Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

CADSTAR VS Altium Designer

Compare CADSTAR VS Altium Designer and see what are their differences

CADSTAR logo CADSTAR

CADSTAR is an established desktop PCB design software solution, optimized for small and mid-sized design teams, with many thousands of satisfied users.

Altium Designer logo Altium Designer

PCB Design Software
  • CADSTAR Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-18
  • Altium Designer Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-11

CADSTAR videos

CADSTAR Redlining - Design Review and Markup

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Cadstar 17.0 pcb design tutorial
  • Review - CADSTAR Schematic

Altium Designer videos

Introduction to Altium Designer

More videos:

  • Review - Design Review - Altium Designer + Altium 365

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to CADSTAR and Altium Designer)
Electronics
13 13%
87% 87
Simulation
6 6%
94% 94
Design Tools
20 20%
80% 80
CAD
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using CADSTAR and Altium Designer. 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 CADSTAR and Altium Designer

CADSTAR Reviews

Our Top 10 printed circuit design software programmes
Cadstar is another design tool for the simplest to the most complex multi-layer PCBs. Originally developed by Rascal-Redac, this software entered the Zuken portfolio, a Japanese multinational that pioneered electronics CAD software, founded in 1976 in Yokohama.

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:

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Altium Designer seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1 time since March 2021. 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.

CADSTAR mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of CADSTAR yet. Tracking of CADSTAR recommendations started around Oct 2022.

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

What are some alternatives?

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

Proteus PCB design - Proteus PCB design combines the schematic capture and ARES PCB layout programs to provide a...

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

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

OrCAD - OrCAD is a great tool for creating electronic designs that sell.

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

PADS PCB Design - Best-in-class PCB design tools at unbeatable prices