# GNU Octave Reviews **Vendor:** FreeCAD **Category:** [Simulation & CAE Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/simulation-cae) **Average Rating:** 4.2/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 55 ## About GNU Octave GNU Octave is an open-source mathematical modeling and simulation software very similar to using the same language as Matlab and Freemat. ## GNU Octave Reviews ### 1. Review on GNU octave **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 20, 2022 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** The best part about octave is it is open source and anyone (even atudent) can use it. The programming language is very easy and proves to be a great alternative if you don't have Matlab in-hand. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Nothing in particular but regular update is required for removal of bugs **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Easy to use open source software for someone who works in technical area and need to undergo complex calculation while performing simulation or modelling. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I solved the complex equations while working as a undergraduate researcher and the ease of writing code made it a perfect solver for solving my simultaneous complex equations. ### 2. Octave Review by Hassan Charafeddine **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 03, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** It is almost the same syntax at Matlab can do 90% of the work and more, got improved a lot over the time **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Not much, but the plots can be improved, the editor and UI can improve a bit, but overall satisfied **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Signal processing and algortihms ### 3. Great Open Source Mathematical Software **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yash C. | Research Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 22, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Variety of tasks and Functions and documentation. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Octave does not integrate CAD and PLM well. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Octave is a great alternative to MATLAB and the pace with it is growing and the community behind it might be if not greater but equal to MATLAB. But since MATLAB is quite prevalent in the industry, it is hard to beat. With the huge community of developers backing up this project and more advertising Octave is surely a great product. However, the only problem I have seen in it is the integration of CAD with PLM software. Sometimes it fails to register the commands and skips them when integrating it but sometimes does the job. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am solving day to day computational and graphical problems with octave. The Realization is that it requires much less space than MATLAB and is open to everyone to use. By using it for Computer Aided Engineering practice, it makes me realize that, how more often people will go to GNU Octave for the same purpose. When I use it for statistical analysis it performs the tasks smoothly. Like I have used it for ANOVA and other regression models that they run just fine. I haven't modeled anything related to statistical learning where huge computation is required, but I am sure it will have such capabilities to run such models pretty efficiently. I have also done some Fluid mechanics and manufacturing process simulation in octave and the software makes it look easy enough. ### 4. GNU Octave Review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aritra B. | Electrical Loco maintenance, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 09, 2021 ### 5. A Comman Man's MATLAB **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mit S. | Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 09, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** This is a perfect, free and open source software which can be used as an alternative to MATLAB as the syntax and the functions are similar. The documentation similar to MATLAB can be used for this software as well. You can do almost all the things that MATLAB can do except some missing libraries. I really like using Octave for some machine learning problems as the variables that are defined are matrix based and it is easier to have matrix operation in ML problems. The GUI is similar to MATLAB and there it feels like we are just using MATLAB. Best thing about GNU octave is that we can code it online as there are many websites available **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** GNU Octave does not have all the functionalities that MATLAB has and therefore sometimes we need to write our modules by ourselves which is a big downside. This occurs when we are solving some complex problem using Octave. Also, there are no written modules/functions/libraries available for ML programs unlike python and thus it is difficult to code neural Networks in it as the code gets lengthy. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** You can download their offline version from the website and it has a GUI which is similar to MATLAB **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am doing a MOOC course on ML which is taken by Andrew NG, a visiting professor in ML. He has designed the course such that the programming assignment are to be worked upon in GNU Octave. I have completed all the assignments in Octave. I am also working on some data analysis using OCTAVE as it is easier ### 6. The most intuitive mathematically optimized language just doesnt quite hit it **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chummi C. | Google Analytics Consultant Contractor, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 21, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Linear algebra is a complete breeze with the language's vanilla syntax. Compared to more modernly popular languages used for Data Science such as Python , GNU Octave allows you to run tensor algebra operations using only built-in functions without having to import any 3rd party packages or modules. Despite Numpy being the standard and most commonly used library for linear algebra, I would honestly say that I still believe that even Numpy could learn a thing or two about the ease of use of Octave's mathematical syntaxes. The fact that one could implement complex matrix-vector operations in GNU Octave with mostly only built-in operators and rarely having to call functions proves just how well-optimized the language is for mathematical purposes. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Despite the language's well-optimized math functions, everything else just feels a bit too clunky and complicated for a high-level language. For instance, building functions and calling those functions **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Use it primarily for practicing building machine learning models from scratch to test your knowledge of the underlying algorithms and mathematical concepts but stick to Python along with frameworks such as Tensorflow 2.0, Pytorch, or Sci-kit learn when it comes to building bigger and more complex models. If you've been using Python or R for most of your previous projects, I'd say stick with those even for practicing and prototyping as learning GNU Octave syntax, though relatively easy to pick-up, might lead to unwanted syntax mixing when switching between the languages. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Coding machine learning programs from scratch. Octave's inclination towards linear algebra allows you to create the building block functions of machine learning applications in only few lines of code. ### 7. 2D and 3D visualization **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Samantha U. | Software Simulator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 15, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Mathematical syntax with guide and extensive formulas, compatible with different GNU Linux and Windows distributions, share data and project. Create answers and formulas. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Difficult to integrate formulas to perform exclusive calculation, I need to better guide the applications. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Code formula, take advantage of guided computing capacity and image version available in different devices. ### 8. Octave is very user friendly and easily available **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aaliya R. | Design Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 21, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** 1. Octave is open source and a free software. 2. It is better to use Octave than MATLAB as it does not take up more memory. 3. Personally I can say it has a quick run time too. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Octave has limited library and toolbox. For example toolbox for image visualization is not there. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Anyone out there either a student or a working professional looking for coding, calculation and solving scientific problems this is the best software out there, takes up lesser space , easily accessible and open source software. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been working with attitude control and space systems. Also visualization of large matrix sets (5147x5147), and some basic signal processing. ### 9. Best Module, class and Fast Interface to Python **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Wireless | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 17, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** This is an open-source tool and It is similar to Matlab but this is a free of cost. Python to Octave Interface is seamless **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** For Windows users, It was giving some library path setting issues when using the Oct2Py module. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using octave for communicating .m file to Python using oct2py module for Wireless network optimization using AI/ML ### 10. GNU Octave is great for learning. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Enoch X. | Student, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 05, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** GNU Octave shares a similar syntax to MATLAB and was easy to learn for me. The plotting functions were also intuitive to use and nicely laid out. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** GNU Octave documentation was not thorough enough. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** GNU Octave is a great free alternative to MATLAB. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** GNU Octave was good for learning basic Machine Learning. The plotting functionality was also very intuitive and efficient. ### 11. Octave - Free and competes with likes of Matlab and R **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Saurabh B. | Senior Software Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** April 30, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** It is free software that can be used to achieve all functionality that a licensed product Matlab provides. It can be used as an alternate for the same. Not only that but we can use it to model statistical data and analyze. In this sense it also can be used an alternative to 'R' **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** No Graphics User Interface. It is just a command-line utility. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I had used it to implement and execute Machine Learning algorithms and operate on datasets using matrix operations. ### 12. Review for octave **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kunal G. | Decision Scientist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 24, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Octave is pretty simple to work. we can handle large dataset and apply Machine learning techniques very efficiently. Even we can plot Gradient descent and visualize it **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** You need to learn their syntax, its almost similar to C but still you need to get familiar with the syntax **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I usually use this to visualize Machine learning . i plotted gradient descent and pretty easily understand the cost function by visualization ### 13. I am fully satisfied **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Afzaal A. | Data Scientist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 21, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Numerical experiments using a language is the best thing i see in GNU octave **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** I didn’t find anything yet that makes me to dislike GNU octave **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Simply the best **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Compatibility with MATLAB is the best thing i saw in GNU octave ### 14. User friendly **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Akanchha B. | S, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 21, 2021 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** It is much user friendly and intutive to use. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Slow runtime for relatively large input. