PureLift Face or Therabody TheraFace PRO, $499 Against $420
Medically reviewed by
4 independent reviewers
Andrew Conrad Barile, PT, DPT
Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) | Licensed Physical Therapist (PT) | CEO and Founder, Xtreem Pulse LLC
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Dr. Andrew Conrad Barile is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and the CEO and Founder of Xtreem Pulse LLC, the engineering company behind PureLift. He earned his Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Daemen College and is a licensed physical therapist.
He brings over two decades of clinical and entrepreneurial experience across physical therapy, craniosacral therapy and medical device innovation, built on a working knowledge of human anatomy and muscle physiology.
For PureLift LAB he reviews how current is delivered across all ten levels, from sub-sensory nanocurrent and skin-level microcurrent to motor-level EMS, and how the Infuse pass fits into the same ten-minute routine.
Bertica M. Rubio, M.D.
Board-Certified Physician, Dartmouth Medical School | Medical Director, Antiaging Regenerative Medicine Clinic
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Dr. Bertica M. Rubio is a board-certified physician and Medical Director of the Antiaging Regenerative Medicine Clinic in Redlands, California. She earned her Doctor of Medicine from Dartmouth Medical School and completed her pediatrics residency at UC Irvine Medical Center.
With decades of clinical experience, she specialises in age management medicine, regenerative medicine, wound healing and growth factor therapies, and her practice integrates evidence-based medical science with advanced aesthetic treatment.
For PureLift LAB she reviews articles for medical accuracy across the whole dial, from the gentle nanocurrent and microcurrent settings through to muscle-level EMS and the Infuse pass.
Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS
Board-Certified Otolaryngologist | Head and Neck Surgeon | Fellow, American College of Surgeons | Mount Sinai
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Daniel Grinberg, MD, FACS is a board-certified otolaryngologist and head and neck surgeon at ENT and Allergy Associates in West Nyack, New York. He earned his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
He completed his otolaryngology residency at New York University Medical Center, serves as Assistant Clinical Professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and is a Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the American Academy of Otolaryngology.
For PureLift LAB he brings a wider clinical lens, connecting at-home facial stimulation from microcurrent to EMS to the anatomy underneath, with the same rigour we apply to every device specification.
Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann
Chair of Angiology, Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg | Clinic Director, University Clinic for Angiology
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Prof. Dr. med. Ivo Buschmann is Chair of Angiology at the Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg Theodor Fontane and Clinic Director of the University Clinic for Angiology at the Brandenburg University Hospital.
He trained at the University of Hamburg, was a Max Planck Society Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research, and held senior consultant posts at the Charite Universitatsmedizin Berlin before his appointment as Chair in 2016.
One of Europe's leading authorities on arteriogenesis, with over 150 peer-reviewed publications and US and EU patents, he reviews for PureLift LAB how the evidence on electrical stimulation is read and where its limits lie.
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TheraFace PRO sells at $419.99 and packs percussion massage, microcurrent, cleansing and LED rings into one handle with swappable attachments.
This article compares the two on what decides the result you actually see, such as:
- Two different products wearing the same price tag
- What TheraFace PRO does well
- Where the multi-tool compromises
- What PureLift Face does instead
- The published figures
and many more!
These are not really the same product, and the honest comparison is about which job you are buying for; we make PureLift, so read accordingly.
Key Points:
TheraFace PRO's microcurrent runs at 500 microamps, below the motor threshold, so no attachment contracts a muscle.
Its LED ring offers red at 633 nm and blue at 415 nm, used one at a time rather than together.
Percussion massage is the standout feature and nothing PureLift makes does it.
PureLift Face reaches 7 mA at 500 ohms and crosses into EMS at level 3.
TheraFace PRO is made in China; PureLift devices are made in Japan in an ISO 13485 facility.
Two different products wearing the same price tag
TheraFace PRO is a multi-tool. You swap attachments to switch between percussion massage, microcurrent, cleansing and light, and the appeal is that one purchase covers four routines that would otherwise be four gadgets on the shelf.
