Comparison

Antimicrobial Guide vs Red Book®

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Antimicrobial Guide

This app assists healthcare professionals in choosing the right antimicrobial treatments for patients. It displays recommended drug regimens based on local guidelines after a database is loaded. It's a convenient tool for distributing treatment guidelines.

Highlights
  • Select infection of interest
  • Display recommended drug regimens
  • Utilize local healthcare institution guidelines
  • Distribute empiric antimicrobial treatment guidelines
  • Convenient clinician tool
Features
Read full description

The Antimicrobial Guide helps healthcare professionals select the appropriate antimicrobial treatment for their patients based on local guidelines and recommendations. Once a database is loaded into the Antimicrobial Guide, clinicians can simply select the infection of interest and the app will display the drug regimen that is recommended by their local healthcare institution and/or antimicrobial stewardship program. For antimicrobial stewardship programs, the Antimicrobial Guide is a powerful way to distribute empiric antimicrobial treatment guidelines in a format that is both easy and convenient for clinicians to use.

About

Red Book®

This app provides the latest information on pediatric infectious diseases from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It includes immunization schedules, vaccine status, influenza resources, and new chapters on COVID-19 and Mpox. Features like note-taking and enhanced search aid quick access to essential medical data.

Highlights
  • Immunization schedules
  • Vaccine status table
  • Influenza resources
  • COVID-19 and Mpox chapters
  • Note-taking and highlighting
  • Enhanced search functionality
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

** The Red Book is the foundational resource on pediatric infectious disease** Featuring content from the latest edition, the Red Book: 2024–2027 Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provides the most up-to-date information on a wide variety of infectious diseases that physicians encounter in children. Written and edited by leading experts in the field, along with contributions from the CDC, the FDA, and hundreds of other professionals, this resource stands as the most authoritative and comprehensive available. The Red Book features: * Immunization Schedules - Recommended immunization and catch-up schedules for infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. * Vaccine Status Table - Current information about recently submitted, licensed, and recommended vaccines and biologics, including status of the FDA licensure process and related AAP/CDC recommendations. * Influenza Resources - A comprehensive collection of information on influenza, serving as a centralized reference for vaccine guidance, prevention, treatment, payment policies, news, and other relevant details for infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. * Standardized approaches to disease prevention through immunizations, antimicrobial prophylaxis, and infection-control practices have been updated throughout the Red Book. * Two new chapters on Covid-19 and Mpox have been added. * The System-Based Treatment Table has been reordered so that the grouped recommendations by body system are more easily and quickly accessed. * Greatly expanded tables, figures and algorithms enable quick access to essential information. * The Breastfeeding and Human Milk chapter was updated to align with information from the latest AAP policy statement on breastfeeding. * The listing of Codes for Commonly Administered Pediatric Vaccines, Toxoids, and Immune Globulins has been expanded. * Reference to evidence-based policy recommendations have been updated throughout the Red Book. Unbound Medicine Features: * Highlighting and note-taking within entries * “Favorites” for bookmarking important topics * Enhanced Search to find topics quickly * Prime PubMed links to the primary literature Author: Committee on Infectious Diseases Publisher: American Academy of Pediatrics Editor: David W. Kimberlin, MD, FAAP; Associate Editors: Ritu Banerjee, MD, PhD, FAAP, Elizabeth D. Barnett, MD, FAAP; Ruth Lynfield, MD, FAAP; and Mark H. Sawyer, MD, FAAP Powered By: Unbound Medicine Unbound Medicine Privacy Policy: https://www.unboundmedicine.com/privacy Unbound Medicine Terms of Use: https://www.unboundmedicine.com/end_user_license_agreement

Screenshots

Antimicrobial Guide4 screens
Red Book®4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Antimicrobial Guide at none against Red Book®'s 2. Antimicrobial Guide also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 11 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). Red Book®'s advantage is ratings volume (67 vs 2) and chart position (#196 vs unranked). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Red Book® sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Antimicrobial Guide asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Antimicrobial Guide holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Red Book® has 67 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Antimicrobial Guide ships an update every 3 weeks, Red Book® every 11 months. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Antimicrobial Guide versus Red Book®: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAntimicrobial GuideRed Book®
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better4.8 (67 ratings)
Positive reviews—0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings267 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 11 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#196 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS7.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB9 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperPortable DatabasesUnbound Medicine, Inc.

Customer experience

Antimicrobial Guide

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Red Book®

All ratings67 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral1.5%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral66.7%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

None

Antimicrobial Guide

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Red Book®

One-time2
  • Red Book 32e$99.99
  • Red Book$99.99

Questions

Is Antimicrobial Guide free?
Antimicrobial Guide is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Red Book® free?
Red Book® is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Antimicrobial Guide or Red Book®?
Antimicrobial Guide is rated higher. Antimicrobial Guide averages 5.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Red Book® averages 4.8 from 67 ratings.
Do Antimicrobial Guide or Red Book® have ads?
Neither Antimicrobial Guide nor Red Book® shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Antimicrobial Guide or Red Book®?
Antimicrobial Guide ships an update every 3 weeks, and Red Book® every 11 months. Most recently, Antimicrobial Guide was updated on October 2, 2026 and Red Book® on October 13, 2026.

Other comparisons