thumbroll vs CorePendium
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
thumbroll
This app offers innovative visual checklists for medical professionals to learn and retain information quickly. It's designed to help master anatomy, surgical procedures, physical exams, and more, saving valuable study time.
- Visual checklists
- Learn critical steps faster
- Master anatomy dissections
- Review for clinical rotations
- Ace USMLE Step 2 exam
- Content developed by medical professionals
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Because your time matters! thumbroll saves you time through innovative visual checklists, allowing you to learn and retain information in a fraction of the time. Join the community of medical students, residents, surgeons, & others using thumbroll to master anatomy dissections, physical exams, surgical cases, OB-GYN, & more. thumbroll is a must-have for all medical trainees during anatomy dissections, clinical rotations, while studying for the Step 2 clinical skills exam, and beyond. All content is developed by medical professionals, for medical professionals. We now have control over how fast we learn, giving us more time to focus on everything else. First came textbooks. Then videos. And now, we also have thumbroll. FEATURES: -- Free to download -- Review for clinical rotations -- Use as a visual checklist -- Learn critical steps faster -- Roll through content at your pace -- Ace the USMLE Step 2 exam OUR USERS ARE SAYING: “thumbroll is like having a textbook in my white coat.” “Much better than watching videos!” “Lifesaver for me during clinical rotations.” "thumbroll saves me time, energy, and a lot of headache! My first instinct when learning was: go to YouTube. The problem: it takes too long, the videos have unnecessary info that wastes my time, the quality isn't good, and sometimes it’s wrong. Now with thumbroll: I have all the information I need at my fingertips and I can see all the critical steps as fast as I want." Surgical Resident, Washington University / Barnes-Jewish MORE: facebook.com/thumbrollmed instagram.com/thumbroll youtube.com/c/thumbrollmedical Love thumbroll? Rate us! Your feedback helps us improve thumbroll even faster Questions? Email the team at hello@thumbroll.com
CorePendium
This app provides a comprehensive, continuously updated, and peer-reviewed clinical reference for Emergency and Urgent Care Medicine. It features integrated multimedia, offline access, intuitive navigation, and medical calculators, making it an essential tool for medical professionals on the go.
- Expert-backed, continuously revised content
- Integrated media library (ECGs, X-rays, videos, audio)
- Offline access to all content
- Intuitive navigation with Rapid Access and Deep Dive sections
- Integrated medical calculators
- Links to EM:RAP knowledge base content
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The textbook is dead. Long live CorePendium! CorePendium is the first truly comprehensive, continuously updated, peer-reviewed, multimedia clinical reference for Emergency and Urgent Care Medicine. Download the CorePendium App and bring the best clinical reference text with you anywhere in the world, regardless of connectivity. With your EM:RAP account, the CorePendium App allows you to join over 65,000 members of the CorePendium community. The CorePendium App gives you… • EXPERT-BACKED CONTENT — Written, edited, and peer-reviewed by a team of over 800 leading academics and practitioners, every CorePendium chapter is continuously revised by leading experts in emergency medicine and beyond. • INTEGRATED MEDIA — Comprehensive learning requires more than just words. Dive into our constantly growing media library of ECG’s and X-rays, as well as expertly-produced videos and audio segments. Look, listen, and learn, all without leaving the CorePendium App. • OFFLINE MODE — With new chapters being added and updated frequently to reflect the latest literature and practice guidelines, the CorePendium App makes sure you always have the newest information at your fingertips, 24 hours a day. The app looks for updates to its offline database every time you’re active online, so that you have the answers you need, no matter what. Do you want access to our skillfully-shot procedure videos and expert commentary away from a wireless connection? You can choose to download our audio and video content to ensure access when you need it most. • INTUITIVE NAVIGATION — Designed to prioritize all of the crucial information and media needed for the critical patient, CorePendium’s ‹Rapid Access› section gives you the quick insights you’ll need at the bedside. If you are looking for more background, the ‹Deep Dive› section provides all the information you’ll need to know about a topic. Sleek chapter sidebars, internal searches, search filters, and curated tabs ensure you can find what you need when you need it. • MEDICAL CALCULATORS — Get all of the commonly used clinical scoring and decision tools you need, with important interpretation data compiled by some of medicine’s foremost experts just a thumb slide away. Our calculators are also integrated with the content that uses it most. • PART OF THE EM:RAP KNOWLEDGE BASE — CorePendium is just one piece of the EM:RAP universe. The CorePendium App takes full advantage of its special connection to the most listened to programs in Emergency and Urgent Care Medicine by integrating that content. With continuously updated links to video, conference content, and podcasts you’ll always get the most cutting-edge answers. • INTERNATIONAL — CorePendium is for the whole world. We have an international advisory board that aims to address emergency care for patients and practitioners in all of the various environments where it is practiced. • EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE — CorePendium is written by clinicians for clinicians, without the support of advertising or industry. With the CorePendium App you just get the best information, current and expertly reviewed. • THE REFERENCE OF RECORD — Accessed millions of times, CorePendium is already the reference textbook used by residency training programs and frontline clinicians the world over.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: thumbroll at 91% against CorePendium's 62%. thumbroll also leads on monetization model (free vs freemium) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.1). CorePendium's advantage is rating (4.9 vs 4.6) and ratings volume (1.5K vs 78). 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.
CorePendium holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: CorePendium has 1.5K ratings behind it against 78, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 91% of thumbroll's written reviews are positive against 62% of CorePendium's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
thumbroll ships an update every 6 weeks, CorePendium monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | thumbroll | CorePendium |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (78 ratings) | 4.9 (1.5K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 91.1% of reviews — better | 61.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 78 | 1.5K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 35 MB | 49 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | thumbroll, llc | EM:RAP, Inc. |
Customer experience
thumbroll
CorePendium
User reviews
thumbroll
From 78 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great learning tool
- 👍 Visual learning aid
- 👍 Helpful for medical students/residents
- 👍 Step-by-step procedures
- 👍 Concise explanations
Room to improve
- 🐛 Login issues
- 🐛 App non-functional
- 🐛 Forced login loop
- 🐛 App offline
- 🐛 Not updated by developers
CorePendium
From 1.5K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Great resource
- 👍 Excellent and usable app
- 👍 Terrific point of care resource
- 👍 Invaluable for EM residents
Room to improve
- 🔍 Lacking search functionality
- 🐛 Crashes frequently
- 🔍 Poor indexing and content organization
Bugs and requests
thumbroll
Reported bugs
6 issues- Cannot log in
- App not functioning after login
- App continuously forces default login page
- App appears offline
- App not updated
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- Cannot go through more than one module
Requested features
2 requests- More procedures to be added
- More content to be added
CorePendium
Reported bugs
2 issues- Crashes on launch
- Compatibility issues with older devices
Requested features
3 requests- iPad version
- Ability to track progress and bookmark content
- Video playback controls (speed, rewind)
In-app purchases
thumbroll
No in-app purchases
CorePendium
No in-app purchases









