Elementium vs Molecules by Theodore Gray
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Elementium
Access comprehensive information on every element of the periodic table. Explore detailed data, visualize trends, and utilize a built-in solubility calculator. Perfect for students and professionals needing quick, accurate chemical data.
- Detailed element information
- Interactive periodic table
- Dynamic filtering and trend visualization
- Solubility calculator
- Element image library
- Bohr model visualizations
- Home screen widgets
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The premiere periodic table app for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Quickly reference any element and all the information you need. Search for elements by on classification, phase, orbital, mass, or number. Dynamic filters help you understand periodic trends, like electronegativity, at a glance. Dive even deeper to get standard, frequently-used data points such as mass, electronegativity, radius, radioactivity, electron configuration, and more. LEARN Each element prominently features: • Symbol, name, and number • Atomic mass • Electronegativity • Electron configuration • Atomic radius • Melting and boiling points • Year of discovery • State at STP • Radioactivity Elements are also accompanied by discussions on its uses, discovery, and more. You can quickly find more information and publications about each element via links to Wikipedia, Science Direct®, and the American Chemical Society®. EXPLORE The periodic table is laid out in a clear, concise manner that adapts to the size of your screen. No more squinting at blurry images of the periodic table from web searches. Beautiful color-coding helps you quickly distinguish element classifications, phases at STP, electronegativity, and atomic radius. Trends and filtering help students who are learning chemistry to visualize patterns. SOLUBILITY CALCUALTOR A built in solubility calculator* answers all your, "is this soluble in that", questions. Just specify a solvent and a solute to check their compatibility. A solubility lookup table is also available for cross-referencing multiple combinations. VISUALIZATIONS See beautiful depictions of elements from raw to processed, and in other forms. The extensive library of images help you understand what your lab samples should look like, or may be helpful to students learning about chemistry.* SEARCH Search for elements by name, symbol, mass, or number from within Elementium™ or via Spotlight. Results are shown directly on the periodic table. Need faster access to element information? Search directly from Spotlight on the lock screen or home screen of your device. BOHR MODELS Animated Bohr models for each element help visualize how electrons are oriented around the nucleus.* WRITE & REPORT Academics and students writing reports and using data frequently in the classroom or the lab can simply tap on an aspect of an element to export its information.* HOME SCREEN WIDGETS Add the Periodic Table widget to your home screen for quick and easy reference to the Periodic Table. Or, try out the "random element" widget which is useful for students. ADDITIONAL NICE THINGS • Custom app icons • Set temperature and atomic radius to your preferred units • Search Spotlight for elements • Thoughtfully developed with accessibility in mind • A subscription is totally optional • No account required • Privacy focused (no tracking, no data collection) ------- ION Subscription Notice Subscription prices vary by duration and may vary by location. Subscriptions will be charged to your credit card through your iTunes account. Your subscription will automatically renew unless canceled within 24-hours before the end of the current period. You can cancel anytime with your iTunes account settings. Manage your subscriptions in Account Settings after purchase. Privacy Policy: https://spencer-software.com/elementium/privacy Terms of Service: https://spencer-software.com/elementium/tos ------- *Requires in-app purchase. Elementium™ is a trademark of Samuel Spencer.
Molecules by Theodore Gray
Explore the molecular world with interactive simulations and detailed information. Discover how elements form compounds and witness the dynamic dance of quantum mechanics through touch. This app offers a fun and educational way to understand the nature of substances.
- Touch-interactive molecular dynamics simulation
- Bend, squeeze, and shape molecules
- Adjust temperature to observe reactions
- Full text of the 'Molecules' book
- Interactive object rotations
- Dozens of 'still life videos'
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INCLUDED IN BEST OF 2014 “Few iOS apps are as thoughtfully designed as Molecules, and even fewer combine superb visuals with clear writing that encourages exploration.” – Macworld “Molecules uses its predecessor as a springboard to further greatness.” – Stuff A book about molecules, and a chance to touch, stretch and twist them! Molecules by Theodore Gray is the extraordinary sequel to The Elements, the bestselling book and app. It continues the story of the elements to show how they are assembled into the rich diversity of compounds, chemicals, molecules, rocks, and stuff that make up our world. The app includes an important world first: a touch-interactive molecular dynamics simulation that lets you poke and prod hundreds of different molecules, seeing how each one reacts to your touch. Molecules are not static things – they twist, turn, vibrate, and spin in an elaborate and beautiful dance of quantum mechanics. The app incorporates the NAMD simulation engine developed by the Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the University of Illinois. These are serious, scientifically accurate simulations. A few minutes playing with them will give you a deeper intuition about the true nature of molecules than years of study on paper. And while they are serious science, they are also a whole lot of fun to play with! In addition to the amazing wiggling molecules, the app contains the entire book of Molecules, with all the objects interactively rotatable so you can see them from all sides. Going further than The Elements, the app includes dozens of innovative and intriguing “still life videos” that reveal the true nature of substances through close-up interactive video. Features include: • Try out the first ever touchscreen-interactive molecular dynamics • Bend, squeeze and shape 348 different molecules using multiple fingers • Increase or decrease the temperature and see how molecules react • Read the full text of all 14 chapters of Molecules by Theodore Gray • Understand the movements of molecules in a special chapter for the app • See over 500 videos and rotations of incredible objects photographed by Nick Mann If you like Molecules by Theodore Gray, don’t forget to rate it and leave a review.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Elementium at Free against Molecules by Theodore Gray's $9.99. Elementium also leads on update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 months) and ratings volume (603 vs 29). Molecules by Theodore Gray's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 9) and iOS requirement (12.1 vs 16.1). On rating, review sentiment, 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
Elementium is free to download; Molecules by Theodore Gray costs $9.99 up front. Elementium sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Molecules by Theodore Gray asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for Elementium against 4.6 for Molecules by Theodore Gray. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Elementium has 603 ratings behind it against 29, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 75% and 75% positive.
