Exsolidus Alpha
Exsolidus Alpha is a cloud crystallography tool that turns raw PXRD data and a molecular formula into unit cells, space groups and structural models, with no crystallography expertise or sample shipping required. Built for pharma, CROs and CDMOs.
What is Exsolidus Alpha?
Exsolidus Alpha is a cloud platform for automated crystallography, published by KalphaTech d.o.o. in Zagreb, Croatia. It takes raw powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) data plus the molecular formula of a compound and returns the crystal structure behind them: unit cell, space group, structural model, downloadable structure files and a scientific report. The site condenses the promise into one line: "Exsolidus Alpha combines physics and AI to deliver precise crystallography analysis from your raw PXRD data. No experts required. No complicated data collection and sample shipping."
The engine is proprietary and hybrid, pairing physics-based modelling with machine learning around what KalphaTech calls its crystallographic digital twin. It is presented as instrument-agnostic and tuned for the ordinary laboratory diffractometers customers already own, which underpins the claim the company leans on hardest: non-experts can perform structural analysis of real materials in real-life conditions, on imperfect PXRD patterns obtained from lab instruments or from patents and papers.
The advertised workflow has three steps: Upload, Analysis in near real time, Solution. Around it KalphaTech claims measurable gains, including ten times less material for a full solid-form screening, hundreds of PXRD datasets collected and analysed per day, up to 1,000 patterns a day on the services page, automated impurity detection, automated quantitative analysis of complex mixtures and solid-form screening intelligence. Output is validated by crystallography experts who remain available to discuss it.
The materials in scope are organic molecules, active pharmaceutical ingredients and (semi) solid formulations; the named audiences are CROs and CDMOs, pharmaceutical quality assurance and the wider chemical industry. Exsolidus Alpha is the self-service half of a broader EXSOLIDUS offering whose other half is expert-run services such as high-throughput screening and in situ measurement.
The company behind it is small and academic: five founders with doctorates in solid-state chemistry, experimental physics and mathematics or deep learning, from the University of Zagreb, the Ruder Boskovic Institute and the Institute of Physics, two of them Croatian State Science Award winners. Development has been co-financed by two NPOO / Next Generation EU grants. At the time of this review the product is an installable web app with no native mobile version, in early access behind a waiting list.
What it does
- Determine a crystal structure, unit cell, space group and structural model from raw PXRD data, without crystallography expertise
- Accept diffraction patterns in any standard industry instrument format
- Run qualitative phase analysis on solid samples
- Compare a measured pattern against PXRD data published in patents
- Process large volumes of data, including time-resolved in situ series
- Detect impurities automatically and quantify complex mixtures
- Deliver a downloadable crystal structure and a scientific report validated by crystallography experts
When to use Exsolidus Alpha / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if Exsolidus Alpha is the right fit.
When to use Exsolidus Alpha
- Chemists and materials scientists who need crystal structures but are not trained crystallographers: the tool is explicitly built so that no expert is required.
- CROs and CDMOs handling large volumes of PXRD data, who need to process patterns efficiently and deliver precise results faster.
- Pharmaceutical R&D teams looking for structural insight early enough to improve de-risking and shape their IP strategy.
- Quality control specialists checking finished or in-process active pharmaceutical ingredients for phase composition and impurities.
- Researchers stuck with imperfect real-world data, patterns lifted from patents and papers, or compounds they cannot grow as a single crystal but still need to describe.
When not to use Exsolidus Alpha
- Consumers and hobbyists: the service is offered on a B2B basis to companies and research institutions, with a minimum age of 18.
- Anyone who needs to start today: access runs through an early-access waiting list, with no open sign-up and no free trial.
- Work outside the stated scope: the tool is described for organic molecules, active pharmaceutical ingredients and (semi) solid formulations, and nothing on the site extends it to minerals, metals or macromolecules.
- Teams that expect an automated answer to be final: the terms leave independent verification by a qualified scientist to the user, and results are not guaranteed to be error-free.
- Organisations needing strict confidentiality on an entry-level tier: under the Free, Academic and Standard licence, raw data may be published to public databases.
How to use Exsolidus Alpha
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Request access from the product landing page: the "Get Early Access" button collects your email address and adds you to the waiting list.
- Optionally book the free 30-minute consultation call with the KalphaTech experts to scope your use case first.
- Create an account with your name, email address, organisation and billing address.
- Pick a subscription tier, keeping in mind that the tier decides not only what you pay but whether your data falls under the open Standard licence or the strict Confidential licence.
- Sign in and upload your raw PXRD pattern together with the molecular formula of the compound; all standard industry file formats are accepted.
- Provide your instrumentation details when prompted, such as X-ray source and geometry, so the engine can optimise the accuracy of the analysis.
- Let the analysis run: the engine determines the unit cell, the space group and the structural model in near real time.
- Review the proposed solution and download the crystal structure files.
- Retrieve the scientific report validated by crystallography experts, and contact them if a result needs discussion.
