FEFLOW
Commercial
DHI's finite-element groundwater platform — unstructured meshes, density-driven flow, heat and mine dewatering.
HYDRUS
ActiveThe standard for vadose-zone modelling — variably saturated flow and transport by Richards' equation.
by PC-Progress
- Pricing
- Freemium
- License
- Proprietary (HYDRUS-1D freeware)
- Commercial use
- Permitted
- Ecosystem
- Standalone
- Platform
- Windows
About HYDRUS
The HYDRUS programs (PC-Progress, built on decades of USDA Salinity Lab lineage) simulate water, heat and solute movement in variably saturated media by solving Richards' equation — the physics between the ground surface and the water table that saturated models simplify away. Applications run from irrigation and drainage design to landfill covers, managed aquifer recharge and pesticide leaching.
HYDRUS-1D is free and ubiquitous in teaching and research; the 2D/3D products are commercial with add-ons (including coupled PHREEQC geochemistry via HP1/HP2). For serious unsaturated-zone questions it is the default toolset worldwide.
Where it fits in the workflow
TerrainCatchmentRainfallRunoffRoutingHydraulicsMappingReporting
Alternatives to HYDRUS
Ranked by the topics, categories and workflow stages they share with HYDRUS.
MODFLOW 6
Gov-PublicVerified
The USGS groundwater model — the world standard for aquifer simulation, rebuilt as a modular multi-model framework.
MT3D-USGS
Gov-Public
Multi-species solute transport for MODFLOW — advection, dispersion, sorption and reactions in aquifers.
Hydro GeoAnalyst
Commercial
Environmental data management and 3D visualization software for hydrogeologists and site investigation teams.
MODPATH
Gov-Public
USGS particle tracking for MODFLOW — pathlines, travel times and capture zones from flow solutions.
PHREEQC
Gov-Public
USGS geochemical modelling — speciation, batch reactions, 1D reactive transport and inverse modelling.