Neither GoodRx nor Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs wins across the board, but if you’re managing multiple prescriptions for a loved one with dementia, Cost Plus Drugs will likely save you more money overall. A 2025 study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology found that while GoodRx offered the lowest price more often — in 67.3 percent of medications compared — the average medication cost through Cost Plus was just $17, versus $31.21 through GoodRx. Even after adding shipping, Cost Plus averaged $19.60 per medication. Against average retail prices of $147.23, Cost Plus saved 81 percent compared to GoodRx’s 70 percent. For families already stretched thin by caregiving costs, that difference adds up fast.
The real answer, though, is that you should check both platforms every time you fill a prescription. The same study showed that when GoodRx was cheaper, the median savings over Cost Plus was $8.34. When Cost Plus was cheaper, the median savings over GoodRx was $6.31. The “winner” depends entirely on which medication you need. This article breaks down how each platform works, where each one tends to beat the other, what recent changes mean for dementia caregivers managing complex medication regimens, and practical steps for getting the lowest possible price on every prescription.
Table of Contents
- How Do GoodRx and Cost Plus Drugs Actually Work — and Why Does It Matter for Your Drug Costs?
- Where Each Platform Saves More — and When the Savings Disappear
- The Prescription Affordability Crisis Hitting Dementia Families Hardest
- How to Actually Compare Prices and Build a Prescription Strategy
- New Developments That Could Change the Equation for Caregivers
- When Neither Platform Is the Right Answer
- Where Drug Pricing Is Headed and What Caregivers Should Watch
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Do GoodRx and Cost Plus Drugs Actually Work — and Why Does It Matter for Your Drug Costs?
GoodRx and Cost Plus drugs look like competitors, but they operate in fundamentally different ways. GoodRx is a coupon and price comparison platform. It negotiates with pharmacy benefit managers — the middlemen who set drug prices between manufacturers and pharmacies — and passes along discount codes you can use at your regular local pharmacy. You search for your medication, find the lowest price among nearby pharmacies, show the coupon at the counter, and pay the discounted rate. GoodRx covers a vast range of medications because it aggregates pricing from thousands of pharmacies nationwide. Cost Plus Drugs, founded by Mark Cuban, takes a different approach entirely.
It cuts out PBMs and negotiates directly with drug manufacturers, operating as a direct-to-consumer online pharmacy. The pricing model is deliberately transparent: manufacturer cost plus a 15 percent markup, plus a pharmacist dispensing fee, plus flat-rate shipping. There are no hidden fees, no fluctuating prices depending on which pharmacy you visit. The tradeoff is that Cost Plus currently offers around 2,000 medications — mostly generics — and requires mail-order delivery, which typically takes three to five days. For dementia caregivers managing medications like memantine, donepezil, or the various drugs prescribed for behavioral symptoms, sleep disruption, and co-occurring conditions like hypertension or diabetes, the distinction matters. GoodRx gives you same-day access at a local pharmacy, which can be critical when a loved one’s prescription changes unexpectedly. Cost Plus may save you considerably more per month, but you need to plan ahead for delivery windows.
Where Each Platform Saves More — and When the Savings Disappear
The 2025 JAAD study offers the clearest picture available of how these platforms compare head to head. GoodRx provided the lowest price in 67.3 percent of the medications studied, meaning it “wins” more individual matchups. But winning more often does not mean saving more money. Cost Plus Drugs delivered larger savings on the medications where it was cheapest, pulling the overall average cost significantly lower. One striking example: aprepitant, an anti-nausea medication sometimes prescribed alongside chemotherapy drugs that dementia patients with co-occurring cancers may need, cost $4,815.30 through Cost Plus versus $5,740 through GoodRx — a difference of nearly $1,000 on a single medication.
The pattern that emerges is this: Cost Plus tends to offer substantially larger savings on higher-cost medications, while GoodRx tends to edge out Cost Plus on lower-cost generics where the price differences are smaller in absolute terms. If you’re filling a $12 generic, GoodRx might beat Cost Plus by a few dollars. But if you’re filling a medication that costs $50 or more at retail, Cost Plus is more likely to deliver meaningful savings. However, if your loved one needs a medication that Cost Plus does not carry — and with only 2,000-plus medications in its formulary compared to the full range available through GoodRx’s pharmacy network — you may have no choice but to use GoodRx or pay retail. Always check Cost Plus first for potential savings, then fall back to GoodRx for anything not in their catalog. And keep in mind that Cost Plus prices do not include insurance; if your loved one has a plan with strong prescription coverage, the insurance copay may beat both platforms on certain drugs.
