Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Altium Designer VS LibreCAD

Compare Altium Designer VS LibreCAD and see what are their differences

Altium Designer logo Altium Designer

PCB Design Software

LibreCAD logo LibreCAD

An open source 2D CAD application for Windows, Apple and Linux.
  • Altium Designer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-11
  • LibreCAD Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-18

Altium Designer videos

Introduction to Altium Designer

More videos:

  • Review - Design Review - Altium Designer + Altium 365

LibreCAD videos

FreeCAD vs. LibreCAD

More videos:

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Altium Designer and LibreCAD)
Simulation
100 100%
0% 0
3D
0 0%
100% 100
Electronics
100 100%
0% 0
Architecture
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Altium Designer and LibreCAD. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Altium Designer and LibreCAD

Altium Designer Reviews

Comparing the Top 5 CAD Software for Electronics Design Development
Altium Designer gain its popularity in the design community and it is used by professional electronics engineers for creating complex and complicated PCB designs. It is mostly appreciated by engineers who work on IoT and industrial solutions.
Source: hackernoon.com
Our Top 10 printed circuit design software programmes
Some people still use Protel, the former version of Altium Designer. The reasons vary from one user to the other and, as seen above, software assessments can be very subjective:

LibreCAD Reviews

15 Best Sketchup Alternatives 2022
Also, it is a CAD program so the created files can work on other CAD software programs, even if 3D based. Sketchup supports up to 11 languages, but LibreCAD beats that with support for more than 30 languages.
Alternatives to SketchUp: Check out 10 free programs
Just like Blender, you can help develop and enhance the platform by editing the code base and adding even more features to the software. So, if you’re looking for a more simple, perfect for beginners program, LibreCAD can be the best out of the alternatives to SketchUp for you. Being a fully free system, you can only gain.
Source: solidface.com
9 Free CAD Software to Download
Here’s another high quality 2D-CAD modeling platform, LibreCAD, an easy-to-use software with a lot of high quality features included in it. LibreCAD has features such as snap to grid for drawing, usage of layers, measurements inside your drawing and plenty others to make your life easier when you’re drawing on a 2D-CAD platform.
Looking for a SketchUp alternative? Check out the 10 best options
LibreCAD is a 2D CAD software that serves as a great way to learn and practice 2D modeling. It’s completely free and open-sourced, with a healthy user base around it to boot.
Source: all3dp.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, LibreCAD seems to be a lot more popular than Altium Designer. While we know about 19 links to LibreCAD, we've tracked only 1 mention of Altium Designer. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Altium Designer mentions (1)

  • Biden invokes Defense Production Act for printed circuit board production
    Check out Altium’s website (altium.com. A lot of free resources that might help. They also have a YouTube channel. Good luck. Source: about 1 year ago

LibreCAD mentions (19)

  • Looking for a poor man's AutoCad
    LibreCAD, OpenSCAD (more script based and more for solids), FreeCAD. Source: 10 months ago
  • If I don't use Windows or Mac and only use Linux, will I run into a lot of compatibility issues?
    CAD options on Linux are more limited than windows or mac but they do exist. The industry standard for 2d CAD files is the .dxf file format. I use LibreCAD. https://librecad.org/ The UI is a little clunky and eccentric in places but it is feature complete for 2d CAD drawings. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Windows / MacOS - Home/garden design
    You could also try out free AutoCAD alternatives like libreCAD (2D), or brlCAD (2D&3D, I believe). Source: about 1 year ago
  • Everything you need to know about CAD humble bundle
    It seems like a low risk purchase for $1, however, there are free options available too such as https://librecad.org/ . Or see https://www.reddit.com/r/humblebundles/comments/117ki1c/comment/j9v0v37/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 for an older Autocad clone. Beckercad 2D seems like a niche product so I would probably invest my time learning something that is more mainstream. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Architectural Software
    For 2d stuff I tend to use Libra cad Https://librecad.org/. Source: over 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Altium Designer and LibreCAD, you can also consider the following products

KiCad - A Cross Platform and Open Source Electronics Design Automation Suite

FreeCAD - An open-source parametric 3D modeler

Autodesk EAGLE - Autodesk EAGLE is an electronic design automation (EDA) software.

SketchUp - 3D for Everyone

EasyEDA - EasyEDA - Web-based EDA suite; runs in browser.

Autodesk AutoCAD - Autodesk AutoCAD is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application.