Hi everyone, I’ve got a client who wants a super ultra simple mortgage calculator on their website. I know there are a few calculator stacks out there, but I’m not really a math whiz so I’m not sure if any of these stacks will do what the client wants:
"We’ve found some plugins that make it pretty straightforward, but not quite to the simplicity level he’s looking for.
He’s wanting it to be set up so the customer enters the value of the property, has 3 buttons to input the down payment (5, 10, 20%) and an interest rate that is set at the current market rate (that we can adjust on the back end).
After which the client puts in how long of a mortgage they want in 5 year increments. Then the calculator pumps out a monthly payment."
So we want the calculator to be super easy to use…I’m envisioning something that is step-by-step, kind of like how Typeform works. Would any RW stacks be able to build something like this?
I have no idea which is easiest. I would think the first question is: Do any of these do exactly what I need? The answer may be “no” for 1, 2 or all of them. That’s the first thing to figure out. I know the Formula stack has a dedicated tutorial page so I’d review that. My guess is the other two also have detailed explanations about how to use it.
If you were doing all of this in Excel/Numbers you’d essentially be taking advantage of some look-up table. You have a simpler situation but whether each one will handle your needs is Question `1.
My CalcStack has been used many times in the past to create simple mortgage calculators to go on websites. it was the first stack of its kind to become available for RapidWeaver. If you have a copy of it installed and need help to setup a sample project file, just contact me directly.
I can also be hired to develop custom calculator stacks. So if for example, you need something that matches a design mockup exactly and requires advanced functionality (like form steps, validation, saving data, or connecting to an external API to fetch live interest rates) then that’s a real possibility too.
Pi has helper functions made just for finance calculations. Therefore, you don’t need to know how to calculate the amortization. You just use the helper function…
finance.AM({{amount}}, {{rate}}, {{years}}, 0);
I should add that Pi does not come with any form elements. It integrates with existing form stacks.
