# Altium Develop Reviews 2026. Verified Reviews, Pros & Cons | Capterra > Is Altium Develop the right Engineering CAD solution for you? Explore 181 verified user reviews from people in industries like yours to make a confident choice. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/175058/Altium-Designer/reviews --- Altium Develop 4.6 (181) 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 March 13th, 2026 # Reviews of Altium Develop Ease of use 4.3 Customer Service 4.2 ## Pros and Cons in Reviews DM Derese M Electronics Design EngineerElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “What I like the most is its interactive cloud based design showing feature, which avoids opening Altium Designer every time I want to open my designs.“ May 14, 2025 KA Karl A PCB Designer, Embedded Hardware EngineerComputer Hardware, Self-employedUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “The fact that some readily available extensions, like PDN and SI Analyzer by Keysight, are NOT available to standard (perpetual license) customers like me.“ December 18, 2024 SI Stefano I Electronics engineerTransportation/Trucking/Railroad, 2 - 10 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “It allows projects and component management, mechanical CAD integration and has useful sharing features, so that all designers in my company can access all projects and components.“ June 5, 2024 PM Petros M Junior Technical EngineerTelecommunications, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: More than 2 years. “What I liked the least about Altium 365 is the learning curve, which is a little difficult for beginner designers“ June 25, 2025 AA Ashenafi A Technical Supervisor and Hardware EngineerElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “It allows me to access my designs anytime through web based interactive interface.“ June 6, 2025 KA Kamal A Sales and Technical coordinatorAutomotive, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 1-2 years. “The BOM files aren't updated according to the schematic, for instance by updating the BOM doc, you will face some troubles.“ December 18, 2024 BH Binyam H Electromechanical EngineerElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51 - 200 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “It allowed me to collaborate with my team in a single workspace while doing projects.“ May 20, 2025 Abel A Electrical and Computer EngineerElectrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 201 - 500 employeesUsed the software for: 6-12 months. “Its subscription pricing is somehow unaffordable, so beginner designers and academicians might not be able to use this incredible tool.“ July 21, 2024 ## Showing most helpful reviews Showing 1-25 of 181 Reviews Sort by: Most Helpful Rating Company Size Reviewer's Role Length of Use Frequency of Use Abdi M. Hardware Designer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Altium 365, a must to use tool " July 21, 2024 4.0 I am happy about my overall experience using Altium 365.It made my academic and professional journey quite easy. It helped me a lot and I recommend everyone in the field of electronics to use Altium 365. Pros I like its cloud based collaboration and its support for import and export of documents in various formats. Its automatic generation of Bill of Material is also a great feature of Altium 365. Cons For beginners some of its features might not be user friendly, it is hard to start with as there are not much online resources to learn the tool. It would be great if more documentations and online videos made available. Review Source FN Fatih N. Embedded hardware engineer Aviation & Aerospace Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Altium 365: A tool every hardware designer should know" June 5, 2025 5.0 Overall Altium 365 is a great tool and everyone in the field of hardware design should use it. It helped me starting from my academics projects and now for professional projects. Pros What I liked the most is that its feature of being able to share design files instantly with team members, view changes live, and comment on specific parts of the PCB layout saved us a lot of time and eliminated version control issues. It brought true cloud-based hardware design to our workflow. Cons What I liked the least about Altium 365 is that it is hard to learn the full functionalities. While the platform is powerful, setting up permissions and navigating between design, BOM, and documentation tools could feel overwhelming at first without proper training. Switched from [KiCad EDA](https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/) Since Altium 365 has a great web based collaboration feature, I shifted from KiCad EDA to Altium 365 for my designs. Review Source DM Doug M. Director of Engineering Industrial Automation Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "If they can solve tech support responsiveness issues, this is a great tool" December 10, 2024 3.0 All good except tech support is slower than I've ever experienced. Pros Industry acceptance, good integration, active BOM feature Cons Tech support responsiveness has been abysmal Switched from [KiCad