One disadvantage is the greater complexity and cost and the lower reliability of an electronic device.

Dopplers for home or hospital use differ in the following ways: A major advantage of being able to record and share the recording is that it can be emailed to a healthcare professional to be checked if there are any concerns about whether or not it is the fetus's heart rate and whether or not is normal.

[2] In response to increasing home usage of clinical fetal doppler systems, the FDA issued a formal statement recommending against at-home use.

[3] Fetal dopplers using 2-3MHz ultrasound are prescription devices designed and developed for use by licensed and trained health care professionals.

System misuse (duration, angulation) and systems operating outside of intended range can produce thermal and non-thermal effects on fetal tissue, including the possibility for over-heating fetal tissue and introducing mechanical stress on the fetus due to cavitation, radiation force, and acoustic streaming.