Comparison

ACP Clinical Guidelines vs ESC Pocket Guidelines

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

Head to head
About

ACP Clinical Guidelines

Access evidence-based clinical practice guidelines from the American College of Physicians on your mobile device. This app provides internal medicine physicians and other clinicians with convenient access to recommendations, summary tables, and algorithms in an interactive format.

Highlights
  • Evidence-based clinical practice guidelines
  • Recommendations and rationale
  • Summary tables
  • Algorithms
  • High value care advice
  • Interactive mobile format
Features
Read full description

The American College of Physicians (ACP) produces evidence-based clinical practice guidelines, which means that the guidelines follow a rigorous development process and are based on the highest quality scientific evidence. Internal medicine physicians and other clinicians can now access these clinical recommendations in virtually any setting via the ACP Clinical Guidelines app. Available for free, the ACP Clinical Guidelines app includes recommendations from ACP’s clinical practice guidelines and guidance statements. Users can conveniently access clinical recommendations and rationale, summary tables, algorithms, and high value care advice for all currently active ACP guidelines in an easy to read and interactive mobile format. ACP is a national organization of internists —physician specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. ACP is the largest medical-specialty organization and second-largest physician group in the United States. Its membership of 133,000 includes internists, internal medicine subspecialists, medical students, residents, and fellows. The mission of the ACP is to enhance the quality and effectiveness of health care by fostering excellence and professionalism in the practice of medicine.

About

ESC Pocket Guidelines

Access a comprehensive library of the latest cardiovascular disease guidelines and consensus statements from the European Society of Cardiology. Features include interactive algorithms, full-text search, bookmarking, note-taking, and content sharing capabilities for quick reference and study.

Highlights
  • Latest ESC Guidelines (2023-2025)
  • Interactive algorithms
  • Full-text search
  • Bookmarking and notes
  • Content sharing
  • Printable pages
Features
Read full description

The ESC Pocket Guidelines app now contains the following ESC Pocket Guidelines: ESC Guidelines and documents published in 2025 Cardiovascular disease and pregnancy (Guidelines) Mental health and cardiovascular disease (Consensus Statement) Myocarditis and pericarditis (Guidelines) Valvular heart disease (Joint Guidelines with EACTS) Focused update of the 2019 dyslipidaemias guidelines ESC Guidelines published in 2024 Elevated blood pressure and hypertension Atrial fibrillation Chronic coronary syndromes Peripheral arterial and aortic diseases ESC Guidelines and documents published in 2023 Acute coronary syndromes Cardiomyopathies Cardiovascular disease in diabetes Endocarditis Focused update of the 2021 heart failure guidelines The ESC Pocket Guidelines app also contains interactive tools in the form of algorithms. Additional features: Perform „full text", „index" or „filtered" searches through the entire downloaded content of the app, bookmarks and the notes. Bookmark specific sections or create a personal note and access bookmarks and notes from the „Library“ section. Share links to specific areas of the app via communication channels, e.g. AirDrop, Mail, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and many others. Print pages. Please follow the link below to register for a new MyESC account: https://escol.escardio.org/MyESC/login.aspx

Screenshots

ACP Clinical Guidelines4 screens
ESC Pocket Guidelines4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: ESC Pocket Guidelines at 4.8 against ACP Clinical Guidelines's 3.0. ESC Pocket Guidelines also leads on ratings volume (841 vs 12). ACP Clinical Guidelines's advantage is review sentiment (81% vs 51%) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.1). On price, update cadence, 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

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

ESC Pocket Guidelines holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ESC Pocket Guidelines has 841 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 81% of ACP Clinical Guidelines's written reviews are positive against 51% of ESC Pocket Guidelines's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ACP Clinical Guidelines ships an update every 2 months, ESC Pocket Guidelines every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
ACP Clinical Guidelines versus ESC Pocket Guidelines: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterACP Clinical GuidelinesESC Pocket Guidelines
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.0 (12 ratings)4.8 (841 ratings) — better
Positive reviews81.3% of reviews — better50.8% of reviews
Number of ratings12841 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size39 MB44 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperAmerican College of PhysiciansESC - European Society of Cardiology

Customer experience

ACP Clinical Guidelines

All ratings12 ratings
Positive58.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative41.7%
Written reviews16 reviews
Positive81.3%
Neutral6.3%
Negative12.5%

ESC Pocket Guidelines

All ratings841 ratings
Positive96.6%
Neutral1.5%
Negative1.9%
Written reviews61 reviews
Positive50.8%
Neutral1.6%
Negative47.5%

Bugs and requests

ACP Clinical Guidelines

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

ESC Pocket Guidelines

Reported bugs

8 issues
  • App crashes on iPad and iPhone devices
  • Login authentication failures
  • White blank page display
  • App crashes when opening pathways
  • Guidelines not appearing in downloaded folder
Show 3 more
  • App incompatible with older iOS versions
  • Slow and sluggish performance
  • Full screen not supported on iPad Mini 6

Requested features

5 requests
  • Update to support iPad Mini 6 resolution
  • Include 2023 ESC Congress updates
  • Remove or make sign-in optional
  • Improve font size and design for better readability
  • Add new guidelines (e.g., 2013 stable angina guidelines)

In-app purchases

None

ACP Clinical Guidelines

No in-app purchases

None

ESC Pocket Guidelines

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ACP Clinical Guidelines free?
ACP Clinical Guidelines is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ESC Pocket Guidelines free?
ESC Pocket Guidelines is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, ACP Clinical Guidelines or ESC Pocket Guidelines?
ESC Pocket Guidelines is rated higher. ACP Clinical Guidelines averages 3.0 out of 5 from 12 ratings, while ESC Pocket Guidelines averages 4.8 from 841 ratings.
Do ACP Clinical Guidelines or ESC Pocket Guidelines have ads?
Neither ACP Clinical Guidelines nor ESC Pocket Guidelines shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ACP Clinical Guidelines or ESC Pocket Guidelines?
ACP Clinical Guidelines ships an update every 2 months, and ESC Pocket Guidelines every 4 months. Most recently, ACP Clinical Guidelines was updated on September 14, 2026 and ESC Pocket Guidelines on September 21, 2026.

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