--- title: PADS Professional Reviews meta_title: 'PADS Professional Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 94 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how PADS Professional works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.3 review_count: 94 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-08-13' parent_category: name: CAD url: https://www.g2.com/categories/cad --- # PADS Professional Reviews **Vendor:** Siemens Digital Industries Software **Category:** [PCB Design Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/pcb-design) **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 94 ## About PADS Professional PADS Professional PCB software is a comprehensive electronic design automation (EDA) software suite developed by Siemens Digital Industries Software, formerly Mentor Graphics. It provides advanced tools for designing, simulating, verifying, and manufacturing printed circuit boards (PCBs) and electronic systems. ## PADS Professional Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **advanced automation and simulation features** of PADS Professional, enhancing design accuracy and efficiency. (6 reviews) - Users value the **advanced simulation tools** of PADS Professional, enhancing design accuracy and streamlining hardware development. (5 reviews) - Users value the **comprehensive PCB design tools** of PADS Professional, enhancing efficiency and collaboration in engineering projects. (4 reviews) - Users value the **high accuracy** in design achieved with PADS Professional's simulation and advanced layout tools. (3 reviews) - Users recognize PADS Professional for its **comprehensive PCB design tools** , making it ideal for high-speed and complex layouts. (2 reviews) - Collaboration (2 reviews) - Users find PADS Professional to be **user-friendly** , with an intuitive GUI that enhances their design experience. (2 reviews) - 3D Visualization (1 reviews) - Automation (1 reviews) - Cloud Storage (1 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users struggle with the **complex interface** of PADS Professional, making navigation and learning time-consuming and frustrating. (2 reviews) - Users find the **difficult learning process** of PADS Professional overwhelming, particularly for beginners navigating its extensive features. (2 reviews) - Users find the **steep learning curve** of PADS Professional challenging, requiring significant time to master its features. (2 reviews) - Users find the **complex design process** of PADS Professional slow and lacking essential features for advanced PCB projects. (1 reviews) - Users emphasize the need for improvements in **component management** , particularly regarding back-annotation and errors in the Decal Editor. (1 reviews) - Error Messages (1 reviews) - Users find PADS Professional to be **too expensive** , especially considering its outdated interface and prevalent bugs. (1 reviews) - Not Intuitive (1 reviews) - Outdated Software (1 reviews) - Poor Navigation (1 reviews) ## PADS Professional Reviews ### 1. PADS Professional, VERY GOOD, NOT SO FRIENDLY **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Brunel B. | Jr. PCB Designer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 10, 2022 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** This is a very capable tool. Its capabilities tell you that there is a very dedicated team of engineers supporting the development of this software package. It has become the Goto CAD software **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** It is very expensive and is not easy to jump onto. It's not begineer friendly, compared to the likes of Altium The separation between schematic capture and PCB design software is not ideal. It would be better to have a single interface for both and one can easily switch from one to another. There is no need to have PADS logic separated from PADs Router or PADS Layout. Also the UI could be more refined. **Recommendations to others considering PADS Professional:** If you can afford it, go for it. It is very capable and it is easily among the best in the market. It is supported by Siemens, which has an excellent track record of software packages. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Designing high-performance printed circuit boards for consumer and military electronic products. Its capabilities easily make this software one of the best out there for complex circuits. And the fact that you could switch from PADs to hyperlynx to verify a design is highly appreciated **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thanks for sharing your feedback, Brunel! We're thrilled to hear that you find PADS Professional to be a very capable tool, and your recognition of its capabilities highlights the dedication of our team of engineers. Becoming your go-to CAD software is a testament to our commitment to delivering a high-quality product.Your support is greatly appreciated! ### 2. Reliable and proven PCB Designing solution, Xpedition & HyperLynx infrastructure **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Pritam B. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 29, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** MCAD collaboration bridges the gap between ECAD & MCAD domains, Routing automation(Sketch Router), Electrical DRC, Analog mixed-signal simulation optimizes design performance, Signal integrity analysis, Thermal analysis, Power Integrity Analysis, RF-centric design capabilities,DFM analysis, FPGA Synthesis, 3D Layout. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Interface & working on PADS Professional is different & difficult compared to the PADS Standard/PADS Standard Plus. Already created design/projects in PADS Standard doesn't opens in PADS Professional. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** 3D Layout, Sketch Routing, Electrical DRC, Analog mixed-signal simulation, Signal integrity analysis, Pignal integrity analysis, Thermal Analysis, RF-centric design, FPGA I/O Optimization. ### 3. Still mostly using Legacy Pads **Rating:** 1.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Niko L. | PCB Design Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 14, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Routing works quite nicely. Program runs quite smoothly. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Overall usability is very poor. I´m sure that the program developers are not users. There are huge problems in almost every feature. