PCalc Lite vs Phase Calc
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PCalc Lite
This free scientific calculator offers essential features like RPN mode, unit conversions, and multiple undo/redo. It provides a taste of a more powerful version, with optional in-app purchases for expanded functionality.
- Optional RPN mode
- Multiple undo and redo
- Unit conversions and constants
- Two stylish themes
- 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.PCalc Lite is a fully functional and free taste of our very popular scientific calculator. It includes an optional RPN mode, multiple undo and redo, unit conversions and constants, as well as two stylish themes and our highly praised design. A great choice for your new iPad! If you like what you see, the full version has many more settings and themes, a paper tape, engineering and scientific notation, and full support for hexadecimal, octal, and binary calculations. You can also now purchase extra features directly from inside PCalc Lite. Buy them individually, or buy everything. 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: PCalc Lite at Free against Phase Calc's $1.99. PCalc Lite also leads on ratings volume (214 vs 4) and device support (4 vs 2). Phase Calc's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.4) and in-app purchases (none vs 11). 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 Lite is free to download; Phase Calc costs $1.99 up front. PCalc Lite sells 11 one-off in-app purchases. Phase Calc asks for nothing beyond the download.
Phase Calc holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PCalc Lite has 214 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of PCalc Lite's written reviews are positive against 100% of Phase Calc's.
PCalc Lite ships an update every 2 months, Phase Calc every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and August 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PCalc Lite | Phase Calc |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | 4.4 (214 ratings) | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 82.6% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 214 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 6 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 76 MB | 13 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | TLA Systems Ltd. | Donnie Herman |
Customer experience
PCalc Lite
Phase Calc
Bugs and requests
PCalc Lite
Reported bugs
3 issues- Calculations sometimes produce unexpected results
- Upside-down text censorship feature is problematic
- Purchased features not always accessible on Apple Watch
Requested features
4 requests- Add option to display thousands separators
- Implement a history function to review past calculations
- Provide more customization options for the widget
- Add support for sexagesimal angle input and conversion
Phase Calc
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
PCalc Lite
- Theme Pack$0.99
- Power User Pack$0.99
- Multiple Line Pack$0.99
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- Conversion Pack$0.99
- Small Tip$0.99
- Medium Tip$1.99
- Programmer Pack$2.99
- Engineer Pack$2.99
- Large Tip$4.99
- Complete Pack$9.99
- Enormous Tip$9.99
Phase Calc
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is PCalc Lite free?
Is Phase Calc free?
Which has better reviews, PCalc Lite or Phase Calc?
Do PCalc Lite or Phase Calc have ads?
Which is updated more often, PCalc Lite or Phase Calc?
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