gEDA Project vs KiCad
gEDA Project
geda-project.orgKiCad
kicad.orgSide by side
| Figure | gEDA Project | KiCad |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Electrical Design Software | 7.6 (#21) | 8.1 (#9) |
| Audience | The project was started to provide free EDA tools for UNIX. | The project's stated goal is a cross-platform electronics design application for professional designers that remains approachable to new users. |
| License | The project describes its tools as a GPL suite. | The majority of KiCad source code is distributed under GNU GPL version 3 or greater, while its libraries use CC-BY-SA 4.0. |
Plans
In their own words
gEDA Project
gEDA Project has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
KiCad
KiCad is a free, open-source electronic design automation suite for schematic capture and PCB layout. Its electrical rules checker flags schematic connection issues such as output-pin conflicts, missing drivers, and unconnected pins. For board routing, the PCB editor offers collision-highlight, shove, and walkaround modes that respect design rules. An integrated 3D viewer displays board designs with a library of 3D models and supports ray tracing. Schematic netlists can be exported as Pspice, Cadstar, PcbNew, or generic XML. KiCad can import schematic work from Altium tools, CADSTAR, EAGLE, EasyEDA, and LTSpice, as well as PCB designs from a wider range that includes Allegro, Fabmaster, P-CAD 200x ASCII, and SolidWorks. The project aims to serve professional designers while staying approachable to new users. Downloads are listed for Windows, macOS, and Linux, plus Docker; the stable Linux release is an x86-64 AppImage. Most source code uses GNU GPL version 3 or greater, and libraries use CC-BY-SA 4.0. KiCad was first released in 1992 and is managed by the KiCad Development Team.