py-pde
The facts below are what the maker publishes about py-pde, checked and dated. Our editors have not written about it yet.
Plans and prices
From py-pde's own pricing page, checked 12 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| py-pde | Free | Open-source Python package; install with pip or conda |
The facts
Each one read from py-pde's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Audience
- The package is aimed at researchers and students investigating PDE behavior and boundary conditions.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Backends
- Core computations can use numba, jax, or torch backends, with compiled backends potentially requiring startup compilation.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Boundary conditions
- Differential operators support flexible boundary conditions, including Dirichlet, Neumann, Robin, periodic, and anti-periodic conditions.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Features
- It supports nonlinear PDEs, complex boundary conditions, and collections of scalar, vector, or tensor fields.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Fields and equations
- It supports scalar, vector, and rank-2 tensor fields, and PDEs can be expressed with the PDE class or implemented by subclassing PDEBase.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Geometries
- Supported grids include Cartesian, polar symmetric, spherical symmetric, and cylindrical symmetric grids.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Installation
- The package can be installed with pip or conda-forge, and the project also lists an Arch Linux package.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Integrations
- Documented optional packages include JAX, PyTorch, MPI, napari, pandas, h5py, ipywidgets, and py-modelrunner.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Intended users
- The project says it is aimed at researchers and students exploring PDE behavior and boundary conditions.checked 4 Oct 2026
- License
- The repository identifies the project as MIT licensed.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Limitations
- The package is intended for simple geometries with fixed discretization, and time-independent and integro-differential systems are not fully supported.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Limits
- The package is suited to simple geometries with fixed discretization and does not fully support time-independent systems or integro-differential equations.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Numerical method
- It uses the method of lines with finite-difference approximations on fixed grids.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Parallel processing
- The package supports MPI-based parallel simulations using its ExplicitMPISolver and an installed MPI implementation.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Publication
- The documentation asks users to cite David Zwicker’s 2020 Journal of Open Source Software paper about py-pde.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- py-pde provides methods and classes for simulating partial differential equations and stochastic differential equations.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Results and visualization
- Trackers can report progress, plot simulation states, detect steady states, and store intermediate states in memory or files.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Security
- The documentation warns that interpreting arbitrary expressions uses exec() and should not be used where malicious input may occur.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Security note
- The documentation warns that arbitrary expressions are interpreted using exec() and advises against using them where malicious input could occur.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Solvers
- Available solver approaches include Euler, Runge-Kutta, backward Euler, and wrappers for scipy.integrate.solve_ivp().checked 12 Oct 2026
- Stochastic equations
- The framework also supports stochastic differential equations in the Itô representation.checked 4 Oct 2026
- Support
- The repository points users to GitHub Discussions for more information.checked 4 Oct 2026
Where it runs
- Platforms
- The package is developed for Python 3.12, tested through Python 3.14, and documented for Linux, Windows, and macOS.checked 12 Oct 2026
- Platform support
- The documentation says py-pde has been tested on Linux, Windows, and macOS with Python versions up to 3.14.checked 4 Oct 2026
Alternatives to py-pde
- 1
SimFlow
Free planWebLinuxmacOSWindows8.2From €8,000 a year - 2
COMSOL Multiphysics
WebAPILinuxmacOS7.7 - 3
FeenoX
Free planWebAPILinuxSelf-hosted7.5Free plan - 4
myPhysicsLab
Free planWebLinuxmacOSSelf-hosted7.5Free plan - 5
OpenFOAM
Free planLinuxmacOSSelf-hostedWindows7.3Free plan - 6
MPTRAC
Free planWebLinuxSelf-hosted7.2Free plan