Skip to content
Gratistack, home
Menu

Math & scientific computing

Do numerical computing, symbolic math, modeling and simulation.

Open one to see every alternative, ranked.

Free math & scientific computing tools

Every free tool in this category, by name.

Filter alternatives

9 alternatives

  • GNU Octave

    Free numerical computing environment with a MATLAB-compatible language, plotting and a graphical interface.

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    Status: Active
    • M: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Runs most scripts; some toolbox functions and newer syntax are missing
    • MAT: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Reads and writes MAT files; some MATLAB object types such as tables do not carry over
    • CSV: opens and saves, full fidelity
    • XLSX: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through the io package from Octave Forge

    This replaces MATLAB

  • Julia

    Free, fast programming language for numerical and scientific computing with built-in arrays and a large package registry.

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    Status: Active
    • MAT: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through the MAT.jl package
    • CSV: opens and saves, full fidelity. Through the CSV.jl package
    • XLSX: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through the XLSX.jl package

    This replaces MATLAB

  • Maxima

    Free computer algebra system descended from Macsyma, with symbolic algebra and calculus and the wxMaxima notebook interface.

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    Status: Verified
    • CSV: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through the numericalio package

    This replaces Wolfram Mathematica

  • Python

    Free general-purpose language with NumPy, SciPy, pandas and statsmodels for statistics, numerical computing and plotting.

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    Status: Active
    • DTA: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through pandas read_stata and to_stata
    • CSV: opens and saves, full fidelity
    • XLSX: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through pandas with openpyxl
    • SAV: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through pyreadstat
    • MAT: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through scipy.io for older files and h5py for v7.3 files

    This replaces MATLAB and Stata

  • QGIS

    Open-source geographic information system for viewing, editing, analyzing and publishing spatial data and maps.

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    Status: Active

    This replaces Autodesk Civil 3D

  • SageMath

    Free open-source mathematics system built on Python that combines algebra, calculus, number theory and plotting in one interface.

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    • Web
    Status: Active
    • CSV: opens and saves, full fidelity. Through Python
    • XLSX: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through pandas and openpyxl

    This replaces Wolfram Mathematica

  • Scilab

    Free numerical computation software with a matrix language, plotting and the Xcos block-diagram editor.

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    Status: Active
    • M: opens only, partial fidelity. A translator converts MATLAB scripts to Scilab code
    • MAT: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Loads and saves MAT files for common data types
    • CSV: opens and saves, full fidelity
    • XLSX: opens only, partial fidelity. Imports Excel sheets

    This replaces MATLAB

  • SymPy

    Free Python library for symbolic mathematics, covering algebra, calculus, equation solving and code generation.

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    Status: Active
    • WL: opens only, partial fidelity. Can parse Wolfram Language expressions but not run code
    • CSV: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through Python's csv module or pandas
    • XLSX: opens and saves, partial fidelity. Through pandas

    This replaces Wolfram Mathematica

  • Weasis

    Open-source DICOM viewer for CT, MR and other medical images with PACS and DICOMweb connections, 3D and reporting tools.

    License: Open source
    • Windows
    • macOS
    • Linux
    Status: Active

    This replaces OsiriX MD

Paid apps with no free alternative yet

No free tool ranks Strong for these yet. Each page says what a free version would need.