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have solved machine learning problems using GNU octave. It is too much easy as a beginner to learn and implement. ### 15. A matlab open source alternative **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bara'a S. | RF Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 01, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Its free and have all the basic functions that most people would need and its syntax is similar to matlab **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Not so many toolboxes so will need to write some functions **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Very powerful and free so give it a shot before spending your money on matlab **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mathematical problems mostly in signal processing ### 16. Used GNU octave for machine learning **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Deepesh G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Speed of GNU Octave is quite good. It is better then Matlab in terms of Memory usage it does not take a lot of memory and Ram . I used it for a while for machine learning computation . **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** User interface of Gnu Octave isn't good at all . it is too complex to work in machine learning and unable to do deep learning in GNU Octave . **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** It is better then Matlab in terms of Memory usage it does not take a lot of memory and Ram . **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I was using GNU Octave for machine learning . Benefit of GNU Octave is that it can work on low latency laptop. ### 17. Please stop using matlab **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 20, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** I love Octave because it supports almost all code structure of matlab scripts and works quite well. Nowadays there is any good reason to continue to work with matlab since most of the tools are available in python, so it seems reasonable to continue supporting open software like octave that permits the support of this language in opensource fashon. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Many libraries are still missing or incomplete if you want to port old scripts very tempered to run with matlab. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I worked with a old matlab script for study of the control in nuclear plasma wall interaction. Mixing Octave with C and C++. It was easy to port and to interface with such procedures. ### 18. The most compatible opensource tool. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 08, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Octave is a very effective and an open-source software for coding and ploting. Also best for numerical computations. As I'm interested in photovoltaics, Octave helps me gather chunks of data and make good visualization plots. I love playing with Octave. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** I don't count it as a downside because every coin has its two sides. Yes there are few fancy libraries not present in Octave relative to its alternatives but it did not hinder my working. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** It's a pretty amazing software and satisfies every need for statistical and machine learning algorithms..Good for handling visualization plots. Must use it. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am currently using Octave to solve numerical calculations and for plots used in solar systems. ### 19. Great Open Source Simulation Environment **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Kartik B. | Senior Engineer, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** It's Open Source and a highly powerful platform for scientific computing. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Nothing as of yet. The Gui could further be improved but performance wise its great **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Machine learning and Computational Physics. Very robust and an effective tool for creating prototype code. ### 20. Nice Platform for Machine Learning **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** ANKAN M. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** The compiling method and memory accessing capabilities. Also the machine learning and AI modules which help in short coding. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** The interface is old styled and should be updated to interfaces like python and R. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** If you want to implement Machine learning algorithms, GNU OCTAVE is the right software **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am doing machine learning course from Stanford University through coursera. Ease of coding, like if you are previous user of matlab its blisss for you. ### 21. Worked on some school projects, did learn on it, did calculations related to work **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Easy to use and learn (I'm programmer who likes terminal). Also it is mightfull. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Nothing so far. Maybe improved in exports. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Should use it! **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** ML and Mathematics. Benefits: powerfull, strong terminal, easy to learn, free ### 22. GNUinity **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ron Paulo L. | Hardware Design Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** It is a freeware and very easy to use. Powerful tool. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Its limited capabilities in certain computing. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** It is basically a freeware and useful to variety of applications. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Regression and quadratic trends. ### 23. GNU Octave is the best option for performing mathematical calculations. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rafael P. | Jefe de operaciones, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 04, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** GNU Octave is a work tool with multiple advantages, mentioning that it is free and does not require a high-spec machine to be installed. With this software, I have managed to perform a large amount of work in the field of mathematics with advanced calculations. The vector part, handling of graphs, among other things, are very easy. I recommend this program as it is very intuitive, free, and has great reach. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** I just have to mention that the interface part is not very user-friendly with programs like MATLAB, and besides that, not all functions or commands in the two software are complementary. However, that doesn't stop it from being a great tool for mathematical calculations. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** With Octave, I have managed to solve problems in the workplace that involve an advanced mathematical component, such as the design of industrial processes, systems of equations, linear or nonlinear systems, among other things. Without this powerful tool, these types of problems would be complicated to solve. ### 24. Excellent software for performing complex and advanced numerical analysis **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Manuel Y. | Analista de Gestión de la Calidad, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 01, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** I have used this tool for a long time, largely because the CPU requirements are not very high and the results it offers are of high quality. It is a great help for conducting professional research because it can solve advanced numerical calculations. The graphical results it offers are very visually pleasing, considering that it is free software and the programming language is intuitive and simple to learn. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Being free software, it lacks other graphical features like those of MATLAB, and the interface may seem strange to some who have no experience with MATLAB. Even so, it is a great tool that delivers powerful results. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** This is the software you need as an alternative to MATLAB, it offers good results and runs on various platforms like Windows. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** In research I have conducted previously, it has been very helpful to me when solving linear and nonlinear problems. With this tool, I was able to achieve problem resolution thanks to its extensive graphical capabilities for data visualization and manipulation. ### 25. Free software that provides the numerical solution of linear and nonlinear problems **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Carlos S. | Ingeniero de proyecto, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 05, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** The best thing about GNU Octave is that it is written in C++ using the STL library, and its language can be extended with functions and procedures through dynamic modules. It runs on Unix platforms and also on Windows, and we can load files with Matlab functions. It also provides extensive graphical capabilities for data visualization and manipulation, acts as a command shell, and can create graphics to later print or save them. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** So far, nothing negative to say about this software **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Recommending for anyone looking for a comprehensive free software when performing linear and nonlinear numerical operations. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** It has made my work easier because its extensive options and ways of calculating my linear problems have saved me time. I always recommend it to my students. ### 26. The best interface with commands to solve both linear and nonlinear numerical problems. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Angel M. | Marketing, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 11, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** With tools for solving common numerical problems in linear algebra, root finding of nonlinear equations, integration of ordinary functions, polynomial manipulation, integration of algebraic differential equations, and graph generation, which is very appealing to anyone using this software. Its fundamental data is the matrix; it integrates compatibility with complex numbers and includes a powerful and extensive library of mathematical functions, which can be extended through user-defined functions. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** I haven't found anything that I dislike because, being free, it has many benefits. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Working in the areas of design, publishing, and engineering has allowed me to solve many problems that arise when calculating any nonlinear equation, thus saving me many hours of work. ### 27. Benefits of GNU Octave **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Higher Education | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Quickly helps in solving linear and nonlinear problems numerically. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Doesn’t support on Windows 10 & 8. It would be better if in future it supports latest Windows OS. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Help in calculating the linear problems and also shows good graphs. ### 28. Excellent tool for analyzing mathematical functions **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Freddy L. | Preparator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 24, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** The GNU Octave program is a free alternative to MATLAB. It offers mathematical functions that are similar to those offered by Matlab but in a more intuitive and free manner. The programming language used by Octave is similar to Matlab, which has powerful functions that can be used to perform multiple professional-level tasks and complex mathematical operations. It works on platforms with multiple operating systems: Linux, Mac, and Windows. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Without many things to complain about Octave, which is a free program with great features, but it is mentioned that the graphical interface is not very intuitive. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** With Octave, I have managed to solve mathematical problems for the design of advanced industrial processes, linear and non-linear dynamic processes. ### 29. Site Down Prediction Analysis using GNU Octave **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Telecommunications | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2020 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** I like best-2D/3D plotting and data visualization, **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Interface is not that much food. Facing installation difficulties in windows 10 **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Predictive and cost function analysis ### 30. A free software that allows us to work with matrices and provides us with incredible functionality. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Carlos Daniel Q. | Ingeniero superior de proyecto, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 17, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** The incredible thing about this software is that we can use it on platforms like Unix, Linux, and Windows without any problem. It is not heavy, nor does it require major specifications to use it. It is written in C++ using the STL library, and it can extend its language with functions through modules, as well as supporting most of the functions of the C standard library. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Nothing negative to say about this incredible and lightweight software. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been able to work on many of my MATLAB files with GNU Octave without any problems, which is incredible, and its simulations are perfect. ### 31. Free, simple and fast language for Numerical Computation and Visualisation **Rating:** 3.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Raghuvar P. | Big Data Developer & AWS Certified Solution Architect, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 01, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** One thing I like about the Octave is it is free and very fast. To learn GNU Octave is really easy, the learning curve is small. The graphs and visualisations they provide are really clean and looks beautiful. The Numerical calculations such as Matrix multiplication, Eigen values calculations, SVD etc etc are very much faster. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Although this is free, there are some things which are not available in Octave. Also, in the market there are many good open source libraries available who does the same thing. I have given 6 ratings because of the same reason. It is good language but not the best. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** As I told you there are better libraries than GNU. One of them is Numpy which is also faster and easy to learn. By no doubt Octave is a good language to learn but there are use cases also. If you want to use Machine leaning models then I will suggest Numpy but if you are planning for the pure research base area where graphs and performance and numerical computation matter go with Octave. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use GNU octave in Computer graphics. Because of the fact that it is very good at visualisation. I used to work on GNU Octave extensively in my college days. GNU Octave also faster in Numerical computation, which makes it efficient also. ### 32. Great alternative to expensive software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joel F. | Senior Pipeline Integrity Specialist, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** 1. Very compatible with Matlab. There are only a few issues we have had in running Matlab code in Octave, and we have been easily able to resolve all the issues. 2. Free! I would use Matlab if it were not so expensive. We are a small company and so have limited resources. 3. Easy to use. Lots of documentation is available online. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Octave runs MUCH slower than Matlab - our tests showed it ran at about 13% of the speed. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** If saving money is more important to you than speed, then try octave. Your Matlab code will probably run without modifications. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** 1. Modelling of magnetic fields. 2. Preparing professional plots of data. ### 33. My Experience With Gnu Octave **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** shashank s. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 16, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Octave is the best utility software which i have used for starting my machine learning.It is very easy to use and it is also very less demanding on cpu so,we can use it with an uninterrupted experience.It is very good for Algorithm development and it is very easy to do data visualization on GNU Octave.It is also very easy to do vectorization for data science purposes. The CLI version is very light on my computer so it uses very ram and cpu speed.It's is the best software to use use when we enter the field of Data Science and Machine Learning.Everyone must have some experience with GNU Octave. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** The problem with GNU Octave is that it supports very less in built function than other similar software.For Example,there are several ways to do something in Matlab but only one way to do in Octave. The Octave GUI takes more RAM and CPU load against similar software though the CLI version is very good. The data Visualization takes a lot of code in comparison to other programming languages for visualization purposes. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Everyone must continue to use GNU Octave since it is free and easy to use and has mostly all the features compared to similar softwares like Matlab. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** In GNU Octave,I have used it to solve various real world problems of Data Science in the field of Machine Learning.I have used it for the prediction of future based on past for example,I have used it predict the sales of a Retail Store in next month based on previous records of sales.It was also used for various other projects. ### 34. Starter kit for Data Science **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 25, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Simple to use and can yet scale a lot. Language is easy to learn. Most importantly, its a free software. This makes it available to each and everyone for use. The visualization tools are very informative and can be a great tool for demonstration purposes. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** The UI and debugging has areas for improvement. It needs a dark UI mode on it. Update channels on linux are way out of date. Manual upgrading of software each time is a bit tedious to do given that we need to use it daily. Support to load data from other sources should be added as well. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** The best piece of software available for testing purposes for free. You need to have this in your work environment if Machine Learning is a major part of your work environment. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Running bench mark tests for new algorithms to put in production in future. Testing new algorithms is almost an every day task at a company that runs on ML at its core. ### 35. Great "Matlab-like" features for Free! **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rick B. | General Manager, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** I have two parts of GNU Octave that are really my favorite: 1. The software is totally free, meaning I can use it at work in place of using up an expensive MATLAB licence which someone more technically proficient may need. 2. GNU Octave follows MATLAB quite closely int eh way that you can use many commands and pieces of code interchangeably. Most MATLAB programmes can be slightly modified and they'll work in GNU Octave. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** As was said, the software is free, and along with this then comes the fact that it will not live up to standard of paid software; one of these features is that the software does not have a modern graphical user interface like MATLAB. Although this does not have to be flashy it definitely would be a big help and make it easier to use in the modern day environment. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** I would definitely recommend trying GNU Octave before spending the money on a package like MATLAB; there is a really big chance that it will be able to do everything you require without having to spend a cent. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** A big business problem is always having the money to buy software licences for multiple engineers. By utilising GNU Octave alongside MATLAB, we are able to spread our MATLAB licences out quite well whilst doing the basic, core of our engineering programmes with GNU Octave. I like working with the software because it is so well support and so easy to use. ### 36. Useful tool **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Technology and Services | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 02, 2019 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** I used it when I followed a course to learn machine learning "Coursera", I think it is a simple e good language optimized using matrices and vectors and the IDE permits to write code very simply. Its good for base alghorithm **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** currently i'm using rstudio because Octave have limit for some evoluted algorithm like convolutional neural network **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** I thinks It is perfect to study and understand algorithms and I like creating quickly experiment and data analysis **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used it to learn main concept of machine learning ### 37. Near perfect substitute for general MATLAB users **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 17, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Octave maintains consistency with much of MATLAB's function and utility naming conventions and has good plotting capabilities. Importantly, it has lower system demands and is inexpensive. Octave also makes it easier to use complex numbers. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Octave's statistical tools can be improved. The user interface is slightly clunky, and can be made more congruent with that of MATLAB. Of course, a lot of users would like more MATLAB toolbox equivalents. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** If you are using MATLAB to mostly plot, curve fit, do basic statistics, or are seeing your system get bogged down by MATLAB's higher system demands, strongly consider GNU Octave. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Saves MATLAB licensing fees, and allows nearly the same functionality. Used it extensively for plotting, basic curve fitting and data analysis. We used Octave to process data from computer simulations, and try out new Monte Carlo algorithms. For the Monte Carlo work, we used Octave to run our codes faster, not just save on licensing fees. ### 38. Works for me as an alternative to MATLAB **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Defense & Space | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 13, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Provides the functionality of MATLAB that I need for my projects without my having to spend an arm and a leg. The Octave developers recently provided us with a GUI-based interface that made the software even more compelling. The command line interface still exists, for those who swear by it. There is extensive online support for all experience levels, from beginners to power users. Works on all platforms - Linux, Mac and Windows. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** I can't find any reason to complain - the program meets my requirements completely. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Numerical computing and simulations. Octave provides the necessary functionality we need. ### 39. Given the fact that it's free, it accomplishes everything I could wish for! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Management Consulting | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** The interface is intuitive, and makes a lot of sense to someone that has used matlab heavily before. A lot of functions are exactly the same in both matlab and octave, which is an additional plus. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Octave has crashed fairly often for me in use on Windows 8. Also, I find myself having to "translate" functions form matlab to octave fairly often. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have the ability to quickly analyze data, loop across arrays, and do sophisticated analysis. Essentially, have the additional functionality on top of what I get with excel. ### 40. Octave – Just like Matlab if you know already know Matlab **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 19, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Octave responds almost identically to Matlab and was designed to be Matlab compatible. And it's free, which is a big hit. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** The installation process is not even close to straightforward on a Mac. It also does not have a help menu like Matlab, so if you don't know what you're doing already, it's hard to learn. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Needs a user manual and variable viewer. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use Octave as a replacement for Matlab in quantitative analysis of scientific data. It is straightforward to use and has a wide spectrum of packages, all at no cost. ### 41. Great to use for scientific calculations **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chintan D. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** It is really easy to use. It integrates really well with python. It has the great performance for complicated plotting related things. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** It does not have the best vizulization in class. It can do better on that front. Also they need to commercialize some part to support better development. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Great open source tool. Contribute to it if you are using it. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** We used GNU Octave to prototype and process financial data. We move on to C++ later though. ### 42. Couldn't ask for much more! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Defense & Space | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 01, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** MATLAB functionality, GUI interface, powerful computing engine, and portability on different computing platforms - MacOS, Linux and Windows. The GUI interface that has been recently introduced is a welcome addition; the command line interface is available as well. Extensive online support and documentation. Hats off to the GNU community who volunteer to bring us superb software... for free! **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Nothing, what is there to dislike? Again, kudos to the GNU community who provide such amazing software. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Running numerical computing and simulation problems. ### 43. Great alternative the MATLAB **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Great alternative to MATLAB and provides great cost savings. Does almost everything MATLAB provides, and consumes less computer resources than MATLAB. Not difficult to get used to as syntax is nearly identical to MATLAB. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** GUI is not as nice as MATLAB. May take a little time to get used to if user prefers MATLAB GUI. However, if you are fine with a command line interface, this is still a good alternative. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** Use Octave if the team is okay with command line interface, computer resources are a limiting factor, and / or licensing costs of MATLAB are an issue. