Materials Lab vs Crys
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Materials Lab
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ZenSee Materials Lab is an interactive visualization workspace for materials science and engineering. The first release focuses on CrystalLab, a lightweight 3D crystal structure viewer for learning, teaching, and report graphics. Choose common crystal structures, inspect unit cells and atoms, rotate the model smoothly, review key structural parameters, and export clean PNG images for slides or notes. Current features: - Simple cubic, body-centered cubic, face-centered cubic, and hexagonal close-packed structures. - Classic teaching examples including diamond cubic, rock salt, cesium chloride, and perovskite structures. - Point-defect examples for vacancy, substitutional, and interstitial defects. - Interactive 3D viewport with rotation, zoom, pan, and mobile-friendly control locking. - Unit-cell frame, atom spheres, Miller guide lines, and neighbor-bond display options. - XYZ and CIF import for simple structure previews. - PNG export for teaching materials, reports, and classroom notes. - Local-first experience with no account requirement. ZenSee Materials Lab is designed for students, teachers, and engineering learners who need a professional, focused way to understand and communicate crystal structures. It is not a finite-element solver, molecular dynamics engine, molecular dynamics production tool, or certified engineering simulation package. Privacy Policy: http://mindkey.xyz/index.php/zensee-studio/privacy-policy/ Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Crys
This app allows users to view and analyze crystal structures locally on their mobile devices. It supports various file formats and offers tools for inspecting atoms, bonds, and unit cells, with features for generating simulated PXRD patterns and morphology previews.
- Local structure viewing
- Supports CIF, XYZ, PDB, MOL, SDF, MOL2, RES files
- Inspect atoms, bonds, unit cells
- Display styles and scope control
- Fullscreen and PXRD presentation modes
- Simulated PXRD pattern generation
- BFDH morphology preview
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Crys-CAST brings crystal and molecular structure viewing, geometry analysis, and presentation tools to iPhone and iPad. OPEN AND EXPLORE Open CIF, XYZ, PDB, MOL, SDF, MOL2, and RES files from Files or other apps. Explore asymmetric units, unit cells, and supercells with ball-and-stick, Spacefill, coordination polyhedra, and thermal ellipsoids when suitable displacement data is available. Rotate, zoom, and view structures along crystallographic directions. MEASURE AND ANALYZE Inspect bond lengths, bond angles, and geometric hydrogen-bond candidates, grouped by type with clear symmetry details. Combine selected length, angle, and hydrogen-bond labels directly on the structure. Distinguish coordinate-calculated values from matching CIF-reported geometry, and export compact bond-length and bond-angle tables as TXT or Excel-compatible CSV. Explore simulated powder X-ray diffraction patterns, BFDH morphology, and geometric pore analysis. Display pore space alone or together with the crystal structure. BUILD YOUR COLLECTION Organize structures in My Database. Add files from History or import structure files and ZIP, RAR, or 7z archives into a chosen collection. Name entries, save viewing states, and export collections for reuse. CREATE PRESENTATION MATERIALS Save structure images and record GIF or MP4 animations with resolution and frame-rate presets and custom duration. Use automatic rotation or adjust the view while recording. Animation exports contain the structure viewer without interface controls or sound. MAKE THE VIEW YOUR OWN Use a consistent interface on iPhone and iPad, choose light or dark appearance, and customize backgrounds, unit-cell lines, axes, and scale bars. SCIENTIFIC SCOPE Calculated geometry, hydrogen-bond candidates, pore results, and other analyses depend on the input data and selected settings. They support visualization and interpretation but do not replace structure refinement or experimental validation. Missing hydrogen positions are not inferred. Actual recording frame rate depends on device performance and structure complexity.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Crys at none against Materials Lab's 1. Materials Lab's advantage is device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price and ads 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
Both are free to download. Materials Lab sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Crys asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | Materials Lab | Crys |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | — | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 4 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | — | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 碧珍 刘 | 子铭 叶 |
In-app purchases
Materials Lab
- Materials Lab Pro$9.99
Crys
No in-app purchases







