Molecules vs Molecule Lab
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Molecules
Explore and interact with 3D molecular models on your device. Rotate, zoom, and pan structures using intuitive touch gestures. Visualize molecules in different modes and load custom structures from various sources.
- 3D molecule rendering
- Finger-based manipulation (rotate, zoom, pan)
- Ball-and-stick visualization
- Spacefilling visualization
- Load custom molecular structures
- File sharing and iCloud import
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Molecules is an application for viewing three-dimensional renderings of molecules and manipulating them using your fingers. You can rotate the molecules by moving your finger across the display, zoom in or out by using two-finger pinch gestures, or pan the molecule by moving two fingers across the screen at once. These structures can be viewed in both ball-and-stick and spacefilling visualization modes. Molecules can be stored on your handheld device for later viewing and are loaded via a standard document-based file browser. Custom molecular structures can be downloaded to the application via file sharing or iCloud, and obtained via sources like the RCSB Protein Data Bank (http://www.rcsb.org/pdb), an international repository of biological molecules and their 3-D structures, or NCBI's PubChem (http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov), a public database of compounds. For more details, please visit our website. Molecules is a BSD-licensed open source project.
Molecule Lab
Create and view 3D molecular models with an intuitive editor. Supports various elements, bond types, and conformations, with undo/redo functionality. Share your creations easily via messaging and email.
- Build molecules in 3D
- Supports oxygen, nitrogen, chlorine, carbon, hydrogen
- Double and triple bond creation
- Branching and rotation conformations
- Undo, redo, and delete controls
- Save and edit molecules
- Share via text, email, and other services
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Molecule Lab is a simple yet powerful editor allowing users to build and visualize molecules in 3D. Our molecule editor can build more molecules than before, as it now supports three new elements—oxygen, nitrogen, and chlorine—in addition to carbon and hydrogen, double bonds, triple bonds, branches, and different rotation conformations. These incredible new features are enhanced by the flexibility of our molecule editor, which we further upgraded with undo, redo, and delete controls. Molecules can be saved and edited in the future. Additionally, we introduced the capability to share molecules via text message, email, and other third-party services for notetaking and document sharing. This seamless integration with different apps makes Molecule Lab more powerful for sharing and referencing molecules in the future. With all these exciting features, we are thrilled to debut a new look and feel for Molecule Lab. We hope the beautiful modern design will enrich each user’s experience with Molecule Lab.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Molecules at every 2 months against Molecule Lab's every 24 months. Molecules also leads on review sentiment (65% vs 50%) and ratings volume (166 vs 18). Molecule Lab's advantage is rating (4.0 vs 3.6) and iOS requirement (13.2 vs 16.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Molecule Lab holds the better App Store score, 4.0 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Molecules has 166 ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 65% of Molecules's written reviews are positive against 50% of Molecule Lab's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Molecules ships an update every 2 months, Molecule Lab every 24 months. The most recent releases landed on August 5, 2026 and August 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Molecules | Molecule Lab |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (166 ratings) | 4.0 (18 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.5% of reviews — better | 50.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 166 — better | 18 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 24 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 13.2 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sunset Lake Software | Maxamix |
Customer experience
Molecules
Molecule Lab
Bugs and requests
Molecules
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes when switching between views
- Molecules disappear after reopening the app
- Search function is unreliable and limited
- Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Add ability to build and edit molecules
- Implement a color key for atom types
- Include more basic molecules (H2O, CO2, etc.)
- Allow sorting/organizing downloaded molecules
- Integrate with databases like PubChem and RCSB
Molecule Lab
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Molecules
No in-app purchases
Molecule Lab
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Molecules free?
Is Molecule Lab free?
Which has better reviews, Molecules or Molecule Lab?
Do Molecules or Molecule Lab have ads?
Which is updated more often, Molecules or Molecule Lab?
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