Comparison

ReactionFlash vs R Discovery

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

Head to head
About

ReactionFlash

This app serves as a comprehensive flashcard-style learning tool for named chemical reactions. It provides detailed information on reaction mechanisms and examples from scientific literature, with a quiz mode to test user knowledge.

Highlights
  • Learn named chemical reactions
  • Understand reaction mechanisms
  • View literature examples
  • Quiz mode for knowledge testing
  • Flashcard interface
Features
Read full description

Want to refresh your memory on named chemical reactions before an exam or a group meeting? Get all the details with ReactionFlash(R) as a great way to learn named reactions, understand their mechanisms and view examples published in peer-reviewed literature. Designed and developed in consultation with Professor Dr. Erick M. Carreira of ETH Zürich, the app covers 1'266 named chemical reactions, by far the largest collection of Named Reactions. Professor Carreira has helped ensure that we have all the fundamental reactions that should be part of every chemist’s toolkit: from the best-known ones to the ones only Nobel Prize winners remember! The app is designed like a set of flash cards so it can be used as a learning tool as well as a reference. Each ‘card’ shows the reaction, its mechanism and examples from peer-reviewed, published literature. It also has a quiz mode that lets you test your knowledge. Linking into Reaxys enables you to find the most recent examples of each reaction, many with experimental details. Reaxys delivers experimental facts from the literature, enabling researchers to find the best synthetic routes and conditions. Find out more at https://www.elsevier.com/solutions/reaxys Download the app now and see if you know all the named reactions! Summary: - Learn named reactions - Review and understand mechanisms - Explore examples published in peer-reviewed literature - Take the ReactionFlash quiz and see how much you know If you need support, please contact us at reactionflash@elsevier.com. Reaxys and ReactionFlash are trade marks of Elsevier Limited, used under license.

About

R Discovery

Access and discover over 300 million research papers with AI-powered tools. Understand findings, chat with PDFs, and organize your academic library. Stay current in your field with personalized feeds and alerts.

Highlights
  • Discover 300M+ research papers
  • AI-powered research workflows
  • Chat with PDFs
  • Listen to research papers
  • Personalized research feeds
  • Organize academic library
  • Translate research papers
Features
Read full description

R Discovery is your #1 place to discover research literature, stay current, and read what matters faster. Built for students, researchers, clinicians, educators, and academics, R Discovery helps you find relevant papers without spending hours searching across scattered sources. With research-grade AI workflows, R Discovery accelerates every step of your literature journey: discover papers, understand key findings, chat with PDFs, listen to research, translate papers, and build a personalized academic library around your interests. We search, curate, summarize, and organize the literature so you can spend more time on meaningful research and more time with the people you love. R Discovery gives you access to: • 150M+ journal articles • 78M+ open access papers • 10M+ conference documents • 5M+ preprints • 7.5M+ patents • 8M+ summaries and highlights • 9.5M+ research topics • 14M+ authors • 64K+ journals • 120K+ universities and institutions Why researchers use R Discovery: • Personalized research feeds based on your interests • Fast literature search for papers, journals, authors, topics, and institutions • Reliable, clean research database built to reduce duplication and low-quality content • Open access discovery so you can quickly find papers you can read • Full-text access with institutional login through GetFTR and LibKey integrations • Alerts for newly published papers in your field • Summaries and highlights to assess relevance faster • Bookmarks and reading lists to organize your library Upgrade to R Discovery Prime to accelerate your research further with unlimited access for research-grade AI workflows • Ask R Discovery for reference-backed answers from research papers • Chat with PDFs and get instant answers from full papers • Listen to papers with audio streaming for research on the go • Translate research papers into your preferred language • Sync your saved papers with Zotero and Mendeley R Discovery partners with leading global publishers, societies, and research platforms including Wiley, IOP Publishing, Springer Nature, Sage, Taylor & Francis, Hindawi, NEJM, Emerald Publishing, Duke University Press, IntechOpen, AIAA, Karger, Underline.io, J-STAGE, and more. Join 3M+ academics on R Discovery, the highest rated app in this space with a 4.6+ App Store rating. Free to use, or upgrade to R Discovery Prime for unlimited premium access. Get it now! Privacy Policy: https://cactusglobal.com/privacy-policy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

ReactionFlash4 screens
R Discovery4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: ReactionFlash at none against R Discovery's 6. ReactionFlash also leads on review sentiment (81% vs 58%). R Discovery's advantage is update cadence (monthly vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (926 vs 42). On price, rating, ads 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. R Discovery sells 6 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per month. ReactionFlash asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for ReactionFlash against 4.8 for R Discovery. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: R Discovery has 926 ratings behind it against 42, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 81% of ReactionFlash's written reviews are positive against 58% of R Discovery's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ReactionFlash ships an update every 4 months, R Discovery monthly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
ReactionFlash versus R Discovery: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReactionFlashR Discovery
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (42 ratings)4.8 (926 ratings) — better
Positive reviews80.6% of reviews — better57.8% of reviews
Number of ratings42926 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS14.0 — better15
Further details — not scored
Size37 MB56 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperElsevier LimitedCACTUS COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES PTE. LTD

Customer experience

ReactionFlash

All ratings41 ratings
Positive95.1%
Neutral2.4%
Negative2.4%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive80.6%
Neutral6.5%
Negative12.9%

R Discovery

All ratings925 ratings
Positive95.5%
Neutral2.2%
Negative2.4%
Written reviews45 reviews
Positive57.8%
Neutral20.0%
Negative22.2%

Bugs and requests

ReactionFlash

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

R Discovery

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Home screen takes a long time to load
  • Audio translation feature doesn't work
  • Buttons are extremely slow
  • Switching between dark and light mode is glitchy

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add option to view author information in preview
  • Enable screen rotation for iPad users
  • Add more advanced search functionality
  • Allow canceling of export in progress
  • Improve integration with Zotero

In-app purchases

None

ReactionFlash

No in-app purchases

6 purchases

R Discovery

Subscriptions6
  • Monthly$11.991 Month
  • Monthly$24.991 Month
  • Monthly$25.001 Month
Show 3 more
  • Yearly$69.001 Year
  • Yearly$139.991 Year
  • Yearly$143.991 Year

Questions

Is ReactionFlash free?
ReactionFlash is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is R Discovery free?
R Discovery is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ReactionFlash or R Discovery?
R Discovery is rated higher. ReactionFlash averages 4.8 out of 5 from 42 ratings, while R Discovery averages 4.8 from 926 ratings.
Do ReactionFlash or R Discovery have ads?
Neither ReactionFlash nor R Discovery shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ReactionFlash or R Discovery?
ReactionFlash ships an update every 4 months, and R Discovery monthly. Most recently, ReactionFlash was updated on November 1, 2026 and R Discovery on November 7, 2026.

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