Prices read on Unbound's store and the App Store in October 2026
Nursing Central subscription cost and renewal price for nurses and NPs
$199.99 for the first year. $99.95 a year to keep the updates coming. Add-on books from $19.99.
What the four books cover, what happens when you stop paying, how to cancel before Apple renews you, and where a nurse practitioner's prescribing check needs its own tool.
Press Run check for the interaction, contraindication, dosing and alternatives on this pair.
Not matched, so not checked: .
Nothing on this pair matched a row in the reference tables behind this check. That is not a clearance: it means these references do not name this combination.
Guideline-based alternatives
That was your demo check, run on the same references the desk uses. The desk adds renal dosing against an estimated clearance, hepatic review, unlimited checks, saved history and your sign-off on every card.
The on-page check covers five prescribing scenarios and never invents clinical output, so it will not produce a card for this pair.
The full Prescriber.io desk checks any regimen against interactions, contraindications, and renal or hepatic dosing, with cited sources for you to verify.
Interaction
Contraindication / allergy check
Dosing guidance (renal / hepatic)
Guideline-based alternatives
Decision support. You verify against official sources and sign.
Clinician in the loopDecision support for licensed clinicians. Prescriber.io does not diagnose or prescribe and is not a substitute for professional clinical judgment.
Check · flag · suggest · you review and sign off
The short answer
How much is a Nursing Central subscription?
Nursing Central costs $199.99 for the first year and $99.95 a year after that on Unbound Medicine's store ($99.99 if you renew inside the App Store). One purchase covers the iPhone, iPad and Mac apps plus web access to four books: Davis's Drug Guide, Taber's Medical Dictionary, Davis's Lab and Diagnostic Tests, and Diseases and Disorders. The renewal only buys updates. If you skip it, the content you have keeps working, frozen at the day it lapsed.
Read from Unbound's Nursing Central pricing page as it renders in a browser, and from the in-app purchase list on the US App Store.
Three numbers to know
Nursing Central prices in US dollars
One price for everyone, nurse, student or NP. Group discounts exist for schools and hospitals, by quote only.
First year
$199.99 once
About $16.67 a month over the year
All four books, the app on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and web access for twelve months of updates.
Renewal
$99.95 a year
$99.99 when renewed inside the App Store
Buys another year of drug and content updates. Skip it and the content you have keeps working, frozen.
Add-on books
$19.99 and up
IV Medications $52.95, Nurse's Pocket Guide $49.99
NCLEX-RN Quest is the cheapest add-on. Taylor's Clinical and Nurses' Health Assessment sell in the app.
Prices as listed on nursing.unboundmedicine.com/nursingcentral/pricing and the US App Store listing for Nursing Central.
What $199.99 buys
What the Nursing Central subscription includes
Four Davis and Taber's titles, cross-linked, plus search and study tools.
Davis's Drug Guide
Dosing, contraindications, interactions and patient teaching for more than 5,000 drugs, with new FDA approvals added through the year.
Taber's Medical Dictionary
More than 75,000 terms with images, video and audio pronunciations, updated to the current edition.
Davis's Lab and Diagnostic Tests
Rationale, reference results, pretest requirements and post-test nursing care for hundreds of tests.
Diseases and Disorders
Coverage of more than 250 conditions, cross-linked to the drugs and tests that go with them.
Prime PubMed
Search the full PubMed database from the app. Full text depends on the journal; many articles show the abstract only.
Grasp study system
Built-in study cards and quizzes, plus notes, highlights and favorites that sync across devices.
Nursing Central renewal and cancellation
When you are charged, and when you can stop
Before you pay
The free App Store download opens a preview of select topics in each book, including Davis's Drug Guide.
Day 1
You pay $199.99 on the web store or in the app. One purchase covers the app, the Mac app and the website.
Day 365
Updates stop unless you buy a renewal at $99.95, or $99.99 if you renew through Apple.
