Medical FlashNotes vs The BMJ
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Medical FlashNotes
This clinical medicine reference tool helps students and residents quickly look up conditions and drugs. It allows users to create custom flashcards from any content and offers a random flashcard quiz mode. All data is stored offline for convenient access.
- Clinical medicine reference
- Quick lookup for conditions and drugs
- Create custom flashcards
- Random flashcard quiz mode
- Offline data storage
- Concise reviews of thousands of topics
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Medical FlashNotes is a clinical medicine reference and studying tool for students and residents, covering medicine, surgery, paediatrics, psychiatry, and obs & gynae. It is ideal for quickly looking up a condition on the wards, or studying for exams. Browse or use the quick autocomplete search to access concise reviews of thousands of conditions, presentations, and drugs, with the ability to turn anything you read into a flashcard by swiping it. These are then stored in your custom flashcard stack to review later. Alternatively, the random flashcard mode allows you to quiz yourself using over 5000 flashcards. All the app data is stored offline - so there's no need to rely on wifi or a mobile signal - with a small file size of under 10 MB. The app is a free, non-commercial piece of FOAM (Free Open Access to Medical education).
The BMJ
Access a leading general medical journal for researchers, clinicians, and policymakers. Stay updated with practice-changing research, expert columns, and embedded video content. Enjoy offline access to downloaded issues and earn CME points.
- Read leading medical research
- Apply practice-changing takeaways
- Access trusted, data-supported news
- Offline access to downloaded issues
- Earn CME points
- Read ahead of print
- Embedded video content
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Online, The BMJ is one of the world’s leading general medical journals for researchers, educators, clinicians and policy-makers. The BMJ is the house journal of British medicine, owned by Britain’s doctors. The BMJ app lets you - read what the world's leading doctors read - apply practice-changing takeaways - trust news supported by data - advance your career - read columnists who get what it means to do your job - search downloaded issues - read ahead of print The BMJ app brings you the latest weekly issue including: - Offline access: handy for planes, trains and automobiles, or wherever there’s no wi-fi - Selected news articles and columnists - Education articles, CME points - Research articles and reviews - Search through downloaded issues - Video content embedded - FREE TO BMA MEMBERS AND PERSONAL SUBSCRIBERS Use your BMA membership credentials, or personal subscriber details to log in Not a BMA member or personal subscriber? Then subscribe to The BMJ for £10.49 a month, where the first month is free. You’ll get instant access to every issue published since January 2017! Purchasing a subscription to The BMJ app at a cost of £10.49 a month will give you access to all the app editions of The BMJ. A monthly purchase will be applied to your iTunes account at the end of the first month trial. Subscriptions will automatically renew at a cost of £10.49 a month unless cancelled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime or turn off auto-renew with your iTunes account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial will be forfeited if you purchase a subscription. For more information, see our terms and conditions https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj-website-terms-and-conditions-0 and privacy policy https://www.bmj.com/company/your-privacy/. If you experience any problems, please email customer support on support@bmj.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Medical FlashNotes at 100% against The BMJ's 57%. Medical FlashNotes also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.2) and in-app purchases (none vs 1). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. The BMJ sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $11.49 per month. Medical FlashNotes asks for nothing beyond the download.
Medical FlashNotes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 13 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Medical FlashNotes's written reviews are positive against 57% of The BMJ's.
Medical FlashNotes ships an update every 5 months, The BMJ every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Medical FlashNotes | The BMJ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (9 ratings) — better | 4.2 (13 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 57.1% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9 | 13 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Subscription |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 241 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Robert Goulden | BMJ Group |
Customer experience
Medical FlashNotes
The BMJ
Bugs and requests
Medical FlashNotes
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
The BMJ
Reported bugs
38 issues- App won’t open on iPhone
- App always asks to restore purchase
- Account does not exist
- Often doesn’t allow access to most recent edition
- Poor updating of editions
Show 33 moreShow fewer
- Does not come up quickly
- Poor access
- Often doesn’t work
- Not up to date
- Can’t link to previous articles
- Links open in app instead of browser
- Can’t get back to menu
- No way back to contents page
- Only way out is to force quit
- Freezes after one article
- No obvious back button
- Can’t access app despite paying
- Links open in app instead of browser
- No browser functionality
- Rotation bug
- Requires quitting app every time
- Not working with BMA sign in
- New BMJs do not download
- Journals not added promptly
- Slow to update issues
- Never seems to update well
- Not working at all since updated
- User unfriendly now
- Unable to download new issue
- Get into older ones
- Downloading system hit and miss
- Syncing issues
- No longer receiving new issues
- Screen goes white repeatedly
- Loses place
- Resets to top of article
- Incompatible with Safari
- No direct way of opening articles in any browser
Requested features
10 requests- Copy figures and tables to more apps directly
- Copy figures and tables to more apps directly eg Twitter lectures etc
- Would be nice to be able to export text/tables/flow charts with a click
- Would like a bit less subscription payment
- Please see title! (Dark mode)
Show 5 moreShow fewer
- Please fix rotation bug
- Could integrate with BMJ learning
- Get with the times
- If developers could fix this it would certainly be a 5 star app
- If they add a direct share button I'll give it 5 ✳️✳️✳️✳️✳️
In-app purchases
Medical FlashNotes
No in-app purchases
The BMJ
- The BMJ (1 month)1 Month trial$11.491 Month
Questions
Is Medical FlashNotes free?
Is The BMJ free?
Which has better reviews, Medical FlashNotes or The BMJ?
Do Medical FlashNotes or The BMJ have ads?
Which is updated more often, Medical FlashNotes or The BMJ?
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