This article spotlights alternative tools to bc.
The software featured here is free and open source. All tools provide a command-line interface (CLI) unless otherwise stated.
| Alternatives to bc | |
|---|---|
| cpc | Text calculator with support for units and conversion |
| eva | Simple calculator REPL |
| bc-gh | Implementation of Unix dc and POSIX bc with GNU and BSD extensions |
| bcal | Storage expression calculator |
| fend | Arbitrary-precision unit-aware calculator |
| Hypercalc | Interpreted calculator program designed to calculate extremely large numbers |
Have we missed any open source alternatives to bc? Please let us know!
For more feature-laden calculators, we’ve compiled the best terminal-based Linux calculators.
All the CLI tools in this series.
| Alternatives to CLI tools |
|---|
| age // awk // bc // cal // cat // cd // chmod // cksum // cloc // cmp // compress // cp // cron // curl // cut // date // dd // df // diff // dig // du // fdisk // find // ftp // grep // gzip // hexdump // history // jq // kill // less // locate // ls // lsof // make // man // more // mv / ping // ps // psql // rename // rm // sed // split // ssh // strings // sudo // sysctl // tail // talk // tar // telnet // time // top // touch // traceroute // tree // uname // uniq // uptime // vi // watch // Wget // who // whois // xargs |
 Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. |
bcal has a bc mode for general-purpose numerical calculations.
Thanks, bcal is now included.
fend is another arbitrary-precision calculator. It’s got good support for complex numbers, trig, and has an Emacs-style CLI shortcuts.
Hi Jez. Thanks for your suggestion. It’s now been added.
You could add HyperCalc
We’ve added HyperCalc. Thanks for taking the time to let us know!