Comparison

AHA PALS vs Red Book®

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

Head to head
About

AHA PALS

This app provides pediatric advanced life support (PALS) protocols and tools for healthcare professionals at the point-of-care. Developed by physicians and vetted by the American Heart Association, it offers intuitive access to algorithms, drug information, and timers for critical care situations.

Highlights
  • PALS pathways and algorithms
  • Drug therapy and dosing
  • CPR and intervention timers
  • Metronome for compression accuracy
  • Critical care references
  • Vetted by AHA and physicians
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

We continue to iterate based on real-time clinician feedback so that you will have the best experience providing life-saving care at the bedside. The AHA PALS app was developed by Harvard-trained physicians, in collaboration with the American Heart Association (AHA), to help fellow physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and emergency medical technicians (EMT) deliver the highest level of pediatric advanced life support (PALS) at the point-of-care. This project was inspired by the tremendous success of our AHA ACLS app, which has thousands of clinician users in over 180 countries. Importantly, real-time feedback from our clinician users continuously drives improvements in app design, features, and function. AHA PALS is the only app to have all content vetted by both the American Heart Association (AHA) science team (with license to use PALS content) and practicing Harvard-affiliated physicians. We owe it to our patients to use the best digital health tools to give them the highest chance of surviving acute life-threatening illnesses. To this end, we have developed an intuitive and rigorously vetted mobile app to assist healthcare clinicians—at any stage of training—navigate PALS at the bedside. You can purchase a yearly subscription which begins with a 3-day free trial. After completing the free trial, you will be charged for an annual subscription automatically. Features: - Intuitive design to rapidly access PALS pathways (i.e. cardiac arrest , tachycardia with pulse, bradycardia with pulse, post cardiac arrest care, and critical care references) - Includes all PALS content including drug therapy and dosing, reversible causes, etc. - Easy-to-read timers and ability to log rounds of CPR, epinephrine, and defibrillations. There are additional functionalities to log PALS Cardiac Arrest interventions beyond EPI, CPR , and shocks such as lidocaine and more. - We also added a new metronome feature to improve compression accuracy as well as a ROSC button. - Button within cardiac arrest algorithm that allows for rapid transition to post cardiac arrest care checklist once patient achieves ROSC - Relevant critical care references: (1) drugs used in PALS (i.e., medication names, indications, and doses); (2) vital signs in children; (3) pediatric color-coded length-based resuscitation tape (adapted from Breslow tape) ; (4) pediatric Glasgow Coma Scale - All content rigorously vetted by AHA science team and practicing Harvard-affiliated physicians - Regularly updated with the most up-to-date PALS content

About

Red Book®

This app provides the latest information on pediatric infectious diseases from the American Academy of Pediatrics. It includes immunization schedules, vaccine status, influenza resources, and new chapters on COVID-19 and Mpox. Features like note-taking and enhanced search aid quick access to essential medical data.

Highlights
  • Immunization schedules
  • Vaccine status table
  • Influenza resources
  • COVID-19 and Mpox chapters
  • Note-taking and highlighting
  • Enhanced search functionality
Features
Read full description

** The Red Book is the foundational resource on pediatric infectious disease** Featuring content from the latest edition, the Red Book: 2024–2027 Report of the Committee on Infectious Diseases from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) provides the most up-to-date information on a wide variety of infectious diseases that physicians encounter in children. Written and edited by leading experts in the field, along with contributions from the CDC, the FDA, and hundreds of other professionals, this resource stands as the most authoritative and comprehensive available. The Red Book features: * Immunization Schedules - Recommended immunization and catch-up schedules for infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. * Vaccine Status Table - Current information about recently submitted, licensed, and recommended vaccines and biologics, including status of the FDA licensure process and related AAP/CDC recommendations. * Influenza Resources - A comprehensive collection of information on influenza, serving as a centralized reference for vaccine guidance, prevention, treatment, payment policies, news, and other relevant details for infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. * Standardized approaches to disease prevention through immunizations, antimicrobial prophylaxis, and infection-control practices have been updated throughout the Red Book. * Two new chapters on Covid-19 and Mpox have been added. * The System-Based Treatment Table has been reordered so that the grouped recommendations by body system are more easily and quickly accessed. * Greatly expanded tables, figures and algorithms enable quick access to essential information. * The Breastfeeding and Human Milk chapter was updated to align with information from the latest AAP policy statement on breastfeeding. * The listing of Codes for Commonly Administered Pediatric Vaccines, Toxoids, and Immune Globulins has been expanded. * Reference to evidence-based policy recommendations have been updated throughout the Red Book. Unbound Medicine Features: * Highlighting and note-taking within entries * “Favorites” for bookmarking important topics * Enhanced Search to find topics quickly * Prime PubMed links to the primary literature Author: Committee on Infectious Diseases Publisher: American Academy of Pediatrics Editor: David W. Kimberlin, MD, FAAP; Associate Editors: Ritu Banerjee, MD, PhD, FAAP, Elizabeth D. Barnett, MD, FAAP; Ruth Lynfield, MD, FAAP; and Mark H. Sawyer, MD, FAAP Powered By: Unbound Medicine Unbound Medicine Privacy Policy: https://www.unboundmedicine.com/privacy Unbound Medicine Terms of Use: https://www.unboundmedicine.com/end_user_license_agreement

Screenshots

AHA PALS4 screens
Red Book®4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: AHA PALS at 55% against Red Book®'s 0%. AHA PALS also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 11 months) and chart position (#146 vs unranked). Red Book®'s advantage is monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs subscription) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). On price, ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. AHA PALS sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $3.99 per year and Red Book® sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Red Book® holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 54 and 71 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 55% of AHA PALS's written reviews are positive against 0% of Red Book®'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

AHA PALS ships an update every 2 months, Red Book® every 11 months. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
AHA PALS versus Red Book®: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAHA PALSRed Book®
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (54 ratings)4.8 (71 ratings) — better
Positive reviews54.5% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings5471 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 11 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
Best chart rank#146 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS15.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size48 MB9 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperMassachusetts General HospitalUnbound Medicine, Inc.

Customer experience

AHA PALS

All ratings53 ratings
Positive88.7%
Neutral1.9%
Negative9.4%
Written reviews11 reviews
Positive54.5%
Neutral9.1%
Negative36.4%

Red Book®

All ratings67 ratings
Positive94.0%
Neutral1.5%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral66.7%
Negative33.3%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

AHA PALS

Subscriptions1
  • PALS3 Days trial$3.991 Year
2 purchases

Red Book®

One-time2
  • Red Book 32e$99.99
  • Red Book$99.99

Questions

Is AHA PALS free?
AHA PALS is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Red Book® free?
Red Book® is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, AHA PALS or Red Book®?
Red Book® is rated higher. AHA PALS averages 4.5 out of 5 from 54 ratings, while Red Book® averages 4.8 from 71 ratings.
Do AHA PALS or Red Book® have ads?
Neither AHA PALS nor Red Book® shows ads.
Which is updated more often, AHA PALS or Red Book®?
AHA PALS ships an update every 2 months, and Red Book® every 11 months. Most recently, AHA PALS was updated on October 25, 2026 and Red Book® on October 22, 2026.

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