Moxi Laser
The Moxi handpiece is glided over the skin in passes. It is a fractional laser set gently, so the skin looks flushed rather than raw afterwards.
← All comparisons
Dermapedia / CompareProcedures
Moxi vs Morpheus8
Moxi treats surface colour. Morpheus8 does not. Moxi is a laser that works in and just under the top layer of skin, so it suits brown spots, dullness and early sun damage. Morpheus8 is not a laser: fine needles go deeper and release radiofrequency heat from their tips, so it suits texture, mild sagging and acne scarring. If pigment is your main worry, only one of these two is built for it.
At a glance
| The difference | Moxi Laser | Morpheus8 |
|---|---|---|
| What it is best at | Brown spots, dullness, early sun damage | Texture, mild laxity and acne scarring |
| Downtime | Redness, then a bronzed, sandpapery feel | Redness, swelling and a grid of marks |
| Cost | No published price | No published price |
Morpheus8
The Morpheus8 tip up close. The gold pins are what carry the radiofrequency energy below the surface — the needles are the delivery route, not the treatment itself.
Side by side
The differences that matter
What you actually do
Moxi Laser
A laser passed over the skin
It heats the skin without removing the surface. It also treats in tiny columns, leaving untreated skin in between.
Morpheus8
Needles plus heat, from a pin array
Radiofrequency energy runs through an array of pins. The pins are coated except for the last 0.5 mm, so the heat leaves at the tip rather than at the surface.
How deep it goes
Moxi Laser
Roughly 100 to 200 microns
A micron is a thousandth of a millimetre. So this is a fraction of a millimetre.
Morpheus8
Set by needle length, up to 7 mm
There is a fixed 0.5 mm resurfacing tip, and up to 7 mm on the largest tips.
What it is best at
Moxi Laser
Brown spots, dullness, early sun damage
Surface colour, in other words — the things you can see sitting on the skin.
Morpheus8
Texture, mild laxity and acne scarring
Acne scars are the best-evidenced use of radiofrequency microneedling. A review of 16 studies covering 481 patients called it "likely an effective treatment for acne scarring" on its own. That hedged wording is the authors' own.
What it will not do
Moxi Laser
It does not reach the deeper layer
Texture, sagging and dented scars sit deeper than this light reaches.
Morpheus8
It is not aimed at surface colour
Brown spots and dullness are not what it is built to treat.
Downtime
Moxi Laser
Redness, then a bronzed, sandpapery feel
Redness on day one. Then a rough, bronzed texture through the middle of the week.
Morpheus8
Redness, swelling and a grid of marks
The marks are where the needles went in. In studies, every patient went red and about 30 per cent swelled. One study put downtime at three to four days.
Comfort
Moxi Laser
Tolerable with numbing cream
Morpheus8
Needling plus heat, with numbing cream
Numbing cream is standard.
Sessions
Moxi Laser
Usually a series, commonly three or more
Morpheus8
Usually 3 to 5 treatments
Repeated every 3 to 6 weeks. Published protocols cluster at three sessions. That is a convention carried between studies, not a tested number.
Cost
Moxi Laser
No published price
No professional society publishes a price for Moxi. Ask the clinic for the cost of the full series, not one session.
Morpheus8
No published price
The only prices around come from patients themselves. Nobody checks them.
The at-home or drugstore version
Moxi Laser
No home version of a clinic laser
Home light wands put a fraction of the power into the surface. They never reach the depth a clinic device works at.
Morpheus8
Rollers and home pens are a different thing
A roller drags sideways instead of going straight in and out, so it tears more than it punctures. Its needles are shorter and blunt quickly. No home device heats from the needle tips, which is the part that works.
Who tends to be happy with it
Moxi Laser
- Best for — Surface colour and a dull, uneven tone, in someone who wants to keep the week manageable.
- The mindset — Little and often, aimed at how the skin looks rather than how it sits.
Morpheus8
- Best for — Texture, scarring and early laxity, in someone who accepts a visibly marked few days.
- The mindset — Fewer, bigger sessions, with a slow result measured over months.