The Prescription Affordability Crisis Hitting Dementia Families Hardest
The urgency behind comparing these platforms is not academic. According to GoodRx’s own 2025 research, 38 percent of Americans worried about affording their medications that year, up from 27 percent just the year before. One in five people who filled a prescription in 2025 reported rationing their medications due to cost — skipping doses, cutting pills in half, or abandoning prescriptions entirely. Roughly 30 percent of prescription users cut back on food or clothing to cover drug costs. Drug list prices have climbed 35 percent since 2014. For dementia caregivers, these numbers tell a story that is both familiar and alarming.
Dementia patients often take multiple medications simultaneously — a cholinesterase inhibitor for cognition, an antidepressant or antipsychotic for behavioral symptoms, blood pressure medication, possibly a diabetes drug, and potentially others. A person managing five or six prescriptions faces compounding costs that can push a household budget to its breaking point. When caregivers ration medications for a loved one with dementia, the consequences can include accelerated cognitive decline, worsening behavioral episodes, hospitalizations, and earlier placement in long-term care facilities — all of which cost far more than the prescriptions themselves. This is why the difference between paying $17 per medication through Cost Plus versus $31.21 through GoodRx is not trivial. Across five medications filled monthly, that gap represents roughly $85 per month, or over $1,000 per year. For a family already spending thousands on home care, adult day programs, or incontinence supplies, that savings can be the difference between keeping a loved one at home and facing impossible financial choices.
How to Actually Compare Prices and Build a Prescription Strategy
The most practical approach for dementia caregivers is to build a medication-by-medication comparison rather than committing to one platform. Start by listing every prescription your loved one takes, including dosage and quantity. Search each medication on both costplusdrugs.com and goodrx.com. Record the price from each, adding $5 shipping for Cost Plus if you plan to order medications individually, or $2.60 per medication if bundling. Then compare both to your insurance copay, if applicable. For medications where Cost Plus is cheaper, set up recurring mail orders with enough lead time to avoid running out — at least ten days before you need the refill, given three-to-five-day shipping plus a buffer.
For medications where GoodRx is cheaper or that Cost Plus does not carry, use GoodRx coupons at your nearest pharmacy. Some caregivers find it helpful to keep a simple spreadsheet tracking which platform they use for each medication, the price, and when refills are due. This hybrid approach captures the best price on every drug rather than leaving savings on the table by using only one platform. One important tradeoff to weigh: consolidating all medications through a single pharmacy makes it easier for pharmacists to catch dangerous drug interactions, which is especially important for dementia patients on complex regimens. If you split prescriptions between Cost Plus mail order and a local pharmacy, make sure both pharmacists have your loved one’s complete medication list. Ask your local pharmacist to flag interactions even for medications filled elsewhere.
New Developments That Could Change the Equation for Caregivers
Several recent developments are reshaping both platforms in ways that matter for dementia families. Cost Plus Drugs and Humana are exploring a partnership aimed at reducing prescription costs through direct-to-employer programs. If this expands to Humana’s Medicare Advantage plans — which cover millions of older adults, including many with dementia — it could dramatically change the cost calculus for families currently navigating Part D coverage gaps. In March 2026, a new partnership between Bluesight and GraphiteRx was announced that will allow hospitals to view Cost Plus pricing alongside traditional wholesaler options in their procurement workflows. This is significant because it could eventually lower medication costs for patients discharged from hospitals with new prescriptions — a common scenario after dementia-related hospitalizations for falls, infections, or behavioral crises.
Mark Cuban has also confirmed that Cost Plus Drugs will collaborate with TrumpRx, a platform designed to act as a search engine or referral site for direct-to-consumer drug platforms. Whether TrumpRx delivers meaningful value remains to be seen, but it signals growing political attention to drug pricing transparency. Cuban is also pushing the FDA to waive fees for generic drug applications, which could allow Cost Plus to enter generics manufacturing for medications currently in shortage or priced prohibitively high. If successful, this could expand Cost Plus’s formulary into specialty medications relevant to dementia care, including newer generics for managing agitation, psychosis, or sleep disturbances. Additionally, Cost Plus launched the Team Cuban Card discount program and an affiliate pharmacy network to support independent pharmacies facing pressure from PBMs — which means Cost Plus savings may eventually be accessible at local pharmacies, not just through mail order.