Every year after
An App Store renewal repeats automatically until you switch it off at least 24 hours before the term ends.
To cancel an App Store renewal, switch it off in your Apple ID subscriptions at least a day before the year ends. Bought on the web store? Contact Unbound Medicine support before the renewal date.
Why prices for Nursing Central disagree online
Search for the price and you will find $199.99, $179.95, $99.99 and even $39.95. They are all real numbers from different moments. The current Unbound pricing page shows $199.99 for a one-year subscription with renewals at $99.95. A cached copy of an older page shows $179.95. The App Store lists two Nursing Central purchases, $199.99 and $99.99, because the second one is the renewal. And $39.95 comes from an old page describing a much smaller bundle.
So the honest budget for a working nurse is $199.99 in year one and roughly $100 a year after that, for as long as you want current drug content. Over three years that is about $400, or $133 a year.
Renew, or let it lapse?
Unbound's model is closer to buying a book than renting one. When the year ends the app does not lock you out; it just stops updating. For Taber's and the disease guide that barely matters, since definitions and pathophysiology change slowly.
The drug guide is different. Every quarter brings new approvals, new indications, boxed warnings and dose changes, and a frozen drug reference drifts out of date quietly. If you give or teach about medications, the $99.95 renewal is mostly paying to keep Davis's Drug Guide current. If that is the only book you open, the standalone Davis Drug Guide app at $39.99 a year does the same job for less.
Three years of Nursing Central
- Year one$199.99
- Year two renewal$99.95
- Year three renewal$99.95
- Three years$399.89
- Davis's Drug Guide alone, three years$119.97
- Prescriber.io Solo, one year$288
Nursing Central is a reference library; Prescriber.io runs prescribing checks. Different jobs, listed together because nurse practitioners often price both.
What else a Nursing Central buyer prices
Nursing Central against the other drug references nurses buy
Cost for one person paying personally, with where each figure was read.
| Tool | Main job | Cost | Read at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nursing Central | Four nursing books in one app, including Davis's Drug Guide | $199.99 first year, $99.95 renewals | Unbound pricing page, Oct 2026 |
| Davis's Drug Guide alone | The drug book from the bundle, by itself | $39.99 a year in the app, $39.95 web | App Store and drugguide.com, Oct 2026 |
| epocrates+ | Fast drug lookup, interaction checker, pill ID | $179.99 a year, $24.99 a month | epocrates.com, Oct 2026 |
| UpToDate Lexidrug | Hospital-grade drug monographs and Lexi-Interact | $29.99 a month in the app | App Store, Oct 2026 |
| BMJ Best Practice | General clinical reference, other healthcare professional rate | $315 a year | BMJ US store, Oct 2026 |
| Prescriber.io Solo | Prescribing checks on the patient's whole list: interactions, contraindications, renal and hepatic dosing | $288 billed yearly, $49 a month paid monthly | Our own pricing page |
Where Nursing Central clearly wins: breadth per dollar for nursing work. A dictionary, a lab guide, a disease guide and a drug guide for $199.99, then about $100 a year, is hard to beat if you use all four. It is also one of the few references that keeps working after you stop paying.
Where it is not the right buy: drug depth for prescribers. Lexidrug at $29.99 a month goes deeper on hospital dosing and interactions, and Epocrates for nurse practitioners is the faster pocket lookup. Our best drug reference app guide ranks them by role.
Who should pay for Nursing Central, and what a prescribing NP still needs
The buyer who gets the most from it is a nursing student or a new graduate RN. Nursing Central replaces the stack of reference books a program asks for, the study tools help with NCLEX, and $99.95 renewals are cheap once you are working. Experienced RNs on units with hospital-licensed references often find they open it less each year.
Nurse practitioners are a different case. Davis's Drug Guide is written for administering and monitoring medications, and it does that well. It does not check a new order against everything else the patient takes, the eGFR on this morning's labs, the liver panel, the documented allergies and the problem list, all at once. NPs with a postpartum panel also need a lactation reference such as Hale's Medications and Mothers' Milk at $94.99 a year, which Nursing Central does not include.
