Comparison

Idemat vs phyphox

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

Head to head
About

Idemat

This app helps designers assess the environmental impact of their material choices and processes. It provides extensive data on materials and processes to support sustainable product design, making life cycle assessment more accessible.

Highlights
  • Material and process environmental impact data
  • Eco-costs and carbon footprint assessment
  • Sustainable product design support
  • Life cycle assessment integration
  • Predefined end-of-life scenarios
  • Visual rankings and detail screens
Features
Read full description

Idemat is an essential and must-have tool for designers caring about the impact of their designs regarding material choice and related processes. Sustainable design plays an increasingly important role in society and product design. However, designers often struggle with choosing the right materials, think the process
 is too time consuming or lack the necessary support and inspiration to perform the task ahead. To address these challenges, Delft University of Technology initiated a MSc graduation project, which involved design firms, design professionals and design students - seeking an answer to the question: "How can we empower designers to create more sustainable products?" The Idemat app provides the answer. By bridging the gap between existing environmental knowledge and design practice, it brings life cycle assessment closer to the start of the design process – an area where more significant environmental gains can be realized. Integrating and building on the foundations of the existing IDEMATapp database by Delft University of Technology (available at www.ecocostsvalue.com), this app features an extensive collection of environmental impact data regarding materials and processes, which allows for the assessment of the eco-burden of products based on two distinct single indicators: eco-costs and carbon footprint. A clear navigational structure functions as a guiding hand. Predefined end-of-life scenarios are automatically applied to subsequent steps, greatly simplifying the selection process. The over 480 materials and processes are divided in distinct categories, allowing for fast look-up and comparison. Visual rankings and detail screens help the user to understand and act on the presented data, and share options allow for interesting finds to be shared to others. The means is in your hands, now it's up to you to act on it!

About

phyphox

Unlock your phone's sensors for scientific exploration. Conduct pre-built experiments or create your own using accelerometers, magnetometers, and more. Analyze and export data in various formats for further study.

Highlights
  • Pre-defined experiments
  • Data export (CSV, TSV, Excel)
  • Web-based remote control
  • Custom experiment editor
  • Access to phone sensors
  • Advanced analysis functions
Features
Read full description

Did you know that you are carrying a 3D magnetometer? That you can use your phone as a pendulum to measure earth's local gravitational acceleration? That you can turn your phone into a sonar? phyphox gives you access to the sensors of your phone either directly or through ready-to-play experiments which analyze your data and let you export raw data along with the results for further analysis. You can even define your own experiments on phyphox.org and share them with colleagues, students and friends. Selected Features: • A selection of pre-defined experiments. Just press play to start. • Export your data to a range of widely used formats • Remote-control your experiment through a web interface from any PC on the same network as your phone. No need to install anything on those PCs - all you need is a modern web browser. • Define your own experiments by selecting sensor inputs, defining analysis steps and creating views as an interface using our web-editor (http://phyphox.org/editor). The analysis consists of just adding two values or using advanced methods like Fourier transforms and crosscorrelation. We offer a whole toolbox of analysis functions. Sensors supported: • Accelerometer • Magnetometer • Gyroscope • Pressure • Microphone • Proximity • GPS • Camera • LiDAR/ToF *some sensors are not present on every phone. Export formats • CSV (Comma separated values) • TSV (Tab-separated values) • Excel (if you need other formats, please let us know) This app has been developed at the 2nd Institute of Physics A at the RWTH Aachen University.

Screenshots

Idemat4 screens
phyphox4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Idemat at 5.0 against phyphox's 4.6. phyphox's advantage is ratings volume (276 vs 3) and update cadence (every 3 months vs every 8 months). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Idemat holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: phyphox has 276 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Idemat ships an update every 8 months, phyphox every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Idemat versus phyphox: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterIdematphyphox
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better4.6 (276 ratings)
Positive reviews—78.7% of reviews
Number of ratings3276 — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 monthsEvery 3 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size26 MB19 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developerjoost vogtlanderRWTH Aachen University

Customer experience

Idemat

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

phyphox

All ratings276 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral4.0%
Negative6.5%
Written reviews267 reviews
Positive78.7%
Neutral3.4%
Negative18.0%

Bugs and requests

Idemat

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

phyphox

Reported bugs

21 issues
  • App crashes on older devices
  • Barometer not working on iOS 17.4
  • Network error: Generic error
  • Sound measurement curve disappears
  • App crashes frequently
Show 16 more
  • Cannot be opened on iPhone 6
  • Light sensor not implemented
  • Recording stops when phone is locked or app is minimized
  • Green lines on screen and faded to black after using barometer sensor
  • WLAN not working after using the app
  • Pressure no longer displayed on iOS 17.5
  • Barometer not working on iOS 17.4
  • Latest version cannot be opened on iPhone 6
  • Sound chronometer reset button not working
  • iPad destroyed after update
  • App displays Russian language by default
  • Experiments not working on iPhone 7
  • Magnetometer not working after update on iPhone 5s
  • GPS shows 0 satellites with 6m accuracy
  • App claims iPhone 11 is comparable to a low-cost tablet
  • App crashes every time

Requested features

33 requests
  • Add infrasound detector
  • More units of measurement (G-force, PSI, feet)
  • NFC/RFID support
  • In-app bug report feature
  • Allow other sensors via USB-C
Show 28 more
  • Ability to plug in external sensors
  • Slo-mo recording with timestamps
  • Add attitude sensor (roll, pitch, yaw)
  • Integration with Apple Shortcuts
  • Ability to record audio/dB simultaneously with other sensors
  • Adjustable sampling frequency for all sensors
  • Dark mode option
  • Experiment editor integrated into the app
  • More documentation for the editor
  • Ability to form averages
  • Support for older iPhones (iPhone 6)
  • Add GPS satellite count display
  • Add speedometer functionality
  • Add Lux measurement using light sensor/camera
  • Ability to play recorded audio
  • Limit input for sound analyzers (dB/Hz range)
  • Wi-Fi and RF module access for EMF analysis
  • iWatch integration
  • Improve audio generator capability
  • Allow background/screen locked recording
  • Add light sensor functionality
  • Change units of measurement
  • Add more precise measurements for static cases
  • Add FFT and spectral generation for accelerometer
  • Support for older devices
  • Improve UI/UX for new users
  • Add support for more languages
  • Add a donate option

In-app purchases

None

Idemat

No in-app purchases

None

phyphox

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Idemat free?
Idemat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is phyphox free?
phyphox is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Idemat or phyphox?
Idemat is rated higher. Idemat averages 5.0 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while phyphox averages 4.6 from 276 ratings.
Do Idemat or phyphox have ads?
Neither Idemat nor phyphox shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Idemat or phyphox?
Idemat ships an update every 8 months, and phyphox every 3 months. Most recently, Idemat was updated on October 1, 2026 and phyphox on October 14, 2026.

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