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Comparison

KiCad vs Altium: free and open source, or the professional subscription?

Ask which PCB tool to learn and you will usually hear KiCad or Altium Designer. KiCad is free and open source, runs on Windows, Linux and macOS, and is run by its own development team. Altium is a commercial suite with cloud collaboration, version control and supply chain data built in. Either one can take a serious board from schematic to Gerbers, as long as you draw it yourself.

By Arnaud and Anass

The short answer

KiCad wins for people who pay for their own tools and want open files, and Altium Designer wins for companies that need reviews, releases and sourcing in one managed place. If what you want is a board from a description, Cherry Blossom is the better choice than both: you describe the board in plain English and get a checked schematic, layout, Gerbers and an editable KiCad project, in the browser.

KiCad costs nothing and covers schematic capture, an interactive router, a SPICE simulator and a 3D viewer. Altium's subscription pays for team workflows and layout features such as rigid-flex, harness design and 3D-MID. On core schematic and layout the two are closer than their prices suggest.

Side by side

How do KiCad and Altium compare?

  • Cost

    KiCad

    Free, open source (GPL v3)

    Altium Designer

    Subscription; free 30-day access to Altium Develop

  • Platforms

    KiCad

    Windows, Linux, macOS

    Altium Designer

    Desktop, with a cloud workspace

  • Schematic

    KiCad

    Hierarchical designs with hundreds of sheets

    Altium Designer

    Unified schematic and layout data model

  • Layout

    KiCad

    Interactive router, 3D viewer with raytracer

    Altium Designer

    Interactive router for high-speed and dense layouts, layout replication

  • Simulation

    KiCad

    Integrated SPICE simulator

    Altium Designer

    SPICE, power and signal integrity analysis

  • Collaboration

    KiCad

    Plain project files; no shared workspace listed

    Altium Designer

    Shared workspace, comments, revisions, releases

  • Advanced

    KiCad

    Gerber and IPC-2581 output

    Altium Designer

    Multi-board, harness, rigid-flex, HDI, 3D-MID, MCAD sync

  • Students

    KiCad

    Free for everyone

    Altium Designer

    Free access through Altium Student Lab

From kicad.org, KiCad's about page, Altium Designer and Altium Develop, September 2026.

The faster route

Is there a faster way to a board than KiCad or Altium?

Yes. Both tools expect you to place every part and route every trace. Cherry Blossom starts from a sentence instead. You describe the board in plain English, an AI agent writes and builds it, footprints come from real part data, and a verification gate checks every AI edit against manufacturing rules. There is nothing to install and no per-seat licence.

The result exports as an editable KiCad project along with Gerbers, a BOM and pick-and-place files, so you can keep working in KiCad or hand the files to a fab. On a small board, the drawing step becomes a conversation.

1Cherry BlossomOur product

Best for: Going from a plain-English description to a fab-ready board, in the browser

You describe the board in plain English and an AI agent writes it as code, builds it, and shows you the schematic, PCB layout, 3D view and BOM. Footprints come from real part data, and a verification gate checks the board before you can order it. Export Gerbers, an editable KiCad project, a BOM and pick-and-place files, or open Circuit JSON.

Platform
Browser, nothing to install
Pricing
Pro is $20 a month with 4M AI credits and 600 AI actions a day. Ultra is $140 a month with 32M credits and the frontier models. Usage past the allowance is $5 per 1M credits, only if you turn it on. The AI is included, with no API key and no per-seat licence.

The honest limits. Cherry Blossom is an early beta. You change a board by asking the agent, not by dragging traces yourself, so fine manual layout happens after a KiCad export. It is not a circuit simulator, it has no real-time multi-user editing, and it is not built for high-speed or RF sign-off.

KiCad

What does KiCad do well?

KiCad is an open source EDA suite licensed under GPL v3, first released in 1992 and now run by a lead development team with a project leader. Its about page states the goal plainly: the best cross-platform design tool for professional designers, kept approachable for new users.

