Premed Planner vs NextStep
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Premed Planner
This app helps aspiring medical students plan their path to admission. It allows users to track crucial experiences like volunteering and shadowing, manage courses and GPA, and follow a personalized premedical timeline. All data is stored privately on the user's device.
- Premedical timeline guidance
- Track volunteering and shadowing
- Track clinical experience
- Manage courses and GPA
- Private data storage on device
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HPSA's Premed Planner: - Do the right thing at the right time to maximize your chance of admission to medical school. - Always free! No marketing, no advertising. - Follow your Premedical timeline - Track Volunteering, Shadowing, and Clinical Experience - Track courses and GPA - Your data is private and stored on your phone. - Updates regularly, new features added frequently.
NextStep
This app helps pre-med students organize their academic and extracurricular activities. It allows users to log hours, track progress towards goals, and manage application milestones efficiently. Designed by former students, it aims to reduce stress in the med school application process.
- Experience logging for various activities
- Hour tracking and statistical visualization
- Customizable goals and reminders
- Offline functionality
- AI-powered insights (coming soon)
- Built by pre-med students
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Ready for med school? NextStep helps pre-med students log hours, track experiences, and hit application milestones—without the stress. Whether you're shadowing, volunteering, doing research, or prepping for the MCAT, NextStep keeps you organized and on track. Key Features: • Experience Tracker – Log clinical, research, volunteer, and extracurricular activities • Hour Tracking & Stats – Visualize your time, find your gaps, stay balanced • Guided AI Insights – Coming soon! • Custom Goals & Reminders – Set targets, get notified, stay accountable • Offline First – Works without Wi-Fi, syncs when you're back online • Built for Pre-Meds – Created by students who’ve been there Stop guessing. Start progressing. Download NextStep and take control of your med school journey today.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Premed Planner at none against NextStep's shown. Premed Planner also leads on monetization model (free vs ad-supported) and ratings volume (23 vs 4). NextStep's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months). On price, rating, review sentiment 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Premed Planner against 5.0 for NextStep. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Premed Planner has 23 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
Premed Planner ships an update every 2 months, NextStep fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Premed Planner | NextStep |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (23 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 23 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 47 MB | 73 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Health Professional Student Association | Josh Hoffman |
Customer experience
Premed Planner
NextStep
In-app purchases
Premed Planner
No in-app purchases
NextStep
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Premed Planner free?
Is NextStep free?
Which has better reviews, Premed Planner or NextStep?
Do Premed Planner or NextStep have ads?
Which is updated more often, Premed Planner or NextStep?
Other comparisons
