# Altium Develop Reviews **Vendor:** Altium **Category:** [PCB Design Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/pcb-design) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 988 ## About Altium Develop Altium Develop is a shared environment that brings every stage of electronic product development together - from requirements and design to supply chain and manufacturing. Built on the trusted foundation of Altium Designer and Altium 365, it enables real-time collaboration across disciplines, eliminating delays from file transfers and disconnected tools. With built-in access to live component data, contextual requirements, and integrated reviews, teams can work as one and avoid late-stage surprises. Altium Develop turns collaboration into true co-creation, helping engineers and partners build better products faster. ## Altium Develop Pros & Cons **What users like:** - Users value the **ease of use** in Altium Develop, enhancing their PCB design experience through intuitive navigation and features. (272 reviews) - Users appreciate the **powerful collaboration features** of Altium Develop, enhancing teamwork and simplifying complex design processes. (218 reviews) - Users appreciate the **user-friendly interface** of Altium Designer, making PCB design effortless and efficient. (145 reviews) - Users value the **collaborative environment** of Altium Develop, enhancing teamwork and efficiency during design and testing phases. (136 reviews) - Users highlight the **efficiency** of Altium Designer, noting its seamless integration and streamlined workflow that enhances productivity. (101 reviews) - User Interface (92 reviews) - Sharing (86 reviews) - Customer Support (82 reviews) - Users find Altium Develop to be incredibly **intuitive** , facilitating faster PCB design with helpful features and shortcuts. (82 reviews) - Library Management (82 reviews) **What users dislike:** - Users note a **steep learning curve** with Altium Develop, requiring substantial time to gain proficiency despite available resources. (93 reviews) - Users find Altium Develop **expensive** , creating a barrier for hobbyists and limiting access to the ecosystem. (91 reviews) - Users express a need for more **editing options and features** , highlighting limitations in usability and functionality. (65 reviews) - Users find the **complex interface** challenging, needing more tutorials and intuitive navigation for better usability. (57 reviews) - Users report **slow performance** in Altium Develop, especially with loading times and clunky UI during work. (51 reviews) - Users report **performance issues** with Altium Develop, including bugs, crashes, and slowdowns on large projects. (48 reviews) - Learning Difficulty (46 reviews) - Software Bugs (40 reviews) - Lack of Features (36 reviews) - Complexity (35 reviews) ## Altium Develop Reviews ### 1. PCB Design with Altium **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Charlie K. | Electrical Hardware Design Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 13, 2026 **What do you like best about Altium Develop?** Lots of features. Most of these do in turn have a sharp learning curve, however once they are mastered it makes designing a board very streamlined. For example, when working with a schematic and creating a PCB, being able to highlight specific groups of components and then locate them on the PCB is huge timesaver and helps with board layout. **What do you dislike about Altium Develop?** The only issues I have ran into so far are crashes and the autosave function failing. At times, it will freeze up randomly even if there was no input into the program. Additionally, the autosave feature is not the greatest, as it doesn't always reconnect to the host server. I actually lost a small amount of work from yesterday due to this. **What problems is Altium Develop solving and how is that benefiting you?** Altium allows me and my company to streamline our development process and integrate multiple different designs and boards in one program. Previously, we were using KiCad which didn't allow for multiboard design. Now, we are able to work with ease. **Official Response from Alanna Jordan:** > Hi Charlie! It's great to hear that Altium has helped streamline your development process and enabled multiboard design for your company. We understand the importance of a reliable autosave function and stability in the software. Your feedback will be shared with our development team to continue improving the overall user experience. Thank you for your input! ### 2. Altium, can't live wtihout it... **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Joe S. | Owner, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 12, 2026 **What do you like best about Altium Develop?** There are several things of liking, but my favorite is that it does everything in a clear and simple way. The ability to upload 3D step files and make custom parts is a breeze. I often render images of the designs to show them off at meetings. a picture is worth a thousands words. **What do you dislike about Altium Develop?** There are a couple of settings that don't use often and find myself having to look at the manual for a refresher. In example, changing units. I am also not a big fan of the subscription and am concerned about price over time. I also wish that the login was simpler. maybe assign a favorite machine and allow it to always be logged in unless you login somewhere else. **What problems is Altium Develop solving and how is that benefiting you?