Comparison

xFractal vs SigiCalc

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

Head to head
About

xFractal

Explore the intricate beauty of fractals with real-time GPU rendering. Zoom infinitely into the Mandelbrot and Julia sets, discover various fractal types, and enjoy smooth coloring with multiple palettes. Replay your explorations as animated movies.

Highlights
  • Mandelbrot, Julia, Newton, and Multibrot fractals
  • Deep zoom capabilities
  • Multiple classic color palettes
  • Julia presets and Multibrot exponents
  • Exploration replay as animated movie
  • Cross-device continuity
Features
Read full description

Explore the infinite beauty of fractals with your fingertips. Pinch to zoom, drag to pan, and dive into the endless detail of the Mandelbrot set and its relatives — rendered in real time on your device's GPU. xFractal, first released in 2008, is back — rebuilt from the ground up for today's iPhone and iPad. FEATURES: • Mandelbrot, Julia, Newton and Multibrot fractals • Deep zoom: magnify the Mandelbrot and Julia sets more than a trillion times • Four classic palettes — Hot, Cold, Gray and Chromatic — with smooth coloring • Julia presets (Dendrite, Spiral, Rabbit, Galaxy, San Marco), Multibrot exponents 2–8, three Newton polynomials • Replay: watch your whole exploration animate back as a short movie • Picks up exactly where you left off • Free and open source Deep zoom uses K. I. Martin's perturbation technique.

About

SigiCalc

This app provides a graphical RPN calculator with an undo feature. Users can input mathematical equations and instantly visualize them with a plot. It's designed for simplicity and practicality in mathematical calculations.

Highlights
  • Graphical RPN calculator
  • Equation plotting
  • Undo functionality
  • Simple interface
  • Practical calculations
Features
Read full description

SigiCalc is a fast, clean RPN calculator that draws your functions. Enter a calculation the RPN way – numbers first, then the operation – and as soon as your expression contains X, tap Graph to see it plotted. No equals key, no parentheses, no fuss. REAL RPN • Classic stack-based entry with Enter, Undo and All Clear • Keys light up only when the stack has enough values – you can't make an invalid entry • The display shows your result, the whole expression in normal notation and the raw stack LIVE FUNCTION GRAPHS • Use X as a variable and plot the result instantly • Pinch to zoom, drag to pan, tap to zoom in, double-tap to reset • Touch and hold to read the exact x / y value on the curve • Discontinuities like tan(x) or 1/x are drawn correctly – no misleading vertical lines SCIENTIFIC FUNCTIONS sin, cos, tan and their inverses, natural log, square, square root, reciprocal, sign change and π DESIGNED FOR TODAY'S DEVICES • Light and Dark Mode, portrait and landscape • iPad: calculator and live graph side by side • Smooth animations and haptic feedback PRIVATE BY DESIGN SigiCalc works entirely on your device. No account, no network, no ads, no tracking. Example: X ↲ X sin × plots x · sin(x). What changed versus your text and why: - Leads with a benefit, not a category: "draws your functions" is the hook; "simple and practical graphical" told the reader nothing they'd search for. - Explains RPN in one sentence for people who don't know it, since that's the biggest reason someone bounces. - Bulleted feature blocks — App Store descriptions are skimmed, and the capitalised headings scan well in the store's plain-text rendering. - Adds Dark Mode / iPad / privacy, all of which are new in 3.0 and are things reviewers and users look for. - Fixed "polish" → "Polish" and "equation" → "expression" (you plot expressions, not equations).

Screenshots

xFractal4 screens
SigiCalc4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: xFractal at every 6 weeks against SigiCalc's every 48 months. xFractal also leads on review sentiment (71% vs 50%). 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

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

xFractal ships an update every 6 weeks, SigiCalc every 48 months. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
xFractal versus SigiCalc: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterxFractalSigiCalc
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews71.4% of reviews — better50.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeks — betterEvery 48 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB3 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJean BovetSiegware

Customer experience

xFractal

Written reviews21 reviews
Positive71.4%
Neutral9.5%
Negative19.0%

SigiCalc

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

In-app purchases

None

xFractal

No in-app purchases

None

SigiCalc

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is xFractal free?
xFractal is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SigiCalc free?
SigiCalc is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do xFractal or SigiCalc have ads?
Neither xFractal nor SigiCalc shows ads.
Which is updated more often, xFractal or SigiCalc?
xFractal ships an update every 6 weeks, and SigiCalc every 48 months. Most recently, xFractal was updated on October 31, 2026 and SigiCalc on November 1, 2026.

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