PCalc vs Phase Calc
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PCalc
A powerful calculator designed for professionals and students, offering advanced features like RPN mode, multi-line display, and extensive unit conversions. It supports various number systems and includes an Apple Watch app for on-the-go calculations.
- Optional RPN mode
- Multi-line display
- Extensive unit conversions
- Paper tape
- Multiple undo/redo
- Hexadecimal, octal, binary support
- Apple Watch app
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PCalc is the powerful choice for scientists, engineers, students, programmers, or indeed anybody looking for a feature rich calculator. It includes an optional RPN mode and multi-line display, a choice of button layouts, an extensive set of unit conversions and constants, a paper tape, multiple undo and redo, engineering and scientific notation, as well as support for hexadecimal, octal, and binary calculations. Includes an Apple Watch app, so you can calculate on your wrist!
Phase Calc
This advanced engineering app performs complex electrical calculations for three-phase power systems. It offers tools for students, technicians, and engineers to analyze unbalanced systems, perform sequence transformations, and access reference libraries. Results can be easily exported for documentation and sharing.
- Symmetrical component analysis
- Three-phase power system calculations
- Phase-to-sequence and sequence-to-phase transformations
- Polar and rectangular input support
- Specialized calculators and reference libraries
- Exportable results for documentation
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Phase Calc for iOS is an advanced engineering app for most electrical designs, expecially symmetrical component analysis and three-phase power system calculations. Built for students, teachers, technicians, and engineers, it combines a polished mobile experience with a powerful technical workflow for fast, accurate analysis of unbalanced three-phase systems in the field, lab, or classroom. The app performs both phase-to-sequence and sequence-to-phase transformations, with support for inputs in polar and rectangular form. It quickly resolves three unbalanced phase quantities into their positive-, negative-, and zero-sequence components, making it a practical tool for protection studies, fault analysis, system modeling, relay validation, and coursework. More than a single-purpose calculator, Phase Calc is packed with specialized calculators, technical reference libraries, and built-in formulas to support everyday power systems work. Whether you are checking values, reviewing theory, or working through engineering problems more efficiently, the app puts essential tools in one place. Results can be exported instantly, including vector data for plotting and graphical analysis, as well as technical report exports for documentation, review, and sharing. With powerful capabilities in a streamlined interface, Phase Calc delivers a complete mobile toolkit for three-phase analysis on iPhone and iPad.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Phase Calc at $1.99 against PCalc's $9.99. Phase Calc also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 4) and rating (5.0 vs 4.7). PCalc's advantage is ratings volume (770 vs 4) and chart position (#50 vs unranked). On update cadence and ads 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
PCalc costs $9.99 and Phase Calc $1.99 up front. PCalc sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. Phase Calc asks for nothing beyond the download.
Phase Calc holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PCalc has 770 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 84% of PCalc's written reviews are positive against 100% of Phase Calc's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and August 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PCalc | Phase Calc |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (770 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 83.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 770 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #50 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch, Vision Pro — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 81 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | TLA Systems Ltd. | Donnie Herman |
Customer experience
PCalc
Phase Calc
In-app purchases
PCalc
- Small Tip$0.99
- Medium Tip$1.99
- Large Tip$4.99
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- Enormous Tip$9.99
Phase Calc
No in-app purchases