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** I got a new customer because I had a Pads professional. Now that customer moved back to use STD Pads because the professional was so bad.. Basically PRO is not solving any problems at the moment. I´m also using STD Pads because it solves all of my problms :) ### 4. Very good software platform for adavanced PCB designing **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shubham S. | Co-Founder, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 08, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Quite unique features, great customer support **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** A bit pricey from the aspect of an early-stage startup, if startups can get discounted rates initially, it can be very helpful **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** It has helped smoothen our PCB designing process, it has become easier with less headache ### 5. Best software for PCB design with affordable price and with vast industry exposures **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Subhadeep P. | Project Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 05, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Very Helpfull for backend designing and very much reliable with high accuracy. The UI is very supportive and professional.One can use this a no of times for designing and analysing for PCB fabrication. Easy to intigrate. great customer support from Mentor Graphics. It is very easy to implement. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** limited features for intrigation with other softwares. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** This software helps to solve various pcb designing and analysing requirements of my vlients. ### 6. Satisfied by PADS Professional **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Boopathi S. | Associate Project Manager- PCB Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** DxDesigner and PADS layout. Design Rule settings is good. Library creation is good. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Properties can be modified individually not as a group for VIA and polygons. Modifying polygon border could be more efficient. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Library, Layout and Document creation **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thanks for sharing your experience with PADS Professional, Boopathi! It's fantastic to hear that you appreciate the Design Rule settings and find the library creation process effective. We appreciate your positive feedback! ### 7. Recommending my friends and colleagues to this PADS design and GUI **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 08, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** It has a good designing, easy to understand and simulation is very good through out the circuit board **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Everything is so good to me and there is no dislike for the PADS. Only concern is if you would have less the cost for month which is now $249. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** It has some GUI design and very easy to use. I can complete things so fast with this GUI software. ### 8. Recommendable 2D-3D pcb Aligning tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Sai K. | BIM Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 20, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Best user interface with much advanced editing tools **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** As on for sponsorships, PADS upto sone limitations for an organizational purposes **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Economic design ### 9. Pads Professional the ultimate suite for PCB Design **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Soma S. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 22, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** It is very cost effective in terms of PCB design sollution begineers are very benfitial remarkble customer support from mentor **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** limited featres Complicated and time taking process **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** PADS Professional is the ultimate suite for PCB Design Sollution. large Component Library give the liberty to work with current edge technologies. ### 10. PADS Professional featured with industry based components which is cost effective for PCB design **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** RITABAN K. | Design Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 01, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** User friendly customer support from Mentor is very frequent enhanced features for adoptable implimantation affordable price **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** dfficult to intrigate with hardwares hard for beginners some bugs need to be fixed during simulation **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Pads professional is very proficient for beginners to work with PCB design. The license term is cost effective for customers end. ### 11. PADS Professional is very usefull software for PCB Design with hardware collaboration facilities **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** RAHUL R. | Field Application Engineer VLSI, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 05, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Affordable User Friendly easy Implimantation relaible Customer support **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Limited Features difficult to intrigate complicated for beginers **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Its a very usefull for PCB design and people can easily afford this. give the facilites to intrigate with Hardware and the simulation results are very likely industry standard ### 12. Good experience **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Industrial Automation | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 11, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** PADS Pro have a lot of tools, and many things are configurable. Routing and 3D tool are very comfortable to use. Customer Support is fast and helpful. Good management for plane shape. PADS have everithing that you need **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Cad is a bit hard to learn for a newbie. Constraint manager and library are complicated and long to set-up Creating a pad or a component takes a lot of time Hug trace in PADS PRO is worst than in Pads Standard (it is so bad) There is'nt an option to create a 1-layer PCB **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** PADS Pro helps me to create PCB using a lot of tools ### 13. PADS professional is the future for PCB design **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** RAHUL R. | Application Engineer, Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 23, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** user friendly GUI industry based components low implimantation hazard great customer support **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Complecated process very difficult to use for a beginer not very well organized **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** PADS professional make the PCB deisgn very cost effective and high redumption ### 14. Well palnned software for easy usage **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Hari Krishnan I. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Layout features of Semi-auto routing. Doing basic SI from Constraints, schematic and layout **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Document binaries has changed. Not a dislike, but previous type of installation was better. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Accessing library from designer **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Hari, thank you for sharing your positive experience with the layout features of PADS Professional, including semi-auto routing and the capability to perform basic signal integrity tasks from constraints, schematic, and layout. Your feedback is valuable, and we appreciate your support! ### 15. It is good software with wide industry exposure. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Agniswar M. | Sales Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 01, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Accurate simulations and design of PCB board. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** All things are good but need to improve to approach of fabrication. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Improvement of design pcb in industries ### 16. Great all round package **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tom K. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 07, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** The performance is far beyond others. The routing and repouring of polygons is real time. Lots of powerful professionals features without the fuss of other packages. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** The user interface feels a little dated, feature discovery can be tricky and library management is geared towards a team rather than individual **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Fast performant PCB design ### 17. Unveiling the Power of Innovation: A Comprehensive Review of PADS Professional for PCB Design **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** a b. | Training, Professional Training & Coaching, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 16, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** I Often appreciate PADC Professional for its user-freindly interface, robust design capabilities, efficeint workflow, and strong simulation tool for PCB Design. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** It has occasional stability issues and desired more seamless integration with other design tools. Also aprat from this Customer support could be more better. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** It reduces time to market for electronic products by streamlining or pipelining the design process. Also it provides accuracy and robust simulation of any electronic product. ### 18. Powerful EDA tool for PCB designers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** DHIMANT G. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Easy-to-use features and very good GUI for user-friendly **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** The archive feature was very helpful in taking backups and comparisons. This was removed in later versions. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Easy to use semi-auto routing since we have control over the feature. Time saving. **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Dhimant, thank you for highlighting the easy-to-use features and the user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) of PADS Professional. Your insights are valuable, and we appreciate your positive feedback! ### 19. Best in class Mid Market ECAD Tool **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bogdan F. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Tightly integrated with analysis features flow. Correct by constraction design methodology. Spreadsheet based Constrant Management system. Auto-tunning feature. PADS Connect Data Management. Dynamic plane Data Engine. BEst in class customer support service. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Old fashion GUI/UX. Difficult to learn since use have to learn 4-5 different applications with different UI. Do not have multi-board design features. Non-intuitive 3D model assignment management. Limited Drawing Editor functionality. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** time to market. design validation **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thank you for highlighting the key features and benefits of PADS Professional, Bogdan! It's excellent to hear that the software is tightly integrated with analysis features, follows a correct-by-construction design methodology, and includes a spreadsheet-based Constraint Management system. Your feedback is valuable and appreciated! ### 20. the beginner of PADS pro **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Junli J. | Hardware Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 19, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Seamless connection to simulation tools (AMS, HyperLnx, DDR simulation) **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** drawing the trace in PCB Layout tool is not easy to control **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** layout and simulation work together. ### 21. Good and inexpensive tool for integrated project solutions **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rajkumar R. | Engineering Systems Analyst, Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 07, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Schematic and PCB Integration, Library management and GUI **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Design database size, higher memory consumption **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Uesd PADS Pro for designing and delivering as per customer requirement ### 22. Most advanced EDA Tool for a designer and a team **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 11, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** All features included to design complex board very quicklly (integrated flow + flex + FPGA IO + supply chain). Ability to go from the idea the the manufacturing output (schematic + verification; layout with simulation ) **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** On boarding require a short training to be really efficient with the tool. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Ability to design complex board very easily with a robust methodology (integrated flow) and integrated tools that verified the design . The tool also included some addon to manage complex issue (AMS, Signal integrity, data sharing and collaboration) ### 23. Advanced professional tool for PCB designers **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** keerthana b. | senior design engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 08, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** In this tool we can get all features including from symbol to gerber generation. Do no need to get other integrated tool for some option. inbuilt advanced features helps to design our pcb in less time with quality. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** For beginners , takes time to learn the tool . because of its advanced and shorctcuts. Also some little bugs with exporting option to be fixed in future for smooth user experience. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Pads professional started devoloping some inbuilt tutorials regarding how to use tool, this helps more for beginners to start thier learning process. Footrprint creation is easy to netin in the board. **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thank you for highlighting the comprehensive features of PADS Professional, Keerthana! It's great to hear that the tool provides all the necessary features, from symbol to Gerber generation, eliminating the need for additional integrated tools. Your feedback on the inbuilt advanced features and time-saving aspects is much appreciated. If you have any more insights to share or questions, feel free to join our community discussions: https://eda.sw.siemens.com/en-US/pcb/pads/ ### 24. PADS Pro is Xpedition lite, very powerful tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Research | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 13, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** I was familiar with Xpedition but needed a more cost effective product from Mentor to finish a project for a new customer. Was impressed from start to finish. Support was very good, online forums full of experienced users giving genuine answers **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Much like Xpedition you can sometimes get stuck but fortunately the support online is fantastic and you are guaranteed to find a solutio to whatever problem you may encounter whilst developing your design. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** The yearly license is significantly lower than Xpedition but maintains the core functions I need **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thank you for sharing your experience with PADS Professional! It's great to hear that you found the transition from Xpedition to PADS to be a cost-effective and impressive solution for your project. The positive mention of the support and the active online forums with experienced users providing genuine answers reflects the collaborative and helpful community around PADS Professional. Your feedback is valuable, and we're grateful for your support! ### 25. PADS **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Semiconductors | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 08, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Simple and Fridendly use for small projects Good customer support Easy to implement Easy integration The design interface is simple **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** For big system with high speed design, like motherboard, PADS may not be a good choice. I have to use Allegro to design that **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Compare to other EDA design software, PADS is enough for some small projects ### 26. Lite version of Xpedition **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rajkumar R. | Engineering Systems Analyst, Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Inexpensive and fulfills the design requirement. Integrated system. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Scrpting for automation is little complex. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Simple designs does not need high end tools. But can be designed using PADS profession at lower price. ### 27. Very advanced tool for creating PCB layout **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Prajwal V. | PCB design engineer, Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 22, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Creating PCB layout design from schematic to Gerber in this tool is easy & time saving compare to other tools. It will reduce layout design cycles also avoid costly design reworks and delivers them to get products to the market earlier. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Working on high speed boards in this tool is little difficult. As it has more advanced features small bugs are present while saving the layout files. Interface between schematic & layout for compatability is little slow. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Making some shortcuts user friendly to understand for the designers. Designing more error free design with this advanced features. Helps expansion of working process . ### 28. A versatile EDA tool for PCB layouting **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Adarsh A. | Hardware Engineer , Design, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 06, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** PADS professional has the top end features and simplicity in providing solutions in terms of PCB Layout and libtary footprint creation, it also has vary good and supportive environment for schematic drafting **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** The options available and workflow is very unique from other CAD tools a fresher would suffer latency in learning and implementing the tool for the new designs and get adopted to it. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** To draft schematic ciruit and run the analysis, create library symbols and footprints for the various parts and PCB layouting for the schematic and varification, **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thank you for your detailed feedback on PADS Professional, Adarsh! We're thrilled to hear that you appreciate its top-end features, simplicity, and supportive environment for schematic drafting. Your insights are valuable, and your support means a lot to our team. We appreciate you taking the time to share your positive experience with the community: https://eda.sw.siemens.com/en-US/pcb/pads/ ### 29. Ease of usage **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nitin R. | Researcher, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 10, 2024 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** All the sections are eased nicely and effectively **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** As such there are no much drawbacks with other designing tools **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** All the academic projects and research projects ### 30. PCB Designer **Rating:** 2.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Defense & Space | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 14, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Reasonably easy to use and good customer support **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** I don't like that it feels like everytime you need another feature you have to buy another license **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helping us create better highspeed layouts ### 31. User Friendly and Very Intuitive interface **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Nandini G. | UI/UX designer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 03, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** The best thing PADS is its his interface and it is very user friendly. Ease of use and implement very fastly. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** The user flow of this software is very poor. It can be improve a bit. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** So intial day we are using poor software because of that our growth and revenue is so low but after using PADS we have seen a graduall increment in our revenue. **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thank you for your feedback with PADS Professional, Nandini! We're delighted to hear that you find PADS' interface user-friendly and appreciate its ease of use. Your insights are valuable, and we appreciate you taking the time to share your positive experience! ### 32. Pads professional review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Bhavit J. | Associate Product Manager, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 05, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** 1. User interface is upto the point 2. State of the art tools to ease the processes 3. Especially liked the on demand learning **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Learning curve can be challenging for some users but that's about all **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helped me a lot with the on-demand learning. Access to real time component sourcing was a game changer . Sharing details with the stakeholders have become easier **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thanks for sharing your experience, Bhavit! We’re thrilled to hear that you appreciate the state-of-the-art tools in PADS Professional, making processes smoother for you. Your support means so much to our team, and we appreciate you sharing your thoughts. It’s a big help to others! ### 33. User friendly interface and easy to use **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Avinash p. | Product Designer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Very intuitive software and its so easy to use and have increase my business by 30%. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** I have recently used this but I haven't get any issues in this for now. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Many people having problems using other softwares that are not intuitive and couldn't increase my product quality but after using this I found Its useful for my product **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thank you for sharing your success with PADS Professional, Avinash! We're thrilled to hear that the software has proven to be intuitive and easy to use, contributing to a significant increase in your business. Your positive feedback means a lot to us, and we appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. ### 34. Amazing software **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Avinash P. | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 04, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** The Number of Features in PADS which are very helpful and easy to use. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** User interface of PADS is poor it can be improve more. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** The no. of users are becoming less day by day in our initial phase but after using PADS the no. Pf users their productivity increases drastically. **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Avinash, thank you for highlighting the numerous features in PADS that you find helpful and easy to use! We're thrilled that the range of capabilities is meeting your design needs effectively. Your positive feedback is greatly appreciated! ### 35. I did PCB Design and It's really easy to use and interactive **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Akanksha J. | Freelance Graphic Designer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** It is delivering high quality results, great user interface, and is quick for electronics hobbiests **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** As of now, I haven't experienced any such negatives, but colors can be more appealing. However tool set is very good **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Helps me in delivering my work fast and has increased my productivity in electronics peojects **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thank you for sharing your experience, Akanksha! We're thrilled to hear that our product is delivering high-quality results for your electronics hobbyist projects. Your positive feedback is greatly appreciated! ### 36. Best animation and user experience **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Mamta C. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 06, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** The ease of and the number of features that PADS PROFESSIONAL are providing. Its made our Implementation so easy. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** The user flow and processing time can be increased. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Increase productivity and growth in our company **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thanks for sharing your experience, Mamta! We're thrilled to hear that the ease of use and the multitude of features in PADS Professional have made your implementation process so smooth. Your support means a lot to our team! ### 37. It was great !! So much useful **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yash C. | SDET - Product TCM, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 26, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** User centric design and ease of use i like the most **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** No as such i still need to work hard to find cons for now it is very useful **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Bussiness problems and lot of clutter i had earlier which is now fixed **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thank you for sharing your experience, Yash! We're thrilled to hear that you appreciate the user-centric design and ease of use in PADS Professional. Your feedback means a lot to us! ### 38. Very good tool for electronics hobbiest and professionals **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Yash C. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Highly effective tools set along with good ux and design **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Nothing as such however there could be more fewtures can be added **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Solving pcb design complex issues and able to experiment various things on it **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thank you, Yash, for sharing your experience with PADS Professional! We're delighted to hear that you find the toolset effective and have a positive user experience. Your feedback is valuable, and we appreciate your support! ### 39. Very good application Convenient to use!! **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Computer Hardware | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 09, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** PADS professional is a great software with detailed instructions to use and it is very user friendly tool for PCB design **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** I didn't have any dislikes for this application yet as it is surving my all the needs **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Detailed and complex structure of pcb can be created very easily, user can create big PCB design in compact size **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thanks for sharing your experience! We're delighted to hear that you find PADS Professional to be a great software with detailed instructions, making it a very user-friendly tool for PCB design. Your feedback is valuable to us, and we appreciate your support! ### 40. The complete pcb design solution for engineers and work group **Rating:** 2.