Elementium ships an update every 3 weeks, Molecules by Theodore Gray every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Elementium | Molecules by Theodore Gray |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $9.99 |
| Rating | 4.6 (603 ratings) | 4.6 (29 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 75.0% of reviews — better | 74.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 603 — better | 29 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Every 6 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16.1 | 12.1 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 752 MB | 745 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Samuel Spencer | NatureGuides Ltd. |
Customer experience
Elementium
Molecules by Theodore Gray
User reviews
Elementium
From 603 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 User-friendly and intuitive interface
- 📚 Comprehensive element information and data
- 🎨 Beautiful, clean, and visually appealing design
- 🔗 Helpful Wikipedia and external resource links
- 📖 Excellent for educational purposes and studying
Room to improve
- 💰 Expensive subscription model for premium features
- 🔐 Paywall blocking key features and element images
- 📺 Intrusive ads and purchase prompts on startup
- 🎨 Poor color contrast on metalloid background text
- 📱 Crashes on older devices (iPhone 6G iPod Touch, iPhone XS Max)
Molecules by Theodore Gray
From 29 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- ✨ Incredibly beautiful and gorgeous
- 🧠 Authoritative and concise knowledge
- 💡 Makes learning fun and intuitive
- 📚 Excellent educational app
- 🔬 Realistic molecular motion
Room to improve
- 🚫 App not updated for years
- 🗣️ No one reads reviews
- 🖨️ Unreadable small white text on black
- 💰 Overpriced for content
- 🐛 Touch input bugs
Bugs and requests
Elementium
Reported bugs
5 issues- App crashes on startup and when tapping elements
- Crashes on older iOS devices and iPod Touch
- Molar mass not visible in iPhone landscape orientation
- Intrusive purchase prompt that's difficult to dismiss
- Rating request spam appearing too early in user experience
Requested features
5 requests- Element images and visual representations
- One-time purchase option instead of subscription
- Zoom out to view entire periodic table at once
- Better display of molar mass on iPhone in landscape mode
- More detailed information and content
Molecules by Theodore Gray
Reported bugs
23 issues- Touch input bugs
- App crashes when touching molecules
- Molecular animations not displaying
- Chemical structure 2D display issues
- Repeated paragraphs in text
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- Right-left errors in text
- Changing pages when spinning images near margins
- Text not working correctly in iPad version
- Lack of stereoisomer details
- Bookmarking issues
- Molecules not labeled or next to text
- Incorrect molecular structures in library
- Inorganic materials represented incorrectly
- App not updated for years
- Unreadable small white text on black
- App crashes every time I touch an image of a molecule to show wiggling mode
- Molecular dynamic not displaying after iOS 11 upgrade, screen flashes and exits
- The latest update has caused the touch input to be off when interacting with the molecules on iPhone XS Max
- When there are several molecules on a page sometimes they are not labelled and nit next to the appropriate text, and there are frequent right-left errors. (Sometimes when describing location of methyl groups.)
- Trying to spin images near the margins is too likely to change pages instead.
- Some text does not work in the iPad version ("table on this page" is actually on the next.)
- Display of page numbers would be helpful.
- There is nothing more specific about stereoisomers, e.g., ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.
Requested features
34 requests- Support for Italian language
- Support for German language
- Support for French language
- Support for Russian language
- Support for Korean language
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- Support for Arabic language
- Support for Chinese language
- Support for Japanese language
- Add more languages
- Update to fix bugs
- Add bookmarking feature
- Improve integration with other apps
- Add exercises or testing mechanisms
- Fix text display issues
- Add new functions
- Improve quality/price ratio
- Fix payment issues
- Add Italian language support
- Add German language support
- Add French language support
- Add Russian language support
- Add Korean language support
- Add Arabic language support
- Add Chinese language support
- Add Japanese language support
- Add more languages
- Update to fix bugs
- Add bookmarking feature
- Improve integration with other apps
- Add exercises or testing mechanisms
- Fix text display issues
- Add new functions
- Improve quality/price ratio
- Fix payment issues
In-app purchases
Elementium
- ION, 1 month1 Month trial$1.991 Month
- ION, 3 Months3 Days trial$3.993 Months
- ION, 6 months$5.996 Months
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- ION, 1 year$9.991 Year
- Export Data$0.99
- Bohr Models$1.99
- Advanced Sorting$2.99
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- Visual Elements$3.99
- Advanced Tools$4.99
Molecules by Theodore Gray
No in-app purchases
Questions
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Is Molecules by Theodore Gray free?
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