Altium Designer review
Altium Designer is the established professional PCB suite, with the deepest feature set here and strong cloud collaboration through Altium 365. It scores low on this site's criteria because it costs money, runs on Windows only and takes the longest to learn, which matters to most of the people choosing.
Verdict
The professional standard, worth it when the boards and the team need it; overkill otherwise.
- Made by
- Altium (a Renesas company)
- Cost
- Annual subscription through Altium Develop (extra design authors are listed at $995 a year each; see Altium's pricing page for the base price). Free 30-day trial; free for students through the Student Lab. Check: Altium Develop
- Runs on
- Windows
- Website
- altium.com
Who it suits
Professional teams doing complex, high-speed or rigid-flex boards, who need managed libraries, supplier data and cloud review.
Who should look elsewhere
Hobbyists, Mac and Linux users, and anyone on a tight budget.
Strengths
- Deep professional features: high-speed routing, rigid-flex, managed component libraries.
- Supplier data inside the editor through Manufacturer Part Search.
- Altium 365 adds cloud projects, version history, browser viewing and comments.
Limits
- No free version for ongoing work outside the Student Lab.
- Windows only.
- The steepest learning curve on this list.
How Altium Designer scores
Each criterion is scored 0–2 against the rules on How we rank.
| Criterion | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Cost and licensing | 0 | A paid subscription is required after the 30-day trial (students excepted). Check: Altium Develop |
| Learning curve | 0 | Built for professional depth; Altium's own training is extensive and aimed at full-time designers. Check: Altium documentation |
| Library and component support | 2 | Managed libraries with supplier stock and price through Manufacturer Part Search. Check: Altium documentation |
| Board size and layer limits | 2 | No board size or layer caps in the standard licence. Check: altium.com |
| Output files | 2 | Gerber, drill, BOM, pick-and-place, STEP, plus IPC-2581 and ODB++. Check: Altium documentation |
| Platform support | 0 | The desktop editor runs on Windows only. Check: Altium system requirements |
| Collaboration | 2 | Altium 365: cloud projects, version history with visual comparison, browser review and comments. Check: Altium 365 |
| Total | 8/14 | |
Altium Designer compared with KiCad
KiCad is the open-source baseline every tool here is measured against. Altium Designer scores 8/14 against KiCad's 11/14.
- Cost and licensing: Altium Designer behind (0 vs 2). A paid subscription is required after the 30-day trial (students excepted).
- Learning curve: Altium Designer behind (0 vs 1). Built for professional depth; Altium's own training is extensive and aimed at full-time designers.
- Library and component support: Altium Designer ahead (2 vs 1). Managed libraries with supplier stock and price through Manufacturer Part Search.
- Platform support: Altium Designer behind (0 vs 2). The desktop editor runs on Windows only.
- Collaboration: Altium Designer ahead (2 vs 1). Altium 365: cloud projects, version history with visual comparison, browser review and comments.
See all the main options side by side →
Picked Altium Designer? Here's how to share, version and review your boards →