** Having used other software in that past, I would say that many of my engineering friends are visual thinkers and having a rendered image really helps them understand the PCB. It also seems that the PCB manufacturers are users of the software and have pointed out some complex design requirements that they have helped me optimize for production. **Official Response from Alanna Jordan:** > Hi Joe. We're glad to hear that you find Altium Develop's 3D step file upload and custom part creation features helpful for your design process. We appreciate your feedback on the settings and subscription concerns, and we'll take them into consideration for future improvements. Your input on the login process is valuable, and we'll explore options for simplifying it. ### 3. I was previously an experienced Cadence Orcad user but found teh transition easy **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** David T. | Design Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 20, 2024 **What do you like best about Altium Develop?** I found it easy to migrate from Cadence. Customer support was good when I needed it on one occasion. I use it most days and when I need to find out about a new feature tehre is plenty od on line help. It works well with my CAD package as it can import DXF and step files. I was up and running in a few days from cold. **What do you dislike about Altium Develop?** So far it has all been positive experience. **What problems is Altium Develop solving and how is that benefiting you?** As well as design tool we use its cloud storage which is a great benefit ### 4. Seamless Collaboration for Development **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Jasper W. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 10, 2026 **What do you like best about Altium Develop?** I really like the Altium 365 web portal for collaboration. It makes it easy to share and collaborate on designs that are known to be up to date, so there's no need to worry about dealing with final XX (for real this time) versions on Google Drive. Altium Develop is a powerful tool that is more than capable of handling any challenge we can throw at it. I picked up in college and stuck with it The initial setup was very easy, the price is reasonable now with the new pricing. It also simplifies collaboration with outside collaborators since they use it too, making it easy to pull in their designs. **What do you dislike about Altium Develop?** I don't use the built-in simulation software yet as I still need to learn how to use it. I'm sure that it is capable but it's dense to learn from the poking that I've done so far. **What problems is Altium Develop solving and how is that benefiting you?** I find Altium Develop synchronizes our small team and simplifies collaboration across Hardware, Firmware, and Mechanical teams. The web portal Altium 365 makes sure that everyone is synchronized with the latest design making for with easy sharing and collaboration. **Official Response from Alanna Jordan:** > Hi Jasper! We're thrilled to hear that you are enjoying the Altium 365 web portal for collaboration and that it has simplified the sharing and collaboration of designs for your team. We appreciate your feedback and are glad to hear that Altium Develop has been a powerful and capable tool for handling your design challenges. ### 5. Unified PCB Design with Powerful Tools, Component Management, and 3D Visualization **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 05, 2026 **What do you like best about Altium Develop?** It has very unified design environment and power pcb design tools. best thing about Altium Develop is strong component management like there are built in libraries and integration with supplier data allow designers to easily find. perfect 3D visualisation. it brings schematic design, PCB layout and documentation in one place to develop faster and without getting confused **What do you dislike about Altium Develop?** When we start creating bigger PCB projects that time it feels little bit slow and sync issue are there. Initial setup and configuration is very complex and takes time to setup for the teams and also there are some third party integration limitation in this tool. **What problems is Altium Develop solving and how is that benefiting you?** It solves the problem of managing and colloborating on complex electronic design projects across teams. it helps us to streamline the development workflow by ensuring that everyone on the team is working with the lastest files and designs. this reduces errors caused by outdated versions and improves collaboration between designers, engineers and other stakeholders **Official Response from Alanna Jordan:** > Thank you for sharing your feedback on Altium Develop. We're thrilled to hear that you appreciate the unified design environment, powerful tools, and robust component management system. We understand your concerns about performance issues with larger projects and initial setup complexity. Our team is continuously working to enhance the software's performance and simplify the setup process. We value your input on third-party integrations and will explore ways to improve in that area. We're glad to hear that Altium Develop is helping you manage and collaborate on complex projects more efficiently. If you have any specific issues or need assistance, please feel free to reach out to our support team. Thank you for choosing Altium for your electronic design projects! ### 6. Efficient License Management That Scales Across Teams **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Automotive | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 05, 2026 **What do you like best about Altium Develop?** What I appreciate most about Altium Develop is its license management system. For a small design and development team, it’s very convenient to manage and share a limited number of licenses efficiently, which makes it a cost-effective and flexible fit for our needs. We’re also planning to extend access to Altium Develop to our component purchasing team. That plan highlights how versatile the platform can be and how well it supports cross-functional use across different departments. **What do you dislike about Altium Develop?