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Rajesh L. | Graduate Engineering Trainee, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 28, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** The exposed region of metal on a circuit board that the component lead is shouldered to **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** About lisences and little proceses A,b,c **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Easy to design PCB ### 41. Very useful for my business **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Entertainment | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 27, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** It is a very easy to use along with good interface. I have started using it just a while ago & it has made my working very sorted. Thanks **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** There's not so much to dislike but uses so much of data & ram **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** I design hardware & electronics for my product hence it is helpful **Official Response from Yolanda Dong:** > Thank you for sharing your experience! We're delighted to hear that PADS Professional has made your work more organized and that you find it easy to use. Your positive feedback is greatly appreciated! ### 42. supporting customers with questions about the product **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Laury W. | Senior Application Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 29, 2023 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** always a correct component in the library. upfront constraining the design to meet production and electrical requirements (timing/Length) . Placement using groups. Advanced routing capabilities. Integration with Mechanical, and Signal integrity tools. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Menganical parts withoud a Pin can not be handeld from the frondend. so requires extra action in PCB to place them as spares. Partquest Qualaty is bad. Missing 3D integration in Library **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** Making PCBs with High-speed requirements first time right. ### 43. Pads professional is a very nice tool for Schematic & pcb design **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Udit A. | Team Leader-PCB Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 13, 2021 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** Routing and error free design as it does not allow any changes without the flow we follow for PCB. It has a specialized router which makes routing easier and faster with advanced options. Its layer stack-up design using hyperlynx is good. it does not allow any directly change in pcb without ECO or by entering in ECO mode. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** Less user friendly, so it difficult for any new joiner to learn, it will take time initially to learn. Also need to create part separately , logic decal as well as pcb decal, you cannot assign any footprint directly to any sch part, need to change in library part first. Polygon creation for layers is not much impressive. Pads stack is not that good, as we have to add soldermask and past for every component, there is not option to derive it from rules in component setup in library. **Recommendations to others considering PADS Professional:** 4 stars. It is strongly recommended in case you have a good time to learn and want to have a error free design. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** PCB design of small to high speed complex designs. It is more error free as compared to other tools. Routing signals is easy with multiple short cut commands. impedance requirement using hyperlnx. ### 44. Good tool for Professional PCB Designers **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** November 10, 2021 **What do you like best about PADS Professional?** PADS is powerful software & has features of auto-routing, copper pouring. 2D shapes, differential pair design, Design rule check, netlist generator, DFM check. Customized colours for each layer. Signal integrity & power Integrity are unique add-ons that help to analyze design before production. **What do you dislike about PADS Professional?** PADS is a complex tool and needs a lot of practice to understand all the features and efficiently use them. This software is mainly based on the Database & all the components data stored in the Central database. If the link to the database is missed, we get many warnings and errors, and it's tough to resolve all these errors. The design takes a lot of time if you get stuck with such errors. I need to connect with the support team frequently for such issues. Many times license issue is observed. **Recommendations to others considering PADS Professional:** I recommend this software to PCB professionals only. It is a powerful tool and needs a lot of time to get hands-on it. **What problems is PADS Professional solving and how is that benefiting you?** PCB designer or Layouter tool is used to design the Printed Circuit Board based on the schematic and the mechanical housing. The tool can import the .dxf file, which is helpful to define the PCB outline and components placement based on height and other aspects. It has a feature of 3D view where we can see the actual 3D model of PCB. It gives an idea about actual PCB & step files that can be exported for a mechanical engineer to perform collision tests and flow tests. Gerbes are quickly drawn along with pick and place data. It also supports multiple macros. ## PADS Professional Discussions - [What is PADS PROFESSIONAL used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-pads-professional-used-for) - 2 comments - [Who makes PADS PCB?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/who-makes-pads-pcb) - 1 comment - [Which software is best for PCB design?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/pads-professional-which-software-is-best-for-pcb-design) - 1 comment - [View PADS Professional pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/pads-professional/reviews?page=2&qs=pros-and-cons§ion=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-08-13+11%3A47%3A30+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=161062c5-4125-4de1-b836-2eea00dd551c&secure%5Btoken%5D=be4037c073b0bfef6870067924788356ec7fd553a86dc300a4413cd5a2adb05e&format=llm_user) ## PADS Professional Features **Design** - PCB layout editing - Schematic editor **Tools** - Component placement **Library** - Component libraries **Platform** - Board size - Layers **Customization** - Custom interface ## Top PADS Professional Alternatives - [Altium Develop](https://www.g2.com/products/altium-develop/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (1,031 reviews) - [KiCad EDA](https://www.g2.com/products/kicad-eda/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (64 reviews) - [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.g2.com/products/autodesk-fusion/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (510 reviews)