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SimScale vs flow5: catalog facts
SimScale	flow5
Best for: Engineering teams running CFD and FEA without local hardware	Best for: Hobbyists and engineers doing early aerodynamic or hydrofoil design
Paid Commercial subscription; plans are listed on the pricing page.	Free Free and open source under the GNU GPL v3.
Web	macOS
Runs entirely in the browser on cloud compute Covers CFD, FEA, thermal and electromagnetics All 3 strengths for SimScale Runs entirely in the browser on cloud compute Covers CFD, FEA, thermal and electromagnetics Documentation, forum and public example projects	Covers wings, planes, hydrofoils and sails in one tool Built-in pre- and post-processing All 4 strengths for flow5 Covers wings, planes, hydrofoils and sails in one tool Built-in pre- and post-processing Uses XFoil, Gmsh and OpenCascade Regular releases with published release notes
Requires an internet connection and account Aimed at professional engineering budgets	Online documentation is still under construction Potential flow methods suit preliminary design rather than detailed analysis
Web application	Downloadable app
Not open source	Open source
License not stated	License: GPL-3.0
Account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Needs internet	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for SimScale simscale.com Catalog checked October 1, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for flow5 flow5.tech/flow5.html Catalog checked October 2, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.