mobilePDR vs COSA
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
mobilePDR
Access up-to-date drug prescribing information for healthcare professionals. Quickly search thousands of drug summaries, compare medications, and check for interactions. Identify pills with color photos and imprint codes.
- Concise drug summaries
- Drug comparison tool
- Drug interaction checker
- Pill identification with photos
- Search by brand, generic, or class
- Continuous updates
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mobilePDR® is the OFFICIAL drug information app from PDR®, publisher of Physicians’ Desk Reference® – the most trusted resource for drug prescribing information since 1946. mobilePDR allows healthcare professionals FREE access to the most current drug prescribing information available from PDR. Fast and easy to use, mobilePDR employs a simple, but powerful search tool with access to thousands of concise drug summaries. Users can search by generic, brand or pharmacologic class names. A drug comparison feature helps healthcare providers choose the right medication for their patients based on key drug properties such as indications and side effects, dosing, and more. Know at a glance when there may be a drug interaction. Identify a pill based on its physical characteristics and visually confirm with full-color photos. All therapeutic areas and medical specialties are covered within the PDR drug app, including diabetes drugs, pain drugs, asthma and allergy drugs, cardiovascular drugs, obesity drugs, cholesterol drugs, psychiatric and mental health drugs, pediatric drugs, oncology drugs, vaccines and biologics, and more. Features: - Free to all U.S. healthcare professionals - Simple, powerful search provides fast access to drug information with auto-completion - Personalize your experience by saving drugs that you look up often for quick access - Search by brand, generic or pharmacologic class names - Access concise drug summaries and dosing information to answer important prescribing questions - Drug information is updated continuously with the latest information - Covers thousands of drugs in active use - Swipe left-right to compare key drug characteristics such as dosing, indications, and side effects - Save drug comparisons to refer to them again later - Check for drug interactions and learn what drug combinations to avoid - Identify pills by tablet imprint codes, shape or drug color, complete with color pill images Requirements: - Registration is free, and required the first time you use the mobilePDR app - mobilePDR is intended for use by U.S. healthcare professionals
COSA
Access essential drug information and advanced patient resources. This app provides a portion of licensed drug data from a leading healthcare information provider, based on industry-standard databases.
- Essential drug information
- Advanced patient resources
- Licensed drug data
- Industry-standard databases
- Physician-focused resources
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Find essential drug information & advanced patient resources. Physicians Office Resource licenses drug information data from First DataBank and provides a portion of it as a free service to its physician-users. First DataBank is the leading provider of electronic drug information to the healthcare industry. Based on the widely accepted industry standard — the National Drug Data File® — NDDF Plus databases are backed by the most clinically verifiable evidence gathered to date.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: COSA at 3.7 against mobilePDR's 3.2. mobilePDR's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and ratings volume (107 vs 3). 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.
COSA holds the better App Store score, 3.7 against 3.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: mobilePDR has 107 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.
mobilePDR ships an update every 2 months, COSA every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | mobilePDR | COSA |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.2 (107 ratings) | 3.7 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 31.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 107 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Ad-supported |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 9.0 — better | 11.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 112 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | PDR Equity, LLC | MEDICAL EDUCATION RESOURCES, LLC |
Customer experience
mobilePDR
COSA
Bugs and requests
mobilePDR
Reported bugs
9 issues- Text unreadable in dark mode
- Black text on black background
- App crashes during comparison
- App crashes on launch
- Login errors
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- Drug identification incorrect
- Cannot read description after upgrade
- App not communicating with password manager
- Random black background behind text
Requested features
9 requests- Add dark mode option
- Improve readability in dark mode
- Allow landscape orientation
- Fix drug identification errors
- Add DEA/drug scheduling tab
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- Add related drugs tab
- Improve drug comparison tool
- Add favorite drugs tab
- Add flashcard feature
COSA
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
mobilePDR
No in-app purchases
COSA
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is mobilePDR free?
Is COSA free?
Which has better reviews, mobilePDR or COSA?
Do mobilePDR or COSA have ads?
Which is updated more often, mobilePDR or COSA?
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