** We are still in the early stages and aren’t yet able to fully leverage all the capabilities of the Altium Develop platform and Altium Designer. Areas like design BOM management, purchasing BOMs, and managing alternative parts are still challenging for us to implement, most likely because our experience with the platform is limited so far. That said, we’re confident we’ll be able to deepen our understanding of these topics over time, especially with the help of the extensive documentation available. **What problems is Altium Develop solving and how is that benefiting you?** One major advantage is how easy and cost-effective it is to scale the number of licenses whenever we need to. That flexibility allows our team to grow without running into complicated or expensive licensing constraints. Another key benefit is the ability to grant access to users who don’t need a full Altium Designer license but still need to interact with project data as part of their work. For example, our purchasing department can view essential project information—such as the Bill of Materials and the 3D view of the assembled PCB—without requiring a full design license. This makes cross-team collaboration smoother and ensures all relevant stakeholders have the visibility they need to do their jobs effectively. **Official Response from Alanna Jordan:** > We're glad to hear that you find our license management system convenient and cost-effective for your team's needs. It's great to know that you're planning to extend access to Altium Develop to your component purchasing team, showcasing its versatility and cross-functional support. Thank you for sharing your feedback! ### 7. Streamlined Collaboration and Version Control Made Easy **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Industrial Automation | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 18, 2026 **What do you like best about Altium Develop?** What I consider the most helpful thing about Altium Develop is the built-in version control and structured collaboration it brings to hardware design. It makes it much easier to track changes, manage revisions, and see who modified what without relying on manual file naming or shared drives. I don’t have to worry about losing changes, overwriting someone else’s work, or digging through old file versions to figure out what happened. Everything is tracked clearly, and collaboration feels more organized. Since it works directly within Altium Designer through Altium 365, it feels like a seamless part of the design process rather than an extra tool to maintain. Overall, it just makes teamwork smoother and reduces the friction that usually comes with managing complex PCB projects. **What do you dislike about Altium Develop?** One thing I don’t like about Altium Designer is that it can feel heavy and complex, especially for new users. The learning curve is steep, and sometimes simple tasks take multiple steps if you’re not already familiar with the software. Another downside is that bugs can sometimes appear with no clear way to fix them, and there isn’t much information or guidance available to resolve these issues. **What problems is Altium Develop solving and how is that benefiting you?** Altium Develop helps eliminate version confusion and makes collaboration much easier. It keeps track of changes, so I can always see who did what, and it speeds up design reviews and the process of getting feedback. Overall, it makes working on PCB projects feel less stressful, more organized, and easier to manage. **Official Response from Alanna Jordan:** > Thank you for sharing your positive experience with Altium Develop's version control and collaboration capabilities. We understand that the learning curve and occasional bugs can be challenging, and we are committed to enhancing the user experience and providing better support for issue resolution. Your feedback is important to us, and we are pleased to hear how Altium Develop has contributed to making your PCB projects more organized and manageable. ### 8. Cheap, Powerful, and Perfect for Low-Volume PCB Design **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Harald K. | Development Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 13, 2026 **What do you like best about Altium Develop?** Cheap and powerful, hit our needs when we do designs of only few PCBs a year. **What do you dislike about Altium Develop?** It has more features as the Altium Standard Designer. But a very good internet connection is needed. When you do home office, maybe the internet connection is too slow and it takes a lot of time during the work. **What problems is Altium Develop solving and how is that benefiting you?** Altium Designer was more expensive and it was always a problem to get needed budget. Now it was much more easy to get budget for Altium Develop. Additional more features makes my work easier and faster. **Official Response from Alanna Jordan:** > Hi Harald. Thank you for sharing your experience with Altium Develop! We're thrilled to hear that you find Altium Develop to be a cost-effective and powerful solution for your low-volume PCB design needs. We understand the importance of a stable internet connection and will pass along your feedback to our development team. If you encounter any issues with the software due to slow internet speeds, please reach out to our support team for assistance. We're committed to providing a seamless experience for our users and appreciate your valuable input. If you have any further questions or feedback, feel free to contact us. ### 9. Best Digitalized PCB Platform with Rich Libraries That Speeds Up Project Builds **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Airlines/Aviation | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 06, 2026 **What do you like best about Altium Develop?