Comparison

SteelSolve vs HOLD

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

Head to head
About

SteelSolve

This app simplifies complex calculations for construction professionals. It supports various units, allows for easy expression editing, and provides instant results as you type. Features include built-in functions for rise, run, diagonal, and slope, along with estimating capabilities.

Highlights
  • Feet, Inch, and Fraction Input
  • Unit Assignment and Conversion
  • Full Expression Editing
  • Instant Results as You Type
  • History Tape for Previous Entries
  • Rise, Run, Diagonal, and Slope Functions
  • Estimating Functions
Features
Read full description

- Feet, Inch, and Fraction Input, along with other units in 28 categories. - Fully Functional Unit calculator - ft x ft = sqft. Quickly convert result to other units. - See the whole expression, and tap numbers to edit. Answers are live. - Free of Annoying Ads, No Internet connection required. - Powerful Dictation such as “5 feet 4 and 3/8 plus 36 and a quarter inch" - Date and Time Calculations built in - “Today + 7 weeks” - History tape to store, categorize, re-use and export your calculations. - Rise, Run, Diagonal, and Slope functions built-in. - Pricing units to turn quantities into prices: 500 lbs * 25 $/lb. - Quick Fraction entry buttons and fractions in your results. - Smart Parentheses that are not strict: 1 + 2 ) x 3 - Unit Combinations such as deg-min-sec or lb-oz. Powerful Dictation - Tell the Calculator what to calculate: - “26 feet times 42-feet-7 times 6 inches, convert to cubic yards” - “50 feet times 40 pounds per foot times a dollar 50 per pound plus 30 percent margin” - “4 foot run, 3 foot rise, slope” - “Average of 2 and a half feet and 4 meters” - “Convert 7 and 3/4 meters to decimal feet” - “13 tablespoons times 3 in cups” - “Working Days until December 20th” - “August 11th of last year plus 3 weeks” Custom version with additional features: - Purchase for a one-time fee. - Use Pro Accent Theme for a beautifully colored keypad. - Customize your Calculator Keypad with a catalog of available buttons. - Add custom units with intelligent suggestions for composite units. - Add custom functions to calculate more complex expressions. - Edit the Look up Database, write your own pages and calculators, share customizations with others. Specialized Calculators: - Right Triangle Calculator, Oblique Triangle, Arc Segment, Graphing Calculator, and more for Geometry. - Spacing Calculators that give you running dimensions, for standard spacings and picket railings. - Compound Miter and Compound Angle Calculators with visuals to show angled cuts. - Date Difference and Date Add or Subtract Calculators with Working/Calendar Days. - Stair Stringer and Rake Wall calculators for framers, including layout drawings. - Finance Calculators - Mortgage, Interest, with graphs. - Excel-Style Formula Solver - Export what you’re seeing to PDF or PNG - Talk to these calculators with dictation - Custom Calculator pages - Make 2 of your own in the free version. Steel and Wood Shapes and Tools: - Steel and Wood Shapes Database with accurate shape visualizations. - Enter the Length of a Profile to quickly calculate the weight or board-feet. - Use Steel List and Wood List to keep track of a list of Material or calculate weights. Export to PDF or CSV. - Material Nesters for lengths and 2D sheets that give you an optimized cutting layout. - Filter to find shapes by their dimensions with Pipe Search & WF Search. - Customizable Home Screen for quick access to your favorite shapes & calculators. - Find a shape using natural language dictation. HSS 6 by 6 by quarter - Steel Grating load tables and calculators. - Deflection calculators for Steel & Wood Beams, Rigging calculators