EDA](https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/) Hoping to get something more industry-accepted, more capability for complex boards. Review Source MÇ Mahmut Ç. Senior electronic hardware design engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 2+ years ### "What a great design tool: Altium 365" June 15, 2025 5.0 Overall Altium 365 is a greate cloud based collaborative design platform and it helped me throughout my career. I love this tool. Pros The thing I liked the most about Altium 365 is that its feature of online accessibility of designs and design collaboration features. Cons The thing I liked the least is that availability of free resources to learn the tool is not abundant Switched from [KiCad EDA](https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/) Because Altium 365 provides all in one features that are critical for designers Review Source BD Bethlehem D. Electronic Engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Design together with Altium 365" May 29, 2025 5.0 Overall I'm good using Altium 365, starting from day one it helped me a lot through my professional projects. Pros I like its seamless cloud-based collaboration. Unlike traditional design environments that rely on file-based sharing and manual version control, Altium 365 allows real-time access and editing of PCB projects from anywhere. Cons The thing I don't like about Altium 365 is that the pricing for subscription is a little expensive. It could make it unaffordable to beginner designers. Switched from [KiCad EDA](https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/) To use Altium 365's feature of collaborative design. Review Source KA Karl A. PCB Designer, Embedded Hardware Engineer Computer Hardware Used the software for: 2+ years ### "KKR75's review" December 18, 2024 5.0 Using it every day, and would never consider any other alternative Pros The GUI ease of use, the software depth, breadth, and features Cons The fact that some readily available extensions, like PDN and SI Analyzer by Keysight, are NOT available to standard (perpetual license) customers like me. This should be DEFAULT !!!!! Alternatives considered [KiCad EDA](https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/)[OrCAD X](https://www.capterra.com/p/10015795/OrCAD-X/) Reason for choosing Altium Develop Altium looked MUCH more polished than any other design software out there, from free to commercial. I tried OrCad and absolutely hated their GUI and installation Review Source MB Maya B. Design and Engineering Renewables & Environment Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "After my first six months of AD" December 10, 2024 4.0 Once over the learning curve, it's not bad. Everyone will have their opinions but at the end of the schematic and PCB tools are straightforward (usually) and nothing out of the ordinary from other tools out there. Pros Variants and document generators. They just save so much headache of different versions and the documentation that goes with it. To have it all spit out at the click of a button is great. Cons Lack of generic symbol libraries and having to build up your own libraries before you actually can get down to your design. For projects that don't have strict validation and supply chains, this forces a lot of up front decisions that aren't really necessary, like choosing which of 15 (or more) completely suitable capacitors you're going to commit to, and hope doesn't have supply issues or you get to choose again. The inconsistent mouse and keyboard shortcuts between the application and the Altium 365 web interface are occasionally infuriating. Make it the same please. Alternatives considered [KiCad EDA](https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/) Reason for choosing Altium Develop I was a project requirement from new client. Switched from [KiCad EDA](https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/) New client wanted to keep using Altium so AD it was. Review Source LT LIDYA T. Lead Electrical and Computer Engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "Altium 365 and its great features" March 13, 2025 5.0 I'm quite happy using it and hope it would be like this in the future too Pros The features are really great. Its collaboration feature along with being cloud based, it makes the tool very useful. Cons I like everything about this great tool , and there's nothing I could hate Switched from [KiCad EDA](https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/) This Altium 365 has all in one features that makes a project management easier Review Source BH Binyam H. Electromechanical Engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Altium 365 and its use" May 20, 2025 5.0 I am good using it, I mean it helped me a lot since day one. It allowed me to collaborate with my team in a single workspace while doing projects. Pros I like Altium 365 feature of automatic Bill of Materials (BOM) generation, I also liked the interactive web based design viewing and storage capability of Altium 365 Cons Some of the features are hard to learn at first glance since there aren't plenty of free resourses to learn about it. So it might be hard to understand for