Comparison

Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource vs Vector Fields

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

Head to head
About

Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource

Access and read Elsevier textbooks on your iOS device. Download books for offline study, search your entire library, and add notes and highlights. Sync your progress across devices for a seamless learning experience.

Highlights
  • Download books for offline reading
  • Search entire library
  • Create notes and highlights
  • Sync across devices
  • Pinch to zoom figures
Features
Read full description

Use Elsevier® eBooks to download and access Elsevier textbooks on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. Read your books online or offline, search across your full library, and create notes and highlights to help you study. Elsevier eBooks Features: • Download books to your iOS device for easy online or offline reading. • Simple, user-friendly navigation and a clean reading experience. • Search inside your current book or across your full library. • Select text to create notes or highlights from your mobile device. • Tap to open figures, view captions and pinch to zoom. • Sync your bookmarks, last page read and all of your notes and highlights between your iOS device and our desktop or web-based Elsevier eBooks apps. Requirements: • Elsevier eBooks account • Access to one or more Elsevier textbooks • iOS 17+

About

Vector Fields

Features
Read full description

See a vector field standing in the room in front of you. Vector Fields turns any three-component vector field into arrows you can walk around. Type something like -y, x, 0 and it appears in augmented reality, drawn in the space in front of you at true scale. Built for anyone learning or teaching multivariable calculus, where the hardest part is often picturing what a field actually looks like. Rotation, divergence and flow stop being abstractions once you can lean in and look along an axis. WRITE ORDINARY MATH Expressions are ordinary notation, not code. Implicit multiplication works, so 2x, 3sin(y) and (x+1)(x-1) all parse. Powers use ^ and are right associative. Odd roots of negative numbers give real answers, so (-8)^(1/3) is -2 rather than an error. Supported throughout: sine, cosine, tangent and their reciprocals, inverse and hyperbolic forms, exp, natural and arbitrary-base logs, square and cube roots, hypot, floor, ceil, round, sign, min, max, clamp, mod, and radian/degree conversion. Constants pi, tau, e and phi are built in. MISTAKES ARE EXPLAINED, NOT PUNISHED An unknown function, a stray operator or the wrong argument count produces a plain-language explanation rather than a failure. Some slips are repaired automatically and reported: a missing closing parenthesis is inserted where it belongs, parentheses wrapped around a whole field are removed, and commas inside a function call are no longer mistaken for component separators. SEE IT THE WAY YOU WANT Arrow length tracks the magnitude of the vector at each point, and a slider scales every arrow at once. A second slider sets thickness. Both update the field as you drag. MOVE THE ORIGIN Print ArUco marker ID 0 from the 6x6 dictionary at 100 mm wide (https://chev.me/arucogen/ generates it) and point the camera at it to move the world origin, and with it the grid and every arrow, onto the marker. Useful for putting the field on a desk in front of a class rather than wherever you happened to be standing. People occlusion is supported on devices that offer it, so someone walking through the field is drawn in front of the arrows instead of behind them. Requires an iPhone or iPad with ARKit support. No account, no ads, no tracking and no internet connection needed. Nothing you type ever leaves your device.

Screenshots

Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource4 screens
Vector Fields3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Vector Fields at daily against Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource's every 3 months. On price, ads, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource ships an update every 3 months, Vector Fields daily. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource versus Vector Fields: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterElsevier eBooks on VitalSourceVector Fields
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (9.4K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews16.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings9.4K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.617.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size188 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperElsevier Inc.Sachin Agrawal

Bugs and requests

Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Repeated sentence/paragraph playback
  • Highlighted text disappearing across devices
  • Inability to download or access purchased books

Requested features

5 requests
  • Allow handwritten notes and annotations
  • Improve page-turning and scrolling functionality
  • Enhance diagram and image viewing experience
  • Integrate seamless cross-device synchronization
  • Provide more customization options (e.g., font, layout)

Vector Fields

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource

No in-app purchases

None

Vector Fields

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource free?
Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Vector Fields free?
Vector Fields is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource or Vector Fields have ads?
Neither Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource nor Vector Fields shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource or Vector Fields?
Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource ships an update every 3 months, and Vector Fields daily. Most recently, Elsevier eBooks on VitalSource was updated on November 9, 2026 and Vector Fields on October 29, 2026.

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