Altium Designer vs DIgSILENT PowerFactory
Altium Designer
altium.com
DIgSILENT PowerFactory
digsilent.deSide by side
| Figure | Altium Designer | DIgSILENT PowerFactory |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $460/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Electrical Design Software | 8.4 (#4) | 8.0 (#11) |
| Intended users | The product page presents Altium Designer for professional PCB projects ranging from basic circuits to complex systems, including avionics. | The maker describes the editions for individual end users, organisations managing multiple licences, and multi-user teams sharing central project data. |
| Purpose | Altium Designer is an integrated electronics design tool covering schematic capture, PCB layout, simulation, and analysis. | PowerFactory analyses electrical generation, transmission, distribution and industrial power systems. |
| Support | Altium lists documentation, a knowledge base, ticketed support cases, training, and community forums as support resources. | Commercial perpetual licences include maintenance and support for the first 12 months, and subscriptions include them for the subscription term; software support requests go through the Customer Portal. |
Plans
DIgSILENT PowerFactory
- Demo licenceFree
- Commercial licence — perpetualPrice not published
- Commercial licence — subscriptionPriced on request
- Commercial licence — time-limitedPriced on request
In their own words
Altium Designer
Altium Designer has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
DIgSILENT PowerFactory
DIgSILENT PowerFactory is software for analyzing electrical generation, transmission, distribution and industrial power systems. Its study areas include renewable integration, distributed generation, and medium- and low-voltage networks. Available analyses cover load flow, short circuits, contingencies, protection, stability and electromagnetic transients. Users can automate work with Python, DIgSILENT Programming Language, a C++ API or a parallel task automation tool. The base package imports and converts network data; its DGS interface exchanges data in ASCII, XML, CSV and ODBC formats for GIS and SCADA connections. Additional interfaces include OPC DA/UA, IEEE C37.118 simulation and FMI 2.0 co-simulation, though some require separate licences. Editions range from a local SQLite setup to licence-server management and shared project data using Oracle, SQL Server or PostgreSQL. The 28-day demo is free for one user, with predefined functions, and excludes DGS, exports and API. Commercial pricing is available on request; platforms listed are Windows, API and self-hosted.