COMQUEST COMLEX vs Essentials Handbook
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
COMQUEST COMLEX
Prepare for COMLEX and COMAT exams with practice questions and detailed explanations created by osteopathic physicians. Features include customizable exam modes, question filtering by status or specialty, and performance tracking against peers. Review past exams, add notes, and monitor answer changes to solidify your knowledge.
- Customizable exam modes (tutor, timed, untimed)
- Question filtering by status and specialty
- Performance review against peers
- Note-taking on questions and explanations
- Answer change tracking (ChoiceTrax)
- Review of marked and guessed questions
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COMLEX and COMAT assessments designed specifically by osteopathic physicians! Access questions with detailed explanations to assess and exhibit your knowledge of the COMLEX Level 1, COMLEX Level 2-CE, COMLEX Level 3, or any of the core COMATs. Here is what the app has: Exam mode: choose from tutor, timed, and untimed modes Question mode: choose from incorrect, correct, marked, used, or all questions Specialties and Tasks categories: narrow down your exam further by individual specialties and tasks in each shelf exam Review exams: review previous exams to see how you did compared to your peers in score and time (for individual questions and the entire exam). Marked questions: see how you’re doing on marked questions and review the questions to unmark them Notes: you can take notes on individual questions and explanations and refer back to them anytime Guessed score: mark questions as “guessed” to see if your guessed score ChoiceTrax: all of your changes are tracked so that you can see how often you’re changing the right answer to wrong, and vice versa Comments: submit comments to our staff to review and reply back to you *Must have a previous internal account to use app*
Essentials Handbook
This educational handbook provides essential information for physicians covering general hospital procedures, systems, patient care, and infection control. It serves as a comprehensive resource for medical professionals.
- General Ins & Outs
- Systems Information
- Patient Care Guidelines
- Infection Control Protocols
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The Center for Physician Education Essentials Handbook. This handbook includes General Ins & Outs, Systems, Patient Care and Infection Control.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Essentials Handbook at 100% against COMQUEST COMLEX's 42%. Essentials Handbook also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.0) and in-app purchases (none vs 17). COMQUEST COMLEX's advantage is ratings volume (142 vs 2). 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. COMQUEST COMLEX sells 17 one-off in-app purchases. Essentials Handbook asks for nothing beyond the download.
Essentials Handbook holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: COMQUEST COMLEX has 142 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 42% of COMQUEST COMLEX's written reviews are positive against 100% of Essentials Handbook's.
COMQUEST COMLEX ships an update every 2 months, Essentials Handbook monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | COMQUEST COMLEX | Essentials Handbook |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (142 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 41.7% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 142 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | COMQUEST Osteopathic Specialists, LLC | Center for Physician Education, LLC |
Customer experience
COMQUEST COMLEX
Essentials Handbook
Bugs and requests
COMQUEST COMLEX
Reported bugs
8 issues- Pausing/suspending exam messes up final score
- Highlighting is variable, won't clear, or adds space
- App lets users click and type over explanations
- Exhibit covers question vignette
- Cuts off half of the question stem
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- Server crashes
- App hardly opens, crashes, and doesn't load images
- ExamGuru error 403
Requested features
10 requests- iPad version with landscape support
- Strike through and highlight option
- Ability to enlarge vitals box
- Fix highlighting issues
- Fix issues with typing over explanations
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- Fix pausing/suspending exam bug
- Improve readability of tables and exhibits on mobile
- Improve graphics and interface
- Add CDM case prompts
- Update app to modern standards
Essentials Handbook
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
COMQUEST COMLEX
- Emergency Med COMAT 1 month$87.90
- Family Medicine COMAT 1 month$87.90
- Internal Med COMAT 1 month$87.90
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- OMM COMAT 1 month$87.90
- Pediatrics COMAT 1 month$87.90
- Surgery COMAT 1 month$87.90
- Ob/Gyn COMAT 1 month$87.90
- Psychiatry COMAT 1 month$87.90
- Internal Med COMAT 2 months$113.99
- Family Medicine COMAT 2 months$113.99
- COMLEX Level 2-CE 1 month$234.99
- COMLEX 3 Level 1 month$234.99
- COMLEX 3 Level 2 months$350.00
- COMLEX Level 2-CE 3 months$429.00
- COMLEX 3 Level 3 months$429.00
- COMLEX 3 Level 6 months$509.00
- COMLEX 3 Level 1 year$639.00
Essentials Handbook
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is COMQUEST COMLEX free?
Is Essentials Handbook free?
Which has better reviews, COMQUEST COMLEX or Essentials Handbook?
Do COMQUEST COMLEX or Essentials Handbook have ads?
Which is updated more often, COMQUEST COMLEX or Essentials Handbook?
Other comparisons
