HydroponicsCalc vs Crop
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HydroponicsCalc
Manage your hydroponic garden with this comprehensive tool. Track reservoir levels, mix nutrients precisely, calculate pH and VPD, and document your grow with a journal and harvest log. Supports both US and metric units.
- Reservoir management dashboard
- Concentrate and EC mixing calculators
- pH and VPD calculators
- Grow journal with photo timeline
- Harvest log and ROI dashboard
- Light schedule tracker
- US & Metric unit support
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HydroponicsCalc is the complete grow-management companion for hydroponic gardeners — from beginners mixing their first concentrate bottles to experienced growers running multiple systems. RESERVOIR MANAGEMENT — FRONT AND CENTRE Your grow systems live on the home screen where you need them. See EC, pH, temperature, volume, and grow stage at a glance. Tap Log to record a reading or journal entry without digging through menus. Get change-due warnings before problems develop. CONCENTRATE MIXER Two modes for every workflow: • Bottle → EC: Enter bottle size and coverage target — get exact gram weights per component, dose rate (mL per gallon), and a live EC estimate. • Target EC → Dose: Enter your desired EC — get the mL-per-gallon dose you need. Supports MasterBlend 4-18-38, Jack's 321, General Hydroponics Flora Series, and more. Save your favourite configurations as reusable recipes. EC CALCULATOR Dial in nutrient strength with confidence. Input dose → see estimated EC. Input target EC → get required dose. An EC reference strip shows typical ranges from seedling to aggressive feeding, accounting for your source water baseline. pH CALCULATOR Enter current pH, target pH, and reservoir volume — get the exact mL of adjuster needed. Supports White Vinegar, Phosphoric Acid (pH Down), Potassium Hydroxide (pH Up), and custom adjusters with calibration mode. VPD CALCULATOR Vapour pressure deficit tracking with colour-coded zone feedback. Input air temperature, relative humidity, and leaf temperature offset — instantly see whether you're in the Too Humid, Seedling, Vegetative, Flowering, or Too Dry zone. GROW JOURNAL WITH PHOTO TIMELINE Document your grows with a date-sorted photo diary. Log observations, deficiencies, feedings, milestones, and harvests — with camera or photo library support. Export a full PDF archive of any journal. HARVEST LOG & ROI DASHBOARD Record wet weight, dry weight, and crop name for every harvest. Track cost-per-gram from your nutrient spend. See yield trends over time. Calculate energy costs from your light wattage and schedule. LIGHT SCHEDULE TRACKER Set your light schedule (18/6, 20/4, 12/12, or custom), log your flip date, and get an estimated harvest date with a countdown. US & METRIC Every calculator works in gallons/°F or litres/°C. One tap to switch — all values update instantly. NO SUBSCRIPTIONS. NO ADS. HydroponicsCalc is a one-time purchase. Everything is included. By HackerHomeLab.com
Crop
This app calculates hydroponic nutrient recipes for various plants and growth stages, citing primary research sources. It helps growers determine salt weights for specific reservoir volumes and track EC/pH levels.
- Plant and stage-specific nutrient targets
- Cited primary source recipes
- Branded nutrient solution recipes
- Target to salt-weight solver
- Reverse calculation for used salts
- Multi-reservoir EC/pH logging
- Shareable mix sheets
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Crop is a hydroponic nutrient calculator for greenhouse vegetable growers, leafy-greens hobbyists, herb gardeners, and microgreen producers. Every plant + stage target cites a primary source — Cornell CEA, Penn State Extension, UF/IFAS, or Produce Grower — so you can verify the published recipe behind every number. WHAT'S INSIDE • Plant + stage targets — lettuce (seedling + mature head), tomato (seedling, vegetative, fruiting), basil, leafy herbs (cilantro, parsley, mint, chives), cucumber, pepper, strawberry (fruiting), leafy greens (kale, chard, spinach, arugula), and microgreens. Lettuce, tomato, and herbs are the fully cited core; the rest is surfaced as broad guidance with explicit "per-stage tables are thinner for this crop" framing. • Branded recipes — MasterBlend Tomato 4-18-38 (2:2:1 with calcium nitrate + Epsom), MasterBlend Lettuce 8-15-36 (the Cornell CEA leafy recipe), Jack's 3-2-1 (Jack's 5-12-26 + 15-0-0 calcium nitrate + Epsom), and the General Hydroponics Flora trio (Lite Feeding and Aggressive Leafy ratios). • Twenty cited salts — calcium nitrate tetrahydrate, KNO₃, KH₂PO₄, K₂SO₄, MgSO₄·7H₂O, ammonium nitrate, monoammonium phosphate, magnesium nitrate, iron EDTA and DTPA, MnSO₄, ZnSO₄, CuSO₄, boric acid, sodium borate, sodium molybdate, calcium chloride, potassium chloride. Every percentage is derived from the chemical formula using IUPAC 2021 atomic weights. • Target → salt-weight solver — the Resh / Mattson sequential satisfy textbook method. Enter your reservoir volume and a target ppm or pick a plant + stage, and Crop calculates the grams of each salt to mix. • Reverse calculation — enter the salt weights you actually used and see the delivered ppm per element. • Multi-reservoir EC + pH log — track a separate reservoir per crop or per zone, log readings over time, and surface drift warnings cited to the published source ("Per Cornell: lettuce mature 1.4–1.8 mS/cm; you logged 2.3 — dilute or top up plain water"). • Share-sheet mix sheet — export the day's reservoir target + salt weights + EC/pH range + named-source citation as plain text. Send it to yourself, paste it into your shop notebook, or print it. • Unit flexibility — US gallons or liters, grams or ounces, EC scale 500 / 640 / 700 (matches Hanna, Bluelab, Cornell tables, or European meters). DISCLAIMER Crop presents Cornell CEA, Penn State Extension, UF/IFAS, and Produce Grower guidance for educational purposes. Verify recipes against current publications and your own meter readings before mixing at scale. CITATIONS Plant + stage recipes are sourced from Cornell CEA (Mattson & Lieth), Penn State Extension, UF/IFAS, and Produce Grower. Branded product analyses come from the manufacturer's published guaranteed-analysis labels and feeding charts. Method references are Resh, Hydroponic Food Production (7th edition), and Mattson & Lieth's hydroponic recipe calculation notes. Salt elemental percentages are derived from IUPAC 2021 atomic weights and CRC Handbook (100th edition) formula masses. NO ACCOUNT. NO ADS. NO TRACKING. NO SUBSCRIPTIONS. Crop does not collect any personal data. Everything stays on your device. One-time purchase, lifetime updates.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Crop at Free against HydroponicsCalc's $1.99. Crop also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 4 months). HydroponicsCalc's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On rating, ratings volume, 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
Crop is free to download; HydroponicsCalc costs $1.99 up front. Crop sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. HydroponicsCalc asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for HydroponicsCalc against 5.0 for Crop. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.
HydroponicsCalc ships an update every 4 months, Crop every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HydroponicsCalc | Crop |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 3 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Douglas Stieber | Roman Kopaliani |
Customer experience
HydroponicsCalc
Crop
In-app purchases
HydroponicsCalc
No in-app purchases
Crop
- Crop Pro (lifetime)$4.99









