Elemental vs Texifier
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Elemental
This free utility allows users to easily draw chemical structures and reactions on their mobile devices. It offers features like property calculation, file sharing via email and Dropbox, and a built-in periodic table. Users can also export structures as image files or MOL/RXN formats.
- Draw chemical structures and reactions
- Calculate cheminformatics properties
- Tweet chemical structures
- Dropbox integration
- Open MOL/RXN files
- Email structures as files/images
- Built-in Periodic Table
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Elemental from Dotmatics the FREE Chemistry Sketch Utility Elemental is now a Universal App that support iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. Elemental is the Dotmatics chemistry sketch utility provided at no charge within many Dotmatics products. We are happy to provide this as a FREE app on the iTunes store. - Tap to draw chemical structures - Calculate cheminformatics properties - Tweet a Molecule! - Dropbox upload support & file association back from the Dropbox App - Open MOL/RXN files from E-mails (tap and hold an attachment) - Copy images to camera roll/clipboard - Double tap to undo - Sketch chemical reactions - Built-in Periodic Table - Email your structure as a MOL/RXN file and PNG image - Emails also contain MW, MolFormula and predicted LogP Draw molecules with ease! Suggestions are really welcome at this time. We intend to add a heap of features over the coming months and to keep this app FREE.
Texifier
Write and typeset LaTeX, Plain TeX, and Markdown documents offline on your iPad or iPhone. Features include project navigation, syntax highlighting, autocomplete, and integrated cloud typesetting for rare compatibility issues.
- Offline LaTeX, Plain TeX, and Markdown editing
- Project outline view for navigation
- Syntax highlighting and command autocomplete
- Integrated typesetter with live mode
- Cloud typesetting for compatibility
- Error reporting and navigation
- File App integration
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Edit and typeset LaTeX, Plain TeX and Markdown on your iPad or iPhone, no internet connection required, using Texifier, formerly known as Texpad. Texifier is a LaTeX editor designed for straightforward navigation, editing and typesetting of projects of any size. Open a LaTeX root file, and Texifier will scan it, open any referenced files, extract the document structure for display in the outline view, and configure the typesetter according to the packages and tools used by your document. Texifier's editor comes with a choice of themes, syntax highlighting, autocomplete of commands, including those defined in your document, and autofill for \cite commands, \ref commands and others. The powerful sidebar can show you a summary of your document structure allowing you to navigate through large multi-file projects with ease. Additionally Texifier's outline lists all labels, figures, tables, todos and it contains a powerful search function that can search and replace across your entire project using either normal text searches or regular expression searches. TexpadTeX - Texifier's internal, no internet connection required, typesetter comes with PGF drivers, Native Fonts extensions, a Unicode and more, allow it to support almost any LaTeX package available. TexpadTeX also integrates a BibteX tool and a Makeindex compatible indexer for documents that require those tools. The integrated bundle manager takes care of downloading, installing and updating LaTeX packages for you, giving you access to almost the entire LaTeX ecosystem without using any more space on your device than needed. TexpadTeX can run in Live mode, updating the output as you type, so you never need wait for a typeset to finish again. For the rare cases of documents that are not compatible with TexpadTeX, you can use our free cloud typesetters. This is fully integrated into Texifier so press typeset, and Texifier will run the typeset in the Cloud, presenting the results just as if they were typeset on your device. After all typesets, any errors in your document are organised in a table of issues. Tap on an issue to jump directly to the offending line of LaTeX source, or the line in the original log if you wish to read the original output. Texifier works well with Files App, allowing you to store and work on your documents wherever you wish. On top of that Texifier Connect is directly integrated into Texifier for working across devices and collaborators. Texifier supports Markdown along with LaTeX. Edit your document in Texifier's syntax highlighting editor, browse the document by outline, then when you press Typeset, the document will be transparently converted and typeset by LaTeX (using a standard template), giving you the informal ease of Markdown with LaTeX's ability to create beautiful and high quality PDFs. Likewise Plain TeX users can edit and typeset their documents in Texifier. Features: - Universal binary for iPhone and iPad, optimised for the latest generation of devices. - Typeset LaTeX to PDF on your iPad and iPhone without need for an internet connection - Support for LaTeX, Plain Tex and Markdown - Navigate easily through even the largest projects using the Outline view - Search all files by string or regex with the global search view - Browse the typeset errors and warnings either as a raw log, or with the errors and warnings table view. - Texifier's editor autocompletes commands, and autofills commands such as \ref{...} or \cite{...} - Use iOS Files app to edit documents in any storage that supports file or folder access - Instant Live typeset using Texifier's built in TexpadTeX typesetter - The onboard typesetter supports virtually any LaTeX package or font, including, but not limited to: Beamer, Tikz, Fontspec, Koma Script, e-TeX, graphicx, pgfplots, AMS, RevTeX, Babel, Bibtex and Indices. - Free typesetting through our secure cloud servers gives you access to all packages in the latest TeXLive distribution.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Elemental at Free against Texifier's $29.99. Elemental also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (73% vs 57%). Texifier's advantage is rating (4.3 vs 2.2) and ratings volume (690 vs 18). On 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
Elemental is free to download; Texifier costs $29.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Texifier holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 2.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Texifier has 690 ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 73% of Elemental's written reviews are positive against 57% of Texifier's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Elemental ships an update every 3 weeks, Texifier every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on July 6, 2026 and September 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Elemental | Texifier |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $29.99 |
| Rating | 2.2 (18 ratings) | 4.3 (690 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 73.4% of reviews — better | 56.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 18 | 690 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 8 MB | 61 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dotmatics Limited | Valletta Ventures (UK) Ltd |
Customer experience
Elemental
Texifier
Bugs and requests
Elemental
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Texifier
Reported bugs
5 issues- Crashes when compiling certain documents
- Inconsistent behavior when syncing with Dropbox
- Issues with inserting and displaying images
- Problems with bibliography and citation handling
- Unexpected text formatting and layout issues
Requested features
6 requests- Dark mode option
- Improved file management and organization
- Support for more LaTeX packages and features
- Better integration with other cloud storage services
- Keyboard shortcuts and advanced editing tools
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- Spell-checking and proofreading capabilities
In-app purchases
Elemental
No in-app purchases
Texifier
No in-app purchases









