Every GP needs an electronic appraisal portfolio, and the market answering that need has genuinely fragmented since this page was first written. It is no longer a two-horse race between Clarity and FourteenFish; GP Tools, Umbil, BMJ Portfolio and GPnotebook Pro have each carved out a real position, and the products are not all competing at the same layer. Understanding which layer each one occupies, before comparing price or features, is the single most useful thing this page can do.
The taxonomy: three layers, not one market
Full appraisal systems of record: FourteenFish, Agilio Clarity and GP Tools. These run the complete appraiser-appraisee workflow and can submit a portfolio directly to a linked appraiser. Learning and evidence-capture layers: Umbil, BMJ Portfolio, GPnotebook Pro and iatroX My CPD. These generate or organise the underlying learning content that a system of record then holds, and none of them is, on its own, a substitute for one of the three systems above. And mandated national systems: SOAR in Scotland and MARS in Wales. The RCGP is explicit that FourteenFish and Agilio Clarity can submit portfolios directly to linked appraisers in England, while Scotland and Wales run their own national systems instead, which means a generic "best UK GP appraisal tool" recommendation is incomplete without asking which nation you actually appraise in.
Someone asking whether Umbil is "better than FourteenFish" may genuinely be comparing a tool that captures clinical questions and drafts reflections against a system that manages the complete appraiser-appraisee workflow and final submission. They may belong together in the same working year rather than replacing one another.
FourteenFish
FourteenFish is the most widely used GP appraisal toolkit in the UK, now owned by EMIS. It is known for an intuitive, modern interface, strong mobile apps (Learning Diary and Portfolio), and the email-to-diary feature that lets you forward course certificates and learning evidence directly into your portfolio with minimal friction.
Pricing: £49.99 a year standard, reduced to £34.99 for RCGP members, and free for eligible First5 GPs who obtained CCT from 2021 onwards while remaining RCGP members. The Learning Diary and mobile app are free to use; payment applies at the point of appraisal submission. FourteenFish also offers a free switching service for doctors moving from another platform.
Strengths: wide appraiser familiarity, which reduces friction at the appraisal meeting itself; the email-to-diary feature is genuinely time-saving; ISO 27001 certified; syncs with GPCPD.com; partners with NB Medical, Red Whale and Doctors.net.uk for discounts. Considerations: post-submission editing remains possible, which some appraisers view as an information-governance concern, since Clarity locks the appraisal after submission instead; some users find it better suited to appraisees than appraisers specifically.
Agilio Clarity
Clarity, the current brand for what was formerly discussed as a separate "Agilio" product, sits within the wider Agilio Software ecosystem alongside TeamNet, the iLearn e-learning platform and the AMP mobile app for CPD logging. It includes "hot topic" learning modules that double as CPD evidence, and its newer Leo AI layer adds AI-assisted support within the platform.
Current individual pricing: £99 plus VAT a year for advertising-supported Essentials, £130 plus VAT for advertising-free Essentials, £185 plus VAT for Pro, and £30 plus VAT for doctors qualified within the previous five years. Packages include the current NHS England appraisal template, electronic feedback, the AMP app and more than 600 courses. Agilio states Clarity is used by more than 85% of GPs in England, a figure worth reading as vendor-reported rather than independently verified market-share data.
Strengths: integrated CPD learning content built into the platform, reducing the need to source external CPD; deep integration with the wider Agilio ecosystem where a practice or PCN already uses TeamNet; strong organisational dashboards for ICBs and practice managers; ISO 27001 certified; locks the appraisal after submission, a genuine governance advantage over FourteenFish's editable-after-submission model. Considerations: the interface can feel more complex than FourteenFish for an individual clinician working alone; value is strongest where the wider ecosystem is already in use, and an independent locum without practice integration may not realise the full proposition.
GP Tools
GP Tools is the most under-covered direct competitor to FourteenFish and Clarity, and its value proposition is unusually clear once stated plainly: £39.99 a year, with the first twelve months free and no card required to start the trial. Patient questionnaires and multi-source feedback are included in that price rather than sold separately, appraiser accounts are free, and the company states there is no upselling. It presents itself as a complete GP appraisal toolkit built around the NHS England appraisal structure, not merely a CPD diary, with mobile and web access. GP Tools states the platform is ISO 27001 certified.
The genuine open question, worth confirming directly before committing a full year's evidence to any less-established platform: whether an appraiser will readily recognise and accept the format, and how straightforward historic evidence remains to export if you later move away from it. GP Tools' lower public profile means less independent, non-vendor coverage currently exists than for FourteenFish or Clarity, which is precisely why direct verification with your own designated body matters before switching.
