I haven't used it yet but longtime Altium user. I like Altium Develop's proposed licensing, much more affordable and flexible than Altium Designer. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Migration from our old workspace to the Develop workspace was promised to be a button click. In reality that didn't happen and I've had to open a ticket. As a result, we've paid for 2 seats and a workspace for the past 2.5 months and haven't been able to use it yet. No talk of extending our license renewal to compensate. So not a great start... Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The price and inclusion of certain Pro features. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The disabling of the roam feature for travel. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

This tool promotes great collaboration among team members which helps ensures great and streamlined workflow leading to high productivity.

It integrates well with other tools hence allows 3D visualization in real-time which helps us concentrate on the most important issues.

It also very easy to use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The tool has been efficient for us. I do not have any dislikes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

There's a lot of features so you can probably find exactly what you are looking for in this tool. Once things are set up for your use case, you can be very fast too. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

because of the flexibility, some features are very hard to find, so its common for my to work with a second window open for searching on the documentation Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Project configuration

Schematics construction

PCB layout

Library configuration Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

License too expensive

Different from other layout softwares

3D not really accurate Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

decent interface, convinient data storage Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

uncertainty of license cost increase in the future Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

user interface, output jobs for generating standardized production files Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Altium changing commercial policies too often Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The MCAD CoDesigner functionality has been very useful for integrating PCB designs into our mechanical 3D models in AutoDesk Inventor, and was a big reason we moved to Altium. The 3D views are very useful within Altium and creating PCB footprints and adding existing STEP files available from many component manufacturers is easy. The OutJob functionality is useful in exporting files.

The Draftsman documents are very powerful and have saved a significant amount of time in creating and updating production documentation. The layout capability works very well with a lot of configurability.

The ActiveBOM functionality is useful is checking part status and availability and for rolling up BOM cost.

Overall, Altium was an enormous leap from Mentor Graphics PADS (which I used for the previous 15 years), although now there are a number of other alternatives, including at least one open-source alternative that also has impressive capability (I have not explored these in detail).

Electronic design (schematic capture and layout) only makes up 10% of my working hours according to my time logging (among mechanical design, project planning, as well as customer, sales, and production support), but I am quite productive in Altium compared to my previous workflow. If this was my primary job function, I would be even more comfortable in the software as it is certainly designed with the "power user" in mind, but there are many things I don't remember or haven't needed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The file management and revision control is complex and difficult for a simple file-based guy like me to understand (I only dabble in software so I am not very familiar with digital version control systems) so I'm probably doing it wrong. It's nice to have the online project viewing functionality to be able to share with coworkers who don't have a seat of Altium.

I haven't figured out how to show manufacturer and MPN on a schematic, outside of the MPN assigned in the "Comment" field of a library component. It seems like this should be easy to pull from the part already set up in the "Part Choices" area.

PCB Outline editing capability is awkward. I usually end up importing from a 3D model but it's not intuitive (I end up needing to look up the process each time I do it).

Draftsman, while powerful, has limited flexibility in some ways (for instance, I'd like to have control of opacity for hatched shapes so I can show a conformal coat masking area). It would be nice to be able to do some parametric drawing, but it is adequate for what I need.

Import of files made in PADS (what we transitioned from) is quite difficult, mostly from a component library standpoint. I ended up starting over from scratch in some cases.

We recently added another seat for a new hire, and it was a chore to get him set up and the license assigned (I was confused between roles in the 365 project environment and Altium itself). Support was able to get this sorted out quickly. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Started using Altium when it was called DXP (Design Explorer) to complete a project at School. It was mostly self learned and did not received formal training and within a couple of weeks I was successfully capturing schematics and making PCB layouts. Altium is very intuitive and easy to use, but at the same time very powerful. The power and complexity doesn't get in the way of the interface and the ease of use. The library tools, to create schematic symbols and footprints is excellent, very easy to use. It gives me all the flexibility to design the footprint based on the application and manufacturing requirements. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I can't think of any negative on the software itself. I would like to see a more seamless integration for footprint providers like Ultra-librarian or SnapEDA. The import of models can be a bit of a hassle sometimes. Overall, it's a great software. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Real‑Time Collaboration: The cloud platform lets multiple designers and stakeholders review and comment on schematics and PCB layouts simultaneously, eliminating version‑mismatch headaches.

Centralized Data Management: All design data—including libraries, version history, and supply‑chain information—is stored in one place. I never have to hunt down the latest file.

Built‑In Supply‑Chain: Part availability, lead times, and cost tracking live right alongside the design, so I can catch procurement issues early. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Limited Offline Access: When I’m traveling without reliable internet, I can’t review or comment on designs unless I remember to export them beforehand.

Initial Setup Complexity: Getting my team’s permissions and folder structure dialed in took longer than expected; the admin UI can feel overwhelming at first.

Pricing: Some advanced collaboration features (e.g., enterprise analytics, fine‑grained user roles) are only available in higher‑cost plans. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.