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Cost savings for MATLAB. Great programming language/program for matrix-based calculations ### 44. GNU OCTAVE - The best graphical analysis Tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Arun D. | Automotive Design Engineer, Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 06, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** The GNU Octave can handle any high end numerical calculation and convert into to graphical interpretation. It is very ideal during experimental analysis of materials. Its biggest advantage is that its an open source programming language. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** GNU octave is some issues while solving integeral and diffrential calculus equations where the syntax are bit difficult to understand and to use. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** I highly recommend GNU Octave for students and researchers looking for a better user friendly and efficient numerical computational analysis software **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using GNU octave for my article work about experimental analysis of uniaxial compresion test for composite glass fibres. ### 45. GNU Octave **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in E-Learning | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 31, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** It is one of the best mathematical computational software. it is best for the research work in signal processing and communication. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Circuit simulator is not there, else it is one of the best software. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** yes i am using gnu octave in my research work for signal processing and communication. also it is available free of cost. ### 46. An open source magic **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 28, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Its an open source software i.e. free of cost not blowing a hole in your pocket. If you cannot afford mathworks this is the veat choice for you. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Some minor bugs while running and installing other open source libraries. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** Control systems design :- linear and non- linear dynamics ### 47. Awesome for matlab alternative **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Software | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** I have used Octave in one of the online courses and it was really good to use. As an alternative to Matlab ,this software is free and easy to use same like Matlab. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** I have used it in a terminal version of the product. I don't know if there exist a graphical interface .if not that would be wonderful. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** The first benifit is that it is free of charge and it is able to matrix operation same as Matlab and uses less computation resources. ### 48. GNU Octave is for programming language and enables high functionally computation abilities. **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mindy K. | Research Associate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 13, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** User friendliness and easy to pick up as a customer. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** I don't like the interface design and think it can use better graphics **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am contacting statistical analysis using GNU Octave. I noticed that the outputs are very clear and coherent. ### 49. Octave - Substitution for Matlab **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Borna K. | Game Developer, Software Developer, Computer Games, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 09, 2017 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** Similar to matlab in some ways, free, comprehensive documentation, open source, good visualization, easy to use, user friendly graphic interface. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** In comparison to Matlab it is slower and has less built-in libraries and functions.It also crashes occasionally. **Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave:** I would recommend GNU Octave to students and to people who cannot afford Matlab. Otherwise Matlab is a better choice. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** GNU octave is an ideal choice for students as a substitution for Matlab because license is very expensive . For companies obvious choice would be Matlab cause it has better functionality, more built-in libraries and better performance. ### 50. Not really good as compared to Matlab **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Non-Profit Organization Management | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 14, 2018 **What do you like best about GNU Octave?** The usage of bash comands. Free Usage. Same syntax as Matlab. Maths oriented Syntax. Runs across OSes. **What do you dislike about GNU Octave?** Less functionality than Matlab. GNUplots aren;t that pretty. Lot of bugs as compared to Matlab. Less inbuilt functions. **What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you?** None. ## GNU Octave Discussions - [Is Octave better than Python?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-octave-better-than-python) - [What is the difference between GNU Octave and MATLAB?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-the-difference-between-gnu-octave-and-matlab) - [What does GNU stand for in GNU Octave?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-does-gnu-stand-for-in-gnu-octave) - [Is GNU Octave as good as MATLAB?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/is-gnu-octave-as-good-as-matlab) - [View GNU Octave pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/gnu-octave/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-03+04%3A39%3A26+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=92100e38-8cbd-4f40-82de-05d68603ed68&secure%5Btoken%5D=2318a3276d8114dd63f592e845d3ca89136cfc4ab57ee467577b98a8501feb94&format=llm_user) ## GNU Octave Features **Administration** - Quality Control - Data Sampling - Collaboration **Design** - 3D/solid modeling Tools - Drawing Tools - Editing Tools - Rendering tools **Capabilities** - Data Visualization - Survival Analysis - Risk Data Attributes - Cost Analysis **Tools** - Fluid analysis - Finite element analysis - Multibody dynamics **Methodology** - ANOVA Support - Regression - Time Series Analysis **Work** - Discrete event modeling - Continuous event modeling - Mechanical event simulation - Manufacturing process simulation - Integrate **Environment** - Hardware support - Task - Manage Multiple Profiles - Command Clarity **Generative AI** - AI Text Generation - AI Text Summarization ## Top GNU Octave Alternatives - [Scilab](https://www.g2.com/products/scilab/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (58 reviews) - [MATLAB](https://www.g2.com/products/matlab/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (749 reviews) - [Posit](https://www.g2.com/products/posit-posit/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (563 reviews)