About

HOLD

Read full description

HOLD is a countdown timer for the waits that happen away from your desk: the meter, the shared dryer, the roast in the oven, the curbside pickup. Its main screen is your Lock Screen. ADD TIME WITHOUT UNLOCKING This is the button you actually need at a meter. While a hold is running, its Live Activity carries real controls: two extend buttons and END. Press +15 MIN on a PARKING hold and three things happen at once — the countdown moves, the completion alert is rescheduled to the new time, and the change is written down so it survives the next launch. No unlock. No app. No Face ID with a bag of groceries in your other hand. EIGHT PADS. ALL FREE. • PARKING — 2h. The meter is running. • WASH — 30m. The drum stops and sits. • DRY — 45m. Fold it before it creases. • OVEN — 20m. Nothing burns unwatched. • PICKUP — 15m. The school door will not wait. • CHARGE — 35m. Battery top-ups. • MOVE CAR — 5m. Street sweeping. • SET BREAK — 20m. Back before the encore. One tap picks a pad, one tap starts it, and every one of them is free. AND A KEYPAD FOR EVERYTHING ELSE Some waits are not a category, they are a number. Tap the big LCD readout and type any length from 1 minute to 8 hours. The keypad is free on both tiers. ON THE LOCK SCREEN AND IN THE DYNAMIC ISLAND • High-contrast LCD digits, sized to be read at arm's length in daylight. • Two extend buttons and END on the Lock Screen banner, in the pad's own amounts (PARKING: +15 and +30 MIN). • The same two, plus END HOLD, in the expanded Dynamic Island. • The compact Dynamic Island shows the pad's glyph and a live countdown; long-press to expand. • Extensions stop at 8 hours from the moment the hold began. Live Activities need iOS 16.2 or later, and the interactive buttons need iOS 17 or later. On older iPhones the hold runs normally inside the app. ONE DATE COUNTDOWN, FREE Some waits are months long. Name a date you are counting down to — a trip, a birthday, a move — up to 10 years ahead, add reminders, and put the Event Countdown widget on your Home Screen or Lock Screen: the days left are there every time you look at your phone. Five sizes in all. HOLD counts whole days — IN 3 DAYS, TOMORROW, TODAY — so the count turns over at midnight rather than in 24-hour blocks. Your first countdown is free. Widgets need iOS 17 or later. WHAT PRO ADDS • Room for 10 date countdowns instead of 1, each with its own reminders and its own widget. • Reprogram the grid: your own name, length, colour, mark and Lock Screen extends on any preset pad. Free reprograms 2 of the 8; Pro reprograms all 8, and reverting one is always free. • End at a clock time. Some waits are a deadline, not a length: the meter expires at 4:30, the gate closes at 6. Type the time instead of the duration and HOLD works out the rest. • Your own colours on the pads you save. Give each saved pad an ink and a mark of its own, so a grid of your durations reads at a glance the way the presets do. • Room for more saved pads. The free tier keeps 8. HOLD Pro raises the ceiling to 50. Nothing is ever taken back. Pads and events made with Pro stay yours to see, run, edit and delete even if the entitlement lapses; only creating a new one is refused. The presets, the keypad, the Live Activity and the Lock Screen buttons stay free either way. HOLD runs one hold at a time, for free and Pro alike. Pro does not change that, and is not sold as though it did. PRIVATE BY CONSTRUCTION • No accounts, no ads, no analytics, no trackers. HOLD makes no network calls of its own; purchases go through Apple. • Holds, pads and your last 8 sessions stay in a sandboxed database on your iPhone. Data Not Collected. • Countdowns are timestamp arithmetic in local SQLite, so the time stays honest if iOS suspends or restarts the app. HOLD Pro is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. The price shown is your own storefront's. HOLD is an independent countdown utility. It does not provide parking-enforcement advice and makes no medical claims.

Screenshots

SteelSolve4 screens
HOLD4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: HOLD at 15.1 against SteelSolve's 17.0. On price, 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

Both are free to download. SteelSolve sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and HOLD sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
SteelSolve versus HOLD: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSteelSolveHOLD
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (7 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings7 — better—
Update frequencyMonthly—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHeber HarkerJason Fraser

In-app purchases

1 purchases

SteelSolve

One-time1
  • Custom$12.99
1 purchases

HOLD

One-time1
  • HOLD Pro Lifetime Access$4.99

Questions

Is SteelSolve free?
SteelSolve is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is HOLD free?
HOLD is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do SteelSolve or HOLD have ads?
Neither SteelSolve nor HOLD shows ads.

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