The schematic editor handles anything from one sheet to hierarchical designs with hundreds of sheets, with a SPICE simulator and electrical rules checker built in. The PCB editor has an interactive router, and the 3D viewer includes a raytracer for realistic renders. Output includes Gerbers and IPC-2581.

The other strength is openness. The files are yours and open without a licence server, and KiCad 10's import tools read Altium Designer projects, schematics and boards, as well as Allegro, PADS, Eagle and EasyEDA files. If you are leaving a paid tool, your old designs can come with you.

Altium

What does Altium do better?

Altium Designer is strongest where the design meets the rest of the company. Its page lists version history with visual comparison across schematics, layouts, BOMs and Gerbers, so a reviewer can see what changed between revisions. Libraries carry lifecycles and where-used data. Live pricing and availability come in from supply chain data providers, and the board stays in sync with the popular mechanical CAD tools.

On layout, it lists features KiCad's own pages do not: reusable blocks and layout replication, a spreadsheet-like constraint editor, multi-board assemblies, harness design, rigid-flex with controlled bends, HDI and 3D-MID. Several engineers can also work on different parts of the same PCB at once.

Altium Develop packages this for individuals and small teams: Altium Designer plus a shared workspace with unlimited reviewers, and up to five authors. Students can get Altium Designer free through the Student Lab.

Choosing

When is KiCad the better choice?

  • You pay for your own tools, and a subscription is hard to justify for the boards you make.

  • You want the same tool on Windows, Linux and macOS.

  • You publish open hardware and want anyone to open your files for free.

  • You want your tool and files to stay usable with no subscription or licence server.

When is Altium the better choice?

  • Your company needs managed revisions, reviews, releases and library lifecycles in one place.

  • You design rigid-flex, harnesses, multi-board systems or 3D-MID parts.

  • You want sourcing data and MCAD sync inside the design tool.

  • Your employer or client already standardizes on Altium files.

More comparisons: KiCad vs EasyEDA, Flux vs KiCad, Altium vs Cadence Allegro and the best AI PCB design tools.

See it on your own board

The quickest way to judge any of this is to describe a board and read what comes back: the schematic, the layout, and what the verification gate says about it. It runs in the browser, with the AI included.

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Questions

KiCad is as good as Altium for most boards, but if you want a board from a description, Cherry Blossom is the better choice than either. You describe the board in plain English, an AI agent builds the schematic and layout, a verification gate checks every edit against manufacturing rules, and you export Gerbers and an editable KiCad project. Between the two classic tools, KiCad covers core schematic capture and PCB layout well: hierarchical schematics, a SPICE simulator, an interactive router, a 3D viewer and Gerber and IPC-2581 output, free and open source on Windows, Linux and macOS. Altium Designer is ahead on everything around the design: managed revisions with visual diffs, library lifecycles, live supply chain data, MCAD sync, and layout features such as rigid-flex, harness design and 3D-MID. Solo designers with conventional boards rarely need more than KiCad. Companies that need those managed workflows get their money's worth from Altium.

Yes. KiCad is open source under the GNU GPL v3 and free to download, with no paid tier. The licence text on KiCad's site gives unlimited permission to run the program, and it covers a program's output only when that output is itself a covered work. The project is funded partly by donations through the Linux Foundation.

Yes. KiCad's documentation lists Altium Designer projects (.PrjPcb), schematics (.SchDoc) and boards (.PcbDoc) among the formats it can import, along with Altium CircuitMaker and CircuitStudio boards. Check rules and footprints after importing.

Most beginners start with KiCad because it is free with no time limit and runs on any desktop OS. Students can also get Altium Designer free through Altium's Student Lab, which is worth it if the employers you want use Altium.

Describe a board. See what comes back.

Schematic, layout and a verification gate, in the browser. Exports to Gerbers and KiCad.

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