Comparison

Halcyon Calc vs RPNu

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

Head to head
About

Halcyon Calc

A powerful calculator app for students, engineers, and scientists. It handles complex numbers, symbolic expressions, unit conversions, and matrix operations, with advanced plotting and programming capabilities.

Highlights
  • Complex number calculations
  • Symbolic expression manipulation
  • Unit conversion with custom units
  • Matrix and vector operations
  • Symbolic plotting
  • Programming of custom operations
  • Statistical data analysis
Features
Read full description

For students, engineers, scientists or people who fondly remember classic calculators, Halcyon Calc is a great application for manipulating numbers and even symbolic expressions. Features: - Use this calculator on an iPhone, iPod Touch or an iPad - Use your finger to quickly scroll through the stack to review intermediate results - Copy and paste support - Over 225 built-in operations, including trig, logarithms, real functions, complex operations and more - Allows you to work with real, complex and integer numbers. - Real and complex numbers can be displayed in standard, fixed, scientific and engineering format - Use over 120 built-in units to perform unit conversion or create your own units if the one you want is not already there - Integer numbers can be displayed in decimal, hexadecimal, octal and binary bases - Work with real and complex matrices and vectors. - Enter symbolic expressions and solve them for different values. Even better, solve quadratic formulas, collect and expand factors and terms, find minima, maxima and roots of any expression. - Plot symbolic expressions in X/Y coordinates. Pan the coordinate space by dragging the plot in any direction. Zoom in and out using a pinch gesture. - Determine symbolic derivative, taylor series or numeric integral of an expression. - Store numbers, lists, strings and expressions in symbols. Create hierarchies of symbols to allow you to organize your calculations. - Create sequences of calculator commands into programs, creating your own operations which you can then include in expressions. - Store statistical data and calculate totals, averages, standard deviations, linear regressions, etc over that data. - Calculate the probabilities associated with standard distributions like the normal, F and T distributions.

About

RPNu

Features
Read full description

RPNu is a calculator that makes crunching numbers easier than it’s algebraic equivalent. RPN stand for Reverse Polish Notation (The ‘u’ stands for universal, meaning it runs on both the iPad and iPhone.) and is the numeric evaluation method used for this app. RPN, I feel, is far superior to the algebraic method and once learned you will never want to use the algebraic again. This calculator has all the normal mathematical function, but also contains a host of other functions that you may find very useful. Space is limited in this description but here are the highlights: Help: There is extensive help to aid the user in determining how to use this app. It is also context sensitive. Programable: You can write your own programs and there are many tools to aid you in doing this. Graphics: You can graph equations and there are several modes to cover almost all requirements. A universal converter that you will find very useful. Matrix arithmetic (determinate, invert, add, subtract and multiply). Date calculator and an hours calculator with moon phase display. Elements and periodic table information. Combinations and permutations calculator Equation integration and root finder. Amortization with many useful functions. Mapping function that allows you to determine distance between points and other functions. Hyperbolic functions. Hexadecimal, Octal, and Binary modes. Barometer function showing QNE and QNH. A compass that not only shows magnetic and true north, but also shows the address you are at. This app includes extensive support for a Bluetooth keyboard. Also, extensive support is given to export your calculations to either email or the universal clipboard.

Screenshots

Halcyon Calc4 screens
RPNu4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: RPNu at Free against Halcyon Calc's $4.99. RPNu also leads on update cadence (every 2 months vs every 4 months). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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

RPNu is free to download; Halcyon Calc costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Halcyon Calc ships an update every 4 months, RPNu every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Halcyon Calc versus RPNu: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHalcyon CalcRPNu
Price$4.99Free — better
Rating4.9 (18 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings18 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size10 MB49 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHalcyon Touch SoftwareScott Johnson

In-app purchases

None

Halcyon Calc

No in-app purchases

None

RPNu

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Halcyon Calc free?
Halcyon Calc costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is RPNu free?
RPNu is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Halcyon Calc or RPNu have ads?
Neither Halcyon Calc nor RPNu shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Halcyon Calc or RPNu?
Halcyon Calc ships an update every 4 months, and RPNu every 2 months. Most recently, Halcyon Calc was updated on October 23, 2026 and RPNu on October 26, 2026.

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