PureLift Face is a single-category device that goes deep instead of wide; the six technologies on its dial are all electrical, all delivered through the same probe, and the range runs from nanocurrent to EMS.
Comparing them properly means asking what you actually want, not which spec sheet is longer.
What TheraFace PRO does well
The percussion massage is the reason most people buy it, and it is genuinely good. Therabody came from the Theragun and knows how to build a motor; if your jaw is tight, if you clench at night, if tension is the thing you are trying to work out of your face, nothing PureLift makes will do that job.
The cleansing ring is a reasonable substitute for a dedicated cleansing brush, and the LED ring gives you red at 633 nm for wrinkles and blue at 415 nm for blemishes. Therabody's clearances for the device are on file as K212155 and K212238.
The conductive gel is $29.99, which is at the cheaper end of the category.
Where the multi-tool compromises
Microcurrent at 500 microamps is real microcurrent, and it sits under the motor threshold, so no setting contracts a muscle. If you were hoping the toning attachment would lift the jawline the way EMS does, it will not, because it is not that category of current. Microcurrent in that band is not nothing, and a 2022 systematic review found measurable effects on wound healing at sub-motor intensities (10.1016/j.jtv.2021.12.002), which is the honest case for it.
The LED ring runs one wavelength at a time and the ring is small, so coverage is a matter of moving it around the face rather than treating the whole face at once. A dedicated mask does that job far better.
Each attachment is decent at its job and none is best in class, which is the usual arithmetic of a multi-tool.
What PureLift Face does instead
Six technologies sit on one ten-level dial: Infusion, iontophoresis, nanocurrent, microcurrent, EMS and PDM.
Levels 1 and 2 are nanocurrent and microcurrent, the same band TheraFace PRO's toning ring occupies. From level 3 the current crosses the motor threshold and the muscle contracts, and Face reaches 7 mA at 500 ohms with a 4 microsecond pulse width.
PDM, Pulsed Dynamic Modulation, cycles through 361 frequency points between 1,370 and 1,730 Hz, which is what keeps the session comfortable across ten minutes rather than fatiguing.
Infusion and iontophoresis run together in Infuse mode with any water-based serum; Infusion opens temporary routes through the outer skin layer and iontophoresis moves charged ingredients along them. Iontophoresis is not a marketing word for absorption; Zhang and colleagues measured the increase in vitamin C penetration it produces (10.1016/S0378-5173(99)00058-3).
There is no percussion, no cleansing brush and no light on Face; GLOW at $999 adds red at 634 nm and blue at 465 nm if light matters to you.
The published figures
Therabody publishes 500 microamps for the microcurrent ring, 633 nm red and 415 nm blue for the light, and lists China as the manufacturing country, with FDA records K212155 and K212238.
PureLift Face is cleared under K190269, dated 28 August 2019, delivers up to 7 mA at 500 ohms, and is made in Japan in an ISO 13485 facility by a company that has made facial stimulation devices, and nothing else, since 1987.
For the science, Kavanagh and colleagues measured an 18.6 percent increase in cheek muscle thickness over 12 weeks with motor-level stimulation (10.1111/jocd.12007), and Lee and colleagues ran a split-face LED study worth reading before buying anything light-based (PMID 17566756). Neither tested either device here.
How to choose
Buy TheraFace PRO if tension and massage are the main thing, you want several routines from one purchase, and you are content with microcurrent rather than muscle work.
Buy PureLift Face if contour is the main thing, you want the full range from nanocurrent to EMS on one dial, and you would rather have one category done properly than four done adequately.
Owning both is not a silly answer either; they genuinely do different jobs.
Three minutes per side is the maximum on any PureLift model, and the ten minute session ends on its own. For the full breakdown, see how the nine PureLift technologies work.
This comparison sits inside our full map of the category, where we set out all 33 devices we track, what each one carries and what each brand publishes: Nine Technologies on One Dial, What the Rest of the Market Actually Carries.
Two related questions come up often alongside this one, and we have answered both in full: TheraFace and NuFACE compared, and the four devices we do not compete with.