Comparison

FoldVision vs MolViewApp

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

Head to head
About

FoldVision

Features
Read full description

FoldVision turns the world's protein structures into something you can hold, turn, and understand. Search more than 200,000 experimentally determined structures from the Protein Data Bank, load AlphaFold and ESMFold predictions, or build a DNA or RNA helix from a typed sequence. Everything renders in interactive 3D — rotate it with a finger, zoom into an active site, and switch between ribbon, surface, ball-and-stick and space-filling views. EXPLAIN ANY PROTEIN Tap Explain and the app writes a plain-language account of what the protein does, grounded in curated UniProt data and generated privately on your device with Apple Intelligence. A guided tour walks you through the key regions, lighting up each one on the structure as it's described. Available in 11 languages. COMPARE TWO STRUCTURES Load two structures and see exactly what changed. Structural-change coloring shades every residue from blue (superposes) to red (diverges). Sequence-change coloring separates conserved residues from substitutions. Watch a smooth morph between two conformations, or set them side by side. EXPLORE THE DETAIL • Annotations — domains, active and binding sites, modifications, variants and mutagenesis, drawn from UniProt. Tap any one to spotlight it on the structure. • Sequence view — the full amino-acid sequence with secondary structure, hydrophobicity, charge and B-factor tracks. Tap a residue to find it in 3D. • Color by secondary structure, chain, hydrophobicity, charge, domain or confidence (pLDDT), with color-blind-safe palettes throughout. • Measure distances, pin points of interest, and see the ligands and ions bound in the structure. NUCLEIC ACIDS Fold an RNA sequence into its predicted secondary structure with ViennaRNA, or build an idealized DNA or RNA double helix from any sequence. SHARE YOUR WORK Export a still image, a spinning video, or a 3D USDZ model you can drop into a presentation or an AR scene. BUILT FOR EVERY DEVICE Designed for iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro, with layouts tuned to each. Structure and annotation data come from the RCSB Protein Data Bank, UniProt, AlphaFold DB, ESM Atlas, InterPro and Reactome. Full credits are in the app.

About

MolViewApp

Explore 3D molecular structures with interactive visualizations. Load PDB files locally or by ID and utilize various display modes and advanced features like electrostatic potential mapping and structural alignment. All processing is done on-device for privacy.

Highlights
  • Load PDB files locally or by ID
  • Multiple structure loading and visibility control
  • Surface electrostatic potential map
  • Structural alignment and superposition
  • Secondary structure coloring
  • Morphing between conformations
Features
Read full description

MolViewApp is an iPad molecular structure viewer built on Mol*. Load PDB files locally or by PDB ID and explore proteins with cartoon, surface, stick, and ball-and-stick representations. Features: - Load multiple structures; per-structure visibility from the Objects panel - Surface electrostatic potential map (screened-Coulomb / APBS-style) - Superposition and sequence-independent structural alignment - Secondary structure (DSSP) coloring - Morphing between conformations - Command-line interface and built-in manual All computation runs on-device. No account, no data collection, no tracking.

Screenshots

FoldVision4 screens
MolViewApp2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: MolViewApp at 15.0 against FoldVision's 26.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

FoldVision ships an update daily, MolViewApp every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on August 12, 2026 and September 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
FoldVision versus MolViewApp: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFoldVisionMolViewApp
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—2 — better
Update frequencyDaily — betterEvery 2 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Vision ProiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS26.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB29 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperScot FedermanDonghan Lee

In-app purchases

None

FoldVision

No in-app purchases

None

MolViewApp

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is FoldVision free?
FoldVision is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MolViewApp free?
MolViewApp is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do FoldVision or MolViewApp have ads?
Neither FoldVision nor MolViewApp shows ads.
Which is updated more often, FoldVision or MolViewApp?
FoldVision ships an update daily, and MolViewApp every 2 days. Most recently, FoldVision was updated on August 12, 2026 and MolViewApp on September 25, 2026.

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