Umbil
Umbil is evolving rapidly from a clinical-workflow assistant into a broader clinical-learning and appraisal product, and it occupies a genuinely different starting point from the three systems of record above. Its public material describes clinical-question support, referral and patient-information generation, automatic identification of learning points from that clinical activity, structured reflection drafts, mapping to GMC domains, PDP functionality, CPD exports, patient questionnaires, multi-source feedback and an Appraisals section. It remains a standalone web tool rather than an EMIS or SystmOne integration. Umbil's terms state that users retain ownership of their learning logs, reflections and anonymised feedback cycles.
Pricing needs checking directly before relying on it: public vendor social material lists Umbil Pro at £24 a month and a team plan at £199 a month for up to ten clinicians, figures that sit on social pages rather than a conventional pricing page and should be reconfirmed at the point of subscribing. What remains genuinely unclear from Umbil's public material is whether it currently runs the complete appraiser-appraisee submission workflow and produces every responsible-officer output a sole appraisal system needs to provide. Until that is confirmed, the accurate description is an appraisal-and-learning-capture platform with appraisal-ready exports, not unequivocally a complete FourteenFish or Clarity replacement.
BMJ Portfolio
Relaunched in July 2026 as a free CPD and reflection platform, BMJ Portfolio automatically captures BMJ Learning activity, allows external CPD to be added manually, provides AI-supported reflection prompts, stores evidence and exports portfolio reports. It integrates directly with FourteenFish specifically, demonstrating that a capture layer and a system of record can work together technically as well as conceptually. It does not run the full appraisal itself.
GPnotebook Pro
GPnotebook Pro costs £7.99 a month or £71.88 annually. It tracks learning generated from GPnotebook content specifically, permits reflection on that activity, and provides exportable CPD records. Like Umbil and BMJ Portfolio, it is principally a learning and CPD layer rather than a complete appraisal system, and its CPD export currently requires manual upload into whichever system of record you use rather than a direct sync.
What has genuinely changed in the appraisal standard itself
Current RCGP guidance is explicitly focused on quality, impact and relevance rather than accumulating a specific number of credits. There is no fixed national CPD credit total any GP must reach, and the College's own recommendation is to document a selected sample of the most relevant learning, reflected on meaningfully, rather than attempting to reconstruct every activity across the year. This matters directly for how every platform on this page should actually be used: automatic capture tools in particular can generate volume that obscures the handful of entries an appraiser genuinely wants to discuss, and the discipline worth applying regardless of which platform you use is selection, not exhaustive logging.
The recommended stack
System of record: FourteenFish for most individual GPs, particularly where mobile and email capture matter; Agilio Clarity where your practice or ICB already runs the wider Agilio ecosystem; GP Tools where cost and included feedback tools are decisive and you have confirmed your appraiser will accept the format. Learning and evidence layer beneath it: BMJ Portfolio for free, general-purpose capture with FourteenFish integration; Umbil where you want learning drawn directly from your clinical workflow; GPnotebook Pro if you are already a heavy GPnotebook user; and iatroX My CPD for evidence built specifically around assessed and retested learning rather than passive activity tracking, turning the clinical queries you are already making during clinic, guideline lookups, prescribing checks, reasoning exercises, into documented CPD entries following the GMC-compliant reflective structure, what happened, so what, now what, what was the impact. The Q-Bank adds structured knowledge maintenance through spaced repetition, and the Knowledge Centre provides structured guideline browsing for self-directed learning.
None of the learning-layer tools replace a system of record, and none of the systems of record generate the underlying learning content themselves. The combination means your portfolio is populated continuously through genuine clinical learning across the year, rather than assembled in the fortnight before your appraisal meeting.
Frequently asked questions
Is Clarity a different product from Agilio?
No: Agilio Clarity is the current, correct name for the same product, and any older content treating "Clarity" and "Agilio" as separate competitors should be read as outdated.
Does this comparison apply if I appraise in Scotland or Wales?
Only the learning-and-evidence-capture layer applies directly: Scotland uses SOAR and Wales uses MARS as the mandated system of record, and supplementary tools like Umbil, BMJ Portfolio, GPnotebook Pro or iatroX My CPD remain useful regardless of which national system you submit through.
How much CPD do I actually need to log?
There is no fixed national credit total; current RCGP guidance asks for a proportionate, well-reflected sample of your most relevant learning across your whole scope of practice, not an exhaustive record of every activity.