Comparison

AO Surgery Reference vs Paragon Mobile

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

Head to head
About

AO Surgery Reference

Access a comprehensive online repository of surgical knowledge for fracture management. It provides detailed guidance on diagnosis, treatment, and aftercare for numerous fracture types, supported by extensive illustrations and expert review.

Highlights
  • 353 fracture types covered
  • 172 surgical approaches
  • 1222 surgical procedures
  • Over 30,000 illustrations
  • Feline, canine, and equine fracture care
  • Powerful search function
Features
Read full description

QUICK ONLINE REFERENCE IN CLINICAL LIFE Gain easy access to the award-winning AO Surgery Reference. AO Surgery Reference is an online repository for surgical knowledge. It describes the complete surgical management process from diagnosis to aftercare for all fractures of a given anatomical region, and also assembles relevant material that the AO has published before. It gives access to:   • aid in surgical decision making for 353 fracture types • 172 approaches • 1222 surgical procedures • all richly illustrated with more than 30'000 Illustrations and much more. To ensure the quality of the content, it is authored, edited, and peer reviewed by experienced AO Faculty from all over the world, some of which are also well-known textbook authors/editors. This is a relaunch of the AO Surgery Reference app utilizing the same responsive user interface that was released February 2020. The highlights are: • Consistent navigational logic and user experience on all screen sizes • Inclusion of feline, canine, and equine fracture care • Combination of Preparation – Approach – Reduction and Fixation – Aftercare into one step called treatment. • Introduction of a powerful search function, allowing simplifications of the user interface as it replaces previous shortcuts.

About

Paragon Mobile

Provides clinicians with secure, anytime access to patient clinical data from their iPhone. This mobile solution enhances workflow efficiency for better patient care and business health by allowing untethered access to information.

Highlights
  • Rapid access to clinical data
  • Untethered clinician access
  • Efficient patient rounding
  • Real-time data sharing with patients
  • User-defined patient data views
  • Audit reports of viewed data
Read full description

What if you could have a solution to help provide rapid access to clinical data anytime, anywhere? With Paragon Mobile for Smartphone™, you can. The Paragon Clinician Mobile for Smartphone™ application provides clinicians with access to information from an iPhone. Untethered to a PC, your clinicians can conduct more efficient rounding and be apprised of incoming information about their patients. Better access and flexibility — helping to improve workflow for better care for patients and better health of your business. Paragon Clinician Mobile for Smartphone™ includes: • Native iOS interactions and capabilities • The ability to share real-time data with patients • Ability to view patient data based on user-defined settings • Audit reports of viewed data Your organization must first license Paragon Clinician Mobile for Smartphone™ and be on Paragon release 12.0 or higher.

Screenshots

AO Surgery Reference4 screens
Paragon Mobile3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: AO Surgery Reference at 4.4 against Paragon Mobile's 3.4. Paragon Mobile's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 86%) and iOS requirement (9.3 vs 13.0). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

AO Surgery Reference holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 14 and 5 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 86% of AO Surgery Reference's written reviews are positive against 100% of Paragon Mobile's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

AO Surgery Reference ships an update every 6 months, Paragon Mobile every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and June 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
AO Surgery Reference versus Paragon Mobile: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAO Surgery ReferenceParagon Mobile
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (14 ratings) — better3.4 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews85.8% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings14 — better5
Update frequencyEvery 6 months — betterEvery 9 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS13.09.3 — better
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB13 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperAO FoundationAllscripts Healthcare Solutions, Inc.

Customer experience

AO Surgery Reference

All ratings14 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative14.3%
Written reviews113 reviews
Positive85.8%
Neutral3.5%
Negative10.6%

Paragon Mobile

All ratings5 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative40.0%
Written reviews3 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

AO Surgery Reference

No in-app purchases

None

Paragon Mobile

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is AO Surgery Reference free?
AO Surgery Reference is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Paragon Mobile free?
Paragon Mobile is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, AO Surgery Reference or Paragon Mobile?
AO Surgery Reference is rated higher. AO Surgery Reference averages 4.4 out of 5 from 14 ratings, while Paragon Mobile averages 3.4 from 5 ratings.
Do AO Surgery Reference or Paragon Mobile have ads?
Neither AO Surgery Reference nor Paragon Mobile shows ads.
Which is updated more often, AO Surgery Reference or Paragon Mobile?
AO Surgery Reference ships an update every 6 months, and Paragon Mobile every 9 months. Most recently, AO Surgery Reference was updated on September 24, 2026 and Paragon Mobile on June 8, 2026.

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