I’ve been working at for almost a decade and will be leaving at the end of this week! A huge part of my job was to support a major subset of Manchester’s site licensed application software portfolio so naturally I’ve made use of a lot of it over the years. As of February 20th, I will no longer be entitled to use any of it! This article is the second in a series where I’ll look at some of the software that’s become important to me and what my options are on leaving Manchester. Here, I consider – a technical computing environment that has come to dominate my career at Manchester.

Cancel Copy to Clipboard The price is very high - possibly their most expensive toolbox.

Do you think that MATLAB is expensive? Even when a free C-compiler is used. But we were able to cut back on the license cost by using software asset. How much does a Matlab license cost? Update Cancel. Does a MATLAB license exist for hobby use? I'm looking for a version of MATLAB that doesn't cost $$$$.

For the last 10 years, I’ve used MATLAB at least every week, if not most days. I had a standalone license for MATLAB and several toolboxes – Simulink, Image Processing, Parallel Computing, Statistics and Optimization.

Now, I’ve got nothing! Unfortunately for me, I’ve also got hundreds of scripts, mex files and a few Simulink models that I can no longer run! These are my options: Go somewhere else that has a MATLAB site license • I’ll soon be joining the who have a MATLAB site license. A great option if you can do it.

Use something else • – Octave is a pretty good free and open source clone of MATLAB and quite a few of my programs would work without modification. Others would require some rewriting and, in some cases, that rewriting could be extensive! There is no Simulink support. • – It’s free and it’s MATLAB-like-ish but I’d have to rewrite my code most of the time. I could also port some of my Simulink models to Scilab as was done.

• Rewrite all my code to use something completely different. What I’d choose would depend on what I’m trying to achieve but options include, and among others. • If all I needed was the ability to run a few MATLAB applications I’d written, I could compile them using the and keep the result. Rapidshare Book Acting. The whole point of the MATLAB Compiler is to distribute MATLAB applications to those who don’t have a MATLAB license. Of course once I’ve lost access to MATLAB itself, debugging and adding features will be umtricky! Get a hobbyist license for MATLAB • – This is the full version of MATLAB for hobbyists.

Writing a non-profit blog such as WalkingRandomly counts as a suitable ‘hobby’ activity so I could buy this license. MATLAB itself for 85 pounds with most of the toolboxes coming in at an extra 25 pounds each. Not bad at all! The extra cost of the toolboxes would still lead me to obsess over how to do things without toolboxes but, to be honest, I think that’s an obsession I’d miss if it weren’t there! Buying all of the same toolboxes as I had before would end up costing me a total of £210+VAT. • – Mathworks make MATLAB available for free for students of some online courses such as the one linked to here.

Bear in mind, however, that the license only lasts for the duration of the course. Academic Use If I were to stay in academia but go to an institution with no MATLAB license, I could buy myself an academic standalone license for MATLAB and the various toolboxes I’m interested in.

The price lists are available at For reference, current UK academic prices are • MATLAB £375 + VAT • Simulink £375 + VAT • Standard Toolboxes (statistics, optimisation, image processing etc) £150 +VAT each • Premium Toolboxes (MATLAB Compiler, MATLAB Coder etc) – Pricing currently not available My personal mix of MATLAB, Simulink and 4 toolboxes would set me back £1350 + VAT. Commercial Use If I were to use MATLAB professionally and outside of academia, I’d need to get a commercial license. Prices are available from the link above which, at the time of writing, are • MATLAB £1600 +VAT • Simulink £2400 + VAT • Standard Toolboxes £800 +VAT each • Premium Toolboxes – Pricing currently not available My personal mix of MATLAB, Simulink and 4 toolboxes would set me back £7200 + VAT. Contact MathWorks If anyone does find themselves in a situation where they have MATLAB code and no means to run it, then they can always try contacting MathWorks and ask for help in finding a solution.