What is Altium Designer used for?

Altium Designer is PCB design software covering schematic capture, simulation, layout and manufacturing outputs for electronics engineers and product teams. It is a good fit for designing multilayer circuit boards, electronics teams coordinating reviews and releases, and PCB design courses for students.

How much does Altium Designer cost?

Altium Designer is a paid product with no free plan.

Is Altium Designer open source?

No. Altium Designer is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to Altium Designer include KiCad.

What are some alternatives to Altium Designer?

Altium Designer competes with Autodesk Fusion. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Altium Designer alternatives.

Altium Designer: features, pricing and alternatives

About Altium Designer

Altium Designer is a commercial printed circuit board design tool for electronics engineers. It covers the path from schematic capture and simulation through board layout to manufacturing preparation, and the vendor describes it as the core engine behind its Altium Develop and Altium Agile offerings.

Around the desktop designer, Altium sells connected products: Altium Develop for working alone or with reviewers, sourcing data and release coordination; Altium Agile Teams and Enterprise for multidisciplinary electronics collaboration; and Octopart for component discovery. The site also lists free Altium 365 tools such as an online PCB viewer and a Gerber comparison utility, plus education programs including a student lab, educator center and training courses.

Key features

Schematic capture for electronics designs
PCB layout and routing
Circuit simulation
Manufacturing output preparation
Component discovery through Octopart
Design review and release coordination

Good fit for

→Designing multilayer circuit boards
→Electronics teams coordinating reviews and releases
→PCB design courses for students

Tags: pcb-design; electronics; schematic; eda; layout; hardware; proprietary

Altium Designer: questions and answers

What is Altium Designer used for?: Altium Designer is PCB design software covering schematic capture, simulation, layout and manufacturing outputs for electronics engineers and product teams. It is a good fit for designing multilayer circuit boards, electronics teams coordinating reviews and releases, and PCB design courses for students.
How much does Altium Designer cost?: Altium Designer is a paid product with no free plan.
Is Altium Designer open source?: No. Altium Designer is proprietary (closed-source) software. Open-source alternatives to Altium Designer include KiCad.
What are some alternatives to Altium Designer?: Altium Designer competes with Autodesk Fusion. For open-source options, see Enlisted's ranked list of open-source Altium Designer alternatives.