** It is giving best digitalized PCB platform with lots of in built library and modules. After started using it we are building projects faster without any confusion and delay. From planning to final project it is helping us throughout in the documentation to building the project bit by bit **What do you dislike about Altium Develop?** We tried this on large scale but some projects are not getting saved automatically because of heavy size of them. Also the integration part is not up to mark it is very lengthy **What problems is Altium Develop solving and how is that benefiting you?** Now we don't have to keep lots of documentation to track and build PCB projects just Altium develop is helping us in one place. Also PCB library has all versions and needed inbuilt library. **Official Response from Alanna Jordan:** > Hello, thank you for sharing your review! We're glad to hear that Altium Develop has helped you speed up your project builds with its digitalized PCB platform and rich libraries. We appreciate your feedback and are continuously working to improve our integration and automatic saving features to better accommodate large-scale projects. Thank you again for sharing your experience. ### 10. Unified Design Environment with Real-Time Collaboration and Version Control **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** March 31, 2026 **What do you like best about Altium Develop?** It is unified design environment because it has a schematic capture to pcb layout and design verification happens in one place. It has real time collaboration and version control which makes it easy for teams to work together efficiently. **What do you dislike about Altium Develop?** It is very costly and it is a barrier for long term and new startups. Sometimes it is resource intensive and occasionally slow when you work on large projects. **What problems is Altium Develop solving and how is that benefiting you?** Problem of fragmented and complex pcb design workflows is solved by Altium Develop. It also addresses collaboration challenges by enabling real time framework and version control. It solves design accuracy and error reduction also. **Official Response from Alanna Jordan:** > Thank you for sharing your feedback on Altium Develop. We're happy to hear that you appreciate the unified design environment and real-time collaboration features. We understand your concerns about the cost and performance issues, and we are continuously working to enhance the product's efficiency and value. If you have any specific issues or suggestions for improvement, please feel free to reach out to our support team. We're here to assist you and ensure you have a positive experience with our solutions. ## Altium Develop Discussions - [How to import and convert the OrCAD (allegro) GERBER to Altium PCB file? (reverse OrCAD GERBER to Altium PCB )?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-to-import-and-convert-the-orcad-allegro-gerber-to-altium-pcb-file-reverse-orcad-gerber-to-altium-pcb) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [How do I format symbol parameters from a database library?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-do-i-format-symbol-parameters-from-a-database-library) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [Is there a way to modelize in 3D the Pcb designs?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/36429-is-there-a-way-to-modelize-in-3d-the-pcb-designs) - 3 comments, 1 upvote - [How do I write scripts for example.. transform a jpeg to a logo on a silk layer.](https://www.g2.com/discussions/13888-how-do-i-write-scripts-for-example-transform-a-jpeg-to-a-logo-on-a-silk-layer) - 2 comments, 1 upvote - [What is Altium 365 used for?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-altium-365-used-for) - 2 comments - [View Altium Develop pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/altium-develop/reviews/altium-develop-review-5367407?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-06+15%3A27%3A09+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=7e248ee8-f9b5-43c7-bb37-51e2803f9635&secure%5Btoken%5D=e053eaaaac1fd2975b35796a9a8b94ab4ddcd789f3d100f420bf168ede8e6cec&format=llm_user) ## Altium Develop Integrations - [Google Drive & Docs for Confluence](https://www.g2.com/products/google-drive-docs-for-confluence/reviews) - [Jira](https://www.g2.com/products/jira/reviews) - [Oracle Database](https://www.g2.com/products/oracle-database/reviews) - [Power Analyzer](https://www.g2.com/products/power-analyzer/reviews) - [SAS/OR](https://www.g2.com/products/sas-or/reviews) ## Altium Develop Features **Design** - Drawing - Modeling - Visualize - Rendering **Metadata** - Repository **Design** - PCB layout editing - Schematic editor **Tools - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)** - 3D/solid modeling Tools - Rendering Tools - Drawing Tools - Editing Tools - Text Editing Tools **Edit** - File Import - Push/Pull - Views - Grips **Data Management** - Version Control **Tools** - 3D modeling tools - Component placement **File Options - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)** - Export Files - Import Files - File Interoperability - Backwards compatibility - File size **Collaboration** - Annotate - Documentation - Data Extract **Library** - Component libraries **Customization - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)** - Custom Scripts - Custom Menus - Custom Interface **Platform** - Board size - Layers **Environment - Mechanical Computer-aided Design (MCAD)** - Hardware support - Task-based interfaces - Manage Multiple Profiles - Command Clarity **Customization** - Custom interface ## Top Altium Develop Alternatives - [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.g2.com/products/autodesk-fusion/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (506 reviews) - [AutoCAD](https://www.g2.com/products/autocad/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (1,827 reviews) - [Onshape](https://www.g2.com/products/onshape/reviews) - 4.7/5.0 (682 reviews)