Comparison

Medical FlashNotes vs The BMJ

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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).

About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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

Medical FlashNotes4 screens
The BMJ4 screens

Verdict

The call

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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

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.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Medical FlashNotes versus The BMJ: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMedical FlashNotesThe BMJ
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (9 ratings) — better4.2 (13 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better57.1% of reviews
Number of ratings913 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.014.2 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB241 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperRobert GouldenBMJ Group

Customer experience

Medical FlashNotes

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews15 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

The BMJ

All ratings13 ratings
Positive84.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative15.4%
Written reviews63 reviews
Positive57.1%
Neutral7.9%
Negative34.9%

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 more
  • 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 more
  • 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

None

Medical FlashNotes

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

The BMJ

Subscriptions1
  • The BMJ (1 month)1 Month trial$11.491 Month

Questions

Is Medical FlashNotes free?
Medical FlashNotes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is The BMJ free?
The BMJ is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Medical FlashNotes or The BMJ?
Medical FlashNotes is rated higher. Medical FlashNotes averages 5.0 out of 5 from 9 ratings, while The BMJ averages 4.2 from 13 ratings.
Do Medical FlashNotes or The BMJ have ads?
Neither Medical FlashNotes nor The BMJ shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Medical FlashNotes or The BMJ?
Medical FlashNotes ships an update every 5 months, and The BMJ every 6 months. Most recently, Medical FlashNotes was updated on November 4, 2026 and The BMJ on November 2, 2026.

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