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Maxima VS CalcAuthor

Compare Maxima VS CalcAuthor and see what are their differences

Maxima

Maxima is a fairly complete computer algebra system written in Lisp with an emphasis on symbolic computation.

Rating
4.0 · 1 review
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Alternatives Is it good?
CalcAuthor

Engineering calculation and report writing software. Live, unit-aware calculations and professional reports in one place. 7-day free trial.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Paid Free trial $18.99 / Monthly (Individual)
Promote on VibeVoted
Alternatives Is it good?
Grapple
Do-It-Yourself Data Analytics & Business Intelligence, Powered by AI sponsored
Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Maxima seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 27 times since March 2021.

social mentions
27 vs 0
Technical Computing popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
89 vs 12

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Maxima
CalcAuthor
Website maxima.sourceforge.io calcauthor.com
Pricing —
Paid Free trial $18.99 / Monthly (Individual) Official pricing
Platforms —
SaaS Web
Company — Startup from Canada · 1 - 9 employees · 2026
Listed in
Technical Computing Numerical Computation Math Solver Data Visualization +1
Engineering Tools Engineering Calculator Engineering Civil Engineering Calculators Advanced Calculator Online Calculators +4

About Maxima and CalcAuthor

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

Maxima
CalcAuthor

No description of Maxima yet.

CalcAuthor is engineering calculation software for engineers who need to produce submission-ready calculation reports, not just get a number. You write the calculation. CalcAuthor keeps everything around it correct as you edit: Unit-aware math — mixed units (kN/m, GPa, mm⁴) convert automatically,...

Read more about CalcAuthor

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Maxima 5 features
CalcAuthor 14 features
  • Open-source
    Maxima is freely available and open-source, allowing users to access, modify, and distribute the software without any cost.
  • Symbolic Computation
    Maxima specializes in symbolic computation, providing robust tools for algebraic manipulations, differentiation, integration, and equation solving.
  • Customizability
    As an open-source software, Maxima is highly customizable, and users can modify the source code or write their own functions to extend its capabilities.
  • Documentation
    Maxima comes with extensive documentation, including a comprehensive manual and numerous tutorials, which can aid both beginners and advanced users.
  • Integration with Other Tools
    Maxima can be integrated with other software tools and languages such as Python (via SymPy), providing flexibility and additional functionality for complex computations.

Possible disadvantages

  • User Interface
    The default user interface of Maxima is less polished compared to commercial alternatives, which may affect the user experience, especially for beginners.
  • Performance
    While suitable for many tasks, Maxima may not perform as efficiently as some specialized commercial software for very large or complex computations.
  • Learning Curve
    Due to its depth and the nature of symbolic computation, there can be a steep learning curve for new users who are not already familiar with similar tools or mathematical concepts.
  • Community Support
    As an open-source project, support primarily comes from the user community, which may not always be as responsive or comprehensive as professional, paid support services.
  • Updates and Maintenance
    Maxima updates and maintenance depend on community contributions, which can sometimes lead to less frequent updates or delayed fixes for bugs compared to commercial software.
  • Unit-Aware Calculations
    Mixed units (kN/m, GPa, mm⁴) convert automatically within a single formula, catching unit-mismatch errors before they reach a reviewer.
  • Natural Math Notation
    Formulas render as real typeset math — proper fractions, exponents, and italic variables — instead of plain text or spreadsheet cells.
  • Automatic Table of Contents
    The table of contents renumbers itself as sections are added, reordered, or deleted, with no manual upkeep before submission.
  • Cross-References
    Inline references to other sections, equations, or figures stay correct automatically as the document is edited.
  • Auto-Numbered Citations & References
    Citing a source once numbers it correctly and keeps the reference list in sync, even when new citations are added later in the document.
  • Pass/Fail Result Flags
    Calculated results flag their own compliance state directly next to the math, instead of requiring a separate checklist.
  • Auto-Numbered Figures
    Diagrams get an automatically numbered caption, with a List of Figures that builds and renumbers itself as figures are added or reordered.
  • Cover Page & Document Control
    Document number, revision, date, and sign-off blocks (Prepared, Verified, Approved) are generated automatically on every report.
  • Running Header & Page Numbering
    Document identifiers and page counts repeat correctly on every page automatically, updating everywhere when changed once.
  • Word-Processor-Style Pagination
    A live, Word-style page-break preview shows exactly how the document will paginate while editing, not just at export.
  • Custom Team Style Presets
    Teams can define and share their own document styling presets, so every member's reports follow the same formatting standard.
  • Per-Line Notes & Code-Clause References
    Individual calculation lines can carry notes or direct references to the design-code clause they satisfy.
  • Autosave
    Work is saved automatically while editing, without requiring a manual save step.
  • One-Click PDF Export
    Generates a submission-ready PDF report directly from the live document.

