--- title: KiCad EDA Reviews meta_title: 'KiCad EDA Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 69 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how KiCad EDA works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 69 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-07' parent_category: name: CAD url: https://www.g2.com/categories/cad --- # KiCad EDA Reviews **Vendor:** KiCad Project **Category:** [PCB Design Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/pcb-design) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 69 ## About KiCad EDA KiCad is an open source software suite for Electronic Design Automation (EDA). KiCad handles schematic capture, symbol and footprint library management, PCB Layout with Gerber output and 3d model generation. KiCad runs on Windows, Linux and macOS. KiCad is the most used EDA tool in the world. ## KiCad EDA Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users find KiCad EDA to be **very easy to use** , making it great for launching prototypes and small pilot runs. (2 reviews) - Users value the **extensive library management** in KiCad EDA, facilitating quick prototyping and efficient updates. (2 reviews) - Users value the **cross-platform compatibility** of KiCad EDA, allowing seamless use across different operating systems. (1 reviews) - Users value the **fast updates and extensive library support** provided by KiCad EDA for their projects. (1 reviews) - Users find KiCad EDA to be a **very easy tool to learn** , making it ideal for beginners in prototyping. (1 reviews) - Features (1 reviews) - Updates (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users face **cloud issues** with KiCad EDA, noting limitations for larger projects and lack of cloud synchronization. (1 reviews) - Users struggle with **inefficient autorouting** methods in KiCad EDA, encountering numerous small bugs that hinder usability. (1 reviews) - Users face challenges with **library management** when sharing designs among different stakeholders, leading to potential confusion and errors. (1 reviews) - Users express concerns about **limited customization** for larger projects, impacting overall usability and flexibility. (1 reviews) - Users find the **limited features** of KiCad EDA restrict their design capabilities compared to higher-end software. (1 reviews) - Users notice **limited options** in KiCad EDA, particularly lacking advanced features and commercial support compared to other tools. (1 reviews) - Limited Tools (1 reviews) - Software Bugs (1 reviews) ## KiCad EDA Reviews ### 1. Easy-to-Use, Powerful All-in-One PCB Design with KiCad EDA **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 26, 2026 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** I like KiCad EDA because it is easy to use, provides powerful PCB design tools, and supports schematic design, routing, and 3D visualization in one platform. Being open-source and free is also a big advantage. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Some advanced features in KiCad EDA can feel less polished compared to premium PCB design software. The interface can be slightly confusing for beginners, and certain large or complex designs may affect performance. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** KiCad EDA solves PCB design and schematic management challenges by providing a complete platform for circuit design, routing, and manufacturing file generation. It benefits me by reducing design errors, improving workflow efficiency, and helping complete projects faster with lower software costs. ### 2. A Great Tool for Beginners—Easy to Learn and Prototype Anything **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Abhishek K. | Co-Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 24, 2026 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** For beginners this is a god tool. You can design any type prototype, And also very easy to learn **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Not for bigger project also no cloud sync. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** When i started this was the easiest and open source tool for prototyping. ### 3. Easy to use for prototyping **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Pere M. | Hw industrialization engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 11, 2025 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** VEry easy to launch a prototype or a small pilot run **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Library management when a design is shared among differnt stakeholders **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Quick product launch ### 4. Design for Free **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bhanu Prakash N. | embedded Firmware engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 23, 2024 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** easy to use,Free of cost ,Basic understanding,Cross-Platform Support, File Format Transparency, Powerful Design Tools. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Lacks Advanced Features of High-End Tools,Less Integrated Manufacturing Support,Limited Commercial Support. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Customizability: Extensive library support for custom schematic symbols and footprints. Ability to create custom scripts using Python for automation and custom workflows. having a Professional-Grade Features. ### 5. Best Open Souce EDA **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Manish M. | Co-Founder and CTO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 25, 2024 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Fast Updates and vast number of libraries and support **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** No Auto Routing methods. Many small bugs. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helping in desingin pcb ### 6. Kicad, A great tool for your electrical designs **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yibeltal M. | Content Creator, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 09, 2024 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** The great thing I like about kicad is it's user friendly and easy to use feature. also the price of subscription is fair for beginner designers, especially for students ans other academicians. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** When compared to other softwares, such as Altium Designer, it is not that much industry level design tool. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** KiCad EDA helped me to start my journey as an electronics designer, as it is beginner friendly and has low subscription fee. ### 7. It user Friendly. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Seshadri J. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 03, 2024 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Able design fastly for IOT products & user friedly. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Need to ugrade routing technology , Auto routing ,Component selectin Method. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** PCB design ### 8. Its the best EDA/PCB Design software out there that's free and OSS. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Anubhav M. | Electrical Engineer, Automotive, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 04, 2022 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Clean interface, perfect workflows, great toolkits and customizable hotkeys. The project manager is excellent and you can even interface it with git. So if you need a software to learn and develop a hardware project, and can't afford a professional tool & employee for it, this is great. Everyone can learn it, everyone can master it. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Nothing at all really. Well it does have a somewhat limited library and 3D models associated with the parts, but that's about it, otherwise perfect software. Also it doesn't have a great export into "formats" interface, so making BOMs or Pick and place files are a bit difficult. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** PCB Designs, Electronics designs. DIY parts integration. PCB designer has a netlist-assisted routing feature. It's fun to use & improve performance overall without extra cost. ### 9. Easy to use PCB designing tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Pawan K. | Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 24, 2022 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** All the tools like Schematics, Symbol Editor, PCB Editor, Footprint Editor, Gerber View, and Image Converter and all under one tool in an integrated environment where a change in One file (For example Schematic) automatically updates the data in other files of the project. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Putting icons and images on PCB is quite complicated, as we need to make a footprint of the icon or the image first and then update the same in the library and then only it can be used on a PCB layout. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used KiCad to design a PCB of size 100mm x 100mm useful for converting the AC to DC. The benefit of using the KiCad is the footprint can be directly loaded through a Library Loader. ### 10. Awesome PCB designing tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aman G. | Web Developer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 23, 2022 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Kicad Eda is a free open-source PCB designing software. It has a very good and large library which is very useful while designing a Printed circuit board. Its interface is very user-friendly for both beginners and professionals. It can design the multilayer pcb very efficiently. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Sometimes Kicad Eda works slowly in slow and low hardware. It is good to use only small projects, it is not made for big projects. Footprints are difficult to manage. While converting schematic to PCB it is generally not able to solve all the connections so we have to connect manually. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** As an electronics engineer, I have made many PCB designs using the Kicad Eda. It works very fine compared to other free and small software. It also provides a 3d view of a PCB design which looks very good. ### 11. One of the best EDA tools with room for improvement. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Akash P. | CTO, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 24, 2022 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** It is Free and open source. Easy to get started. Since it's community driven, a lot of helpful plugins/ extensions are available. Support For Gnu-Linux based operating systems. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** There is no autorouter of anykind. Sometimes the 3D models disappear for no reason. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** The subscription/purchase fee of paid EDA software's is too high for small Startups. KiCad EDA solves this issue since it's free and open source. ### 12. Best open source EDA tool for students **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jatin S. | Graduate Engineering Trainee, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 25, 2022 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** The best thing about KiCAD is that even though it is open source but still offers great functionalities. A very powerful tool for students who are trying to learn PCB designing. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Some libraries are difficult to import. For example, footprints of certain components are difficult to find. Also, it is not machine-independent. When I tried to open our project on another computer I faced issues. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I made my BTech minor project. Designed a custom PCB from scratch. Schematics, Routing, 3D modeling everything was quite easy to perform and I was able to create a quite impressive project. ### 13. Best EDA software for people starting out **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Electronics | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 23, 2022 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Simple UI with pretty much every feature one expect. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** It should provide more component library as current ones are pretty much outdated **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** For designing schematics and PCB design KiCAD is one the best if you are starting out ### 14. Printed circuit board designing software (KiCad) **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** aqsa a. | Assistant electronics Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 02, 2022 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** It's easy to design multi-layer pcbs by using kiCad. PDF files can also b generated easily. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** It isn't easy to manage its footprints and libraries. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I realized that KiCad is much faster than other software to save time, and It generates High-quality PCB prints. ### 15. Perfect choice for a beginer. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** arjeeta m. | Research Assistant & Inventory Manager, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 15, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Mostly I like schematic drawing & symbol making using schematic layout editor & symbol library editor in Kicad. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Reviewing the PCB in 3D is not much impressive & user-friendly. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** If you are a beginner I strongly recommend kicad. You will be having plenty of shortcuts for making schematics & PCB. All kinds of PCBs up to 4 to 6 layers can be done very accurately using kicad. Kicad worked for me very well. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used to enter the schematic and then designing the PCB using kicad. It's Linux-based software so it's very lite to run on Computer. Accessing the tool are very easy & handy in Kicad schematic layout editor. ### 16. Great! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Arka M. | Student, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 19, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** The 3D visualization is helpful. Also, the customized footprints can be designed with dexterity. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** The adjustments of the "Add dimensions" are little inaccurate when the Grid scaling changes. All the 3D visualization experience could be enhanced. The scrolling of the board model in 3D is lacks some smoothness. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** A decent electronic PCB design automation software. And there have been several revisions, with the current 5. 1series release being major improvements over the previous 4.0 and the 5.0 series (I am currently using 5.1.8), especially with elevated levels of freedom and the scope of dexterity to the user, in designing customized models for educational, industrial, and research purposes. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I worked on a double sided PCB, and then worked on a single sided PCB for flexible board material. The design was completed with accuracy and ease, with the Gerber files generated at the end. Also, the custom footprint options enabled the design of a board according to the user requirement. ### 17. The best open source hardware development tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sebastian C. | VP Business Development at EU, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** I have been using Kicad for more than 10 years. So far, it is one of the best tools I have ever use, also compared with advanced tools as Altium. I like it is easy to use, install, and maintain. I like it requires a small number of computing resources to work. Since the team from CERN was involved in the development, a lot of new features were added as library components updated automatically from GitHub or auto-routing. Also in a Linux environment, it is super easy to use, upgrade, and integrate with git and other tools. As a funny fact, I remember in the very very beginning of kicad more than 10 years ago, there were no undo option available, so you have to save every second, and if you made a mistake you had to close the program and open it again. This was solved around 2009, and it was a great improvement! **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** It has small bugs, for example: - when your local and global nets have the same name. It connects altogether. - when you turn off a layer, for example, footprint back, it does not turn off the bottom copper layer, so you have to turn it manually. This option was working fine in the past, but then it was changed. - I do not like there is not a middle option between turning on or turning off the radsnet. I would like to have on only the radnest of the component I am moving in a single time. - Sometimes the app crashes and closes. But luckily it has an autosave feature so I haven't lost any piece of work so far. The good news is all these small issues were fixed by the community, or it is going to be fixed soon. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** I recommend kicad, and the good thing is the more users are using it, the better the product becomes. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am not involved in the development either the improvement of any feature in kicad. ### 18. strong recommendation for hobbyists, students, and researcher **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ruoshi Z. | Postdoctoral Research Associate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** I appreciate the simplicity most. KiCAD not only provides a very clear workflow of every step, but also within each workspace, the tools are very handy and they are all very useful tools! **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** sometimes I need to switch between classic and modern workflow, since I kind like some of the old tools. 3d part library has two file formats, if it can be chosen during software installation would be good. if you could add more 3d features would be awesome, like introducing some virtual part and assemble them together would be great. this feature doesn't have to be solidwork-like, but would be handy to demonstrate the design. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** give it a try, if you know how to use PCB tools already, this one will unbelievably easy to pick up. if you are from eagle, KiCAD is WAY BETTER. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am a researcher at university and I use KiCAD for students I mentor. I also use it by myself to work on projects. I benefit from its simplicity; I could fast prototype my board with it. ### 19. Hobby and small professional applications both apply **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Benjamin S. | Electrical Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** I really like how flexible it is to create symbols in KiCAD, and how easy it is to link existing footprint libraries to it. Creating various ICs and Op-Amps is easy and doesn't take that long. I also like how it's very low level. It doesn't need to look too great to be useful (whereas Altium spends a decent amount of efforts on its looks). The fact that this is a free piece of software is crazy to me still, considering you can make a 4 layer PCB for industry settings with it and the documentation would all be useable. I really recommend using this for quick projects, especially in the maker space. I see a lot of protoboards that could easily be made with a piece of software like this. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** I've had issues with the footprint editor in the past, so I try to avoid it when possible. Filling out groundplanes can definitely be frustrating, and it's also sort of annoying to modify the via/trace sizes to really custom settings (not that it's a good practice to be doing so). **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** I'd recommend watching a few DIY videos to start out to get a basic idea, and go through a demo project to start. After that, start with basic transistor circuits and consider using a modeling piece of software (something else free like LTSpice). **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have used KiCAD to do some basic Relay/button application work in the industry. I've also used it to create some basic laser drivers and DC to DC conversion. I also like using it for personal projects that benefit from having a PCB (purchasing the PCB and designing sometimes saves me a lot of time). ### 20. Very Easy to use, easy to get to grips with even with no prior PCB/schematic development experience **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joshua B. | Graduate Electronic Design and Development Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** The generic library that comes with KICAD, a great starting point for simple projects. Gerber Exporting is really nice and simple, sometimes simple is best and this is definitely a case of that. Kicad was the first PCB and Schematic capture that I used and I'm still using it and recommending it to those who have never before mocked up PCBs. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Treating symbols and footprints separate rather than creating parts, leads to spending time generating netlists and assigning parts. In fairness creating parts does have it's downfalls as again you have to spend time to do that but it depends on the PCB software as well as personal taste. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Mainly used it for personal use as well as mocking up prototypes quickly. Saves time being able to quickly turn around aboard and start testing rather than trying to breakout SMD components via a breadboard. ### 21. Three words: easy, free, efficient. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ioannis A. | Electronic Design Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** KiCad is excellent for beginners as well as professionals, because it is very easy to use, cross platform, and free for everyone. Unlike trial software or freeware, it provides all the main tools and functionality you would expect, even for advance projects. One of the features I like best is that it can instantly animate your PCB in 3D, and you can easily import libraries or create your own. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** KiCad is great, but still has some room for improvements. Currently it does not have autorouting built-in, so you need third-party software for this. A few other features could be improved, but otherwise works perfectly for me. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I use KiCad both for work and for personal use, due to its versatility, efficiency and ease of use. Initially I chose this software for work because after trying different other applications KiCad was the easiest to use. Starting as a beginner it helped me learn fast which in turn accelerated my performance. Also I work in a small company, so it was necessary to find something affordable. In addition I am a strong supporter of Free and Open Source software, and at home I only use Linux, so KiCad's cross platform compatibility was ideal. ### 22. Best Easiest designing tool ever **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Vipin v. | Embedded Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 18, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** I like the features and tools which are very handy and easily usable, best thing I like most is 3D view which gives me a real experience. lot's of my kicad designed PCB are available in USA, UK, India and many more countries Now I received my professional PCB Designer tag. Thankyou Whole KiCAD Family **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** There should be Footprint size adjustable facility for logos and images. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** add multiple features like footprint size adjustable **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have designed professional PCB for my company. I have launched many products in market. ### 23. I am an electronics engineer and I use kicad for PCB layout designing. It is very easy to use. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Saddam G. | Electrical Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Kicad components library is very good and advanced. Most of the components are available. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Some of the options are keyboard control i. e. to open properties of a components. It should be mouse control. Some time during schematic designing component pins don't connect with trace. I have reinstalled it 2,3 times but same issue. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I design circuits schematic and PCB layout. The benefit of kicad is that it has most of the components in its libarary. I don't need to design symbols and footprints. ### 24. Easy to learn and use for beginners **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 29, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** The GUI is really simple and it helps the beginners to learn easily. i myself started off with KiCAD without any knowledge of PCB design but i could finish my design within 2 weeks. So kudos for the GUI team. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Importing some more format files would help. Changine coordinate origin and designing could be improved. It is quite difficult. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** Best for beginners and faster and easier to navigate and learn by yourself **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I design all the boards using KiCAD. The option of 3D viewer is really nice. In our organisation we switched to KICAd just for this feature. ### 25. Best in open source **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Pratik P. | Founding Director, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Wide variety of component selection. Its very helpful. 3d viewer is most amazing. It allows to reduce Developement time. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Libraries needs update, user interface could use an overhaul. Auto routing algorithms should be updated. Transition from circuit to pcb could made easier. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** Go for it without thinking, little bit of training is needed but in long run its wonderful. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Being open source it allows to reduce development costs. So that vendors could experiment with their desings all they want ### 26. I have been working with KICAD for 2 years. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sámuel K. | Embedded Software Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** I love hot keys and simple user interface **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Sometimes gets SLOW when generating PCB. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** Much better EDA than other free products. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am using it for my hobby projects. ### 27. I been using KiCad almost daily in the last two years. Its a great and easy tool. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 20, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** I like KiCad because it's free and there a ton of tutorials on the internet that can help you start your journey in a couple of hours. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** I would like it to be more industry-oriented other than it is targeted toward less experienced personals. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** In all businesses, time is money and KiCad EDA saves a lot of time, at least for me. ### 28. I would recommend KiCad EDA to my colleagues. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aleksa S. | Electrical Engineer in the construction service of electrical installation sector, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** The application is user-friendly and simple to use. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** I have no much experience with KiCad so I cannot give my opinion on this matter yet. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** It is a very good and user-friendly application and you can easily convert your electronic circuit into a PCB design. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Designing of schematics for electronic circuits and their conversion to PCB design. ### 29. Easy to Learn **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 13, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** The best thing about KiCad EDA is that it is highly interactive and you could also use Python to write automation. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** The downside is that the download size is very huge. Also, unlike other EDA that I use, it doesn't have the best UX. A library of user-contributed footprints would make the application much better. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been using KiCad EDA for building larger projects as well as in workshops. I have used it to build an auto-engine vehicle as well as voting machines for our university. ### 30. I used Kicad for my Thesis work and was a beginner then. It was quite easy and helpful. **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Priyanka K. | Jobseeker, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 14, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** The user friendly platform and step by step process. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** The visuals for Pcb layout can become quite confusing and I felt that could be improved. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I basically used it for Pcb layout and designing. It has made the process quite simple and easy to handle. ### 31. KiCAD EDA review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** DEVAJI P. | Graduate Engineering Trainee, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 19, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** The interface is quite understandable and compared to other simulation tools, processing time is less. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Drag and drop option at time is troublesome. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Ive been solving Electrical and electronics simulations and have found it better than other softwares currently available ### 32. KiCAD pcb design software smart and effective **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Xuber I. | Research Associate, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 20, 2020 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** The easy to use interface and the comprehensive component library made it a very effective one. All the components can be find online so no need to create a customized. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** The thing that to autoroute we have to integrate it with other software makes it difficult to import and export every time you make a simple change. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** KiCAD is a powerful software and can provide a variety of design upto different level of pcb design. You donot need to worry about the library of the components because you can find it very easily online. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** PCB design related to effective control of actuators and sensors ### 33. It's user interface is very friendly and easy to use. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 17, 2021 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** It's light weight as compared to other available softwares. Easy to learn. 3d visualization of PCB layout is my favorite part in this software. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Need some optimization in assigning footprints for pcb layout. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Designing of PCBs for my projects with mid range hardware (PC). The software is so lightweights that and so well designed that it never crashed or stuck for me. ### 34. Best freeware software for PCB layout **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Dhruven D. | Sr.PCB Layout Engineer at Teksun.inc, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 23, 2019 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** There is too many Software available in the market, but we have to pay for using that software. This software is freely available in the market and almost all PCB design features provide to do PCB layout. software provide via current calculation, impedance calculator that might be missing in other payable software. As of free software this also regularly provide updates for new features. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** We have to add all type of via size, track width and other details for select perfect line width. But it's not a big problem as per this is freely available in the market. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** Doing a great job to make a freeware software. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** We do schematic design, schematic library, PCB library and PCB layout with DRC checking and provide Gerber output for PCB manufacturer to make physical PCB. We also review Gerber and PCB layout as per standard. checking impedance and all other things related to PCB design and manufacturing. ### 35. A free software to design electronics circuits for professionals and hobbyists **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Giuseppe B. | oranges producer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 10, 2020 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** It is a complete free software to design electronics circuits, including the schematics, the PCB and the 3D view. There is a very large components library and it is able to export into the common industry gerber files. The program is available in the most used computer OS. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** There is nothing I dislike about this software. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** The complete free solution for electronics circuits design **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** As an hobbyist I found it very useful to design my DIY electronics circuits. And it is free. ### 36. KiCad EDA is the best freeware software for CAD and PCB layouts **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rahul S. | PCB layout Engineer , Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 02, 2019 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Lot of tools are available for CAD designing but KiCad stands different from that, which is the best thing to explore your designing skils. compare to other software this comes with lots of designing compatibility features like DRC settings, impedance calculation, easy setup for layer stackup and many more with free of cost. While working on high speed routing this is much compatible with low computer requirements.. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** there are some glitches which makes annoying sometimes while working, the library creation is quite messy unlike other software like EAGLE. We need to install seperate add on for 3D models. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** As this is the best freeware tool, I strongly recommend this tool for those who wants to learn PCB as a beginner like students and also for startups companies. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been working this software from last 2 years with different routing signals like impedance, RF signals. ### 37. Very user friendly tool and with a big community to support. Free software as well! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Evangelos L. | PhD Candidate at KTH Electrical Engineering and Computer Science School, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2020 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** It's free and there are many capabilities. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** It has a decent 3D tool. It needs improvements there. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** It's free and there is a huge amount of free material that can help you yo use the software. ### 38. Best freeware software with no limitation **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tushar D. | Customer Service Officer, Telecommunications, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 04, 2019 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** In the current market, all PCB layout software is payable but this software is freeware available and also there is no limitation at all. I can design as many components as I want. also it provides a calculator for calculating impedance, power tracks, also I design antenna on board with this calculator. These features are best compared to other payable software. As this is free but still get new update regularly. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Can you provide some update like move forward, backward key in keyboard like adobe pdf reader has that improves the speed of work. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** Please use this software because of it's free. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I can design a schematic and complete the layout as per client request. provide Gerber file for the manufacturing of PCB. ### 39. Best experience when in low budget **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Electronics | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 16, 2019 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Because it's an open source tool I like to use it for my projects and also for some small project for work. It's very easy to use and online there are a lot of tutorials and guide. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** There isn't a 3d develop tool. It's just a 3d review. You have to work on liberties because the open source is good but not enough for work. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** It's free. It's light. It's easy to use. if you want to start developing elections projects I suggest you to use this **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used it for selling projects and because it's free to use my work can be well payed. I can use it on any pc I want in the same time. It very light. ### 40. KiCad - Open Source Schematics and PCB Design Made Easy **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Evan T. | Senior Video Producer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 23, 2019 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** KiCad is a full-featured electronic schematic and PCB design package that contains a variety of applications. All the programs in the package integrate closely making it easy to create a design beginning with custom component schematics all the way to manufacturing-ready PCB files. Project files make organization simple and automatically link data between every part of the package. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** The auto-routing tool for PCB tracks is somewhat complicated to use and may require multiple passes and cleanup to produce a functional design. Manual routing, however, is straightforward. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** I would recommend KiCad to anyone who needs a comprehensive electronics design package, especially for independent engineers and small to medium companies. It lacks some of the advanced simulation and automation features of other high-end packages, but it is open-source and available free instead of the expensive proprietary competitors. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** KiCad helps design circuits and custom PCBs more quickly and easily than other software packages. My development and prototyping process has been simplified and accelerated by switching to KiCad from my previous electronics design platform. The project-based file management and cross-platform support solves problems with collaboration among multiple users on a team. ### 41. An easy-to-use, resourceful tool for Electronic Design Automation (EDA) **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Chathuri J. | University Undergaduate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2019 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** It is very difficult to find an open source software for EDA with almost all the useful features available in an enterprise software suite. KiCad can be considered as one of such tools that gives the users a wide range of functionalities. The EasyEDA site provides lot of component libraries that can be used with KiCad and it makes the EDA process consistence and less time consuming. And also, compared to other EDA softwares, KiCad uses less resources. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** In order to generate the 3D model of the pcb from the brd file, we need to install separate add-ons which is somewhat annoying. It would be better if the software had that feature included within it instead of having to install a separate software for that. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** If you are looking for an open source EDA software with a rich set of libraries, KiCad is worthy to be among your choices. It gives the functionalities of an enterprise software with easy- to-use interface. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** I used KiCad for PCB and Schematic designing and for 3D model automation. KiCad provides support for customized footprint designing and we can add them as well. Also, it provides support for hierarchical designing of schematics as well. Therefore, KiCad can be considered as a very useful and easy-to-use tool that made my works fast and easier. ### 42. Wonderful, powerful and secure free software package for efficient electronic design automation **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Andrea S. | Coordinador de desarrollo de proyectos, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 15, 2019 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** I like KiCad because it is an efficient and complete multi-platform program, which allows to use an integrated environment for all stages of the design process, schematic capture, PCB design, generation, Gerber file visualization and editing of component libraries, which becomes an important program of great utility **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** I firmly believe that I have an innovative and creative program for the solution for the automation of a true and useful electronic design, for this strong reason I do not have a negative criterion against it, on the contrary, I only regret that this excellent program is available in several languages, it should expand the options to other languages a little more in order to obtain greater coverage in other latitudes and to be able to recommend its great utility as a safe solution alternative **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** It really is a solution alternative to create and design the best customized operating system and the best with the freedom that is so needed, that's why it becomes a strong reason to recommend its full and important use **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** It has helped us to obtain good results, especially as it is a powerful cost-free free software package which are available in several component libraries, thus allowing the addition of customized components. The custom components can be available by project or installed for use in any project, as well as its powerful task guide contributes to a complete and efficient way to adapt, customize and power a true tool with full freedom ### 43. KiCad is very easy to use, has lot of features **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aruna J. | Research Assistant, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 20, 2019 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** It is very easy to use. The best thing id that it is open source. and the next thing is online library of EasyEDA has lot of component files. And it also support custom creating of footprints and adding them. The project manager is easy to use. Hierarchical design is supported in the schematics. All the important features are packed inside. and also it uses less resources compared to other PCB design tools. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** When the brd file editing. I feel it is difficulty to select the required layer. it usually changes back to the default layer. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** It contains lot of libraries. and for rapid development of PCBs this tool is a best solution. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** PCB design, Schematic design, 3D model exporting, BOM(Bill of material) creation ### 44. Professional grade design automation for printed circuit boards. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Stephen G. L. | Chief Dogcatcher, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 08, 2019 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** It is professional grade. Constantly updated, quite comprehensive. Free. Runs under Linux. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Nothing, really. It's great software. Free. Runs on Linux. Exhaustive coverage of all aspects of PCB design. Nothing is left out or inferior. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** Do it! Excellent, free software. What's not to like? **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** PCB design automation for a radiation monitor. Benefits are productivity, value added. Accurate simulation/estimation. ### 45. The best PCB design software, on par with other software that costs thousands of dollars. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Information Services | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 22, 2018 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** KiCad is fast, responsive, and pretty lightweight compared to some of the competition. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** KiCad's library management is an absolute nightmare. Serious work needs to be done to centralize the library management tools. My company uses GitHub for collaboration, and our libraries are constantly having to be remapped. It is a nightmare. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** Figure out your parts libraries prior to starting use of KiCad. You need centralized libraries, or it will be a complete nightmare. My company has had some nightmares from KiCad library issues, but other than that, it is important to realize that you are (generally) comparing free software to multi-thousand-dollar software. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** As a small startup, KiCad allows us to do things that other solutions could provide, but we just can't afford. ### 46. KiCAD Experience **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Consumer Electronics | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 15, 2019 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** Graphical User Interface, ease of access **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Unavailability of inbuilt libraries for some devices **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Developing RF devices ### 47. Great User experience, good inbuilt calculator **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 12, 2018 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** I like the inbuilt calculator, its simple enough but very useful **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** Going from other PCB software, to kicad might be a little harder **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Have used it to provide silicon verification board to the customer. ### 48. The best open-source, cross-platform EDA suite out there **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Professional Training & Coaching | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 14, 2017 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** KiCAD is very easy to use, and is free (with no size limit like EAGLE), making it a great option, when you have limited PCB design needs. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** It is very difficult to find many pre-built components for KiCAD - when working with newer, or less common parts like Relays, you usually need to either convert an EAGLE part or make your own which can be very time-consuming. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** It's worth a try, considering it's the best free option available. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** KiCAD EDA is our go-to tool for quickly building one-off PCBs as needed for our client projects. Compared to other EDAs which can cost upwards of $20,000, KiCAD does all the basics well, and we haven't really run into any limitations yet. ### 49. An excellent open-source CAD software for electonics design **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jack-Benny P. | Owner, Information Technology and Services, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 11, 2016 **What do you like best about KiCad EDA?** There are three things that really makes me love this CAD program. First of all it's open-source, which means it's totally free! Second, it was easy to start drawing, even advanced schematics. Withing an hour from installing the software I had added my own components to the component library and was half-way my project. Third, the results are great. Not only for printing, but there's the ability to save your blueprints/schematics in various formats like SVG, PDF, PNG etc. The SVG (vector graphics) option is great if you want to tweak something afterward. **What do you dislike about KiCad EDA?** So far it's not much that I don't like from this totally free CAD software. But I can imagine that people who are switching from one of the bigger CAD vendors to KiCAD will have some troubles getting used to it since it doesn't look like most CAD software. But for me that's only a plus, since I can never get the hang of the other CAD programs on the market. KiCAD was for me much easier to get started with. For example there are no icons the for components, instead you type the name of the component and are given a list of matching components to choose from. **Recommendations to others considering KiCad EDA:** Don't get put off by their unfamiliar look. I learned how to use it under 15 minutes and I'm in no way a CAD expert. Watch a few Youtube videos about it (I did) and you'll soon got the hang of it. It's really easy to add your own components, which can be a difficult task in other CAD applications. **What problems is KiCad EDA solving and how is that benefiting you?** Before I found KiCAD I didn't really have a good CAD program. I've been using others, but none of which I liked. I have subscribed to an online schematics program for a couple of years, but since I have a newly started business I have to cut down on the cost, and hence I started looking for open-source alternatives. Since I am a huge open-source advocate (I'm a developer myself) I was very glad when I found KiCAD. ## KiCad EDA Discussions - [How can I turn on only the radsnet of the component I am moving?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/36347-how-can-i-turn-on-only-the-radsnet-of-the-component-i-am-moving) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [What is the best EDA software?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-the-best-eda-software) - 1 comment - [View KiCad EDA pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/kicad-eda/reviews?filters%5Bnps_score%5D%5B%5D=5§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-13+21%3A41%3A28+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=ab60a217-6480-4b14-9f8c-2c8022cd1a1a&secure%5Btoken%5D=b413602c7e05a82bcaf27bbcdd6dd0856a20e271a213b433b25b20b445fc27ad&format=llm_user) ## KiCad EDA Integrations - [Altium Develop](https://www.g2.com/products/altium-develop/reviews) - [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.g2.com/products/autodesk-fusion/reviews) ## KiCad EDA Features **Design** - PCB layout editing - Schematic editor **Tools** - 3D modeling tools - Component placement **Library** - Component libraries **Platform** - Board size - Layers **Customization** - Custom commands ## Top KiCad EDA Alternatives - [Altium Develop](https://www.g2.com/products/altium-develop/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,031 reviews) - [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.g2.com/products/autodesk-fusion/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (510 reviews) - [Altium CircuitMaker](https://www.g2.com/products/altium-circuitmaker/reviews) - 4.3/5.0 (110 reviews)