Australian software company

Software for people

Hex Pro makes apps for iPhone and desktop, free browser tools and moddable games. We keep prices modest and collect only the data a feature needs to work.

See what we makeRead our mission

What we make

Everything we make, and where it stands

Hex NFC is on the App Store and three browser tools are live, all four of them free. Three more apps are feature complete but not yet on the App Store, and the rest is still in development. Each card carries its status.

Hex Pro software

Hex Pro Apps

Apps for iPhone, iPad and desktop

  • Sol AlarmComing soon

    The alarm clock that makes you prove you're awake, with fourteen challenges to choose from.

  • Hex NFCAvailable

    A free NFC reader, writer and tag editor.

  • kcalc.aiComing soon

    Calorie tracking that estimates the portion from a photo, or measures it with LiDAR on Pro iPhones.

  • InfinilangIn development

    Japanese reading practice built from the kanji you already know.

  • Nepali CompanionComing soon

    Learn to read Nepali, one playable chapter at a time.

Browse the apps
  • Hex Pro softwarePrototype

    Hex Citadel

    File sync that encrypts on your own computer before anything is uploaded, so the server never holds your keys or sees your files. The server and client are MIT licensed, and you can run the server yourself for free. Hosted plans will come later.

  • Hex Pro softwareAvailable

    Browser tools

    A private image converter that reads twenty-six formats, a tool that recovers your secret keys from a Google Authenticator export, and a QR code studio whose codes never expire. All three run in your browser and upload nothing, so they also work offline.

  • Hex GamesIn development

    Hex Games

    Our first game is CustomTD, a roguelike tower defence made in Godot 4. The base game loads its own content through the mod system players will get, so mods can reach everything the game uses.

How we work

Principles we can be held to

Each one points to something you can read or test for yourself. If we fall short, tell us.

  1. Costs and code you can read

    Hex NFC lists what it cost to build, down to the postage on the test tags. Its full source is public, and so is the source of our browser tools.

  2. Nothing collected without a reason

    This site counts visits with self-hosted analytics that set no cookies and switch off when your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control. Our apps carry no analytics SDK, and each privacy policy lists what the app sends.

  3. Modest prices, stated in full

    Sol Alarm will be sold outright or by the month, and the choice is yours. kcalc.ai will be a subscription because its meal analysis runs on servers. Hex NFC is free.

  4. Usable by more people

    Reduced motion is honoured here and in our apps, and colour is never the only signal. This site and apps.hex.pro are both published in seven languages, with their Arabic pages set right to left.

Read all six principles

Learning

Apps that teach

Two of our apps are for learning a language, and Sol Alarm can ask you to read Japanese before it goes quiet.

  • Coming soon

    Nepali Companion

    Takes an adult English speaker from the first letter of Devanagari to reading real Nepali sentences, one playable chapter at a time.

  • In development

    Infinilang

    Writes Japanese reading practice from the kanji you know, adding one new kanji each session. Speaking practice, with feedback on each word you say, is in early preview.

  • Hex NFC

    Guides and notes

    The Hex NFC user guide is online, and the blog carries our engineering notes and the thinking behind product decisions.

Read the blog

Costs in the open

What Hex NFC cost to build, line by line

Hex NFC is free, with no paid tier. We publish what it cost to make as an itemised ledger, from the Apple Developer Program fee to the test tags and their postage, alongside what donations have paid back so far. The same figures appear inside the app.

See the Hex NFC ledger
Hex NFC development costs, in Australian dollars
ItemAmount
Apple Developer Program membership$137.69
NFC test tags and chips$99.89
Postage for the test tags$32.44
Myki transit card, for read testing$5.00
Pasmo/Suica transit card, for read testing$5.00
Total$280.02

Longer-term work

Two areas we are moving into

Neither is a product, and we have not set any dates. When there is something to show, it will appear on this site with a status label like everything else.

  • Building and evaluating our own models
  • Security research
Read more in the company overview

Software still worth using in five years

That means fixing things long after launch, and publishing enough for you to check that we do.

Get in touchAbout the company