Soapmaking Lye Calculator Alternatives to Use When Soapcalc is Down

The buzz in social media soapmaking groups during past few days has been that a favorite online lye calculator, Soapcalc, has been down for unforeseen reasons. There are speculations that Soapcalc is being upgraded, but I haven't been able to confirm it. Quick research on WHOIS shows that the domain is still registered to a Portland, Oregon ISP address. Soapcalc had been online since October 13, 2008. The domain name expires on October 13, 2020 and was last updated on September 21, 2019. Soapcalc has been owned by Botanie Soap Inc. since July 2016.

Many soapmakers rely on Soapcalc to determine lye amounts for recipes.

There was a comment made on a Reddit thread that someone saw a highlight on Soapcalc that "the lye calculator will remain with the same functionality, and will have additional oils added." This was mentioned prior to the website disappearing altogether.

In my cold process soapmaking classes I teach students how to use a lye calculator, and in the past used Soapcalc as an example. I also emphasize that students learn to manually calculate their own lye. More on this in a later blogpost.

In the meantime I thought it might be helpful to post some dependable lye calculator alternatives.

A lye calculator is used to determine how much lye (either NaOH or KOH) to use based on the saponification (SAP) values of each plant oil or butter.

Here are alternative soap calculators that I have used and personally recommend.

http://soapee.com/calculator (especially helpful when using dual lye recipes such as cream soaps)

https://www.wholesalesuppliesplus.com/calculators/SoapCalcWP.aspx

https://www.thesage.com/calcs/LyeCalc.html

https://sbmcrafters.com/content/soapmaking-calculator-and-recipe-resizer

These are online soap calculators that I have not tried, but have been recommended by other soapmakers:

https://www.brambleberry.com/calculator?calcType=lye

https://www.soapguild.org/lye-calc.php

Soapmaker Software (PC only)

http://www.sudsandscents.com/lye_calculator.htm

https://www.soapmakingfriend.com/soap-making-recipe-builder-lye-calculator/

https://www.lyecalc.com

Here are phone apps that have been recommended by other soapmakers:

Saponicalc
Soapcal
Soapgenie
Saponify
Calcsoap

What soap calculator(s) do you use? Do you know how to calculate manually? If so, do you you ever use a lye calculator? I'll publish a blogpost soon on how to manually determine your lye. It's fairly simple and saves time especially when your favorite online calculator goes down.