Altium Designer vs LibrePCB
Altium Designer
altium.comLibrePCB
librepcb.orgSide by side
| Figure | Altium Designer | LibrePCB |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $460/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Electrical Design Software | 8.4 (#4) | 8.7 (#3) |
| Support | Altium lists documentation, a knowledge base, ticketed support cases, training, and community forums as support resources. | User help is provided through the forum, Matrix, issue tracker and community; paid support and feature development are available on request. |
Plans
In their own words
Altium Designer
Altium Designer has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
LibrePCB
LibrePCB is free, open-source electronic design automation software for drawing schematics and designing printed circuit boards. It runs as a desktop application on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and works fully offline without an online account. The schematic editor supports multi-page designs, live electrical rule checking, and automatic forward annotation to the board editor. Board tools include design-rule checking, a live 3D viewer, and multi-layer layouts with blind and buried vias. EAGLE projects and DXF files can be imported, while output jobs include Gerber, Excellon, CSV BOM, STEP, PDF, and SVG. An integrated library manager handles official libraries; users may also use their own. Projects and libraries use human-readable canonical text files, and projects carry their needed library items and settings. Users can order boards through LibrePCB Fab or export production data. GPLv3 licensing covers the source.