Comparison

Biomedical Scholar vs Folio

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

Head to head
About

Biomedical Scholar

Features
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Helps DPC Build Programs to maintain long term contact with their Scholars- App Encourages students to participate in Build Program events - Receive rewards while completing campaigns - Scholars can share their recent achievements - Update their profiles The Diversity Program Consortium (DPC) is a network of institutions, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to improve training and mentoring and to enhance individuals' success in biomedical research careers. This initiative aims to transform institutional culture and biomedical training and mentoring nationwide.

About

Folio

Features
Read full description

Folio turns staying current with research into something you actually look forward to. Instead of cluttered tables and endless tabs, you get one paper per screen โ€” swipe up for the next, just like your favorite feed. Pulled live from the open-access world: arXiv, bioRxiv, medRxiv, OpenAlex, Europe PMC, and Semantic Scholar. Whether you're a researcher, a grad student, or just science-curious, Folio meets you where your attention already is. WHY FOLIO โ€ข One paper at a time - a calm, full-screen feed instead of noisy lists โ€ข Real coverage - millions of preprints and papers across physics, biology, medicine, CS, and beyond โ€ข Math that renders - equations display properly, not as broken symbols โ€ข Save & tag - build your own library and organize it your way โ€ข Tune your feed - pick the sources and topics you care about โ€ข Fast and private - your library and settings live on your device, no account required OPTIONAL AI (BETA) Want a hand making sense of a paper? Folio's optional AI features can: โ€ข Summarize at your level - explain-like-I'm-12, standard, or expert โ€ข Ask the paper - get answers grounded in the abstract โ€ข Translate - read papers in your language โ€ข Synthesize - pull themes across a set of papers AI is completely optional and off by default. The whole app works without it. During the beta, AI runs on your own Anthropic Claude API key, stored only on your device โ€” there's no subscription and nothing to buy inside the app. NO ADS. NO TRACKING. NO ACCOUNT. Folio doesn't sell your data and doesn't show ads. Your saved papers, tags, and settings stay on your device. Science moves fast. Folio helps you keep up - one swipe at a time.

Screenshots

Biomedical Scholar4 screens
Folio4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Folio at weekly against Biomedical Scholar's every 5 months. Biomedical Scholar's advantage is iOS requirement (9.0 vs 15.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Biomedical Scholar ships an update every 5 months, Folio weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Biomedical Scholar versus Folio: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBiomedical ScholarFolio
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsWeekly โ€” better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod โ€” better
Requires iOS9.0 โ€” better15.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size15 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUCLA HealthSaksham Gupta

In-app purchases

None

Biomedical Scholar

No in-app purchases

None

Folio

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Biomedical Scholar free?
Biomedical Scholar is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Folio free?
Folio is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Biomedical Scholar or Folio have ads?
Neither Biomedical Scholar nor Folio shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Biomedical Scholar or Folio?
Biomedical Scholar ships an update every 5 months, and Folio weekly. Most recently, Biomedical Scholar was updated on October 6, 2026 and Folio on October 3, 2026.

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