MATLAB is described as 'Interactive environment for numerical computation, data analysis, algorithm development, matrix operations, data visualization, and toolboxes for specialized mathematical functions' and is a very popular programming language in the development category. There are more than 50 alternatives to MATLAB for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, Web-based and BSD apps. The best MATLAB alternative is GNU Octave, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like MATLAB are Scilab, R (programming language), Mathematica and SageMath.