# KiCad EDA Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is KiCad EDA the right 3D CAD solution for you? Explore 17 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/reviews --- KiCad EDA 4.4 (17) Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/our-story/) * * * Last updated December 29th, 2024 # Reviews of KiCad EDA Ease of use 4.8 Customer Service 4.0 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-17 of 17 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Rubén E. Hardware Engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great and free software for general PCB designing purposes" August 26, 2022 5.0 KiCaD is the best software for personal proyects and little companies and makes the PCB design easy and confortable. Since I started to used it many years ago, I decided not to return to other PCB softwares, which were worse or had an expensive license. Even though KiCaD is a free software, it is been managing great and I haave contributed with many designs of components, footprints and 3D models that everyone can use for their designs. Pros KiCad has a good workflow, which divides the main tasks and order them to make it understable (1: create the symbols for the schematic; 2: create the schematic; 3: create the footprints for the layout; 4: associate the footprints to the components; 5: create the layout; 6: generate the gerbers). But there are many great features that have made me save a lot of time and avoid or solve many mistakes: - The interactive routing is very easy to use and makes the routing of the PCB fast. - There is a great KiCaD community that mantains the software and creates some libraries of components, which are being constantly modified to include new components with a good organization. - Possibility to generate BOM with the Python scripts included by default. As KiCad is an open source program, you can customize them to generate your own lists. - The 3D model of the PCB can be showed in KiCaD with a great realistic view and can be exported in ".wrl" and ".step" formats to include it into your own 3D CAD program to assembly the differents part of your entire project. - KiCaD PCBs can be directly imported in FreeCAD with a plugin, without any 3D model exporting. - The gerber viewer allows you to see the final files before sending them to the manufacturer. - Some PCB manufacturers like Eurocircuits allow you to send them the whole KiCaD project. In that case, you won't need to generate the gerbers. Cons KiCaD and FreeCAD could be a great free and open-source CAD couple, but some mistakes in FreeCAD makes them a little hard to import the PCB perfectly. There is also a problem with many user's 3D component designs on the Internet that can be corrupted and make it imposible to import. In that case you'll need to create your own 3D model of the desired component. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Amazing software! Open-source and downright amazing!" December 13, 2022 5.0 Love it!!! Hands down my favourite piece of software!! Pros It's open source; The files are text based and can be stored on version management tools like GitHub; The features are solid and the exposed programming options are great! Cons It isn't quite as polished as the pricier options. But for the price, KiCAD is absolutely amazing!! Alternatives considered [Altium Develop](https://www.capterra.com/p/175058/Altium-Designer/) Reason for choosing KiCad EDA Price, text based files Switched from [Altium Develop](https://www.capterra.com/p/175058/Altium-Designer/) The ability to store the files in text based version management tool (SVN or Git) was a critical feature for the work I do. Review Source PL Pedro L. pDr E-Learning Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Kicad perfect for its -no- cost" June 26, 2024 2.0 It is a perfect tool for understanding what is an EDA, but for real project a commercial tool is required. Pros For 0.00 EUR it is perfect, easy to install and multi-platform. Cons It is not a professional tool, library can't be trusted and must be manually checked. Review Source MB Maciej B. Electrical Team Leader Automotive Used the software for: 2+ years ### "KiCad review - PWR Racing Team" April 22, 2023 4.0 Very friendly software, easy to use and great for starting your journey with PCB development. Pros Best open source and free to use PCB designing software. Great beginnig before switching to more advanced programs like Altium Designer. Easy to use yet allows you to create advanced designs. Cons Lacking more advanced options and connectivity during product development. Altium Designer features such as Altium 365 make it superior compared to KiCad in that manner. Alternatives considered [Altium Develop](https://www.capterra.com/p/175058/Altium-Designer/) Reason for choosing KiCad EDA Easier to use than the other ones and great as an introductory program. Review Source MB Maya B. Design and Engineering Renewables & Environment Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Why I like KiCad" December 10, 2024 5.0 Great package for professional level projects, without having to shell out $$$$ for other professional options Pros It has all the essential features of the costly paid EDA packages. Cons BoM and variation management is still a largely manual process, however a lot can be scripted with imported python scripts - these functions are not built in so you have to go looking for them. Review Source LS Lloyd S. Owner Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Kicad was an easy migration from Eagle" July 8, 2024 5.0 As an Eagle user it was easy to import my libraries. I have been really happy with KiCad, it lets me get boards done quickly which is a help for proof-of-concept. If you want Altium go ahead and spend the $15K, it's not nearly as detailed as that. Pros It's a great PCB design system, and it's free! It's been around for years. Its output looks a lot like Eagle (which is now a subscription service). It's got realtime hilighting links between schematic and PCB. The footprint and symbol process is pretty easy to learn. But the biggest plus for me is that it's got a very active user forum, so if you can't figure something out, there's somebody who will jump right in to help. I'm not a GHz designer but for my needs it's great. Also it runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac, so I can put a job on my Mac laptop to work on while traveling then move it back to my big dev machine. Cons It doesn't have an integrated autorouter. I know a lot of people don't believe in them, but for my needs (slow signals and a lot of I/O) it would help. There