Here are 3 ways to test your code or data without paying for a commercial FHIR server. They’re all free.
Option #1: Local FHIR server running inside a Docker container
If you want full control over your environment.
– HAPI
The easiest to set up.
Only two commands to run.
https://hub.docker.com/r/hapiproject/hapi
– Microsoft Azure
Same codebase as their managed FHIR servers.
Database setup can trigger errors in some environments.
https://darrendevitt.com/installing-microsofts-fhir-server-links/
Option #2: Public test FHIR servers
If you’re ok with your data being visible to the wider community.
– Firely
By far the best and most consistently available public server.
https://server.fire.ly
– HAPI
Heavily used and heavily populated, but goes down now and then.
http://hapi.fhir.org/baseR4
Options # 3: Authenticated FHIR servers
If you need to test a bearer token authentication flow and want to maintain data privacy.
– Aidbox
As of July 2024 Health Samurai offer free dev licenses for their Aidbox FHIR servers.
The developer instance uses OAuth authentication and comes with up to 5gbs of storage.
https://www.health-samurai.io/aidbox
– Medplum
Easy to configure and set up.
Ideal if you don’t have required privileges to run a local Docker instance.
Their free tier allows a few hundred resources.
https://www.medplum.com/
There are many other FHIR servers out there, but to my knowledge they only allow limited trials, so are not suitable for regular testing and development.
My recommendation and preferred approach is Option #1 above. The HAPI server is the easiest to set up. The Microsoft sever is ideal if your live environments are hosted on Azure as the code is the same.
While the HL7 Confluence pages do provide a list of public servers, most are unavailable.
If you’re looking for a list of FHIR Server Providers, I’ve listed and categorized them all here: https://darrendevitt.com/13-fhir-server-providers/
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