Antimicrobial Guide vs Red Book®
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Select infection of interest
- Display recommended drug regimens
- Utilize local healthcare institution guidelines
- Distribute empiric antimicrobial treatment guidelines
- Convenient clinician tool
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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.
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.
- Immunization schedules
- Vaccine status table
- Influenza resources
- COVID-19 and Mpox chapters
- Note-taking and highlighting
- Enhanced search functionality
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** 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
Verdict
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
Both are free to download. Red Book® sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Antimicrobial Guide asks for nothing beyond the download.
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.
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.
| Parameter | Antimicrobial Guide | Red Book® |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | 4.8 (67 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 67 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 11 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | — | #196 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 7.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 1 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Portable Databases | Unbound Medicine, Inc. |
Customer experience
Antimicrobial Guide
Red Book®
In-app purchases
Antimicrobial Guide
No in-app purchases
Red Book®
- Red Book 32e$99.99
- Red Book$99.99
Questions
Is Antimicrobial Guide free?
Is Red Book® free?
Which has better reviews, Antimicrobial Guide or Red Book®?
Do Antimicrobial Guide or Red Book® have ads?
Which is updated more often, Antimicrobial Guide or Red Book®?
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