Let's compare the Complete Dynamics App to the Synthesis App for phones and tablets.
We will compare the most important elements of both Apps:
- Repertory.
- Program functionality.
- Materia Medica.
- Internationalization (languages)
- Pricing and availability.
- Popularity.
The following table gives you a quick overview of the differences between the the Synthesis App and the Complete Dynamics App.
All differences will be studied in more detail in the following sections.
Synthesis App Complete Dynamics App Professional Repertory Good layout iOS Android Optimized layout for Tablets English German ? French ? Dutch Italian Spanish ? Portuguese Romanian Hungarian Russian Hindi Japanese 2 languages at the same time Advanced filters Simple text searching Powerful searching Case management Elementary repertorization Advanced analysis Materia Medica Full integration with PC application
The Complete Dynamics App contains the Complete Repertory by Roger van Zandvoort, edition June 2015.
The Synthesis App contains the Synthesis repertory by Frederik Schroyens, edition 2009.
The Complete Repertory is continuously updated and maintained. A new edition is published twice a year. Complete Dynamics always uses the most up to date edition.
The latest edition of Synthesis has been published in 2007, the so called Synthesis Treasure Edition. The release before that was published in 2004, edition 9.1.
2007: 1.069.724 remedy entries.
2004: 1.066.987 remedy entries.
A new edition was announced for 2011. The Archibel website still states: Synthesis 2011 is being finalized right now. It has never been published...
(There is no mention on the website of a 2009 edition).
(Source: Archibel website www.archibel.com/synthesisversions.html)
The Complete Repertory is under continuous development, Synthesis has just about remained the same for more than 10 years.
We know that 'bigger' is not by definition 'better', but let's take a look at a few simple figures:
(Numbers are rounded, for easier comparison.)
Complete Repertory Synthesis Rubrics 240.000 180.000 Remedy entries 2.500.000 1.000.000 Cross references 300.000 18.000
The Synthesis App is a repertory browser, with an elementary repertorization function.
The Complete Dynamics app offers all the functions of their PC application, Practitioner Edition.
The Synthesis App offers an elementary book-like view of the repertory, you can go to the next or previous page by clicking on a small button.
Author information can be shown, in the form of abbreviations like 'hr1'. You can lookup the meaning of these abbreviations in a separate section. Same for remedy abbreviations, you have to look them up. You can hide the remedies to only see the rubric text.
The Complete Dynamics app also offers a book-like view, with a some more navigation options (like quickly going to a cross reference rubric). It also supports so called swipe and pinch gestures, as commonly used on phones and tablets.
Double clicking on a remedy shows full information about the remedy, as well as a complete list of all author and book references. No need to lookup anything.
Numerous options are offered to make more efficient use of the limited screen space:
- only show rubric text, without remedies or cross references,
- show rubric and cross refences, without remedies,
- limit remedies to a given degree (like only grade 3 and 4),
- only show certain types of rubrics, like 'times' or 'extending',
- filter on only remedies for a given kingdom, like 'spiders', or 'minerals',
- several repertory filters can be selected, like Classic, or Reliable Authors.
The Synthesis App offers elementary text searching.
The Complete Dynamics app offers searching on:
- text, in any combination (combine, one of multiple, exclude, etc.)
- remedies, in any combination (combine, one of multiple, exclude, etc.)
- remedy groups, kingdoms and families (like 'spiders', 'nosodes', 'minerals'),
- remedy grade (min. grade, max. grade)
- rubric size (like max. 50 remedies),
- selective search in chapters, easily selectable,
- selective search in rubric types (like times, extenting, modalities, locations)
Powerful combinations of all these criteria can be made, but always in a way that is very easy to use.
The Complete Dynamics app offers full case management, like in their PC application. Cases and analyses can be fully synchronized between PC and mobile device.
The Synthesis App does not offer case management.
The Synthesis App can make an elementary analysis by placing rubrics in a clipboard and then adding up the remedy grades. The clipboard analysis can not be saved and recalled later.
The Complete Dynamics App offers full analysis management, as part of the case management system. The functionality is identical to that of the desktop application.
