Comparison

Calca vs emdee

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Symbolic calculation
  • Equation solving
  • Expression simplification
  • Markdown text editor
  • Real-time updates
  • Unit and currency conversion
  • Matrix operations
Features
Read full description

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!

About

emdee

Edit Markdown files directly in a formatted view without switching modes. This app offers a true WYSIWYG experience for creating and modifying documents, including tables, lists, and images, while ensuring your files remain plain .md.

Highlights
  • True WYSIWYG Markdown editing
  • Edit directly in formatted view
  • Supports headings, bold, italic, lists, tables
  • Image insertion and display
  • Export to PDF, HTML, plain text
  • Table of contents generation
Read full description

A .md file from an AI chat, full of # and **. A browser can show it to you. emdee lets you rewrite it — in that same clean, formatted view. You don't need to switch between a reading mode and an editing mode. You edit the document while it stays clean and properly formatted, exactly as a .md document should look. Headings stay heading-sized, tables stay tables, and you type directly into the document. Want bold? Select the text and tap the button. You never type the symbols, and you never see them. Save, and it's still a plain .md file. ■ When you'd use it You saved an AI answer as .md — now you want it in your own words, not just readable AI drafted your travel plan or checklist — now the dates and details need to be yours You want to keep notes and minutes in .md, without looking up syntax as you write ■ What you can actually edit "emdee" is not a viewer — it's a true WYSIWYG Markdown editor. All of this works right in the formatted view: Headings (six levels), bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, links Bullet lists, numbered lists, and checklists you can tick with a tap Block quotes, code blocks, horizontal rules Tables: insert with one button, and add or delete rows and columns from that same button's menu. Line breaks inside cells are supported Find and replace — Replace All comes back with a single undo It all sits in the format bar along the bottom, which rises with the keyboard so you can change formatting mid-sentence ■ Images An image in the same folder as the document you have open is drawn right there in the text. So is one in a folder below it. PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP and SVG are drawn. So are images on the web (https://) HEIC — what an iPhone camera writes — is not drawn. Export it as JPEG and it is The first time, emdee asks permission to read that folder — one button, and it never asks again Anything it cannot draw shows its path in a frame instead The image button on the format bar puts one in. An image from outside the document's folder is copied into that folder first, and a file of the same name is never overwritten. What gets written is a relative path, so hand the images over along with the document. Exported HTML and PDF have the pictures embedded, so they travel on their own. The ![...](...) in your file is not touched by any of this. ■ More features Table of contents — tap a heading to jump there. On iPad it opens as a column beside your text instead of covering it Print, and export to PDF, HTML, or plain text. Lines break on paper exactly where they break on screen, and tables never split mid-row across pages Light, dark, or follow the system Body text can follow the system text size or stay at a size you choose, and the line width is yours: fit the screen, or match A4 print ■ What you write stays a .md No proprietary format, no importing. The file you have open is the .md itself, opened in place where it lives — no copy is made. It saves back readable by GitHub, VS Code, Obsidian — anything. Even details like line breaks inside table cells are written the standard way, as an HTML br tag. Line endings (LF / CRLF / CR) and text encodings (UTF-8, UTF-16, and legacy encodings such as Shift_JIS) are preserved exactly as the file was opened. Files made on Windows keep their format intact. ■ One purchase — iPhone, iPad, and Mac The same document, on the same page layout, wherever you open it. ■ What emdee doesn't do File management belongs to the Files app, and sync belongs to iCloud Drive. There is no proprietary notes database and no cloud service. The only thing open is your .md file. Images are looked for inside the folder your document is in, and nowhere else. A reference pointing outside it (../ or an absolute path) is not drawn, and neither are HEIC, AVIF or TIFF files, or images over roughly 8 MB (24 MB per document). Anything that cannot be drawn shows its path in a frame instead. Questions and bug reports are welcome — see the support page.

Screenshots

Calca4 screens
emdee4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: emdee at none against Calca's 2. emdee also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 5 months). Calca's advantage is ratings volume (157 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On ads 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

Calca costs $9.99 and emdee $7.99 up front. Calca sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. emdee asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

emdee holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Calca has 157 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 76% of Calca's written reviews are positive against 100% of emdee's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Calca ships an update every 5 months, emdee every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Calca versus emdee: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCalcaemdee
Price$9.99$7.99 — better
Rating4.5 (157 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews76.5% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings157 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 5 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKrueger Systems, Inc.Keita Eto

Customer experience

Calca

All ratings153 ratings
Positive87.6%
Neutral4.6%
Negative7.8%
Written reviews170 reviews
Positive76.5%
Neutral7.1%
Negative16.5%

emdee

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and 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
Show 7 more
  • 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
Show 10 more
  • 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

emdee

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

2 purchases

Calca

One-time2
  • 6-Month Optional Patronage$4.99
  • 12-Month Optional Patronage$7.99
None

emdee

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Calca free?
Calca costs $9.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is emdee free?
emdee costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Calca or emdee?
emdee is rated higher. Calca averages 4.5 out of 5 from 157 ratings, while emdee averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Calca or emdee have ads?
Neither Calca nor emdee shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Calca or emdee?
Calca ships an update every 5 months, and emdee every 3 weeks. Most recently, Calca was updated on November 1, 2026 and emdee on November 7, 2026.

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