Comparison · the real competitor

VialMath vs a spreadsheet

The choice most people are actually weighing isn't between two apps — it's between an app and the spreadsheet already open in another tab. A spreadsheet is a completely reasonable way to track one thing on a fixed schedule. This page is about the exact point that stops being true.

If you're tracking one thing on a fixed schedule, keep your spreadsheet. That's a genuine recommendation, not a setup for one. Nothing below argues you're already wrong — it describes the specific moment a spreadsheet stops being enough, so you recognize it when it arrives instead of a month after.

What happens when something changes

A spreadsheet is static until you touch it. The moment you do, one of these two things happens — and only one of them involves you.

When you change…	In a spreadsheet	In VialMath
The dose	Update the formulas by hand, and hope you found every one that referenced it	The draw, vial life, run-out and reorder date all move together
The frequency	Recalculate the supply math by hand	Supply recalculates on its own
The vial concentration	Hunt down every formula that referenced it	Every dependent number updates with it
Want last month's state back	Duplicate the sheet beforehand, and hope you remembered to	The history is already what it was — nothing to duplicate
You miss a day	Reconcile the rest of the sheet by hand	Log it late — everything downstream re-derives

The one that actually matters

Everything in that table costs you time. This one is different — it changes what your own records say happened, and it does it silently.

Editing a cell rewrites history. Say Compound A's concentration was 5 mg/mL last month, and today's new vial is 10 mg/mL instead. Update that concentration cell in a spreadsheet and every formula that reads it recalculates — including the draw you logged four weeks ago. The old entry doesn't get corrected. It quietly becomes a number that was never true, and nothing on the sheet marks that anything changed.

VialMath doesn't allow this, by construction. A logged entry keeps the concentration that was actually in effect when it was logged — change today's number and only today-forward calculations use it. If a past entry really was wrong, you correct it, and the correction itself becomes part of the record instead of silently overwriting what was there.

Where a spreadsheet still wins

A comparison that only ever favors us isn't one worth reading.

It can do anything, because it's blank. A spreadsheet has no opinion about what you use it for — a side note here, a second tracker there, whatever cell you feel like adding. VialMath deliberately isn't a blank canvas. It computes exactly what it was built to compute, on purpose, with nothing free-form bolted on.
It's already open, in a shape you already trust. Every entry you've ever made is sitting in a tool you're used to, organized the way you organized it. Leaving that behind is a real cost, not a fake one.
Moving takes a few minutes, not zero. Bringing a spreadsheet in means mapping which column is the date and which is the dose, then checking a preview before anything commits. Quick — but not instant.

If this is the point you've reached

Bring your spreadsheet.

VialMath imports CSV. You map which column is the date and which is the dose, review a preview, and nothing activates until you confirm it — a few minutes, not a rebuild.

Free is live: three active items, their schedules, Today, your full history, vial tracking and your run-out date — no account, no card. Power is $49 once and removes the limit.

Try the full app — no signup Get VialMath · $49 Free · Power $49 once