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

The timer you can extend from your Lock Screen. Start one for the parking meter, the laundry or the oven, then add time with one tap: no unlocking, and the alert moves with it. On iOS 26 it rings even on Silent. And count down to any date on your Home Screen, free. FREE, WITH 5 AD-FREE HOLDS Your first 5 ad-free holds hold nothing back — every pad, the keypad, the Lock Screen controls, the alarm, all of it. After that HOLD stays free: each new hold plays at most one short ad, never before it starts. HOLD Pro removes the ads with one purchase, not a subscription. 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 the countdown and the alert both move to the new time. No unlock. No app. No Face ID with a bag of groceries in your other hand. START WITHOUT OPENING THE APP Put the Start a Hold control in Control Center, on the Lock Screen or on the Action button and choose its pad: PARKING in place of the flashlight. Or ask Siri: "Start Parking in HOLD". The Quick Start widget keeps four pads on your Home Screen. Controls need iOS 18. IT RINGS THROUGH SILENT On iOS 26, HOLD uses AlarmKit — the same system alarms the built-in Clock uses. Your hold sounds even if the phone is on Silent or sitting in a Focus. A timer you might not hear is not a timer. EIGHT PADS AND A KEYPAD PARKING 2h · WASH 30m · DRY 45m · OVEN 20m · PICKUP 15m · CHARGE 35m · MOVE CAR 5m · SET BREAK 20m. One tap picks a pad, one tap starts it. For any other wait, tap the big LCD readout and type a length from 1 minute to 8 hours. 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 and in the expanded Dynamic Island, in the pad's own amounts (PARKING: +15 and +30 MIN). • 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 and their buttons need iOS 17 or later. On older iPhones the hold runs normally inside the app. COUNT DOWN TO A DATE, TOO 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. Six sizes in all. Birthdays and anniversaries can repeat every year, with the years counted; add birthdays from Contacts without giving HOLD your address book. Christmas, New Year and Halloween are one tap away. Share any countdown as a link: it opens in HOLD, or in any browser. Widgets need iOS 17 or later. WHAT PRO ADDS • No ads, on any hold. • Run up to 3 holds at once (free runs 1): the laundry, the oven and the meter, each with its own Lock Screen controls and alarm. • Room for 10 date countdowns instead of 1, each with its own reminders, widget and colour; the large widget shows four. • Edit the grid: your own name, length, colour, mark and Lock Screen extends on any of the 8 preset pads. 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 and HOLD works out the rest. • Save up to 50 of your own pads, each with its own name, length and colour. Nothing is taken back: what you made stays yours if Pro lapses; only creating a new one is refused. PRIVATE WHERE IT MATTERS • No account and no sign-in. Your holds, pads, events and last 8 sessions stay in a sandboxed database on your iPhone. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you share it yourself. • Ads on free holds come from Google and are never personalized, and HOLD never asks to track you. For Pro users the ad software never starts. 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 ads: SteelSolve at none against HOLD's shown. HOLD's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs monthly) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, 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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SteelSolve ships an update monthly, HOLD every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 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 frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size15 MB23 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?
HOLD shows ads; SteelSolve does not.
Which is updated more often, SteelSolve or HOLD?
SteelSolve ships an update monthly, and HOLD every 2 days. Most recently, SteelSolve was updated on October 31, 2026 and HOLD on October 31, 2026.

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