Comparison

UpToDate vs Drugs.com Medication Guide

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

Head to head
About

UpToDate

This clinical decision support tool provides healthcare professionals with evidence-based guidance to improve patient care. It features AI-powered conversational answers, continuously updated medical content, and tools for drug reference, calculations, and patient education.

Highlights
  • Expert AI conversational guidance
  • Gold standard clinical content
  • Practice-changing updates
  • Patient education materials
  • Drug reference and interactions
  • Clinical calculators
  • Kidney dosing guidance
Features
Read full description

UpToDate is the clinical decision support solution trusted by over 3M healthcare professionals to help improve care delivery and patient outcomes. Now powered by UpToDate Expert AI, a generative AI experience built on rigorously maintained UpToDate clinical intelligence to delivers fast, clinically grounded answers through a conversational interface. Expert AI, available in select packages and applications, brings together the latest evidence and real-world clinical expertise and provides transparent sourcing, embedded guardrails, and oversight, supporting clinical reasoning and helping clinicians make confident, informed decisions. Key features include: • Expert AI: Conversational guidance that mirrors how clinicians think. • Gold Standard Clinical Content: Clinician-authored clinical intelligence and graded recommendation, enriched with clinical algorithms, graphics, videos, and continuously updated to reflect the latest evidence and clinical care experience. • Practice-Changing Updates: Timely insights that reflect the latest evidence and how it impacts patient care. • Patient Education: Thousands of patient education leaflets in up to 19 different languages to improve patient understanding and support care plan adherence. • Key Points Panels: Quick, clinically actionable guidance to help clinicians avoid common diagnostic and treatment errors embedded in UpToDate search results. • Drug Reference & Interactions: Evidence-based drug monographs and interaction analysis to support safe and informed prescribing decisions. • Clinical Calculators: Over 200 tools to support dosing, risk scoring, and patient assessments. • Rx Transitions: Step-by-step support for switching antidepressants safely. • Kidney Dosing: Drug dosing guidance for patients with renal impairment. Available on mobile, desktop, and integrated into EHRs, ensuring you can access UpToDate’s trusted guidance where and when you need it. Access to features will vary depending on your UpToDate account. Expert AI is now available in personal trainee subscriptions and UpToDate Pro Plus subscriptions in the US, and through select Enterprise Edition accounts. To get access, explore personal subscription options on the UpToDate website or contact your Enterprise account lead. This app is designed for use by medical professionals. If you are not a medical professional, please consult a qualified healthcare provider before making any medical decisions.

About

Drugs.com Medication Guide

Access comprehensive information on over 24,000 medications, including prescription drugs, OTCs, and natural products. Manage your medications, check for interactions, identify pills, and find the lowest prices. Stay informed with FDA alerts and detailed side effect information.

Highlights
  • Medication list with interaction tracking
  • Drug price comparison and pharmacy finder
  • Pill identification by imprint, color, and shape
  • Drug interaction checker
  • Side effects and dosage information
  • FDA alerts and recalls
Features
Read full description

Manage meds, identify pills, check interactions, compare prices and more. Discover detailed, peer-reviewed info on over 24,000 prescription drugs, OTC meds, and natural products all in one place. Key Features - My Med List. Create your health profile and track drug interactions, reminders and alerts, with offline access. - Price Guide. Find the lowest prices for medications and search pharmacies near you. - Pill Identifier. Identify pills by imprint, color and shape to confirm medications with confidence. - Interactions Checker. Check potential interactions between prescription medications, OTC drugs, and supplements. - Q & A. Find answers to thousands of medication-related questions, join support groups or ask a question. - Compare Tool - Compare any medication side-by-side. - Side Effects Checker - Access detailed side effect information for thousands of prescription and OTC medications, from common mild reactions to rare severe effects. - Dosage Information - Reliable dose guidance. - FDA Alerts - Stay up to date with product recalls, safety alerts, and FDA-related news. - Health Professionals - Tailored tools and information for medical professionals, including FDA monographs. Permissions We request limited permissions to improve your experience: - Network access: Required to connect to our database. - Media/Storage: For installation on your local device only, we never access your personal files. - Your location: Used when you choose to find nearby pharmacies when using the drug discount card. About Drugs.com With over 25 million U.S. monthly visitors, Drugs.com is a Webby-nominated health information platform offering peer-reviewed data on more than 24,000 medications. Whether you're a patient, caregiver, or healthcare professional, the app provides reliable tools to manage and understand medication use. Note: Drugs.com does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Do not rely on this app to replace medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always consult with your healthcare professional. Support & Subscriptions Please visit: https://www.drugs.com/apps/support/ for support and feedback, if its subscription related, our team will prioritize your request.

