# Fast Fractal — Ultra-fast fractal explorer

> Ultra-fast explorer for Mandelbrot and Julia fractal sets with high magnification. (iPhone/iPad app by Tom Kerrigan.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fast-fractal/id398923328 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Tom Kerrigan](https://appshunter.io/developer/295445504)
- Category: Education, Entertainment
- Price: Free
- Rating: 3.80/5 from 35 App Store ratings · 75 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 13.0 · 2 MB
- Languages: American English
- Released: 2010-10-25
- Data updated: 2026-08-30
- Monetization: free
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fast-fractal/id398923328/reviews.md

## What is Fast Fractal?

Fast Fractal is an ultra-fast Mandelbrot set explorer.

- Blazing speed allows perfectly fluid exploration with standard pinch and swipe gestures
- Spectacular image quality
- Double-precision floating point math allows 100,000,000,000 times magnification
- Full support for multi-core chips
- Easily set the coordinates and number of iterations
- Easily switch between Mandelbrot and Julia sets

Fast Fractal is made by the developer of tChess (the popular chess app) and Learn Chess (the Apple Staff Favorite e-book).

## Key features

- Ultra-fast fractal exploration
- Fluid pinch and swipe gestures
- Spectacular image quality
- 100 billion times magnification
- Multi-core chip support
- Mandelbrot and Julia set switching

## Recent user reviews (10 of 75)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fast-fractal/id398923328/reviews.md

### 4/5 — Smooth but limited

*2024-05-22*

Fast fractal is what it claims to be: fast! It’s fun to play around with but the zoom is quite limited so you can’t really get down to the fun stuff. Also it’s missing auto zoom.

### 5/5 — Surprisingly Powerful

*2023-01-28, version 1.0.4*

You can do a lot with this app.  It’s fast and powerful, with a lot of options.  Take the time to explore the settings, and you’ll be surprised what all you can do.

### 4/5 — Let us toggle some other fractals

*2022-12-07*

Can you let us toggle the Burning Ship fractal?

### 1/5 — Lol hilariously ad heavy

*2022-09-26, version 1.0.4*

Threw down an ad before it even opened.

### 2/5 — Meh

*2022-06-23*

It’s fine I guess but you can barely zoom in at all!

### 4/5 — Zoom limit

*2021-11-23*

When I zoomed into the Mandelbrot set the zoom limit is 1e+11 please update this app so that you can zoom infinity

### 5/5 — Lightning fast

*2021-10-22*

The strength of this app is indeed how fast it can calculate the Mandelbrot set even when zoomed in a lot, pretty impressive!

### 5/5 — Ismaël B

*2021-06-30*

Vous pouvez mettre une mise à jour ?

### 5/5 — BEST MANDELBROT SET ON THE IOS APPSTORE

*2020-07-05*

I have always been curious about the Mandelbrot. I have had many apps that work good but don’t ever allow you to zoom by pinching. It projects a very clear image and allows you to zoom very far into the fractal. So this definitely deserves a 5 star rating.

### 5/5 — Love it! Neat little app

*2020-06-11*

I grew up programming fractals in the 80s on my Atari ST, took around half and hour per render what you can do on iPhone in real time. 
Thanks Tom (Kerrigan) for Programming this. 
Quick wish, if it so moved you to implement this: once at max zoom level, allow a button press to automatically “fly out” eg auto-zoom out. That be nice. 
Anyway. Really love it.

## Frequently asked questions about Fast Fractal

### What does Fast Fractal do?

Fast Fractal is an application designed for exploring fractal sets, specifically the Mandelbrot and Julia sets. It allows users to navigate through these complex mathematical structures with high speed and detail, offering a fluid and visually impressive experience.

### What are the key features of Fast Fractal?

Key features include ultra-fast exploration with fluid pinch and swipe gestures, spectacular image quality, and the ability to magnify up to 100 billion times. It also supports multi-core processors, allows easy setting of coordinates and iterations, and enables switching between Mandelbrot and Julia sets.

### Is Fast Fractal free to use?

Yes, Fast Fractal is available for free. The application does not have any in-app purchases or advertisements, allowing for an uninterrupted exploration experience.

### What kind of devices is Fast Fractal compatible with?

While specific device compatibility isn't detailed, the app mentions full support for multi-core chips, suggesting it is optimized for modern mobile devices that can leverage such processing power for its demanding calculations.

### Who would benefit from using Fast Fractal?

This app is ideal for anyone interested in mathematical visualizations, including students learning about fractals, educators demonstrating mathematical concepts, or hobbyists who enjoy exploring complex patterns and high levels of magnification.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 1.0.4 — 2019-12-22

- Updated Fast Fractal to support the screen sizes and screen shapes (notches, etc.) of current iOS devices.

### 1.0.3 — 2017-01-13

- Improved rendering system displays maximum image quality in real-time (instead of after a short delay)
- New oversampling system produces amazing image quality without affecting app responsiveness or memory usage
- Supports the native screen resolutions of all iOS devices
- Refreshed UI

### 1.0.2 — 2012-12-16

- Fixed a bug that displayed a "low memory" warning when the app had plenty of memory

### 1.0.1 — 2012-10-24

- Support for iOS 6, the new iPad's Retina Display, the iPhone 5's new screen size, dual core chips, AND the new A6 chip
- New recursive rendering algorithm displays fractals instantly, with progressively better image quality as calculations are completed
- Uses OpenGL for rendering to improve performance
- New "oversampling" feature for exceptional image quality

### 1.0.0 — 2010-10-25

No release notes.

## Apps similar to Fast Fractal

| App | Rating | Price | Category |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Game of Life (xs)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/game-of-life-xs/id997719497) | 4.4 (28) | Free | Education |
| [Fractal Travel](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fractal-travel/id6581490294) | 3.7 (3) | Free | Education |
| [Jude - Fractal Explorer](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/jude-fractal-explorer/id1480948909) | 4.7 (11) | Free | Education |
| [FractalEcho](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fractalecho/id6473468070) | 4.1 (9) | Free | Education |
| [Mandel Draw](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/mandel-draw/id1547068084) | 4.5 (147) | Free | Education |
| [Fractal Generator](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/fractal-generator/id1434904648) | 4.2 (5) | Free | Education |

## More apps by Tom Kerrigan

- [Chess - tChess Pro](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-tchess-pro/id295445501)
- [Chess - tChess Lite](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-tchess-lite/id296756437)
- [Chess - Learn Chess](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-learn-chess/id305309870)
- [PopGroup](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/popgroup/id318974349)
- [PopGroup Lite](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/popgroup-lite/id318975161)
- [Chess - tChess Pro (Int'l)](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/chess-tchess-pro-intl/id333297414)

All apps by Tom Kerrigan: https://appshunter.io/developer/295445504

## Related topics

[fractal combat x](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/fractal-combat-x) · [fractal bits](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/fractal-bits) · [fractal space](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/fractal-space) · [fractal infinate](https://appshunter.io/ios/topics/fractal-infinate)

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-30.*