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 |
| Rink | Unit-aware calculator |
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 // file // find // free // ftp // grep // gzip // hexdump // history // jq // kill // less // locate // ls // lsof // make // man // more // mv / ping // ps // psql // rename // rm // sed // split // ssh // stow // strings // sudo // sysctl // tail // talk // tar // telnet // time // top // touch // traceroute // tree // uname // uniq // uptime // vi // watch // Wget // who // whois // xargs |
 Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category.The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form. |
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
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!