Epic Canto vs Read by QxMD
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Epic Canto
Securely access patient information, schedules, and notes from Epic's Electronic Health Record. Supports dictation and In Basket for authorized clinical users.
- Secure EHR access
- Clinic schedules
- Patient lists
- Health summaries
- Test results
- Dictation support
- In Basket access
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Canto provides authorized clinical users of Epic’s Electronic Health Record with secure access to clinic schedules, hospital patient lists, health summaries, test results and notes. Canto also supports dictation and In Basket access. Your organization needs to license Canto and will determine the exact feature set and any applicable charges for your use of Canto. If you are unsure whether you can use Canto, please contact your administrative staff.
Read by QxMD
Access and organize the latest medical research and topic reviews in a personalized digital journal. Stay updated with new scientific findings and easily retrieve full-text PDFs from PubMed and other sources.
- Personalized digital medical journal
- Access latest medical research
- Read topic reviews
- Search PubMed
- Full-text PDF access
- Organize article collection
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'Read by QxMD' provides a single place to keep up with new medical & scientific research, read outstanding topic reviews and search PubMed. This iPhone & iPad app provides a simple interface that drives discovery and seamless access to the medical literature by reformatting it into a personalized digital journal. Praise for Read: 5 stars: "Stellar. The future of medical literature review... This could be the best application to stay up-to-date in medicine since, well, UpToDate." - User Review 4¾ stars: "The Flipboard for medical journals has arrived" and among "...the most innovative medical apps" - iMedicalApps.com On Apple's 'What's Hot' list in >60 countries, as well as Medical Essentials & Apps for Healthcare Professionals. Featured in Apple iBook: "iOS in Healthcare: Revolutionizing Healthcare Productivity" Features: - Get full text PDFs with one tap - Keep up with the latest new research that will impact your practice - Browse through 1000s of outstanding topic reviews - Search millions of articles from PubMed and our database of outstanding topic reviews - Read your favorite journals or browse article collections. - Access full text through your university/institutional subscription or via open access publishers - Share articles with colleagues over email, Twitter and Facebook - Organize and review your personal collection of articles Why did we build 'Read by QxMD'? Health care professionals need to stay up to date on the latest medical research and topic reviews to provide optimal care. Unfortunately, the process of content discovery is broken with research artificially compartmentalized by publishers and hidden behind countless institutional pay walls. At QxMD, we believe that knowledge translation– the process by which new knowledge is incorporated into clinical practice – is an important and unsolved challenge for our health care system. We hope that ‘Read by QxMD’ will be a part of the solution. Seamless 1-tap access available at thousands of institutions. Sources: From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Founded by medical professionals, QxMD is dedicated to creating high quality point-of-care tools for practicing health care professionals.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Read by QxMD at 89% against Epic Canto's 9%. Read by QxMD also leads on rating (4.8 vs 1.9) and ratings volume (6K vs 124). Epic Canto's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). On price, update cadence, 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.
Read by QxMD holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 1.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Read by QxMD has 6K ratings behind it against 124, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 9% of Epic Canto's written reviews are positive against 89% of Read by QxMD's.
Epic Canto ships an update every 3 weeks, Read by QxMD monthly. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Epic Canto | Read by QxMD |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 1.9 (124 ratings) | 4.8 (6K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 8.9% of reviews | 89.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 124 | 6K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 559 MB | 205 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Epic | WebMD |
Customer experience
Epic Canto
Read by QxMD
Bugs and requests
Epic Canto
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Read by QxMD
Reported bugs
5 issues- Login and authentication problems
- Inconsistent app performance after updates
- Inability to access full-text articles
- Syncing issues between devices
- Unreliable article refresh functionality
Requested features
6 requests- Dark mode option
- Ability to annotate and highlight PDFs
- Improved article organization and collections
- Integration with reference managers (e.g. Zotero, Mendeley)
- Enhanced search and filtering capabilities
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- Offline access to saved articles
In-app purchases
Epic Canto
No in-app purchases
Read by QxMD
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Epic Canto free?
Is Read by QxMD free?
Which has better reviews, Epic Canto or Read by QxMD?
Do Epic Canto or Read by QxMD have ads?
Which is updated more often, Epic Canto or Read by QxMD?
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