Picks by situation
Best PCB design software by use case
The overall ranking weighs all seven criteria equally. Your project probably does not. Here is the pick for five common situations, the runners-up, and what to watch out for.
Last reviewed
Best for beginners
You have never designed a PCB and want your first board made without spending money.
EasyEDA runs in the browser, the free editor allows commercial use, and parts are linked to stock you can have assembled, so your first board can go from schematic to order in one place. If you would rather learn a desktop tool you will never outgrow, start with KiCad instead: it asks more of you in the first week and nothing more after that.
Watch out: EasyEDA works best with JLCPCB and LCSC. If you plan to use other fabs and distributors, start in KiCad.
Best for open-source hardware
You will publish your design files so others can build, study and change them.
Anyone can open a KiCad project without buying anything, the files are plain text, and most of the open-hardware projects you will learn from are KiCad projects (see Real boards made with each tool). Publishing in KiCad means your users can build on your work with the same free tool.
Runners-up: LibrePCB, Horizon EDA.
Watch out: A Git repository full of KiCad files is hard to browse for people who have not installed KiCad. Give them a browser view too.
Around the editor: BoardRepo. Publish the project on BoardRepo so anyone can open the schematic, PCB, 3D view and BOM in a browser, and find your board by its components.
Best for professional teams
Several engineers work on production boards with reviews, releases and clients.
Altium Designer has the deepest constraint and high-speed tooling in this list, and Altium 365 adds review and sharing for the whole team. It is also what many clients and employers already use. KiCad is a serious alternative for teams that want open files and no licence cost; it needs a workspace around it for review and access control.
Runners-up: KiCad, Cadence OrCAD X.
Watch out: Altium is Windows-only and priced as a subscription; check altium.com for current plans.
Around the editor: BoardRepo. For KiCad teams, BoardRepo adds organisation-owned boards, roles, board-level access and asynchronous review in the browser.
Best for quick online prototyping
You need a working prototype board ordered this week, from any computer.
Nothing to install, parts linked to LCSC stock, and a direct path to JLCPCB fabrication and assembly. For a prototype where speed matters more than control, that removes most of the steps between a schematic and a parcel.
Runners-up: Flux.
Watch out: Your design lives in EasyEDA's cloud. Export it, or import it into KiCad, if the prototype turns into a product.
Best for students
You are learning electronics and want skills that last beyond the course.
KiCad is free on every operating system, with no student licence to renew, and it is capable enough for final-year projects and real products. What you learn carries into work and into open-source projects.
Runners-up: EasyEDA, Autodesk Fusion (Electronics).
Watch out: If your course teaches Altium or Fusion, use what the course uses and check the vendor's education programme for a licence.
Around the editor: BoardRepo. Share a project with a tutor or a teammate as a link they can open in a browser, with every saved version kept.