When Neither Platform Is the Right Answer
There are scenarios where neither GoodRx nor Cost Plus Drugs offers the best deal, and caregivers should be aware of them. If your loved one qualifies for a pharmaceutical manufacturer’s patient assistance program, the medication may be available for free or at a nominal cost that beats any discount platform. Programs like these are common for brand-name dementia drugs, including some newer treatments.
Similarly, if your loved one has Medicaid or qualifies for Medicare’s Extra Help program (Low-Income Subsidy), copays may already be capped at $1.55 to $4.30 for generics and $11.20 for brand-name drugs in 2025 — prices that often undercut both platforms. State pharmaceutical assistance programs, veterans’ benefits through the VA, and even certain nonprofit organizations offer medication subsidies that stack below what GoodRx or Cost Plus can provide. Before committing to either platform, check whether your loved one qualifies for any of these programs. A social worker specializing in elder care or your local Area Agency on Aging can help identify options you might not know exist.
Where Drug Pricing Is Headed and What Caregivers Should Watch
The landscape of prescription drug pricing is shifting faster than it has in decades. The Inflation Reduction Act’s Medicare drug price negotiation provisions are beginning to take effect, and additional medications will be added to the negotiation list in coming years.
Cost Plus Drugs’ push into hospital procurement, its potential Humana partnership, and Cuban’s FDA advocacy all suggest the platform is positioning for significant expansion beyond its current mail-order model. For dementia caregivers, the most important thing to watch is whether Cost Plus expands its formulary to include more of the medications commonly prescribed in dementia care and whether its partnerships with insurers translate into lower out-of-pocket costs for Medicare beneficiaries. In the meantime, the smartest strategy remains the simplest one: check both platforms for every medication, every time, and never assume last month’s cheapest option is still the best deal this month.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that neither GoodRx nor Cost Plus Drugs is universally cheaper. Cost Plus Drugs delivers larger average savings — $17 per medication versus $31.21 through GoodRx — and saves 81 percent off retail compared to GoodRx’s 70 percent. But GoodRx offers the lowest price on a wider range of individual medications and provides same-day access at local pharmacies, which matters when a prescription cannot wait for mail delivery. For dementia caregivers managing multiple medications on a tight budget, the best approach is to use both platforms strategically, checking prices on each for every prescription.
Start today by listing your loved one’s current medications and comparing prices on both platforms. Factor in shipping costs for Cost Plus and check whether your insurance copay beats both options on any given drug. Ask your pharmacist to maintain a complete medication list regardless of where prescriptions are filled. And revisit your pricing strategy every few months — with new partnerships, formulary expansions, and policy changes on the horizon, the savings available to you are likely to grow.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cost Plus Drugs a legitimate pharmacy?
Yes. Cost Plus Drugs is a licensed pharmacy that dispenses FDA-approved medications. It was founded by Mark Cuban and operates with a transparent pricing model that discloses manufacturer cost, markup, and fees on every medication.
Can I use GoodRx if I have insurance?
Yes. GoodRx coupons can sometimes beat your insurance copay, especially for generics. You can compare your copay to the GoodRx price at the pharmacy counter and use whichever is lower. Using a GoodRx coupon means the purchase does not count toward your insurance deductible, however.
Does Cost Plus Drugs carry dementia medications like donepezil or memantine?
Cost Plus carries many common generics, and both donepezil and memantine are generic medications that may be available. Check the Cost Plus website directly for current availability, as the formulary is updated regularly.
How long does shipping take from Cost Plus Drugs?
Standard shipping typically takes three to five business days. For dementia caregivers, it is important to plan refills at least a week to ten days in advance to avoid gaps in medication.
Can I use both GoodRx and Cost Plus for different medications?
Absolutely. Many people use Cost Plus for medications where it offers larger savings and GoodRx for drugs that Cost Plus does not carry or where GoodRx is cheaper. Just make sure all your pharmacists know your loved one’s complete medication list to catch potential drug interactions.
Are there medications that neither platform discounts well?
Yes. Brand-name drugs still under patent, specialty biologics, and some controlled substances may not be available through Cost Plus and may have limited discounts through GoodRx. For these, manufacturer patient assistance programs or insurance coverage may be your best options.
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For more, see NIH MedlinePlus — dementia.