beginners Switched from [KiCad EDA](https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/) Since Altium has great features to manage my projects well Review Source GG Greg G. Sr. EE Aviation & Aerospace Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "Greenwood, G" December 13, 2024 4.0 Learning curve is steep due so many features but the support is very good. I hope Altium continues to invest in the quality support. Pros Cloud availability. Feature rich. Flexibility. Support. Cons Learning curve. There is a lot to know about the layout of the tool, where things are, and how to find and use. Many items are not intuitively placed. The paid training is a ripoff. After, going through the courses I later found much of the same videos online. Altium should just make the training freely available to compensate for lack of intuitiveness. In a sense, the tutorials and training should be an investment Altium makes in its products. Also the tutorials need to be brought up to date. Alternatives considered [OrCAD X](https://www.capterra.com/p/10015795/OrCAD-X/) Reason for choosing Altium Develop Support, Flexibility, Features, Library Management Could not find the other products in your drop down Mentor Graphics Switched from [CADENCE](https://www.capterra.com/p/119044/CADENCE/)[Allegro X AI](https://www.capterra.com/p/10015860/Allegro-X-AI/) Lack of connectivity between work flow items and use of central library The drop down for finding our particular solution sucks. We were using Orcad / PADS. Review Source AE Abel E. Electrical and computer engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Incredible features of Altium 365" July 22, 2024 4.0 Overall I am satisfied with the features that Altium 365 gives. It made my career more interesting and it helped me in many ways. I recommend anyone in the field of electronics design or other related fields to use this awesome tool. Pros From the features of Altium 365 what I liked the most is that, it helps designers to collaborate in real time with other designers and mentors during the project phase. It also allows supervisors to give real time feedbacks for the designs being done. This makes a design process quite easy and efficient. Cons What I liked the least about Altium 365 is that it takes time to fully understand the incredible features that Altium 365 provides. This is because there aren't many online and free resources to learn the tool. Switched from [KiCad EDA](https://www.capterra.com/p/10006638/KiCad-EDA/) I made a switch from KiCad EDA to Altium 365 because of great professional features like cloud based real time collaboration that Altium 365 provides. Review Source IJ Inge J. Senior Development Engineer Airlines/Aviation Used the software for: Less than 6 months ### "My first schematic design with ALTIUM" July 3, 2024 5.0 Very good. Support co-operation between Schematic design and PCB layout excellent. Pros Easy to use. Good integration between schematic and PCB layout. Support reviews with comments directly in schematic. Cons Schematic: Many menus. Some functions could be tricky to remember the path to. Switched from [PADS4](https://www.capterra.com/p/66174/PADS4/)[NX](https://www.capterra.com/p/232212/Siemens-NX/) Ease to use. PCB layout support. Schematic symbols availability. Review Source NB Nathan B. Electrical Engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Altium 365 - Fantastic accessory to the Altium package" October 13, 2023 5.0 With the ability to request parts, review designs and share project information and only require an account and invite to the organisation is a great bonus. Data can be shared with internal and external parties who wouldn't normally have access to the design software but then can view and data very easily. The option to live track components costs and availability is also a huge time saver. Pros The ability to log on and view project data from any location via a browser. If I'm working from home, in the office or in the lab I can view and analyse project data without needing to open the project in the application taking a licence from my colleagues who may need it to design. Cons I have encountered issues with some tools. The Assembly function is great but misses some components off on occasion. The Assembly View is in Beta. Alternatives considered [CR-8000 Design Force](https://www.capterra.com/p/175726/CR-8000-Design-Force/) Reason for choosing Altium Develop Cost and Ease of compatibility for current design data Review Source SB Sisay B. Hardware Engineer Computer Hardware Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "What a great tool, Altium 365" March 6, 2025 5.0 I have a good experience of using Altium 365 and it helped me a lot on my projects. Pros It has a great future on cloud based interactive interface for our designs. Cons Its interactive future and allowing team members on a project to collaborate joining the workspace. Review Source AA Abdulhahim A. Hardware Engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Altium 365, A great cloud based collaboration tool" August 2, 2024 5.0 Overall I am happy using Altium 365. As an electrical engineer it helped me a lot in my