Altium Develop Reviews & Product Details

Altium is easy to use while still offering a wide range of advanced features. Tools like the Layer Stack Manager with impedance calculations, design rule management and 3D PCB viewing are particularly useful. It provides a good balance between ease of use and detailed control over PCB designs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Some functions can be unnecessarily complicated, and occasional bugs can make simple tasks frustrating. For example, schematic annotation and project configuration can sometimes produce errors that are difficult to diagnose. Certain settings are also buried within multiple menus, making troubleshooting more time-consuming than it should be.

A more niche complaint is poor handling of multiple monitors with different resolutions. Altium doesn't scale properly between displays, sometimes leaving one running at a lower effective resolution than it should. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I recently introduced a new company to Altium. Their previous design flow was old fashioned and full of error possibilities. Altium Develop was cheaper for a small team. The user experience is so flexible and powerful compared to the previous tools and they run much faster too. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The range of integrations is limited and Develop is limited to just 3 engineers. This will limit expansion of the team. The only support is online and that covers multiple license levels so it's tricky to sometimes know what is and isn't available to you. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is user-friendly and covers all the necessary steps for designing the new electronic circuit/Device, from requirements to manufacturing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I wish it leveraged AI to automate certain tasks, such as simplifying the management of silkscreen layers and parts labeling. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like Altium Develop because it brings schematic design, PCB layout, component libraries, and 3D visualization together in one integrated environment. Being able to move smoothly from the schematic to the PCB, run design-rule checks, manage component footprints, and view the board in 3D makes the overall workflow much more efficient. I also appreciate how well it supports detailed, complex PCB designs, while still providing tools that help catch potential issues before manufacturing. The value is good considering the range of professional PCB design tools and capabilities included. It helps reduce design errors, improve workflow efficiency, and save development time. While the cost is higher than some alternatives, the advanced features and integrated design environment can justify the investment for professional and complex PCB projects Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The biggest challenge with Altium Develop is the learning curve. Some features and settings are not very intuitive, especially when working with PCB rules, libraries, footprints, and resolving DRC issues. Certain workflows can require several steps for relatively simple changes, and troubleshooting error messages could be more straightforward. Improving usability and providing clearer guidance within the software would make the overall experience better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The unified schematic and PCB environment, cloud collaboration, and built-in version control save a lot of time. Live component and supply chain data help me pick available parts, and the 3D view and DRC catch issues early in compact RF/IoT board designs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The subscription cost is high, especially for small teams or individual engineers. Some cloud features depend on a stable internet connection and can feel slow with large projects. The learning curve is steep for new users, and the software can be resource-heavy on less powerful computers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I find it familiar because I've been using Altium Develop since around version 21. It's scalable, I can use different versions without issues, and I find it intuitive, easy to use, and to learn. I like the ease of working with multiboard, the flexibility of the libraries and their plugins, and the management of integrated and multiproject libraries. I love its PCB design tool, especially the routing, smart routing, 3D visualization, and the ease of creating and integrating libraries. The PCB design feels friendly and professional; I can easily export 3D and manufacturing files and organize everything in a single design software. The initial setup was very easy and convenient because the update retained the settings from the previous version. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

For now, I can't find anything I dislike. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I use Altium Develop daily for hardware design, from schematics to routing and layout. I find it a very simple tool: I can create libraries, use those already created by Octopark or other tools, and bring them to complete and complex designs. It helps me with high-speed or high-complexity designs that would be more complicated with other tools or with fewer functionalities. I find the interface very comfortable and intuitive. I also value the constant updates to resolve bugs and that the support team focuses on solving them. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sometimes I have problems making certain updates due to incompatibilities with the company's internal firewalls. On some occasions, Altium Designer crashes and I lose the work done; I would say these problems are more typical of Altium Designer than Altium Develop. The configuration and migration also cost me: I spent several days looking for the right support person, and the migration took several days. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

With Altium Develop, I especially appreciate the rule engine and routing. I can define net classes and fine constraints for power currents, sensitive signals, and differential pairs. The DRC quickly flags errors before manufacturing, saving us from failed prototypes and back-and-forths with the manufacturer. I also find the 3D view handy for checking integration in the very tight enclosures of our bikes. The tool covers the entire flow, from schematic to manufacturing files, allowing us to produce reliable documentation. It's also a standard tool that our subcontractors and engineers we hire are already familiar with. The installation was quite simple and didn't block anything; it was done in about a day. Regarding integrations, the STEP export to our mechanical CAD works well for checking enclosures, and the Gerber, pick and place, and BOM outputs go directly to our subcontractors and purchasing. We also version projects and our libraries on Git without difficulty. An unexpected benefit: with well-set rules once and for all, we reuse the same constraints from one board to another, and a new designer immediately produces boards that comply with our standards. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The price and licensing model are burdensome for a team of two. I feel that Altium is increasingly pushing towards its cloud ecosystem and managed components, while I prefer to manage our libraries ourselves and be able to retrieve our data or switch tools if needed. The formats remain quite closed, and exports to other tools are not always clean. The software is sometimes slow on large boards, and there are quite a few menus: it takes time to get comfortable. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The fact that I no longer need commercial support to get a license but can just purchase it myself. Feels like a much more transparent pricing then the previous/agile model where you have to negotiate to get a reasonable price. Commercial support was also not truthful, so I'm glad not to have to deal with that. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The fact that it often crashes, which makes me lose a lot of work. Last few weeks this has happened at least 4 times. The lack of autosave make is annoying, auto backup has to be turned on explicitly, and recovering from an auto saved backup had to be done manually. Accidentally messed this up and put the recovered file in an incorrect project which caused me even more hassle. The fact there is no AI integration possible is really disappointing and makes me consider moving to KiCad which has at least an MCP integration already. Library management still feels clunky, but I guess this is with all PCB design tools at this point. Price is still very expensive, I'm the sole hardware designer for my company and yet the license cost for my tiny team still exceeds every other larger team. For a small scale up, this makes makes others question if it is worth it a lot. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

We use Altium Develop for the electronics side of several hardware projects, including schematics, PCB layouts, wiring drawings and the related design files. The design capabilities are strong, but the part that makes the biggest practical difference for us is having the work and the discussion around it in the same shared workspace. Engineers can comment on a specific part of a design, tag the relevant colleague and review changes against the project history instead of passing files and marked-up screenshots back and forth. The STEP export and links between the electronic and mechanical work are also useful when a board needs to fit properly within a wider assembly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Our biggest frustration has not been the design software itself, but the licensing and account administration around our move to Altium Develop. The change was not communicated clearly enough, the workspace initially showed the wrong seat arrangement, the promised trial access disappeared, and the subscribe and quote functions in the portal did not work properly. Resolving this took far too many emails, screenshots, a screen recording and direct intervention from the account team while access to important design data was approaching expiry. The account manager did eventually help get it resolved, but a plan migration or renewal should not take that amount of time and escalation. Even the VAT invoice had to be requested separately rather than being immediately available through the portal. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.