- If you have no diffraction data of your own, send a sample to KalphaTech instead and have the measurement carried out for you.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Removes the crystallography expertise bottleneck: the analysis is meant to be run by chemists who are not crystallographers
- Works on data you already have, with no sample shipping and no complicated data collection, and tolerates imperfect patterns from lab instruments, patents or papers
- High claimed throughput, up to 1,000 patterns a day, with results returned in near real time
- Ten times less material required for a full solid-form screening, according to the technology page
- Results are checked by expert crystallographers rather than left to the model alone, and those experts remain reachable
- You keep ownership of your raw data and of the derived structures, and the terms rule out selling data to brokers or advertisers
- European publisher subject to the GDPR, with a named DPO, documented retention periods and an available strict-confidentiality regime that excludes general model training
Cons
- No public pricing whatsoever: no pricing page, no pricing route inside the application, and tiers named only in the terms of service
- Access is closed at the time of this review: an early-access waiting list, with no free trial and no open sign-up
- Confidentiality has to be paid for: under the Free, Academic and Standard tiers, raw data may be published to public databases and kept indefinitely
- No public API and no developer documentation, no native mobile app, and no named third-party integration
- No security certification claimed (no SOC 2, ISO 27001 or HIPAA), no published data processing agreement, and no named sub-processors, only categories of recipients
- No hosting country or region declared, results explicitly not guaranteed, independent verification left to the user, and liability capped at the last twelve months of fees (500 EUR under the publisher's own terms of use)
- A very young product on scattered documentation: the domain was registered in January 2026, and the legal, contact and about pages sit on the publisher's separate site, where the company is called d.o.o., Ltd. and Llc. from one page to the next
Pricing & Plans
No price is published. Neither the publisher's website nor the product application exposes a pricing page, and the terms of service simply state that "Access to the Service is subject to the fees set forth in your applicable Order Form or Subscription Plan", with fees quoted exclusive of VAT and sales taxes. The terms name subscription tiers, including Free, Academic, Standard, Pro, Enterprise and Confidential, but no page describes what any of them costs, includes or guarantees, so the existence of a Free tier cannot be taken as evidence of a permanent free plan. No free trial of the product is advertised. The only cost-free entry point offered is a 30-minute consultation call with the team, which is a sales conversation rather than product access. Pricing must therefore be requested directly from KalphaTech.
- named in the product's terms of service as falling under the open Standard data licence. No page describes its scope
- its limits or whether it is permanent.
- also placed under the open Standard data licence
- with no published scope
- quota or price.
- the reference tier under the open Standard data licence
- meaning raw data may be used for model improvement and deposited in public databases. No published price.
- covered by the Confidential data licence
- so no public deposit of your data and no general model training. No published price.
- the tier named after the strict Confidential data licence. No published price.
- covered by the Confidential data licence
- and the only tier where a separate Enterprise Agreement may change ownership of the Derived Data. Priced on request.
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how Exsolidus Alpha handles your data.
GDPR overview
GDPR compliance is stated explicitly rather than implied. The privacy policy, effective and last updated on 3 June 2025, opens with: "As a Croatian company operating within the European Union, we comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and all applicable data protection laws." It names two controllers, KalphaTech d.o.o. and KalphaTech Ltd. at Zelenjak 50, Zagreb (OIB 73948612072, MBS 081510084), sets out Article 6 legal bases (consent, contract, legitimate interest, legal obligation), and frames transfers outside the EU/EEA through adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses, binding corporate rules or explicit consent. Access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection and withdrawal of consent are all listed and exercised at privacy@kalphatech.com, and a data protection officer is reachable at dpo@kalphatech.com. Security measures include encryption in transit and at rest, access controls and regular security assessments. No certification such as SOC 2, ISO 27001 or HIPAA is claimed anywhere.
Who owns the data?
The product's terms of service split ownership in two. Section 5.1 states that you "retain all ownership rights, title, and interest in and to your Raw Data" and that KalphaTech does "not claim ownership of the data you upload". Section 5.2 gives you the Derived Data, meaning the reports and solved structures generated from your patterns, once the applicable fees are paid, unless a separate Enterprise Agreement provides otherwise. In exchange, section 5.3 grants KalphaTech a worldwide, royalty-free licence to process your Raw Data within the limits of your subscription tier. Section 5.4 rules out selling raw data or contact details to data brokers or advertisers, and the landing page repeats that your data is stored securely while you keep ownership of it.