projects and it let me collaborate with professionals in the field. Pros I like Altium 365 as it is a great industry standard collaboration tool. As an electrical engineering professional I liked its user friendly and cloud based real time collaboration feature for designers like me. Cons I think some of its features are hard to understand and learn as a beginner, and it would be great if there are more online resources to learn the tool. Review Source TH Tam H. Research Engineer Internet Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Altium Designer for Engineer 2024" December 18, 2024 4.0 I'm happy with what Altium Designer offering right now. Pros Well integrated environment, very convenient to switch between schematic and layout, part search is very useful. Cons location of buttons, panels, etc, keep changing for every update version. could you just update the functionality and keep the user interface the same for all versions. Review Source AD Abraham D. Electronics Engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "Altium 365, a great tool for collaboration " July 22, 2024 4.0 Overall I am happy using Altium 365, it helped me a lot in my career. Pros I like the most its automatic generation of BOM, which makes our design process easier. Also its collaboration feature helps designers to collaborate in real time. Cons The pricing for subscription is too high to afford. Review Source ML Mickael L. Emmbedded hardware engineer Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing Used the software for: 6-12 months ### "the best Electronic design tool i ever used" May 29, 2024 5.0 I use Altium every day on very simple PCB and also very complicated ones, and for me it is really the best CAD tool. Pros Altium is a must have regarding electronic design. Easy to search parts and create BOM from them. Simulation tools are really good and natural to use. Altium also have a big community and lots of online resources to solve all issues that you could have. Cons A little bit hard to understand how to create component library, but once you get used to it, it works really fine. Some difference in the component drawings and foot print when you search component directly on the manufacturers database, but this is due to the fact that all manufacturers do not use the same standards to draw schematics symbols and foot prints. Review Source VR Valentina R. Electronic Engineer Education Management Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "a little review" July 4, 2024 5.0 Pros I can design not only on my workstation, but on every computer Cons Nothing yet. It's a bit complicated because I'm still learning how to use Altium, but everything is going well Review Source SI Stefano I. Electronics engineer Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "A very good container" June 5, 2024 4.0 Altium 365 is a very good container for all my Altium Designer projects. It allows projects and component management, mechanical CAD integration and has useful sharing features, so that all designers in my company can access all projects and components. Pros Great overview of my projects: all boards are in one screen, and it's very easy to look at one of them in order to open it and look for its details. Components management, including supplier management: all my components are there, and I have a high level overview of them. Integration with Mechanical CAD: I never used this feature, but it's good to know it's there. Free of charge, at least in the basic version included with Altium Designer. Cons Some features are not present in the free version. I think that full component management should be, as it is a very useful feature but I don't think it's worth paying for. Reason for choosing Altium Develop It was integrated (for free) in my Altium Designer license, so I started to use it. Review Source VR Verified Reviewer Electrical Engineer Industrial Automation Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Altium 365: Ultimate ECAD tool " October 3, 2023 5.0 Altium is an extremely useful and intuitive ECAD tool that allows users to create customized processes, design complex boards accurately, and produce great documentation and PCBAs. It also allows teams from different disciplines to work together and visually explore circuit designs. Pros The 3D view and ability to interface with Solidworks (and other CAD tools) allows complicated electromechanical designs to be created accurately. Cons Due to the large amount of features, the program is buggy at times. The grid system could also have finer resolution. Review Source DB Daniel B. Electrical design engineer Consumer Electronics Used the software for: 2+ years ### "A high end useful tool with a hefty pricetag." October 17, 2023 4.0 Very nice tool with loads of functionality.May have to restart the software a few times per day due to bugs, and god bless your soul if you don't have a strong gpu, but it has the potential to be absolutely amazing. Pros Security while designing by rigorous and strong rule setting.Loads of functions that are useful and solid.Ease of cooperation.Output job-files as a "template", although these need way more customization for