is an export/route/import router that's free. Also the user doc tends to be out of date. But the forums have answered my questions so that's not a problem. As with any layout system, the libary structure and paths take some getting used to. Review Source MS Matiwos S. Electronics Engeneer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "KiCad EDA, a great design tool" July 9, 2024 4.0 I have a great experiance as a student, it has basic features and its cost is fine. Pros the tool is easy to learn and it is not that much costly for beginner deisgners Cons its features are not much industry level and when it comes to comparison with tools like altium designer it becomes an obsolute tool Review Source Jose Antonio Z. CEO Information Technology and Services Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Profesional EDA Tool for Free" June 30, 2022 5.0 The price to quality ratio is excellent, specially for a software package like this, with professional features supporting the workflow of high quality electronic design Pros I like the integration of the different modules (schematic, footprint editor, PCB editor). It is very easy to go forward and backwards during the design, changing the electronic schematic and reflecting the changes in the PCB, choosing a footprint for each of the components. Cons The arrangement of cables and components in schematic editor could be improved to ease the work to "beautify" the layout. Reason for choosing KiCad EDA The price: Kicad is a free EDA with professional features and widely supported. It has a huge community of users, collaborating with the project, and there are even some PCB manufacturers (as Eurocircuits) that allows to order PCB sending KiCad project instead Gerber files. Review Source AA Abrar A. PCB Designer & Electronics Technologist Design Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "An Impactful PCB Cad Software" September 16, 2021 5.0 Overall experience with KiCad is really good. I am using the software on a daily basis and solve many of my PCB design problems. KiCad is doing an impactful job in our daily workload. Pros The most impactful feature is the managed available libraries in the software, we can easily modify or change libraries of components. Ease of use, very easy to use and utilize. we can do speedy work by using available shortcut keys even a single key. Cons The missing feature in the software is to replicate the design block or layout. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer R&D engineer Information Technology and Services Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "KiCAD for school project" December 9, 2022 3.0 Pros One of the things I like most about KiCAD is its intuitive user interface. It's easy to navigate, and the tools are well-organized and easy to use. I also appreciate the wide range of features that are available, including the ability to create schematics, layout boards, and generate Gerber files for manufacturing. Cons One thing I dislike about KiCAD is that it can be a bit difficult to learn. While the user interface is intuitive and well-organized, the sheer number of features and tools can be overwhelming for new users. It can take some time to become proficient with the software, and even experienced users may need to refer to the documentation or online tutorials to use some of the more advanced features. Review Source AF Adedayo F. CAD technician Mechanical or Industrial Engineering Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Circuit and PCB designs made easy with KiCAD" June 2, 2023 5.0 That I am able to design my circuit diagram and also able to implement the schematic editing feature is what I really like the most. Pros I really love the fact that I can simulate my design in a schematic way wish gives me insight of how the real life design will work and look like. Cons KiCAD have being very helpful to me since I begin using it and I don't see it notice any loop with it. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Ténico Informático Paper & Forest Products Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "Útil para realizar el diseño de circuito electrónicos" December 2, 2022 4.0 Mi experiencia ha sido para realizar algunos diseños de circuitos electrónicos. Pros Es fácil de utilizar y te indica el número exacto de complementos utilizados en el diseño. Cons Tal vez lo que menos me gusta sería que la interfáz se ve algo antigua, pero al mismo tiempo que sea así hace que sea más intuitiva. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Estudiante E-Learning Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Kicad un software gratuito y de facil acceso." December 22, 2022 4.0 Lo estuve utilizando para un proyecto que me mandaron y gracias a que es un software gratuito no tuve que hacer una inversión económica para un solo proyecto, si no, que lo pude terminar fácilmente con KiCard. Pros Es un software libre y además gratuito. Cons Le faltan funcionalidades frente a otros softwares de pago Review Source DF Diana F. Designer Design Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "I like it!" December 6, 2022 5.0 It was a good experience. I'm looking forward spending more time improving my skills Pros Easy visualization of the model for free (that's the best part) Cons Learn how to use it if you are a beginner, there are many tools and you need a lot of time to get to know everything. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Ingeniero electrónico Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Es gratis" November 14, 2022 4.0 Pros Que se trata de un programa de software libre por lo que permite mucha libertad de modificación. Cons No hay nada que me disguste especialmente. Review Source RG Ruben G. Electronic Engineer Aviation & Aerospace Used the software for: I used a free trial ### "Easy PCB design " December 8, 2022 4.0 Pros It's free, and you can do all the same as with other expensive tools.I really recommend it for PCB design. Cons The shortcuts commands differ from other tools, making a bit more difficult to migrate from other software. Review Source EAN Engr Araiz N. Engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "KiCad EDA" July 17, 2022 5.0 Pros Great freeware PCB. I highly recommended to use. Cons The UI, has plenty of glitches.and all other things are supportive. Review Source Similar Products Featured ## Related categories [3D CAD](https://www.capterra.com/3d-cad-software/) ## Send me user reviews about this product ### Fill out the form and we'll send a list of the top-rated software based on real user reviews directly to your inbox.