BMJ Best Practice vs Plabable for PA
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BMJ Best Practice
Access up-to-date, evidence-based clinical guidance for healthcare professionals. This app offers offline access to diagnostic, treatment, and prevention information, along with patient leaflets, calculators, and procedure videos. It also tracks CME/CPD activities.
- Evidence-based clinical guidance
- Offline access
- Patient leaflets
- Medical calculators
- Guidance videos
- CME/CPD tracking
Read full descriptionHide full description
Instant access to the latest evidence-based guidance for healthcare professionals. Updated daily, BMJ Best Practice provides healthcare professionals with the latest evidence-based clinical decision support information. It's available offline, which means clinical decision support can be accessed anytime, anywhere. This app can be downloaded by those who have access to the BMJ Best Practice website, and have already set-up a username and password. Don’t have a subscription? Download the app and access a free 7 day trial. The app provides: - Fast access to the latest guidance on diagnosis, prognosis, treatment and prevention - 500+ patient leaflets - 250+ medical calculators - Guidance videos on common clinical procedures - Automatic CME/CPD activity tracking Your feedback helps to inform future developments. At BMJ, we have a user-centered product development process, which means that we enhance the product based on what our customers, and our users tell us they need and want. As a result, we have introduced features such as ‘night mode’ and patient leaflets to the app. If you have a question or want to provide feedback, please contact us at support@bmj.com. Thank you!
Plabable for PA
Prepare for the Physician Associate National Examination (PANE) with high-yield practice questions and comprehensive revision guides. This app offers timed mock exams and evidence-based explanations to help you pass the knowledge-based assessment.
- High-yield practice questions
- Timed mock practices
- Comprehensive revision guides
- Evidence-based explanations
- Practice by clinical categories
- Flagging questions and guides
Read full descriptionHide full description
Passing the Physician Associate National Examination (PANE) is required to become a qualified physician associate in the UK. The exam includes two parts. The first part is made up of a 200-question, single-best-answer assessment taken online and the second part is an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). At Plabable for PA, we focus on high yield questions which are written and reviewed by qualified physician associates, closely resembling the first part of PANE which is a knowledge based assessment, giving you the best opportunity to pass on the first attempt. We take pride in staying on par with the current changes in the NHS and we consistently update our questions and explanations. The answers we provide are evidence-based and our explanations are from reliable sources including NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries, NICE guidelines and patient.info. Revise on the go with features including: ● Practise questions by clinical categories ● Timed mock practices ● Comprehensive revision guides ● Option for flagging questions and revision guides ● Optional add-on Gems and Decking feature ● Dedicated Whatsapp groups for discussion Start revising with us today!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: BMJ Best Practice at none against Plabable for PA's 7. BMJ Best Practice also leads on ratings volume (207 vs 1) and review sentiment (87% vs 72%). Plabable for PA's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0.0). On price, update cadence, ads and monetization model 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. Plabable for PA sells 7 one-off in-app purchases. BMJ Best Practice asks for nothing beyond the download.
Plabable for PA holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: BMJ Best Practice has 207 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 87% of BMJ Best Practice's written reviews are positive against 72% of Plabable for PA's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BMJ Best Practice | Plabable for PA |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (207 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 86.7% of reviews — better | 72.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 207 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 102 MB | 87 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | BMJ Group | Plabable Limited |
Customer experience
BMJ Best Practice
Plabable for PA
Bugs and requests
BMJ Best Practice
Reported bugs
3 issues- App getting stuck on download screen
- Inability to open the app on certain devices
- Automatic logout issues
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to save favorites and bookmarks
- Improved support for landscape mode and split-screen
- Author/reference details for content
- Institutional login option
Plabable for PA
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
BMJ Best Practice
No in-app purchases
Plabable for PA
- Gems$14.99
- Extend 3 Months$29.99
- 3 Months$39.99
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Extend 5 Months$39.99
- 3 Months + Gems$39.99
- 5 Months$49.99
- 5 Months + Gems$49.99
Questions
Is BMJ Best Practice free?
Is Plabable for PA free?
Which has better reviews, BMJ Best Practice or Plabable for PA?
Do BMJ Best Practice or Plabable for PA have ads?
Which is updated more often, BMJ Best Practice or Plabable for PA?
Other comparisons















