Best ChemDraw Alternatives
ChemDraw is described as 'Communicate with the natural language of chemical structures, biological pathways, and models' and is an app in the education & reference category. There are more than 10 alternatives to ChemDraw for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone and iPad. The best alternative is Chemaxon Marvin, which is free. Other great apps like ChemDraw are ChemDoodle, BKchem, XDrawChem and Gnome Chemistry Utils.
Marvin suite is a chemically intelligent desktop toolkit built to help you draw, edit, publish, render, import and export your chemical structures and as well as allowing you to convert between various chemical and graphical file formats.
Features
Chemaxon Marvin vs ChemDraw opinions
Simple structures are needed.
0
If you are looking for a chemical sketcher or an alternative to your current chemical drawing application, there is no better choice than ChemDoodle. ChemDoodle works on all operating systems (both 32 and 64 bit), has one of the largest feature sets in the industry, has the most...
This app doesn't have any features at the moment.
ChemDoodle vs ChemDraw opinions
JohnFastmanClosest thing to ChemDraw functionality and, unlike ChemDraw, it works natively on Linux. Sadly, the author has chosen a frustrating atom-first drawing mechanic which is hugely counterintuitive. But if you can learn to accept it, ChemDoodle is a respectable ChemDraw alternative (unless you need to draw pi complexes).
2Functionally equivalent and very similar in features. Very similar layout makes it very easy for chemists to switch
0
BKChem is a free (as in free software :o) chemical drawing program. It was conceived and written by Beda Kosata and is currently maintained by Reinis Danne.
Features
DiscontinuedThe last release was in 2010.
BKchem vs ChemDraw opinions
Very usefull software. You can paste images created with BKChem in a text processor or another open source graphical software like InkScape.
0JohnFastmanBKchem is an old attempt at replacing some of ChemDraw's functionality. It succeeded partially in providing some of ChemDraw's very core chemical structure drawing features. Unfortunately, BKchem has seen no new development since 2010, leaving it in limbo.
3
XDrawChem is a free software program for drawing chemical structural formulas, available for Unix and Mac OS. It is distributed under the GNU GPL. In Microsoft Windows this program is called WinDrawChem.
This app doesn't have any features at the moment.DiscontinuedLast release (1.10.2-1) was in January 2017.
XDrawChem vs ChemDraw opinions
More simply for use in class
0
The Gnome Chemistry Utils include six chemistry related programs:
- GChemPaint, a 2D chemical formula editor.
- a chemical calculator (computes raw formule, molar weight, mass composition and isotopic pattern).
- a molecule 3d viewer using OpenGL to display molecular models. .
Features
JChemPaint is an editor and viewer for chemical structures in 2D. It is free and open source software, written in Java and so it runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Unix systems. There is a standalone application (editor), and two varieties of applet (editor and viewer) that...
Features
ACD/ChemSketch is a chemically intelligent drawing interface that allows you to draw almost any chemical structure including organics, organometallics, polymers, and Markush structures. Use it to produce professional looking structures and diagrams for reports and publications.
This app doesn't have any features at the moment.
ACD/ChemSketch vs ChemDraw opinions
JohnFastmanA good alternative to ChemDraw in very limited circumstances: 1) you need it on Windows only, 2) You don't have to collaborate with ChemDraw users, 3) You don't mind looking at a confusing, dated interface. Otherwise, fine.
1
MollyCule is a completely free Open Source Chemistry visualisation program for MacOS, Linux and Windows. MollyCule is designed to be a nice, easy to use program to help ordinary people who want to explore Chemistry.
This app doesn't have any features at the moment.DiscontinuedLast update appears to be August 2011.
MolView is an intuitive, Open-Source web-application to make science and education more awesome!
This app doesn't have any features at the moment.
speciolab is a modern yet easy-to-use chemical drawing software that is aimed at helping students, companies and other users to draw clean and orderly chemical structures for reports, theses and presentations.
This app doesn't have any features at the moment.