SteadyState vs. OnBoard for community health center boards
OnBoard is the one board portal that actively markets to community health centers: it runs a dedicated health-center webinar page with named customers and sells the HRSA Operational Site Visit story directly. This page starts with what OnBoard demonstrably does for health center boards, then sets out where the two products actually differ: where the lock is enforced, what happens when a board re-approves a policy, and what each one costs. Everything stated about OnBoard here was read from their own pages on July 26, 2026 and is linked to the page it came from.
What OnBoard demonstrably does for health centers
OnBoard's community health center webinar page names seven health center customers. A customer chief of staff is quoted on the exact job: "For the purpose of collecting meeting minutes and packets for the HRSA Operational Site Visit that we had, it was super helpful because it was all in one place, it's secure, and there's a ton of storage in there."
The same page states compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and HIPAA, and OnBoard's FQHC blog post describes native Zoom and Microsoft Teams video conferencing and says the platform "was built from day one with compliance top-of-mind." Their Voting & Approvals page describes "motions, seconds, roll-call votes, and recorded outcomes."
If your board needs board books built, minutes drafted from the vote record, and twelve months of documents assembled in one place for the site visit, OnBoard does that work and has health center customers saying so. That is the honest starting point for this comparison.
What HRSA reads – and what neither product is
HRSA's Health Center Program Compliance Manual, Chapter 19, makes the board's own record the evidence: the minutes confirm that the board holds monthly meetings with a quorum, approves the annual budget, approves sites and services, evaluates the CEO, and re-approves the sliding fee, quality, and billing policies at least every three years. An Operational Site Visit reviewer reads those minutes cold.
Neither product is HRSA compliance software, and SteadyState claims no coverage of the program requirements. What the decision record addresses is a specific, frequently cited failure: an FQHC audit practice describes "SFDP policy updates that were made at the staff level but never formally approved by the board" as one of the most common findings. The missing artifact in that finding is a board approval with a date. In SteadyState, each approval is a decision with a recorded vote, locked the moment it closes.
The triennial re-approvals map directly onto amendments: re-adopting the sliding fee discount policy is a new voted decision linked to the prior adoption, which stays in the register marked superseded. Three years of policy history reads as a sequence of votes, each with its date – and the work each adoption creates, like loading the new FPG bands or posting the schedule at every site, is an action with an owner and a due date, linked to the decision that created it.
Capability comparison
Only rows we could verify on OnBoard's own pages on July 26, 2026 are shown, and this table keeps to the rows that matter to a health center – the general OnBoard comparison has the full row-by-row detail, including the lock mechanics and follow-up actions. Where we could not confirm how OnBoard handles something, the cell says so.
| Capability | OnBoard | SteadyState |
|---|---|---|
| Voting model | "motions, seconds, roll-call votes, and recorded outcomes", with voting available between meetings | Each committee sets its own policy: unanimous consent, majority of votes cast, or two-thirds. Members approve, reject, abstain, or recuse on the decision, and the Chair or Secretary can record an absence against their name. When the vote closes the tally is stamped on the locked record – "Carried 6–3 · 2 abstentions · 1 recusal · 1 absent · 13 eligible (majority of votes cast)." A rejection requires a written reason. |
| Where the records are stored | OnBoard's platform, which their security page says runs on Microsoft Azure | Your health center's own Microsoft 365 tenant, in your own Dataverse. We operate no service that holds your records. |
| Re-approving a policy (the triennial cycle) | Not described on the pages we checked | Each re-adoption is a voted amendment linked to the prior adoption, which stays in the register marked superseded – a dated approval history |
| Minutes and OSV document assembly | A named customer describes "collecting meeting minutes and packets for the HRSA Operational Site Visit" in one place | Minutes are a field on the meeting record. There is no minutes generator and no packet builder – the register is the decision layer beside those documents. |
| Compliance certifications | States compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and HIPAA | We claim no certification of our own and hold none of your data. Records stay in your tenant, under the agreements your organization already has with Microsoft. |
| Published pricing | Does not publish pricing. The pricing page asks you to "request a demo and a member of the team will walk you through options and costs" | Published. Run your board's numbers in the pricing calculator. |
Voting model
- OnBoard
- "motions, seconds, roll-call votes, and recorded outcomes", with voting available between meetings
- SteadyState
- Each committee sets its own policy: unanimous consent, majority of votes cast, or two-thirds. Members approve, reject, abstain, or recuse on the decision, and the Chair or Secretary can record an absence against their name. When the vote closes the tally is stamped on the locked record – "Carried 6–3 · 2 abstentions · 1 recusal · 1 absent · 13 eligible (majority of votes cast)." A rejection requires a written reason.
