Molecules vs iMolview Lite
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.
iMolview Lite
Explore 3D models of biological molecules like proteins and DNA from public databases. Visualize and customize molecular structures with various representations and coloring schemes. Analyze interactions and view your own structure files.
- 3D protein and DNA structure viewing
- Drug molecule visualization
- Customizable molecular representations
- Individual atom/residue selection and coloring
- Interaction analysis
- Import custom structure files
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Explore the fascinating world of biological macromolecules: iMolview Lite lets you browse and view in 3D protein and DNA structures from Protein Data Bank, and drug molecules from DrugBank. Search for drug names like 'ibuprofen' or 'gefitinib' in DrugBank, or proteins like 'insulin' or 'thyroid receptor' in PDB. Information associated with each molecule in these databases is also at your fingertips. Sync and view your own structure files via iTunes. Molecular view can be customized with a rich set of molecular representations (wires, balls-and-sticks, space filling, ribbon diagrams, molecular surfaces) and various coloring schemes. Select residues, atoms or chains and color or change their representations individually. Select 'neighbors' of a ligand or any other selection to identify interacting atoms or residues. Set 'inertia' to the maximum and let your molecule spin in 3D indefinitely. If you have more than a casual interest in 3D structures, please consider full iMolview version, which adds many features you may find useful: - store your custom molecular visualizations as 'slides' to be instantly displayed later, preserving chosen representations, color schemes, viewpoint etc. - measure distances and angles - instantly e-mail screenshots to colleagues - VGA output support - 3D view mirroring and 'laser pointer' emulation for structural data presentations from your iPhone or iPad - load and display simultaneously multiple structures; superimpose using either residue number correspondence, sequence alignment or structural alignment with sophisticated iterative procedure - auto-assign secondary structure for PDB entries lacking this data - use side-by-side stereo display for even more vivid 3D viewing. - much more to come!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: iMolview Lite at 100% against Molecules's 65%. iMolview Lite also leads on rating (4.0 vs 3.6) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). Molecules's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 9 months) and ratings volume (166 vs 5). 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.
iMolview Lite 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 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 65% of Molecules's written reviews are positive against 100% of iMolview Lite's.
Molecules ships an update every 2 months, iMolview Lite every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on September 29, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Molecules | iMolview Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.6 (166 ratings) | 4.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.5% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 166 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 9 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 54 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Sunset Lake Software | Molsoft |
Customer experience
Molecules
iMolview Lite
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
iMolview Lite
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Molecules
No in-app purchases
iMolview Lite
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Molecules free?
Is iMolview Lite free?
Which has better reviews, Molecules or iMolview Lite?
Do Molecules or iMolview Lite have ads?
Which is updated more often, Molecules or iMolview Lite?
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