Comparison

Electrical Calc vs Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc

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

Head to head
About

Electrical Calc

This professional electrical application assists electricians and engineers with complex calculations based on the Canadian Electric Code. It offers features for wire and conduit sizing, motor and transformer load calculations, voltage drop, and more. Easily generate panel legends and access in-app support.

Highlights
  • Wire and conduit sizing
  • Motor and transformer load calculations
  • Voltage drop calculations
  • Panel legend creation and export
  • Allowable ampacity and derating
  • Box fill calculations
  • Unit conversions
Features
Read full description

E-Calc Pro is a professional electrical application for calculating many common electrical problems. This app is an essential tool for all electricians and electrical engineers. Unlike other similar apps E-Calc not only calculates simple formulas but returns code results including wire sizing, conduit sizing, fusing, overload size, ground and bond size and much more based on the Canadian Electric Code. The features of this app are too long to list but here are a few of the key ones; - Basic construction calculator allows you to easily divide rooms for lighting in imperial or metric measurements. - Calculate any single motor or multiple motor load and get maximum overcurrent, maximum overload, minimum wire, minimum pipe, and minimum bond wire size. Store a schedule of motors for easy retrieval. - Calculate any transformer size and get KVA, FLA, pipe size, fuse and breaker size, bond size and ground size, on both primary and secondary. Easily choke down the transformer and get appropriate results for the modified demand load. - Calculate feeders for wire size, conduit size and voltage drop simultaneously. - Create panel legends of any size and easily export or print them right from your device. - Calculate the allowable ampacity of any wire type and deration situation. - Calculate maximum number of similar sized wires in a given pipe size. - Calculate pipe size required for a list of any number, size, and type of wire. - Calculate required ground and bonding sizes. - Easily calculate complicated voltage drop calculations. Get results for percentage voltage drop as well as maximum lengths of runs and wire size. Derating is also supported. - Calculate minimum burial depths for any situation including special situations including mechanical protection, under slab, and rock encased. - Calculate any box fill situation in mL and cubic inch. - Calculate recommeneded torque settings for all varieties of lugs and terminations. - Convert many common units. - Find NEMA codes and specs of receptacles. - Calculate residential single dwelling service sizes. - Easily access in app support with quick links to your tablet's email.

About

Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc

Calculate the appropriate wire size for electrical circuits. This tool helps determine wire size based on voltage drop and current carrying capacity, ensuring compliance with NEC ampacity limits.

Highlights
  • Determine wire size for voltage drop
  • Calculate voltage drop for conductor runs
  • Limit wire size by voltage drop
  • Limit wire size by NEC ampacity
  • Supports AWG and KCMIL sizes
Features
Read full description

Southwire's voltage drop calculator will help you determine the proper wire size for an electrical circuit based on the voltage drop and current carrying capacity of an electrical circuit. Determines wire size to meet specific voltage drop limits or calculates voltage drop for a specific conductor run. When sizing conductors, calculations limits wire size to voltage drop and NEC ampacity. Southwire's Voltage Drop Calculator is designed for applications using AWG and KCMIL sizes only.

Screenshots

Electrical Calc4 screens
Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc at Free against Electrical Calc's $19.99. Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc also leads on rating (4.6 vs 2.5) and ratings volume (1.5K vs 2). Electrical Calc's advantage is review sentiment (89% vs 49%) and iOS requirement (8.0 vs 15.0). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc is free to download; Electrical Calc costs $19.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 2.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc has 1.5K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 89% of Electrical Calc's written reviews are positive against 49% of Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Electrical Calc ships an update every 5 weeks, Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Electrical Calc versus Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterElectrical CalcSouthwire® Voltage Drop Calc
Price$19.99Free — better
Rating2.5 (2 ratings)4.6 (1.5K ratings) — better
Positive reviews89.2% of reviews — better49.1% of reviews
Number of ratings21.5K — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS8.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size23 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSnappy Appz Inc.Southwire Company

Customer experience

Electrical Calc

All ratings2 ratings
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews65 reviews
Positive89.2%
Neutral3.1%
Negative7.7%

Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc

All ratings1,358 ratings
Positive89.7%
Neutral2.2%
Negative8.1%
Written reviews53 reviews
Positive49.1%
Neutral3.8%
Negative47.2%

User reviews

Electrical Calc

From 2 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Handy and useful for electricians
  • 🚀 Saves time on the job
  • ✅ Accurate calculations
  • 💡 Constantly updated with code books
  • 👍 Easy to use and navigate

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Voltage drop calculator may be incorrect
  • 🐛 Pipe fill calculator difficult with different wire sizes
  • 🐛 Needs better tutorials
  • 🐛 Some users report mistakes/errors
  • 🐛 Not following Quebec's electrical code

Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc

From 1.5K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Quick and useful
  • 🚀 Great Quick Reference
  • 👍 A must have app for electricians
  • 👍 Love These
  • 👍 Electrical Engineer

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Motor starting Voltage drop
  • 🐛 Useless!
  • 🐛 Won't work
  • 🐛 How to use
  • 🐛 Confused

Bugs and requests

Electrical Calc

Reported bugs

8 issues
  • Voltage drop calculator does not seem correct
  • Pipe fill calculator difficult to use
  • Trouble using wire size calculations
  • Mistakes when using the app
  • App does not follow Quebec's electrical code
Show 3 more
  • Programming is lacking
  • Calculations are out to lunch from code book
  • Unable to use numbers with ',' for input

Requested features

10 requests
  • Add a DC voltage drop calculator
  • Include a demand load factor calculator
  • Add more electrical conversions (amps to milliamps, farads to microfarads)
  • Add an electronics section with component dictionary and resistor color code calculator
  • Update for 2015 code book
Show 5 more
  • Add diagrams
  • Add a help button for calculators
  • Allow users to select their province for code adherence
  • Add a tutorial for wire size calculations
  • Update for newer code books (e.g., 2025)

Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc

Reported bugs

24 issues
  • Useless!
  • Won't work
  • How to use
  • Confused
  • Bad app
Show 19 more
  • Bad
  • Not applicable for Residential
  • Electrician
  • Terrible
  • Not working
  • What??
  • Terrible
  • Don't work
  • Terrible
  • Choice Between AWG and Metric wire Gauge
  • Updated app not so simple
  • The last version was better
  • App
  • Terrible
  • Voltage drop calculator
  • IOS 8
  • One flaw
  • Worst app ever
  • Average

Requested features

2 requests
  • Motor starting Voltage drop calculation
  • Metric wire size options

In-app purchases

None

Electrical Calc

No in-app purchases

None

Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Electrical Calc free?
Electrical Calc costs $19.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc free?
Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Electrical Calc or Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc?
Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc is rated higher. Electrical Calc averages 2.5 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc averages 4.6 from 1.5K ratings.
Do Electrical Calc or Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc have ads?
Neither Electrical Calc nor Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Electrical Calc or Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc?
Electrical Calc ships an update every 5 weeks, and Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc every 2 months. Most recently, Electrical Calc was updated on October 24, 2026 and Southwire® Voltage Drop Calc on October 30, 2026.

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