Reuse rights
What KalphaTech may do with your data, and what you may do with the output, both depend on the subscription tier, because two data licences run in parallel. Under the Standard Licence, which covers the Free, Academic and Standard tiers, KalphaTech may use your Raw Data to improve its algorithms and machine learning models, may "publish or deposit the Raw Data and associated Derived Data into public databases or repositories in accordance with FAIR and Open Science principles", and may retain the data indefinitely for scientific validation and benchmarking. Under the Confidential Licence, which covers the Pro, Enterprise and Confidential tiers, none of that applies: data stays confidential, internal use is limited to processing your request, there is no public deposit, and the terms commit that "we will not use your Raw Data to train our general AI models in a way that could reverse-engineer or reveal your proprietary structures". On your side, the Derived Data you own once fees are paid is yours to reuse without asking permission, subject to any separate Enterprise Agreement. Aggregated, anonymised or de-identified information is defined as Platform Data and used for training, algorithm improvement and service optimisation across all tiers. Separately, the privacy policy states that personal data is shared with service providers, research partners and authorities where required, but is never sold.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
The site does not say where the data lives. No hosting country, no region, no data centre and no hosting provider is declared on either of KalphaTech's domains, and no data centre certification is claimed. What the privacy policy does provide is procedural: section 8 frames any transfer outside the EU/EEA through adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses, binding corporate rules or explicit consent, wording that implies primary processing inside the European Union without ever stating it. Section 12 lists encryption in transit and at rest, access controls, regular security assessments, staff training and incident response procedures, and the product landing page adds only that your data is securely stored while you keep ownership of it. As a network observation rather than a publisher statement, www.exsolidusalpha.com resolves to 89.167.108.226, an address operated by Hetzner Online GmbH in Helsinki, Finland, while kalphatech.com resolves to 185.62.73.118 at SETCOR d.o.o. in Zagreb, Croatia. Neither is confirmed anywhere on the site and neither should be read as a hosting commitment. Any hosting-location requirement will have to be secured contractually.
Where Exsolidus Alpha works
Country-level availability.
Not available in
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting Exsolidus Alpha.
- Confidentiality is a paid feature. Under the Standard data licence, which covers the Free, Academic and Standard tiers, KalphaTech may publish your raw and derived data into public databases under FAIR and Open Science principles and keep it indefinitely. Read that clause before uploading an unpatented structure.
- The commitment not to train general AI models on your raw data exists only under the Confidential licence (Pro, Enterprise and Confidential tiers). On the entry tiers, using your data to improve the algorithms and machine learning models is permitted by default.
- Closing an account does not necessarily erase everything: after termination under the Standard licence, anonymised data may still be retained on Open Science grounds.
- The terms place independent verification on you: structures must be checked by a qualified scientist before manufacturing, regulatory filing or patenting, and results are not guaranteed to be free of errors.
- Liability is capped at the fees paid over the previous twelve months in the product's terms, and at 500 EUR in the publisher's terms of use, a modest ceiling against the cost of a wrong structure inside a development programme.
- No data processing agreement is published and no sub-processor is named, only categories of recipients, and no hosting country or region is declared. That is thin ground for a service handling sensitive R&D data.
- There is a human risk in accepting an automated answer in a field that used to demand an expert. The selling point that no crystallographer is needed also makes it easier to accept a plausible structure without the sanity checks a specialist would apply, and to lose the in-house skill over time.
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Technically, almost nothing to set up. Exsolidus Alpha runs in the browser and can be installed as a web app; there is no software to deploy, no integration to configure and no API key to place. The real prerequisite is experimental rather than technical: you need a PXRD pattern and the molecular formula of your compound, and you may be asked for instrument parameters such as the X-ray source and geometry. KalphaTech stresses that no new equipment or capital expenditure is required. The only real obstacle today: early access must be granted before you can log in.
Deployment
Supported languages
Behind Exsolidus Alpha
Fundraising
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to be a crystallographer to use Exsolidus Alpha?
What data formats does it accept?
What does the tool actually produce?
Will my data be used to train KalphaTech's models?
Can my data be published in a public database?
Who owns the results?
How much does Exsolidus Alpha cost?
Can I sign up straight away?
Is there an API or a mobile app?
What if I have no diffraction data of my own?
Should you pick Exsolidus Alpha?
Exsolidus Alpha is a narrow tool, deliberately so. It is worth a look only if you already produce or work with PXRD data, but for that audience the pitch is unusually precise. What KalphaTech sells is not raw speed so much as the removal of a bottleneck: the need for a crystallographer to sit between a diffraction pattern and a usable structure. Chemists, formulation teams, CROs and CDMOs who queue for that expertise, or who give up on compounds they cannot crystallise, are the natural audience.
The scientific credibility holds up on paper. The five founders are publishing academics from the University of Zagreb, the Ruder Boskovic Institute and the Institute of Physics, two of them holders of the Croatian State Award for Science, and development has been co-financed by two Next Generation EU grants. Results are described as validated by expert crystallographers rather than trusted blindly to a model.
The reservations all point the same way: very little is settled in public. The product sits in early access behind a waiting list, no price is published anywhere, and confidentiality is a function of the tier you pay for. Under the Free, Academic and Standard tiers the terms permit KalphaTech to publish your raw and derived data into public databases under FAIR and Open Science principles and to keep it indefinitely; only the Pro, Enterprise and Confidential tiers carry the non-publication and non-training commitments. Add documentation split across two domains, a publisher named inconsistently from page to page, and no published data processing agreement.
Three things to settle with KalphaTech before uploading anything: which tier you are on, what it costs, and what contractual protection covers confidential R&D data.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Opens in a new window.