FeenoX vs myPhysicsLab
FeenoX
seamplex.commyPhysicsLab
myphysicslab.comSide by side
| Figure | FeenoX | myPhysicsLab |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · Physics Simulation Software | 8.8 (#3) | 8.8 (#4) |
| Audience | Official pages present FeenoX for industry engineers, Unix hackers and academic professors, with advanced users as the target audience. | The simulations include explanations of their underlying mathematics and the site describes the project as an online science museum effort. |
| Authoring tools | Yes | Yes |
| Data export | Yes | Yes |
| Delivery mode | desktop | hybrid |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Integrations | It reads Gmsh meshes, uses PETSc and SLEPc solvers, and writes Gmsh MSH or ParaView VTK/VTU results. | The maker documents sharing simulation URLs by email and customizing simulations with JavaScript; it does not list third-party integrations on the pages reviewed. |
| Lesson library | No | Yes |
| License | FeenoX is distributed under the GNU General Public License version 3 or any later version, with freedom to use, modify and redistribute it under the license terms. | The software is open source under the Apache 2.0 License, and its source code is available on GitHub. |
| Offline access | Yes | Yes |
| Purpose | FeenoX is a cloud-first computational engineering tool for solving engineering problems with one or many computers in parallel. | myPhysicsLab provides interactive, real-time animated physics simulations that users can change by dragging objects and adjusting parameters. |
| Support | The project directs users to GitHub Discussions for help and GitHub Issues for bug reporting. | The author identifies himself as Erik Neumann and provides an email address on the home page; no support plan is listed there. |
| 3D visuals | Yes | No |
Plans
In their own words
FeenoX
FeenoX is free, open-source computational engineering software for solving mathematical and engineering problems, including work across computers in parallel. It handles ODEs and DAEs, along with finite-element problems such as heat conduction, thermo-mechanical analysis, modal analysis, neutron diffusion, and neutron transport. Users describe problems in self-descriptive, English-like plain-text input files, so changes do not require recompiling. FeenoX reads Gmsh meshes and writes results in Gmsh MSH or ParaView VTK/VTU formats. It uses GNU GSL, SUNDIALS, PETSc, and SLEPc for computational tasks, and supports MPI parallelization. Installation options include Debian or Ubuntu packages, source tarballs, the GitHub repository, and generic statically linked GNU/Linux binaries. Ubuntu packages are available from version 25.04 onward. The generic binaries omit MUMPS and MPI and use basic optimization flags. FeenoX has no graphical interface, targets GNU/Linux, and is not expected to run in Windows. Browser access is available through interfaces such as SunCAE and CAEplex.
myPhysicsLab
myPhysicsLab is a free, open-source project with interactive physics simulations and JavaScript classes for building animated models. Simulations run in real time, and users can drag objects or change parameters such as gravity. Its library includes examples such as pendulums, springs, colliding blocks, roller coasters, billiards, and molecular models. Many simulation pages explain the mathematics behind the models. Users can customize simulations with EasyScript or JavaScript in a browser and text editor, then share a setup through a URL that embeds EasyScript. Numeric results can be retrieved through VarsHistory, JavaScript, or collision-data scripts. Downloadable versions can be used offline. The source code is available on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 License. The simulations do not specify measurement units, so values need to be used consistently within each model. Building from source requires TypeScript, esbuild, Perl, and GNU Make. The project began in 2001, and its maker is based in Seattle, Washington.