Screenshots

UpToDate4 screens
Drugs.com Medication Guide4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Drugs.com Medication Guide at 87% against UpToDate's 28%. Drugs.com Medication Guide also leads on rating (4.8 vs 3.6) and ratings volume (18K vs 583). UpToDate's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2) and ads (none vs shown). On price, update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Drugs.com Medication Guide sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. UpToDate asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Drugs.com Medication Guide holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Drugs.com Medication Guide has 18K ratings behind it against 583, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 28% of UpToDate's written reviews are positive against 87% of Drugs.com Medication Guide's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on October 21, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
UpToDate versus Drugs.com Medication Guide: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUpToDateDrugs.com Medication Guide
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.6 (583 ratings)4.8 (18K ratings) — better
Positive reviews28.4% of reviews87.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings58318K — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 5 weeks
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationSubscriptionFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB62 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperUpToDate, Inc.Drugs.com

Customer experience

UpToDate

All ratings579 ratings
Positive60.4%
Neutral10.4%
Negative29.2%
Written reviews384 reviews
Positive28.4%
Neutral9.6%
Negative62.0%

Drugs.com Medication Guide

All ratings16,477 ratings
Positive97.3%
Neutral1.3%
Negative1.5%
Written reviews393 reviews
Positive87.0%
Neutral3.8%
Negative9.2%

User reviews

UpToDate

From 583 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 💎 Invaluable medical resource
  • 🚀 Quick and easy to use
  • 🔍 Comprehensive and up-to-date content

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezing issues
  • 🔌 Unreliable offline functionality
  • 💰 Expensive subscription cost

Drugs.com Medication Guide

From 18K App Store ratings

What we love

  • ⭐ Excellent app
  • 🚀 Very useful and informative
  • 👍 User-friendly interface
  • 📚 Comprehensive drug information
  • 🔍 Helpful pill identifier

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Occasional crashes or bugs
  • 💰 Ads or paid features
  • 🌍 Limited support for non-US medications

Bugs and requests

UpToDate

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Inability to download offline content
  • Constant need to re-authenticate
  • Incompatibility with recent iOS updates

Requested features

3 requests
  • Highlight and annotate content
  • Improved institutional login support
  • Dark mode and font size options

Drugs.com Medication Guide

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Registration process issues
  • Inconsistent search results

Requested features

3 requests
  • Ability to easily add/remove medications
  • More detailed medication profiles
  • Improved international drug coverage

In-app purchases

None

UpToDate

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Drugs.com Medication Guide

One-time2
  • Remove ads for 3 months$1.99
  • Remove ads for 1 year$4.99

Questions

Is UpToDate free?
UpToDate is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Drugs.com Medication Guide free?
Drugs.com Medication Guide is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, UpToDate or Drugs.com Medication Guide?
Drugs.com Medication Guide is rated higher. UpToDate averages 3.6 out of 5 from 583 ratings, while Drugs.com Medication Guide averages 4.8 from 18K ratings.
Do UpToDate or Drugs.com Medication Guide have ads?
Drugs.com Medication Guide shows ads; UpToDate does not.
Which is updated more often, UpToDate or Drugs.com Medication Guide?
UpToDate ships an update every 5 weeks, and Drugs.com Medication Guide every 5 weeks. Most recently, UpToDate was updated on October 21, 2026 and Drugs.com Medication Guide on October 21, 2026.

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