What the Morpheus8 evidence actually is
Morpheus8
Almost none of it was generated on a Morpheus8. The published research on radiofrequency microneedling comes from other machines. The evidence for the class is real. It is simply not this brand's evidence, and anyone quoting study results under the Morpheus8 name should be able to say which device produced them.
Before you book
Morpheus8
Tell the clinic before booking Morpheus8 if you have a pacemaker, a defibrillator or a metal implant near the treated area. These are labelled cautions for radiofrequency devices. They are precautionary rather than tested. Your cardiology team, not the clinic, is the right group to advise you.
If you have a deeper skin tone, ask what energy per pin is planned for Morpheus8. Settings above 62 mJ per pin are meant for lighter skin tones only.
The fine print
Moxi Laser
Moxi's clearance does name conditions. Moxi is the 1927 nm module on Sciton's Joule platform. The platform's clearance — K182173, granted 6 March 2019 — covers coagulation of soft tissue, treatment of actinic keratosis (rough patches caused by sun damage), and treatment of benign pigmented lesions such as lentigos (age spots), solar lentigos (sun spots) and ephelides (freckles). Wrinkles, texture and melasma are not in it. The trade name Moxi does not appear in the clearance; the device named there is the Joule 1927 nm laser system.
Morpheus8
Morpheus8's clearances name no cosmetic use at all. They cover electrocoagulation and hemostasis — surgical language for sealing tissue and stopping bleeding — in December 2019 (K192695), then coagulation or contraction of soft tissue in July 2023 (K231790). Acne scars, wrinkles, laxity, the jawline and the neck appear in no Morpheus8 clearance. Morpheus8 is made by InMode; the 1 MHz radiofrequency and the depth figures up to 7 mm come from InMode's own operator manuals, and the 100 to 200 micron depth figure for Moxi is Sciton's own.
Common questions
Questions Patients Ask
Which one should I have first if I am having both?
There is no published trial of the two together, so no order is established. Ask the clinic what each treatment is for in your case, and how long they want between them.
Which is better for brown spots?
Moxi is the one aimed at surface pigment, and benign pigmented lesions and actinic keratosis are named in its clearance. Morpheus8's clearance names no pigment condition at all.
Which is better for acne scars?
Morpheus8, on depth alone — scars are remodelled in the dermis, and Moxi works far too close to the surface to do that. Acne scars are also the best-evidenced use of radiofrequency microneedling, with a systematic review of 16 studies behind it, although they are not named in any Morpheus8 clearance.
Which has less downtime?
Moxi, in the sense that it leaves less to see. Radiofrequency microneedling produced redness in every patient in published studies and swelling in about 30 per cent, plus a grid of needle marks that Moxi does not produce.
Is Morpheus8 a laser?
No. It is an electrosurgical device — 1 MHz radiofrequency current passed through microneedles. There is no light involved, which is why its heating does not depend on the pigment in your skin the way a laser's does.
How much do they cost?
No professional society publishes a price for either treatment. The only dated figure available is for Morpheus8: an average of $1,861 from 124 self-reported patient prices on RealSelf, last updated in May 2024, with single small-area sessions from $549 and full series quoted above $4,000. That is crowdsourced, not audited, and now some years old. There is no comparable published price for Moxi.
Will either result last a year?
For Morpheus8, nobody has measured that. The longest properly measured follow-up in the radiofrequency microneedling literature is six months after the final session, and the "one to three years" claim has no published source. Neither treatment stops skin ageing while you wait.
Safety to keep in mind
The two devices went through different FDA paperwork, and neither position proves anything works. A 510(k) clearance is a decision that a device is much like a device already on the market, not a finding of benefit.
Treating outside the cleared wording is legal and routine. Both treatments are used that way every day. The point is only that "FDA cleared" does not mean cleared for the thing you are booking it for.
RF microneedling can cause serious injury. The FDA has received reports of burns, scarring, loss of fat, nerve damage and disfigurement. Some injuries have needed surgery or other medical treatment. A few days of expected redness is not the full risk picture.
Choose a licensed medical professional trained on the device. Discuss the risks and other treatment options before deciding. RF microneedling should not be done at home.