Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Jmol VS VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics

Compare Jmol VS VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics and see what are their differences

Jmol logo Jmol

Jmol is a free, open source molecule viewer for students, educators, and researchers in chemistry...

VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics logo VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics

VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics, molecular graphics software for MacOS X, Unix, and Windows
  • Jmol Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-13
  • VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-17

Jmol features and specs

  • Open Source
    Jmol is open-source software, which means it is freely available for anyone to use, modify, and distribute. This ensures a wide accessibility and encourages community collaboration and continual development.
  • Platform Independent
    Jmol is written in Java, making it platform-independent and usable on any operating system that supports Java, including Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Unix.
  • Broad File Format Support
    Jmol can read a wide variety of molecular file formats, including PDB, CIF, MDL Mol, and many more, which makes it versatile for different scientific applications.
  • 3D Visualization Capabilities
    Jmol provides robust 3D visualization capabilities, allowing users to effectively analyze and interpret complex molecular structures and behaviors.
  • Integration Capabilities
    Jmol can be easily integrated into web pages, making it a useful tool for online education and sharing of molecular data.

Possible disadvantages of Jmol

  • Java Dependency
    Since Jmol is based on Java, users must have Java installed on their systems, which can be a barrier for some users due to installation and security concerns.
  • Complex User Interface
    The user interface of Jmol may be considered complex or unintuitive by beginners, requiring a learning curve especially for those unfamiliar with molecular visualization software.
  • Limited Advanced Features
    While Jmol provides excellent basic visualization features, it may lack some advanced features found in specialized commercial molecular visualization and modeling software.
  • Performance Issues
    On older hardware or with very large molecular models, Jmol can encounter performance issues, affecting the responsiveness and rendering of models.
  • Lack of Professional Support
    As an open-source project, Jmol lacks formal customer support, meaning users must rely on community forums and documentation for troubleshooting and guidance.

VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics features and specs

  • Open Source
    VMD is an open-source software, making it accessible to a wide range of users, including researchers and students, without associated costs.
  • Extensive Plugin Support
    VMD supports a variety of plugins, allowing users to customize and extend the software's functionality to suit specific research needs.
  • Cross-platform Compatibility
    The software is designed to work on multiple operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, which increases its accessibility for users with different system preferences.
  • Visualization Capabilities
    VMD excels in rendering high-quality, intricate visualizations of molecular structures, providing users with detailed insights into molecular dynamics simulations.
  • Integrated Analysis Tools
    Comes with built-in analysis tools that aid in the assessment of molecular dynamics, making it a comprehensive package for simulation and visualization.
  • Support for Various File Formats
    VMD can read and process many different molecular file formats, providing flexibility in data import and integration into a wide array of workflows.

Possible disadvantages of VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics

  • Steep Learning Curve
    New users may find VMD challenging to learn due to its comprehensive feature set and the complexity of molecular dynamics data.
  • Limited Editing Features
    Although excellent for visualization, VMD is not designed for molecular editing, which might necessitate the use of additional software for those tasks.
  • Resource-Intensive
    The software can be demanding on system resources, especially when dealing with large datasets, potentially limiting its use on less powerful computers.

Jmol videos

Review of summary judgment, JMOL, New Trial, Jury Right, Prof. Nathenson, Spring 2015, part 5 of 7

More videos:

  • Review - Jmol Applet Molecules for Powerpoint
  • Review - JMol and PowerPoint

VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics videos

No VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Jmol and VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics)
Other Bio Tech
56 56%
44% 44
Knowledge Search
56 56%
44% 44
Knowledge Search Engine
55 55%
45% 45
Other Education Tech
54 54%
46% 46

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Jmol seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1 time since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Jmol mentions (1)

  • Online exercises for crystal structure type
    Mercury's functions are great and numerous, the program sadly became a bit resource hungry (better to spend 8 than 4GB of RAM, about 700+MB on the hard disk for a permanent installation. In this perspective, it is nice Jmol equally can be used to display/highlight symmetry relationships in crystals (link to an animated .gif) for less than 70MB when using Jmol's console. Source: about 2 years ago

VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics yet. Tracking of VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Jmol and VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics, you can also consider the following products

pymol - PyMOL is a powerful and comprehensive molecular visualization product for rendering and animating...

UCSF Chimera - UCSF Chimera is a highly extensible program for interactive visualization and analysis of molecular...

Rasmol - RasMol. 96 likes. RasMol is a computer program written for molecular graphics visualization intended and used mainly to depict and explore biological...

Avogadro - Avogadro is a free, fantastically easy to use molecule editor.

RasTop - RasTop is a molecular visualization software adapted from the program RasMol

ChemDraw - ChemDraw - The Gold Standard for Chemical Structure Drawing and Research Publications.