UpToDate vs Firstline
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.
Firstline
Provides healthcare professionals with interactive, point-of-care guidance for optimal patient treatment. Access customizable protocols, antimicrobial stewardship, and infection control information. Updates are rapid and it functions offline.
- Antimicrobial Stewardship guidelines
- Infection Prevention & Control protocols
- Customizable for healthcare organizations
- Antimicrobial formulary information
- Pathogen and antibiogram data
- Offline functionality
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Healthcare organizations worldwide rely on Firstline to deliver free, customized, interactive guidance directly to the point of care, making it easy for healthcare providers to choose the best treatment for their patients. Features: • Antimicrobial Stewardship guidelines • Infection Prevention & Control protocols • Customizable for any hospital or healthcare organization • Antimicrobial formulary information • Pathogen information including local antibiogram data • WHO AWaRe Antibiotic Book • Messaging system with push notifications • Integrated calculators • Surveys and forms • Cloud-based, rapid updates • Works offline
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Firstline at 89% against UpToDate's 28%. Firstline also leads on rating (4.9 vs 3.6) and monetization model (free vs subscription). UpToDate's advantage is chart position (#199 vs unranked). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Firstline holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 583 and 645 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 28% of UpToDate's written reviews are positive against 89% of Firstline's.
UpToDate ships an update every 5 weeks, Firstline every 2 weeks. Both last shipped on October 21, 2026.
| Parameter | UpToDate | Firstline |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (583 ratings) | 4.9 (645 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 28.4% of reviews | 89.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 583 | 645 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Subscription | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #199 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 56 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | UpToDate, Inc. | Spectrum Mobile Health Inc. |
Customer experience
UpToDate
Firstline
User reviews
UpToDate
From 583 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
Firstline
From 645 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use and intuitive navigation
- 🎨 Beautiful and visually pleasing design
- 📚 Excellent reference resource for medical professionals
- ⚡ Quick and convenient point-of-care tool
- 🏥 Highly useful for clinical decision-making
Room to improve
- 🐛 App fails to load or progress past loading screen
- 🐛 Frequent crashes after updates
- ⚠️ Stability issues requiring reinstallation
- ❌ Unresponsive membership request process
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
Firstline
Reported bugs
4 issues- App will not progress past loading screen
- App crashes constantly on startup after updates
- Requires uninstall and reinstall to resolve crashes
- Crashes return after a few hours or days
Requested features
3 requests- Treatment duration guidelines for pathogens
- Regional data for additional areas (e.g., Southern Ontario/Hamilton/Toronto)
- More specific treatment duration information
In-app purchases
UpToDate
No in-app purchases
Firstline
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is UpToDate free?
Is Firstline free?
Which has better reviews, UpToDate or Firstline?
Do UpToDate or Firstline have ads?
Which is updated more often, UpToDate or Firstline?
Other comparisons
