What is KiCad used for?

KiCad is an open-source electronics design suite for drawing schematics and laying out printed circuit boards on Linux, macOS and Windows. It is a good fit for designing circuit boards for hardware prototypes, and hobbyist and open-hardware electronics projects.

Is KiCad open source?

Yes. KiCad is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at KiCad/kicad-source-mirror and is written mainly in C++.

Yes. KiCad is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host KiCad?

Yes. KiCad can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is KiCad an alternative to?

KiCad is an open-source alternative to Altium Designer.

Is KiCad actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to KiCad was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 10.0.6, published on 29 August 2026. The project has 3k stars on GitHub.

KiCad: open-source alternative to Altium Designer

About KiCad

This repository is a mirror of the KiCad development branch, whose main home is on GitLab. KiCad is an open-source suite for electronic design automation: engineers and hobbyists use it to draw circuit schematics and lay out printed circuit boards. The code is written in C++ with the wxWidgets toolkit and runs on Linux, macOS and Windows. It is released under the GPL-3.0 license.

The source tree is split into tools that mirror the design workflow. It includes a schematic editor, a printed circuit board editor, a 3D viewer, a Gerber viewer, a page layout editor, a bitmap-to-component converter, the CvPCB footprint association tool and a project manager. Shared libraries, demo projects and plugins are kept alongside them, and a CMake build drives compilation.

Pull requests on GitHub are not accepted or watched, because active development happens on GitLab. The README points to developer documentation, a wiki, a contribution guide, the main website and a user forum. Continuous integration builds cover Linux and Windows, and installation instructions for released binaries are included in the repository.

Key features

Schematic editor for circuit design
Printed circuit board layout editor
3D viewer for board models
Gerber file viewer
Bitmap-to-component converter
Runs on Linux, macOS and Windows

Good fit for

→Designing circuit boards for hardware prototypes
→Hobbyist and open-hardware electronics projects

Built with: C++
Tags: kicad; eda; pcb; schematic; electronics; cad; desktop; open-hardware

KiCad: questions and answers

What is KiCad used for?: KiCad is an open-source electronics design suite for drawing schematics and laying out printed circuit boards on Linux, macOS and Windows. It is a good fit for designing circuit boards for hardware prototypes, and hobbyist and open-hardware electronics projects.
Is KiCad open source?: Yes. KiCad is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at KiCad/kicad-source-mirror and is written mainly in C++.
Is KiCad free?: Yes. KiCad is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host KiCad?: Yes. KiCad can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is KiCad an alternative to?: KiCad is an open-source alternative to Altium Designer.
Is KiCad actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to KiCad was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is 10.0.6, published on 29 August 2026. The project has 3k stars on GitHub.