Report Monster vs Calca
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Report Monster
Capture site photos and notes instantly to generate professional PDF reports. Supports multiple images per report, drawing tools, and GPS tagging. Export reports via email, Dropbox, or Evernote.
- Capture photos and notes on-site
- Generate professional PDF reports
- Annotate images with drawing tools
- Insert maps and tag locations
- Automatic photo labeling
- Flexible export options
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• Used by thousands of businesses and Government agencies across the globe! • WHAT OUR CUSTOMERS HAVE BEEN SAYING: "..I've found it amazing for creating my properties information, and has been a blockbuster with my fellow colleagues.." "..I love report monster.." '..Love your work, that's why I upgraded.." "..exactly the sort of report app I am looking for.." Report Monster is the ultimate field book. Easily capture photos and notes directly on-site. Send professional PDF reports back to your office instantly using Dropbox, Evernote or Email. USE REPORT MONSTER FOR: • Visual Instructions • Installation Records • Site Survey • Design Scoping • Quality Assurance • Claims Adjuster Notes • Asset Management • Property Inspection • Audit Report IN THESE INDUSTRIES: • Government and Council • Power and Telecommunication Utilities • Engineering and Consulting • Building and Construction • Insurance • Real Estate MULTIPLE PHOTOS PER REPORT Take photos with the built-in camera, or use images from the photo library as your main drawing canvas. Add extra detail with 'picture in picture' inset images (requires Pro upgrade). ANNOTATE WITH DRAWING TOOLS Add mark-ups to images using professional drawing tools such as polylines, dimensions, arrows, free-hand draw and text boxes. ADD NOTES TO IMAGES Every page has a dedicated notes field for adding additional information about each image. CREATE AND INSERT FORMS Use the form builder to create custom forms (requires Pro upgrade). Quickly capture field data with free text, multi choice, date and number pickers. INSERT MAPS Add standard maps, satellite imagery, or even Street View images. TAG YOUR LOCATION Pin the report to your current GPS location, or manually re-position as desired. The address is automatically translated and added to your report. AUTOMATIC PHOTO LABELING Captured photos can be automatically labeled with the report name and exported using iTunes at full quality. Eliminates the tedious manual naming of photo files back in the office! COMMON FILE TYPE Easily save the report in PDF format. FLEXIBLE STORAGE AND EXPORT OPTIONS All reports are stored locally on the iPad and can be exported using Email, Dropbox and Evernote. NOTE: The free version of Report Monster supports up to 3 pages per report. An ‘In App Purchase’ allows you to unlock the full 20 pages and 'Form Builder', plus other features.
Calca
This app is an advanced symbolic calculator and text editor. It solves equations, simplifies expressions, and allows you to explain your work alongside calculations. Calculations update instantly as you type, and all data is stored as plain text for easy sharing and device syncing.
- Symbolic calculation
- Equation solving
- Expression simplification
- Markdown text editor
- Real-time updates
- Unit and currency conversion
- Matrix operations
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Calca is a powerful symbolic calculator that gives you instant answers as you type. It solves equations and simplifies complex expressions - it's a computer algebra system in your pocket! It's also a rich Markdown text editor so that you can explain your ideas alongside your calculations. Calca is perfect for professionals and students - anyone who works with numbers and equations. Variables and functions can be created with only a few keystrokes and can be manipulated with a rich library of operators and functions. Calca updates as you type - just like a spreadsheet. You can declare variables, edit their values and watch everything update before your eyes. Since everything is calculated on the device - no network needed - you get answers instantaneously. All calculations are stored as plain text so you can easily share them with other editors and move them from device to device. Calca has been designed to work with iCloud documents so all your devices can access your calculations - you'll always have the latest files ready for viewing and editing. Calca comes with a suite of examples to help you get started covering topics from home mortgages to kinetics. All these examples are fully explained within Calca itself. Are you still using a desktop calculator? Are you using the calculator with the giant buttons that came with your OS? Computers are much more capable than doing simple one-line arithmetic - put your machine to work with Calca! Calculation Features: • Variables `x = 42` • Functions `f(c) = 9/5*c + 32` and even recursive functions • Units `42 mph in kmph` and currency `¥599 in $` • Solves equations (`x + 2x + 4x = 42`, what is x?) • Matrices with inverses so you can solve linear equations • Sum, prod, map, and reduce operations on lists, matrices, and ranges • Trigonometry and complex numbers • Derivatives of functions • Logic operations and if statements • Binary math (& and |) and support for binary and hex number (`0xA9` and `0b1010`) • Keeps track of units (m, s, m/s, m/s^2, etc.) so you can verify your equations as you compute Please visit http://calca.io to see lots of examples. Thank you for looking!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Report Monster at Free against Calca's $9.99. Report Monster also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 5 months) and iOS requirement (10.0 vs 15.0). Calca's advantage is rating (4.5 vs 1.6) and review sentiment (76% vs 48%). On 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
Report Monster is free to download; Calca costs $9.99 up front. Report Monster sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Calca sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Calca holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 1.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Calca has 157 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 48% of Report Monster's written reviews are positive against 76% of Calca's.
Report Monster ships an update every 3 weeks, Calca every 5 months. Both last shipped on November 1, 2026.
| Parameter | Report Monster | Calca |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 1.6 (10 ratings) | 4.5 (157 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 48.3% of reviews | 76.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 10 | 157 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 10.0 — better | 15.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 36 MB | 78 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Filu Ltd | Krueger Systems, Inc. |
Customer experience
Report Monster
Calca
Bugs and requests
Report Monster
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Calca
Reported bugs
12 issues- Magic Keyboard causes number input to overwrite instead of append
- Text selection before numbers triggers increment/decrement instead of selecting
- Cursor jumps forward and backward with external keyboards
- iPad Pro keyboard truncation in portrait mode
- Arrow key (=>) doesn't work in landscape mode
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- App crashes on startup on some devices
- File saving is temperamental and causes data loss
- Folders don't persist unless calculations created within them
- Large number calculations lose precision (10^100 + 1 - 10^100 returns 0 instead of 1)
- Keyboard focus issues on iPad with Magic Keyboard
- iOS 13+ button adaptation issues
- Spinning beach ball on very large calculations
Requested features
15 requests- Files app and document browser integration
- Dropbox and Google Drive support
- Date calculation functionality
- Looping and iteration support
- User-defined function storage in separate files
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- Temperature unit support (Celsius, Fahrenheit)
- Logarithmic and non-proportional unit definitions
- Multiple parametric plots simultaneously
- Landscape mode optimization
- Tabular data and multi-row markdown table support
- Dark mode (now implemented)
- Subscription model option for ongoing development
- Decimal place formatting control
- Charting and financial functions
- Better document management interface
In-app purchases
Report Monster
- Report Monster Pro Upgrade$19.99
Calca
- 6-Month Optional Patronage$4.99
- 12-Month Optional Patronage$7.99