That patient-specific step is what Prescriber.io does. Enter the medication list and the patient's context, and one card comes back with interactions, contraindications, renal and hepatic dose adjustments and guideline-based alternatives, each with a cited source. You review it and sign. It costs $24 a month per clinician billed yearly, and it does not replace a nursing library, which is why NPs who prescribe often keep both.
Straight answers
Questions people search about Nursing Central pricing
How much is a Nursing Central subscription?
Nursing Central costs $199.99 for the first year on Unbound Medicine's store and in the App Store, and renewals cost $99.95 a year on the web store or $99.99 through Apple. The first-year price covers the iPhone, iPad and Mac apps and web access. Add-on books such as NCLEX-RN Quest ($19.99) cost extra.
How do I cancel my Nursing Central subscription?
If you bought or renewed in the App Store, turn off auto-renew in your Apple ID subscriptions at least 24 hours before the term ends; Apple charges the $99.99 renewal inside that last day. If you bought on Unbound's web store, contact Unbound Medicine support before the renewal date. Either way, content you already have keeps working without updates.
What happens if I do not renew Nursing Central?
You keep using it. Unbound's App Store listing says that if you do not buy the renewal you can continue to use the product but will not receive updates. The drug guide stops picking up new approvals and label changes, which is the real cost of letting it lapse for anyone who still gives medications.
What is included in Nursing Central?
Four books: Davis's Drug Guide with more than 5,000 drugs, Taber's Medical Dictionary with more than 75,000 terms, Davis's Lab and Diagnostic Tests, and Diseases and Disorders with 250 plus conditions. You also get Prime PubMed search, the Grasp study system, about 1,200 photos and illustrations and more than 120 videos.
Is Nursing Central worth it?
For a nursing student or a new RN who would otherwise buy the dictionary, lab guide and drug guide separately, yes: $199.99 replaces several print books and renewals drop to $99.95. If you only use the drug guide, Davis's Drug Guide alone is $39.99 a year. Nurse practitioners who prescribe need more than a drug monograph.
Is Nursing Central free for nursing students?
Not by default. Students pay the same $199.99 unless their school buys a group license, which Unbound offers to schools, universities, hospitals and pharmacies at a discount. Some programs bundle a year of access with course materials, which is why some students see a notice that their free year has expired.
Is Nursing Central the same as Davis's Drug Guide?
No. Davis's Drug Guide is one of the four books inside Nursing Central. Bought alone it costs $39.99 a year in the app. Nursing Central adds Taber's, the lab and diagnostic tests guide, Diseases and Disorders and PubMed search for $199.99 in the first year.
Is Nursing Central enough for a nurse practitioner who prescribes?
It covers drug facts, not prescribing decisions. Davis's Drug Guide tells you a drug's dose and listed interactions, but it does not check a new order against the patient's full medication list, eGFR, liver function, allergies and problem list. That patient-specific check is a separate tool, and Prescriber.io does it for $24 a month.
Go deeper
Other drug references, priced the same way
Davis Drug Guide app cost
$39.99 a year after a 14-day trial.
GuideEpocrates for nurse practitioners
The free tier, epocrates+ and what NPs use it for.
CostLexidrug subscription cost
$29.99 a month in the app.
GuideBest drug reference app
Paid and free references ranked by role.
GuideDrug interaction checker for NPs
What a prescribing NP needs from a checker.
PricingPrescriber.io pricing
Per-clinician seats from $24 a month.
Cover the prescribing step for $24 a month.
Prescriber.io checks interactions, flags contraindications, surfaces renal and hepatic dosing and suggests guideline-based alternatives, with cited sources. You review, verify, and sign.
Decision-support for licensed clinicians. Prescriber.io does not diagnose or prescribe autonomously and is not a substitute for professional clinical judgment. Always verify against official sources.