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Maxima 4 videos + Add
CalcAuthor 0 videos + Add

2019 Nissan Maxima SR – The 4-Door Sports Car?

More videos

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  • - Maxima video

No CalcAuthor videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Maxima
CalcAuthor
100% 100%
Technical Computing
0% 0%
0% 0%
Engineering Calculator
100% 100%
100% 100%
Numerical Computation
0% 0%
0% 0%
Online Calculators
100% 100%

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Maxima and CalcAuthor.

What makes your product unique?

CalcAuthor's answer:

Most tools either calculate or document — not both. CalcAuthor treats the calculation and the report as one connected object: units convert automatically within a formula, and the parts of an engineering report that normally require manual upkeep — table of contents, citations, cross-references, figure numbering, running headers — update themselves as the document changes. The output is a submission-ready PDF, not a raw result that still needs formatting.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

CalcAuthor's answer:

Spreadsheets don't understand units and produce no document structure. Legacy calculation tools like Mathcad require a desktop install and still leave document-level upkeep (TOC, citations, figure numbering) to the user. CalcAuthor runs in the browser, is built for teams (shared style presets, safe concurrent-editing via document locking), and turns a calculation directly into a submission-ready report without a separate formatting pass.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

CalcAuthor's answer:

Structural, civil, and mechanical engineers — and the firms they work for — who need to produce calculation packages for permit submissions, peer review, or client deliverables. Both individual engineers and engineering teams.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

CalcAuthor's answer:

Built on .NET 8 (C#) for the API and Blazor WebAssembly for the client, with PostgreSQL via Entity Framework Core for data. Stripe handles billing, Resend handles transactional email, and Cloudflare Turnstile protects signup from automated abuse. Hosted on Render.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

CalcAuthor's answer:

CalcAuthor is used by individual structural, civil, and mechanical engineers producing calculation packages for permit submissions and client deliverables, as well as engineering teams and firms that need consistent report formatting and unit-aware calculations across multiple engineers working on the same projects.

What's the story behind your product?

CalcAuthor's answer:

CalcAuthor started from the day-to-day frustration of writing an engineering calculation report: switching between a calculation tool, a word processor, and a spreadsheet just to produce one document. Every edit meant redoing work by hand elsewhere — adding a section meant renumbering the Table of Contents, List of Figures, and List of Tables manually; mixing unit systems meant tracking conversions yourself with no safety net; and keeping formatting consistent across a long report meant constant re-checking instead of writing. CalcAuthor was built to collapse that into one tool, where the calculation, the units, and the document structure all stay correct automatically as the report is written.

User comments

Share your experience with using Maxima and CalcAuthor. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

Maxima 4.0 · 1 review
CalcAuthor no reviews yet
  • 7 Best MATLAB alternatives for Linux
    cyanogenmods.org · Apr 2022

    Another alternative to MATLAB is Maxima which is a computer algebra system (CAS) for manipulation of symbolic and numerical expressions including differentiation, integration, Laplace transformation, linear algebraic...

  • Matlab Alternatives
    www.educba.com · Dec 2020

    Another alternative of Matlab is Maxima which was inspired by the legendary Algebra system Macsyma. It is a system used for manipulating numerical expressions such as Taylor series, Laplace transformations, Vectors,...

  • Stable (slow but steady growth)
    SaaSHub review
    · Dec 2020

    I've been using Maxima since my undergraduate (over 10 years), now with Ubuntu20.04 lts, I become a newbie of SageMath. For a small project (both symbolical and numerical), in particular, student lab activities,...

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We have no reviews of CalcAuthor yet. Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Maxima 27 mentions
CalcAuthor 0 mentions
  • Integral Calculator
    I think the really neat piece of software behind this is maxima (https://maxima.sourceforge.io/), a rather influential computer algebra system of ancient lineage still in use today in more place than you might think. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • Rye: Homoiconic dynamic programming language with some new ideas
    In the maxima computer algebra system[1] which was ancestrally based on lisp it has a single quote operator[2] which delays evaluation of something and a "double quote" (which acually two single quotes rather than an actual double quote)... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • True or False
    Use wxmaxima, a free and open-source computer algebra system:. Source: almost 3 years ago

View more

Tracking CalcAuthor since Oct 2026.

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