Four advanced analysis formulas are available, as well a the simple grade addition method of the Synthesis App.
Rubrics can be grouped (crossed) or combined with other rubrics.
Analysis results can be shown in a variety of layout variants.
Results can be filtered on remedy kingdoms and families, like 'minerals', 'nosodes', 'ranuculales', periodic system, etc. (also APG and APG-II taxonomy supported).
Printing the analysis directly from the App is possible on iPhone or iPad, to any printer supported by iOS.
The Synthesis App offers copying an analysis to RadarOpus via email, or mailing a PDF.
The Complete Dynamics app offers full synchronization with the desktop application, in both directions.
The Complete Dynamics App comes standard with an important collection of 28 Materia Medica books.
The Synthesis App does not offer any Materia Medica at all.
According to Archibel, their App is available in 5 languages:
- English (since October 2014)
- French (announced for June 2015)
- German (since April 2014)
- Italian (since May 2015)
Spanish is announced to be 'coming soon'.
We looked in the both the Apple AppStore and Google PlayStore, but only found English and Italian (15 June 2015).
So two languages, should be three, two others announced.
The Complete Dynamics App was released in September 2012, supporting the following 12 languages:
- English
- German
- French
- Dutch
- Italian
- Spanish
- Portuguese
- Romanian
- Hungarian
- Russian
- Hindi.
- Japanese
All languages are intregrated into a single App.
Why does Archibel make different apps for different languages, and release them independent of other? (Actually, Archibel no longer makes software, according to their website "software development is outsourced").
The Synthesis App costs about 180-200 $ (US dollars). They offer a 15% discount until 31 July 2015.
The Synthesis App offers 1 single language. In case you want to use two languages, you have to buy two Apps.
According to Complete Dynamics, a phone or tablet App is mostly a companion to a PC application, and only very few customers buy only the App.
The Android App can be downloaded from their website for free. It uses a subscription license mechanism, like their PC application. Customers who already have a license, can use the same license with the App without additional costs. Since almost all App users already have a PC license, the App is effectively for free.
The Complete Dynamics App for iPhone and iPad costs about 250 $. Apple strictly forbids combining license mechanism of App and PC.
The App standard uses the English repertory, but 11 translations are already integrated. They require a separate license, which most users have already purchased for their PC. (In 3 years, only 1 single customer requested a language license for tablet, without using it on PC). So effectively the additional languages can be used without extra costs.
Both Apps are available for Android and iOS, for both phones and tablets.
The Synthesis App comes with a compact manual for iPhone, stating that the other apps look more or less the same. We have found manuals for English and German.
Archibel announced a Windows App to be released in 2014, but never published it.
The Complete Dynamics App has an optimized layout for tablets.
There are manuals for both iPhone and iPad, available in 11 languages. The Android App has no dedicated manual, it is almost identical to the iOS apps.
The manuals can be downloaded as PDF, or viewed directly on the website.
In their newsletter of June 2015, Archibel wrote: "Since its launch the Synthesis App has been downloaded many thousands of times, which just goes to show how popular it is."
They must be talking about the free App, they call the Light version, which serves no practical use for homeopaths. If not, they must have earned a lot of money by now (at least half a million $$), and would not have to offer a special price in June and July 2015.
What it does show, is that many professional homeopaths are very curious, and seriously want a good App for their phones.
What it does not show, is how many curious non professional lay homeopaths have downloaded the free trial App.
We'll be frank about the figures of the Complete Dynamics App for iPad and Android tablets. In May 2015, so before we even released the Phone version, our App was already good for 7% of the total daily use of Complete Dynamics. This implies that 1 out of 13 users of Complete Dynamics also uses our App on a tablet!
This just goes to show how effective and easy to use it is, otherwise professional homeopaths would simply not use it.
The Complete Dynamics App is a serious and complete mobility tool for professional homeopaths.
The Synthesis App is a portable repertory, enhanced with elementary analysis.
Our conclusion is very simple. There is only one App that you need to seriously consider: the Complete Dynamics App.
Complete Dynamics, The App for professional homeopaths.
