BMJ Best Practice vs Alertive
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!
Alertive
This app streamlines urgent communication for healthcare professionals, enabling faster patient care and reducing administrative tasks. It facilitates secure information sharing, team assembly, and real-time collaboration across devices.
- Optimized care team assembly
- Advanced emergency alerting
- Integration with clinical systems
- Real-time collaboration
- Secure data handling
- Role-based access
- Multi-modal communication
Read full descriptionHide full description
Improving Communication for Healthcare Workers Alertive aims to enhance urgent care delivery by simplifying communication processes, reducing administrative burdens, and allowing healthcare professionals to focus on patient care. The platform prioritises secure, swift information distribution to improve patient outcomes and workplace efficiency. Key Features Optimised Assembly of Care Teams Alertive simplifies team assembly, ensuring quick connections to the right individuals for urgent needs. The platform's role management efficiently identifies team members, enabling quick role assignments. A digital directory streamlines communication by enabling direct contact with individuals. Advanced Alerting Capabilities Emergency alerts are prioritised for prompt delivery, breaking through locked screens and silence modes. Alertive delivers 80% of emergency alerts within 5 seconds. Failover and escalation strategies handle undelivered alerts, achieving a 93% response rate. Integration with Clinical Systems Seamless integration with third-party systems allows data to be incorporated directly into Alertive communications. Integrated services include system-generated notifications, data requests, and updates, ensuring events captured within Alertive are transcribed to third-party systems. Universal Real-Time Collaboration Alertive facilitates secure access to and sharing of patient information across various formats and devices. The platform supports video calls, voice notes, dictation, and image sharing, leveraging smartphone capabilities. Core Product Security and Compliance Alertive ensures compliance with standards like ISO 27001:2022, Cyber Essentials, NHS Digital's Data Security and Protection Toolkit, and DCB0129. Robust encryption and threat protection are essential. Regular external penetration testing and AWS GuardDuty reinforce data safety. Workforce Enablement Role-based access ensures only authorised personnel access sensitive information. User status displays colleague availability, making immediate communication easier. A comprehensive user directory lists all staff members, streamlining contact processes. User management capabilities handle accounts efficiently, including adding, removing, and modifying roles. Assembling care teams is simplified, enabling quick formation based on needs. Inter-Staff Communication Multi-modal communication supports various forms of messaging, including text, voice, and video, allowing staff to choose the most appropriate method. Shift handovers are managed efficiently, ensuring that critical information is passed seamlessly reducing miscommunication risks. Improved communication tools support staff during nighttime hours, ensuring access to information and support. Historical records are easily accessible for audits and ongoing patient care. Transcription services convert spoken communication into written text for easy documentation. Emergency Communication Prioritising urgent alerts, enabling rapid team mobilisation, and integrating telephony, Alertive ensures immediate delivery of critical messages, even through locked screens, and facilitates quick assembly of response teams. Telephony integration replaces traditional switchboards, providing multiple communication channels, enhancing operational efficiency, improving patient triage times and ensuring swift, coordinated action in critical situations. EPR Integration Healthcare professionals have immediate access to complete patient records, enabling more informed decision-making and improved patient care. EPR integration enhances Alertive's functionality by incorporating comprehensive patient records directly into its communication platform. This simplifies workflows by reducing the need to switch between different systems. Direct integration with EPR systems ensures that data used within Alertive is accurate and up-to-date, reducing the risk of errors associated with manual data entry.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: BMJ Best Practice at 87% against Alertive's 20%. Alertive's advantage is monetization model (ad-supported vs freemium). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BMJ Best Practice | Alertive |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (207 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 86.5% of reviews — better | 20.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 207 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Freemium | Ad-supported — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0.0 | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 102 MB | 62 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | BMJ Group | Alertive Limited |
Customer experience
BMJ Best Practice
Alertive
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
Alertive
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
BMJ Best Practice
No in-app purchases
Alertive
No in-app purchases








