Ratio vs Calca
Compared on by Adrian Viziteu. Calca details are from calca.io and the App Store; check them for current pricing.
Calca is a text editor that does symbolic maths: it can solve for unknowns, work with matrices and keep everything offline. Ratio is built for everyday numbers: money, dates, time zones and work maths.
| Ratio | Calca | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $9.99 once (1 Mac), updates included | See the App Store |
| Platforms | Mac | Mac, iPhone, iPad, Windows |
| Live currencies and crypto | Yes, 160+ currencies, refreshed hourly | No live rates (works fully offline) |
| Dates, time zones, working days | Yes | Not its focus |
| VAT, loans, interest | Yes, in plain words | Write your own formulas |
| Solving equations | Yes (“solve x^2 - 5x + 6 = 0”) | Yes, including inverting your own functions |
| Matrices, logic simplification | No | Yes |
| Command line | Yes (ratio), plus Raycast | No |
| Languages | English, Romanian, German, French, Spanish, Italian | English |
The same sheet in Ratio
Variables and line references work the way Calca users expect, and money and dates are understood without setting anything up.
| price = 1200 eur | €1,200 |
| discount = 15% | 15% |
| price - discount | €1,020 |
| prev in usd | $1,144.31 |
| solve 3x + 2 = 20 | x = 6 |
| 1 mar 2027 + 10 working days | Mon, 15 Mar 2027 |
Choose Ratio if
Your sums are about money and time: prices in other currencies, invoices with VAT, loan payments, deadlines in working days, meetings across time zones.
Choose Calca if
You do algebra: you want to define functions and solve for their parameters, work with matrices, or keep the same documents on iPhone, iPad or Windows.
Moving from Calca
Copy the lines you use and paste them into a Ratio sheet. Arithmetic, variables and percentages carry over; function definitions like f(x) = … don't.
Try Ratio free for 7 days · $9.99 once, updates included
Questions
Does Ratio work like Calca? Yes for the basics: you type maths in a text document and the answer appears as you write. Ratio adds live currencies, dates and time zones, VAT and loans; Calca adds symbolic algebra and matrices.
Does Ratio work offline? Yes. Currencies use the last rates Ratio downloaded; everything else is calculated on the Mac.