Comparison

Pocket Experiments Science Lab vs Digital Simulator bitGateLab

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

Head to head
About

Pocket Experiments Science Lab

Features
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Twenty-six rooms. Not a workbook — a bench in each one. You set the parts out yourself, turn the knobs, and measure with the instruments. • Hang as many weights as you like anywhere along a balance beam, and even it up • Drag molecules onto the bench and see what they form • Set a magma's silica and the depth where it freezes, erupt it, then look at the rock through a hand lens and measure the grains • Stretch two strings, detune one, and listen to the beats • Drop three seismometers on a map; three circles meet at one point, and that point is the epicenter Every number is measured off the picture. Nothing here works a value out of a formula and then "checks" it against the same formula. The grains under the lens are really drawn, and their size is really measured. Turn a knob and the picture changes; when the picture changes, the numbers change with it. Every room has three steps: 1. Move it — turn one knob and watch what changes 2. Count it — line the measurement up against the formula and look at the gap 3. Check it — one question, and the reason either way Every room also has a question box. Clear it and the room moves up a tier: none → bronze → silver → gold. There are 78 questions in all. But the questions are not the main act. Playing with the bench is; a question is the detour you take when you think “wait — could I actually build that?” The topics are middle school and high school science: forces and motion, springs and buoyancy, pendulums, circuits, electromagnets, ray optics, lenses, sound, changes of state, solubility, titration, electrolysis, chemical reactions, preparing and collecting gases, the microscope, cell division, photosynthesis, flower structure, heredity, strata, rocks and volcanoes, earthquakes, and the sky. Three neighbors of science come along too: probability, logic gates and regular expressions. ADS AND THE ONE-TIME PURCHASE The app is free and shows ads: a banner along the bottom of the screen, and a full-screen ad when you open the app. All 26 rooms and all 78 questions are open from the first launch. There is exactly one in-app purchase and all it does is turn the ads off — it unlocks nothing and adds nothing. It is a single one-time purchase with no subscription (¥5,000 in Japan; the price for your country is shown in the app). Not based on, or affiliated with, any particular textbook.

About

Digital Simulator bitGateLab

Features
Read full description

bitGateLab Digital is a digital electronics lab on your PC, phone or tablet: design a circuit with logic gates, watch it run live, get its truth table and Karnaugh map, check the timing diagram and build it on a 3D breadboard with step-by-step wiring. Everything works offline, with no account. DESIGN AND SIMULATE • AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, XOR, XNOR and buffer gates; inputs, switches, push buttons, DIP banks, LEDs, LED strips and bar graphs, 7- and 16-segment displays, buzzer. • Sequential logic: D, T, JK and SR flip-flops, clock, crystal, counters, 555 timer, word generator, serial monitor. • Components: multiplexers, buses, ROM and RAM, H-bridge, motor, optocoupler, registers. • Group any part of the circuit into a reusable block with its own pins. • Undo and redo, copy and paste, named and colored wires, grid and automatic fit. TRUTH TABLE AND KARNAUGH • Type a boolean equation or fill in the truth table and turn it into a circuit with one tap. • Karnaugh maps from 2 to 8 variables, with groupings, canonical form, minterms or maxterms. • Step-by-step simplification naming each law applied, NAND form and Verilog export. • From the circuit back to the truth table or the Karnaugh map. TIMING DIAGRAM • Every input combination as a binary counter, with the hex value of each cycle. • A and B probes to measure intervals, X and Z levels, slopes and propagation delay per logic family (TTL, CMOS...). • Export to PDF. 3D BREADBOARD • Your circuit becomes a real build on its own: 74-series chips, resistors, LEDs, switches and wires on one or more breadboards. • Step-by-step guide hole by hole (for example 44i → 12i), bill of materials and net list. • Move chips, LEDs and switches where you like, recolor wires, isolate a net or a single wire, undo and redo. • Labels on every input and LED, free rotation, zoom and image capture. MICROCONTROLLERS AND PROGRAMMABLE LOGIC • MCU51 (8051-compatible) and MCU14 (14-bit): program in C or assembly, assemble and single-step with registers, ports, timers, interrupts and UART. • 16V8, 20V8 and 22V10 PLDs: equations, fuse map and JEDEC file. • Ready-made examples: counters, blinkers, traffic lights, serial communication and more. SHARE AND SAVE • Save your circuits with version history; share them as a file, a link or a QR code. • Export images as SVG, PNG, JPEG, WebP or PDF, and code as Verilog. • Number systems calculator, two's complement and binary operations with flags. FOR LEARNING AND TEACHING • Reference of boolean algebra laws and theorems. • State table and state diagram of your sequential circuits. • Large-button interface, comfortable on PCs, phones and tablets; light and dark themes. • 16 languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), French, German, Italian, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Turkish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hindi. PRIVACY No account, no cloud and no ads: your circuits are stored only on your device. Something not working? Settings → Report a problem sends your message with the app version, device model and a technical log, with no personal data. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://juchabit.com/privacy-policy/

Screenshots

Pocket Experiments Science Lab4 screens
Digital Simulator bitGateLab4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: Digital Simulator bitGateLab at none against Pocket Experiments Science Lab's shown. Digital Simulator bitGateLab also leads on iOS requirement (15.0 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. Pocket Experiments Science Lab sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Digital Simulator bitGateLab sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard2 real differences · 4 level
Pocket Experiments Science Lab versus Digital Simulator bitGateLab: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPocket Experiments Science LabDigital Simulator bitGateLab
PriceFreeFree
Update frequency—Daily
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB41 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMIZOU, CO., LTD.RUBEN ESTRADA MARMOLEJO

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Pocket Experiments Science Lab

One-time1
  • Remove Ads$29.99
3 purchases

Digital Simulator bitGateLab

Subscriptions2
  • bitGateLab Digital Monthly$1.991 Month
  • bitGateLab Digital Annual$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • bitGateLab Digital Lifetime$29.99

Questions

Is Pocket Experiments Science Lab free?
Pocket Experiments Science Lab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Digital Simulator bitGateLab free?
Digital Simulator bitGateLab is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Pocket Experiments Science Lab or Digital Simulator bitGateLab have ads?
Pocket Experiments Science Lab shows ads; Digital Simulator bitGateLab does not.

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