MathematicaPricing

Mathematica Pricing 2022

Wolfram Mathematica is a technical computing staple for mid to large enterprises. Mathematica is a program used by software development companies and institutions like universities and government organizations. They are not the only option, but they are certainly one of the best programs out there. It’s a worthwhile program for a number of uses like in the development and research industries.

Here is a great introduction to anyone unfamiliar with Mathematica.

Mathematica and The Wolfram Language

The Wolfram language is a programming language developed by Wolfram Research, a software company that develops resources for major innovations in math and science. The language is a knowledge-based, symbolic language. A knowledge-based language reasons using its programmed knowledge base, in this case, the Wolfram knowledgebase, to solve problems while executing. The symbolic part refers to symbolic programming languages that can learn and make adjustments to their own program and components. This makes them well suited for AI, mathematics, and scientific software development.

The Wolfram programming language actually developed out of the need for the program Mathematica. This made the language particular to technical computing. Even though the structure of Mathematica is very similar to Python, the uses are very niche in comparison to Python which can be used for data science, software engineering, game development and much more.

The Wolfram Language is mainly recommended for computing with real-world data, algorithm development, analytics/visualization programming, and more. The main program the programmers use Wolfram is Mathematica.

The general uses of Mathematica include data science, image processing, machine learning, and more. It’s the hallmark program of Wolfram technologies. Unfortunately, there is no free version of Mathematica, but Wolfram does offer public resources for developers. Anyone individual that wants to learn the Wolfram programming language can do so. They can also access the Wolfram|Alpha database and Wolfram’s free engine for developers.

The main Mathematica users are enterprises that research and develop complex software with a matching budget. The steep pricing can be tough on budgets for startups. This is why it’s fortunate that Wolfram has grants and resources for startups. They still do not offer Mathematica itself for free.

Below we discuss much Mathematica costs. The pricing for the Mathematica license can very complicated.

Mathematica Pricing

Mathematica has 5 different service plans each with its own subscription plans. The subscriptions are all tailored to the use case. These include Industry, Government, Education, Students, Home & Hobby. This actually does sum up the general fields that would want Mathematica.

It’s a very useful software for software companies developing products. It comes in handy for governments because it’s a powerful tool with its own programming language. Education institutes can use it for their own systems or for teaching. Students will need affordable plans so we have more people learning the Wolfram language and products.

There are also lone developers just learning a new skill to become more relevant to companies and clients. They do a good job of tailoring to their demographics. Mathematica also comes in two forms so you can choose between downloading it or viewing it in a web browser.

You can purchase a desktop version or site licensing for Mathematica Online on the Wolfram Cloud. The Wolfram Cloud has several resource options you can subscribe to after you make an account. Using the desktop version of Mathematica means buying a personal computer license.

You will notice the several subscription options have a choice of Individuals or Groups & Organizations. We’re only going over the pricing for individuals. The pricing for Groups is available upon request.

Mathematica Industry Subscription

These service plans are for businesses interested in Mathematica. This could be healthcare, software companies, private researchers, etc. freelance research, and software developers could also benefit from this, especially since the pricing available is for individuals.

The subscription plans have differing features. Standard Cloud, Standard Desktop + Cloud, and Mathematica Enterprise will have 15GB, 50,000 cloud credits, and 5,000/mo Wolfram|Alpha API calls. Standard Desktop won’t have access to the cloud, but it does come Wolfram notebook deployment, and access to Wolfram knowledgebase.

Desktop plans are a one-time buy with standard support for one year. Cloud plans are subscriptions annually or monthly.

Mathematica Government Subscription

Mathematica is a valuable program to government organizations for data analysis, research, and innovation. You will also notice all the features of the government plans are about the same as the Industry plans. The difference is the price. The desktop subscription plans are generally less.

One reason could be that they want to keep a strong bond with government organizations because they are very likely to need the computational data. Another could be that governments do not frequently change services, and once they find a good tool they’re not going to change for a better deal in the blink of an eye. When it comes to industries, they benefit from competition between products and actively look for cheaper deals elsewhere. No matter the reason, Mathematica sets the desktop prices for the government lower.

Mathematica Education Subscription

The costs for education institutes are significantly lower compared to Industry and Government. This is because Wolfram greatly values education, and wants their flagship program to be a respected standard.

The pricing changes depending on the educational institute. Colleges will pay more while community college and primary and secondary schools will pay less.

Mathematica Student Subscription

Similar to the lower costs for educational institutes, Mathematica costs less for individual students as well. This is to make the burden easier on those that want to learn. They do, however, limit the plans more. These plans have less storage, API calls, and no phone support. All the features are diminished across the board.

Mathematica Home and Hobby Subscriptions

Similar to the student plan the hobbyist subscriptions are cheaper but with less storage, support, and everything else. You only have 2GB of cloud storage with these plans, so it’s best to choose wisely.

If storage is important you may need to go with desktop and save copies of files elsewhere. This plan is generally for those using Mathematica for personal analytics, research, and development. It’s not built for commercial product creation.

Alternatives

When it comes to finding alternatives for Mathematica, it's a pro and cons list with a wide gap. Wolfram has its own coding language and allows for a level of security and creation suited to government and educational organizations. If you want Wolfram for their high-end coding language then you’re not going to find a plethora of alternatives for that.

There is great competitor software that offers almost all the same capabilities as Wolfram. One of the major ones is MATLAB. This competitor actually does come with their own programing language called M. M is a flexible programming language that can be used with open-source favorites like Python and C+, C++, and Java.

MATLAB isn’t the same as Mathematica in terms of use even though they are super similar. MATLAB is known for predictive analytics for business data, while Mathematica is a super-strong choice for mathematical functions.

This doesn’t mean MATLAB isn’t an amazing program for technical computing like Mathematica. They are, and more; you can use it for data analysis and visualization just like with Mathematica.

Mathematica is primary to the Wolfram language, which works incredibly well for mathematical and scientific endeavors. MATLAB can be flexible, and although it can be used for similar scenarios, it may not be as ideal for research. In the end, it comes down to how the teams feel about the program. A program can be assumed better for one use but easily work fantastically for other projects and ideas.

If you are interested in using them for your needs, MATLAB is significantly cheaper than Mathematica. They have desktop and cloud options as well as different pricing for Standard, Home, Education, and Student. Standard starts at $2,200 for Perpetual License and $880 for Annual.

Shown here is an image of our comparison feature, between Mathematica and MATLAB. You can go here to learn more about the benefits compared between Mathematica and MATLAB.

More Resources

If you’re interested in learning more about Mathematica, they have a Documentation Center for referencing questions or instructions on how to perform an action. It can help with topics like machine learning, Cloud & Deployment, and new features. This video is a complete tutorial of Wolfram Mathematica for beginners.

Those not as intrigued can look at the other competitor products we have listed on TrustRadius.

If any of you have used some of the software in the article, please consider leaving a review to help other buyers make informed decisions.