Where the records are stored
- OnBoard
- OnBoard's platform, which their security page says runs on Microsoft Azure
- SteadyState
- Your health center's own Microsoft 365 tenant, in your own Dataverse. We operate no service that holds your records.
Re-approving a policy (the triennial cycle)
- OnBoard
- Not described on the pages we checked
- SteadyState
- Each re-adoption is a voted amendment linked to the prior adoption, which stays in the register marked superseded – a dated approval history
Minutes and OSV document assembly
- OnBoard
- A named customer describes "collecting meeting minutes and packets for the HRSA Operational Site Visit" in one place
- SteadyState
- Minutes are a field on the meeting record. There is no minutes generator and no packet builder – the register is the decision layer beside those documents.
Compliance certifications
- OnBoard
- States compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and HIPAA
- SteadyState
- We claim no certification of our own and hold none of your data. Records stay in your tenant, under the agreements your organization already has with Microsoft.
Published pricing
- OnBoard
- Does not publish pricing. The pricing page asks you to "request a demo and a member of the team will walk you through options and costs"
- SteadyState
- Published. Run your board's numbers in the pricing calculator.
Pricing
SteadyState publishes its price and OnBoard does not – their pricing page asks you to request a demo – so we will not put a number in their column. Their plan table does show which plan carries which feature, with several capabilities listed as add-ons at the entry tier, so ask which plan you are actually quoted.
For our side, run your board – the statutory 9-to-25-member governing board plus the staff who prepare items – through the pricing calculator. It includes the seat minimum and the separate Power Apps licensing from Microsoft, so the total is complete. Every SteadyState tier is the same product: voting, the lock, amendments, actions, and single sign-on are never gated behind a higher plan.
See it before you decide
The interactive demo runs the full lifecycle, including the moment the database refuses an edit to an approved record. It takes a few minutes and does not require an install.
- Try the demo at /explore
- Or contact us and we will walk your board through it
Questions boards ask
- Is SteadyState HRSA compliance software?
- No, and we will not claim it. Requirement mapping, mock site visits, and OSV preparation belong to compliance platforms and consultants. SteadyState records what the governing board decided, with the vote and the date – the artifact those reviews keep asking for.
- Does SteadyState prove quorum or attendance?
- It records both, and enforces neither. Take the roll in the meeting workspace and SteadyState shows a line like '9 of 13 present · quorum met' and stamps the count when the meeting adjourns. It will not block a meeting or a vote for want of a quorum – that judgment stays with the chair, and HRSA's monthly-quorum test stays a matter for your minutes.
- How does voting work in SteadyState?
- Health center boards vote by majority and sometimes minute an abstention or a dissent, and SteadyState records that shape directly. Set the governing board's policy to majority of votes cast; members approve, reject, abstain, or recuse, and the Chair or Secretary records an absence against a member's name. The tally is stamped on the locked record – 'Carried 6–3 · 2 abstentions · 1 recusal · 1 absent · 13 eligible (majority of votes cast).' A rejection requires a written reason, which is the same artifact your minutes need.
- Where does executive-session material go?
- Not into SteadyState, beyond the outcome. Records are visible to every seat – there is no committee-scoped confidentiality in v1 – so a CEO evaluation or personnel matter is recorded outcome-only, the same way your minutes already handle executive session.
- Can we run both?
- Yes. Keep OnBoard for board books, minutes drafting, and OSV document assembly, and use SteadyState as the decision layer: the vote, the locked approval, the amendment history, and the follow-up actions.
- What does OnBoard cost for a health center?
- They do not publish it. Their pricing page directs you to request a demo. Before comparing totals, ask which plan includes Voting & Approvals, Microsoft 365 integration, and single sign-on.
SteadyState Technologies LLC is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by OnBoard, Microsoft Corporation, or the Health Resources and Services Administration. OnBoard and Microsoft 365 are trademarks of their respective owners; HRSA does not endorse products. Every claim about OnBoard on this page was read from the linked page on July 26, 2026. Vendors change their pages; if you find something here that no longer matches theirs, tell us and we will correct it.