Comparison

iSeismometer vs Soil Explorer

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

Head to head
About

iSeismometer

Transform your iPhone into a sensitive seismometer to detect and visualize vibrations. Explore its educational and data-collecting capabilities for fun or serious applications.

Highlights
  • Converts iPhone to seismometer
  • Detects and visualizes vibrations
  • Data collecting capabilities
  • Educational use
  • Adjustable frequency settings
  • Re-track previous data
  • X-Y-Z illustrated graphs
Features
Read full description

iSeismometer turns your iPhone or iPad into a seismograph. Set it on a table, tap the desk, and watch the ground move. You will be surprised how sensitive your phone is. It has been doing that since the App Store opened in 2008, when it reached #1 in Education in Japan, Austria, Finland, and Greece. Version 1.7 is a complete rebuild: faster, clearer, and finally a real instrument. LIVE SEISMOGRAPH • Three axes at up to 100 samples per second, drawn like a strip-chart recorder • Scroll back through up to an hour of history while it keeps recording • Gravity filter with a real corner frequency, so slow tilt disappears and earthquakes stay • Live spectrum: see the frequency of footsteps, a washing machine, or a passing truck at a glance • Dark mode and a full iPad layout EVENT DETECTION • A seismologist's STA/LTA trigger flags every tremor with its peak acceleration, duration, and dominant frequency • Three sensitivity levels, from "only real shakes" to "every footstep" • Events are shaded on the traces and listed so you can jump straight to them RECORDINGS • Every session is saved automatically as compact raw data, split into hourly files • Browse by day, open any recording, scrub to its events, and see its spectrum • Export CSV, or pick up the raw files in the Files app and in Finder • Keep them for a day, a week, a month, or forever WAS THAT AN EARTHQUAKE? • Live USGS feed on a globe, filtered by time window and magnitude • Tap a quake for its depth, time, and the official USGS page STREAM TO YOUR MAC • Open iSeismometer on a Mac on the same Wi-Fi and your phone finds it by itself • The Mac shows every device streaming to it side by side, with its own recordings and event detection • Reconnects on its own after the screen locks, the network drops, or the Mac restarts Made for fun and for learning. A phone carries a MEMS accelerometer, not a broadband seismometer, so it feels footsteps and trucks far better than distant earthquakes. Put it on a solid floor, plug it in, keep the screen awake, and you have a home seismic station. iSeismometer is not a substitute for official earthquake early warnings or emergency alerts. Questions and ideas: info@objectgraph.com "This is a novelty app but one that also helps you learn something new... one of those things that is very captivating once you've looked at it once." — The Independent Guide to the iPhone 3GS

About

Soil Explorer

Discover detailed soil property and landscape maps for U.S. states and global soil distributions. Understand how map features relate to real-world observations. This educational tool uses data from USDA and USGS to illustrate complex soil-landscape relationships.

Highlights
  • Detailed soil property maps
  • Landscape visualizations
  • Global soil distribution maps
  • Field observation correlation
  • USDA NRCS data integration
  • USGS data integration
Features
Read full description

Explore detailed maps of soil properties and landscapes for various U.S. states, as well as small-scale maps of soil distributions for the world. Examine the details for a specific area, but also see the overview for a large area. Learn how features shown on the maps correspond to what you observe in the field. Soil Explorer utilizes detailed soil survey data from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and data and maps from the U. S. Geological Survey and other sources to produce informative, highly engaging maps. These maps are designed to show the complex interrelationships between soil properties and the landscapes in which soils occur.

Screenshots

iSeismometer4 screens
Soil Explorer4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: iSeismometer at 76% against Soil Explorer's 0%. iSeismometer also leads on ratings volume (172 vs 9). Soil Explorer's advantage is rating (4.1 vs 3.6) and iOS requirement (14.7 vs 16.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Soil Explorer holds the better App Store score, 4.1 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: iSeismometer has 172 ratings behind it against 9, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 76% of iSeismometer's written reviews are positive against 0% of Soil Explorer's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

iSeismometer ships an update every 7 months, Soil Explorer every 11 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
iSeismometer versus Soil Explorer: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteriSeismometerSoil Explorer
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.6 (172 ratings)4.1 (9 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.5% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings172 — better9
Update frequencyEvery 7 months — betterEvery 11 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS16.014.7 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB172 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperObjectGraph LLCPurdue University

Customer experience

iSeismometer

All ratings170 ratings
Positive61.2%
Neutral11.2%
Negative27.6%
Written reviews272 reviews
Positive76.5%
Neutral9.2%
Negative14.3%

Soil Explorer

All ratings9 ratings
Positive77.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative22.2%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative50.0%

Bugs and requests

iSeismometer

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Buttons/controls not working on newer iOS versions
  • Keyboard not appearing in text input fields
  • Inconsistent performance across device models

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add sensitivity control
  • Implement zero control for reference plane
  • Increase recording time
  • Improve UI/UX (e.g. color coding, scrolling, chart speed control)
  • Implement Richter scale or other measurement units
Show 1 more
  • Add data export/sharing options (e.g. email, save to file)

Soil Explorer

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

iSeismometer

No in-app purchases

None

Soil Explorer

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is iSeismometer free?
iSeismometer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Soil Explorer free?
Soil Explorer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, iSeismometer or Soil Explorer?
Soil Explorer is rated higher. iSeismometer averages 3.6 out of 5 from 172 ratings, while Soil Explorer averages 4.1 from 9 ratings.
Do iSeismometer or Soil Explorer have ads?
Neither iSeismometer nor Soil Explorer shows ads.
Which is updated more often, iSeismometer or Soil Explorer?
iSeismometer ships an update every 7 months, and Soil Explorer every 11 months. Most recently, iSeismometer was updated on October 22, 2026 and Soil Explorer on October 17, 2026.

Other comparisons