Open Source KiCad AlternativesTop Electronic Design Automation Tools & Circuit Simulators like KiCad

The best open source alternative to KiCad is Fritzing. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try LibrePCB or eSim. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to KiCad and 15 is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to KiCad are Horizon EDA, gEDA Project, atopile and MeowCAD.

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KiCad alternatives are mainly Circuit Simulators, but if you're looking for Electronic Design Automation Tools or Circuit Designers you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Android, iPad, Mac and Open Source. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to KiCad.
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Alternatives list

  1. Fritzing icon

    Fritzing

     108 likes
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    Open-source initiative aiding designers, artists, and researchers in transforming prototypes to actual products, documenting circuits, sharing, teaching, and PCB manufacturing.

    57 Fritzing alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Pay once
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • AppImageHub
    • Flathub
    • Haiku
    Fritzing screenshot 1
     
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    14

    • Most users think Fritzing is a great KiCad alternative.

    • Fritzing is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to KiCad.

    • Fritzing is the most popular Open Source & commercial alternative to KiCad.

    • Fritzing is Paid and Open SourceKiCad is Free and Open Source
  2. LibrePCB icon

    LibrePCB

     22 likes
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    LibrePCB is a free EDA software to develop printed circuit boards. It’s currently under heavy development to bring out first stable releases as soon as possible.

    52 LibrePCB alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Flathub
    LibrePCB screenshot 1
     
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    7

    • Most users think LibrePCB is a great KiCad alternative.

    • LibrePCB is the most popular free alternative to KiCad.

    • LibrePCB is Free and Open SourceKiCad is also Free and Open Source
  4. eSim icon

    eSim

     4 likes
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    eSim (previously known as Oscad / FreeEDA) is an open source EDA tool for circuit design, simulation, analysis and PCB design.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    eSim main window provides frontend to create projects for drawing schematic,PCB layout and doing circuit simulation.
     
  5. Horizon EDA icon

    Horizon EDA

     2 likes
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    Horizon is a free EDA package. Contribute to carrotIndustries/horizon development by creating an account on GitHub.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    Horizon EDA screenshot 1
     
  6. gEDA Project icon

    gEDA Project

     26 likes
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    The gEDA project has produced and continues working on a full GPL'd suite and toolkit of Electronic Design Automation tools. These tools are used for electrical circuit design, schematic capture, simulation, prototyping, and production.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    gschem
     
  7. atopile icon

    atopile

     1 like
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    atopile is a language and toolchain to describe electronic circuit boards with code. By replacing the point and click schematic interface with code, we introduce software development workflows like reuse, validation and automation to the world of electronics.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Windows
    • BSD
    • Python
    atopile screenshot 1
     
  9. MeowCAD icon

    MeowCAD

     3 likes
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    MeowCAD is an online free and open source electronic design application tool. Its focus is on schematic and PCB design for electronic circuits.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Online
    Project view
     
  10. Circuit Diagram icon

    Circuit Diagram

     4 likes
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    Circuit Diagram is a free application for making electronic circuit diagrams and exporting them as images. Design circuits online in your browser or using the desktop application.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Online
    Circuit Diagram screenshot 1
     
  12. PCB Elegance icon

    PCB Elegance

     1 like
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    PCB Elegance is a suite of circuit board design tools for Windows. Including schematic capture, board layout, and manufacturing file generation. First released in 1998, it was proprietary software until 2012, when it was released as open source software under the GPL.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    PCB Elegance screenshot 1
    PCB Elegance screenshot 2
    PCB Elegance screenshot 3
     
  13. pcb-rnd icon

    pcb-rnd

     1 like
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    pcb-rnd is a free/open source, flexible, modular Printed Circuit Board editor for design of professional and hobby boards. It has a strong UNIX mind set.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • FreeBSD
    • NetBSD
    • OpenBSD
    pcb-rnd screenshot 1
     
  14. Coulomb icon

    Coulomb

     2 likes
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    Coulomb is a simple and elegant circuit simulator written using Java, Gtk4 and libadwaita.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    Coulomb screenshot 1
     
12 of 15 KiCad alternatives