scan before leaving the first. Its latest report compares first and second scans about a year apart for 9,138 returning members, and all seven heart and metabolic markers it tracks had improved.

Neko's own FAQ says a scan is worth more each time you repeat it, because the way your numbers move says more than any one reading. We agree, and Axon is built on that idea with a much shorter gap: a visit every week, 52 readings a year where a yearly check-up gives you one. A slow change, like losing muscle over a winter of training less, should show up as a trend long before a yearly check-up would catch it. The same instrument, every week explains why Axon will read you the same way each time.

Skin and blood

Your skin will be photographed at every visit, from the same positions and under the same light, so the app can compare each spot with how it looked in earlier weeks. Soma won't tell you whether a mole is harmful. If a spot keeps changing, the app will point you to a clinician.

The blood test will be an option. At pods with an attendant, they'll take a few drops from your fingertip for a partner lab, with results in your app a few days later. Where a state doesn't allow that, you'll get a kit to use at home. Neko's lab on site returns more than 50 biomarkers within the hour.

What Soma won't do

Soma won't diagnose anything. It's a general wellness product, it isn't a medical device and it won't measure eye pressure. Neko runs clinics, with licensed clinicians, a certified lab and specialists who follow up on what the scan finds. The first version of Axon also isn't for anyone pregnant, under 18 or living with an implanted electronic device such as a pacemaker. Neko says its scan is considered safe during pregnancy.

We don't see Axon replacing a thorough check-up, whether it's Neko's or your own doctor's. If you want a doctor to go through your skin, heart and blood work in one sitting, Neko does that in an hour. If you'd rather follow how your body changes week to week, that's what we're building Axon for.

Side by side

Neko Health's details come from its website and press releases, as of September 26, 2026.