general projects. Cons So many bugs.It's so slow compared to free softwares like kicad.It develops new features rather than perfecting old ones or solving bugs (looking at you output-job templates)Be more open even when not logged in. Just let people open documents and access the server even if they are out of a license. Reason for choosing Altium Develop Kinda is used for faster, small projects or one-shots.Allrum had more rigid rules and more functions and we trust the out-data more when designing high-end items. Review Source JB Josh B. Senior Electronics Engineer Research Used the software for: 1-2 years ### "JB Loves Altium, Can't Wait to See What's Next" April 11, 2023 5.0 We are a small shop and our turn-over for students can make managing, tracking, and updating project work a challenge. With 365, however, that's no longer an issue. I can manage just about every aspect of a project from within Altium, on the fly. I really love using this program. Pros The ability to manage and coordinate multiple project efforts with designers ranging from my 10+ yrs. experience to undergraduate, student workers has made a world of difference. We can all access the same library and share parts with ease. Our projects can be updated without concerns of either engineering team, electrical or mechanical, running into conflicts or missing critical design changes. We get version control plus localized storage for the best of both worlds. What's not to like? Cons Of course there are always ways to grow and improve, but honestly the main desire I have is for more, manufacturer-approved footprints and models, possibly via a user-contributor portal. Possibly some in-program tutorials for setting up probing and/or design simulation? I know you already offer webinars, but maybe there's a way to make some of that knowledge available through the program? Heck, maybe that already exists and I just need to make some more time to explore. Reason for choosing Altium Develop Much, much better interface, much more feature-rich software, version control and cloud management, built-in libraries, CAD and collaboration features, simulation capabilities, not to mention that Altium is the accepted industry standard and is what we prefer to teach our student employees to prepare them for employement. Review Source SS Stuart S. Electronic Design Engineer Automotive Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Great all-round circuit and PCB design package" May 19, 2019 4.0 As part of an electronic design team, Altium is an invaluable tool for cooperatively developing our designs. The robust library and project management features mean it is easy to have multiple engineers working on a design, and have everyone contributing to the company's library of components and templates. We can easily export 3D models of the PCBs for the mechanical team to check against physical constraints and the wide range of design file export formats keeps board houses happy. The ability to import designs and libraries from almost any other PCB package has been very useful and is worth mentioning. Pros Creating and editing library components is straightforward and mostly works without error. The library and project management features are very powerful and suited to working in a corporate environment with large libraries. PCB layout editor is excellent with intelligent and relatively intuitive controls and behaviour. The view of the PCB layers can easily be customised to provide the clearest image of the user's desired section of the design. The 3D PCB view is great for easily visualising the board being worked on and can be used for basic fit-checking for enclosure and housings. If the company regularly designs PCBs for a certain enclosure or package space, a custom project template can be created, meaning when a new design is started the board area and any keep-outs and other restrictions are already loaded, saving time and mistakes. Cons As a relatively heavyweight piece of software, startup times are slow and file access can be sluggish, especially if working on a network. Many of the default settings are not helpful, for example the connection matrix which determines which combinations of IC pin types on a net will cause an error. The default settings generate dozens of spurious warnings for a moderate-size schematic. The Bill of Materials feature, while useful, can be painful to use as it takes several minutes to generate the component table for a moderately complex design. This must be repeated if a mistake is found and a change must be made to the schematic. Review Source MBS Mubarak Basha S. Hardware Engineer Consumer Electronics Used the software for: 2+ years ### "Good tool for CAD deisgn" September 4, 2023 5.0 Overall this product is good Pros It has several features that I like.1. Reviewing the CAD and designing is easy.2. Also it has integrated simulation tools to simulate3. ECAD and MCAD integration is easy Cons File storing and updating and SVN repositories should made a bit easier, and user-friendly Review Source ## 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. Talk to a Capterra advisor for free and get results within 15 minutes.