Prime vs MDPhD
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Prime
Access up-to-date journal citations and abstracts from the complete PubMed database. Perform powerful searches, link to full-text articles, and utilize exclusive tools for visual exploration of research relationships and personalized discovery.
- PubMed database access
- Keyword, author, journal search
- Link to full-text articles
- Bookmark and tag articles
- Share articles via multiple platforms
- Grapherence visual search
- Personalized article feed
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The free Prime app connects you to the most up-to-date journal citations and abstracts from the complete PubMed database. In addition to the ability to perform powerful searches and link to the publisher’s full text articles, Prime also provides a number of exclusive tools not available anywhere else creating a one-of-a-kind user experience. PRIME FEATURES - Search: Perform evidence-based searches by keyword, author, or journal then link to full text articles. - Organize: Bookmark and Tag important articles and searches to quickly return to them later - Share: Share articles directly from the app via Email, Twitter, Facebook, SMS, Dropbox, and more EXCLUSIVE TOOLS - Grapherence®: Unbound’s unique search option allows you to visually explore the influence and interrelationships among journal articles - For You: Discover new articles in a feed designed specifically for you based on how you use the app - Browse: Select specific journals you want to follow and receive alerts when new articles are published WHAT IS GRAPHERENCE? Grapherence® is Unbound’s interactive search that graphically represents the influence and interrelationships among journal articles. Tap the Grapherence button within a citation and instantly see how that article is related to others. Using this exclusive feature the researcher quickly uncovers difficult to find entries, determines overall significance, identifies clusters of thought, and locates seminal articles. ABOUT UNBOUND MEDICINE With 50+ premium apps available, Unbound Medicine combines powerful software with best-selling content to deliver clinical answers wherever you need them. Top-selling apps include Johns Hopkins Antibiotic (ABX) Guide, Davis’s Drug Guide, 5-Minute Clinical Consult, Harriet Lane Handbook, The Washington Manual, Nursing Central™, and Diagnosaurus DDx.
MDPhD
This app summarizes clinical abstracts from PubMed, providing key evidence-based medicine insights. It helps health professionals make smarter decisions and improve patient care faster through data visualizations and personalized feeds. Unlock collaborative features for institutions to integrate EBM into workflows.
- Clinical abstract summarization
- Evidence-based medicine insights
- Data visualizations
- Personalized journal feed
- Semantic search engine
- Team collaboration features
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MDPhD automatically summarizes and organizes clinical abstracts from PubMed (a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine) days after publication. With MDPhD in your hands you do less reading, make smarter decisions and give better patient care, faster. Each of our summaries contain key evidence based medicine insights. Our data visualizations help you see the big picture and connect the dots. We are constantly improving our algorithms to make MDPhD the fastest way to consume evidence based medicine. MDPhD keeps health professionals current like never before. Our features help you rapidly translate research from the benchside to the bedside! 'MDPhD' For Individuals * Best Evidence daily * Semantic Search Engine * Personalized Journal Feed * Visualize your search results with graphs * Share Best Evidence with colleagues * EBM video tutorials 'MDPhD Teams' For Instituions: Available for Health Institutions like clinics, hospitals, medical schools and academic centres. Please ask your medical librarian or institutional admin to give your institution access. Sign up at https://www.mdphd.ca or email us at info@mifisi.com for more information. Unlock all the collaborative features of MDPhD for all your health staff and sign up for MDPhD Teams today! * Empower your health staff to become agents of change * Transform your institution into a data driven ecosystem * Integrate EBM into your clinical workflows * Deliver high quality healthcare * Deliver high value healthcare * Less reading, smarter decisions * Team Collaboration * More Data * More Insights * More Analytics * Institutional access Please visit our website https://mdphd.ca to review our introductory video tutorials and blogs on general app workflow. Our organization, MIFISI Inc., is a healthcare data science company operating out of Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. Our Mission: * Unlocking the scientist in every health professional. * Turning healthcare organizations into data driven ecosystems. * Helping patients with high value, high quality healthcare.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Prime at none against MDPhD's 2. Prime also leads on review sentiment (84% vs 50%) and ratings volume (694 vs 1). MDPhD's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months) and rating (5.0 vs 4.8). On price, ads, monetization model 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. MDPhD sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Prime asks for nothing beyond the download.
MDPhD holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Prime has 694 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 84% of Prime's written reviews are positive against 50% of MDPhD's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Prime ships an update every 4 months, MDPhD every 3 weeks. Both last shipped on November 6, 2026.
| Parameter | Prime | MDPhD |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (694 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 83.8% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 694 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 14.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Unbound Medicine, Inc. | MIFISI Inc. |
Customer experience
Prime
MDPhD
Bugs and requests
Prime
Reported bugs
3 issues- Abstracts cut off and unable to scroll
- Crashes on certain devices (iPad 3, iOS 8.4)
- Duplicate papers appearing in reading lists
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to open PDFs in external apps
- Option to delete irrelevant items from saved lists
- Faster article loading times
- Integration with Dropbox or other cloud storage
- Advanced search functionality (e.g., author + abstract)
MDPhD
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Prime
No in-app purchases
MDPhD
- App access$9.991 Month
- Full App Access$99.991 Year









