UpToDate vs OpenEvidence
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Expert AI conversational guidance
- Gold standard clinical content
- Practice-changing updates
- Patient education materials
- Drug reference and interactions
- Clinical calculators
- Kidney dosing guidance
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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.
OpenEvidence
This app provides healthcare professionals with evidence-based clinical decision support and medical information. It acts as a search engine, sourcing answers from peer-reviewed literature and leading medical organizations to aid in high-stakes medical decisions at the point of care.
- Clinical decision support
- Medical search engine
- Sourced from peer-reviewed literature
- FDA and CDC data integration
- Partnerships with leading medical journals
- Verified healthcare professional access
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Clinical Decision Support & Medical Search Engine for Healthcare Professionals (NPI Required) OpenEvidence is the most widely used clinical decision support platform and medical search engine among U.S. clinicians. According to independent studies, more American physicians use OpenEvidence than all other AI platforms combined. OpenEvidence is trusted by millions of verified healthcare professionals to make high-stakes clinical decisions at the point of care with answers that are sourced, cited, and grounded in peer-reviewed medical literature. Founded with the mission to organize and expand the world's collective medical knowledge, OpenEvidence is actively used daily by the majority of physicians in the United States. OpenEvidence is free for all verified U.S. clinicians. AN OFFICIAL AI PARTNER OF: The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and its 11 specialty journals National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Nature Cochrane Library Wiley WHAT YOU GET: • Specific answers to clinical questions, with every claim cited to its source • 35 million+ peer-reviewed papers, 300+ medical journals, plus FDA and CDC sources • Licensed full text from NEJM, JAMA, Nature, Cochrane, and others • EvidenceGrade™: see the strength of the evidence behind every answer • CME and MOC credits, earned by asking questions • Visits for ambient documentation, Dialer for secure patient calls, and Voice Mode for hands-free answers CONTENT AGREEMENTS AND COLLABORATIONS: American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) American College of Cardiology (ACC) American Diabetes Association (ADA) American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) ASCO Guidelines American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) American Urological Association (AUA) Plus AAO-HNS, GINA, SNO, SSO, and more. IN USE ACROSS: 10,000+ hospitals and medical centers nationwide, including Mayo Clinic, Mount Sinai, Cedars-Sinai, MSKCC, and Sutter Health. WHY CLINICIANS TRUST US: • HIPAA compliant across the platform • NEJM, JAMA, Nature, and NCCN—official content partners • Tens of millions of clinical consultations per month WHAT CLINICIANS SAY: “OpenEvidence is currently the best AI tool for medical information.” — Dr. Paul Sax, Infectious Disease, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Review in The New England Journal of Medicine Journal Watch (now NEJM Clinician) “In a morning report, a resident had a question that I didn’t know the answer to, but we were able to open OpenEvidence and get an answer on the spot.” — Dr. Kyle P. Lehenbauer, Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center “I use OpenEvidence multiple times during the day and every day. I am a better doc because of this. I expand my differential diagnoses and verify the science behind choices of treatments.” — Dr. Sharon E. Martin, Southern Huntingdon Medical Center Important note: OpenEvidence is available only to healthcare professionals. Users must verify their healthcare professional status before using OpenEvidence.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: OpenEvidence at 80% against UpToDate's 28%. OpenEvidence also leads on rating (4.9 vs 3.6) and monetization model (free vs subscription). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
OpenEvidence holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: OpenEvidence has 12K ratings behind it against 579, 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 80% of OpenEvidence's.
UpToDate ships an update every 5 weeks, OpenEvidence weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | UpToDate | OpenEvidence |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (579 ratings) | 4.9 (12K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 28.3% of reviews | 80.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 579 | 12K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Subscription | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #171 | #31 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 56 MB | 95 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | UpToDate, Inc. | OpenEvidence Inc. |
Customer experience
UpToDate
OpenEvidence
User reviews
UpToDate
From 579 App Store ratingsWhat 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
OpenEvidence
From 12K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Accurate and concise answers
- 💡 Provides references and sources
- 👍 Helpful for clinical practice
- 🚀 Efficient search and retrieval
- 👍 Invaluable quick reference tool
Room to improve
- 🐛 App not working in latest update
- ⚠️ Requires specific prompts for complete information
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
OpenEvidence
Reported bugs
1 issue- App not working in latest update
Requested features
2 requests- Availability on MacBook
- Integration with clinical workflows and EMRs
In-app purchases
UpToDate
No in-app purchases
OpenEvidence
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is UpToDate free?
Is OpenEvidence free?
Which has better reviews, UpToDate or OpenEvidence?
Do UpToDate or OpenEvidence have ads?
Which is updated more often, UpToDate or OpenEvidence?
Which is more popular, UpToDate or OpenEvidence?
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