Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Fritzing VS Circuit Simulator

Compare Fritzing VS Circuit Simulator and see what are their differences

Fritzing logo Fritzing

Fritzing is an open-source initiative to support designers, artists, researchers and hobbyists to...

Circuit Simulator logo Circuit Simulator

Animated electronic circuit simulator using ideal components to visualize voltage and current.
  • Fritzing Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-12
  • Circuit Simulator Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-27

Fritzing features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Fritzing offers a highly intuitive and easy-to-use interface, which is particularly useful for beginners and hobbyists in electronics design. It provides a graphical environment that simplifies the layout and design process.
  • Breadboard View
    Fritzing includes a breadboard view that allows users to create and visualize breadboard circuits easily. This is advantageous for prototyping and testing circuits before designing a PCB.
  • Open Source
    Fritzing is an open-source tool, meaning it is free to use and the community can contribute to its development and improvement. This encourages collaboration and access to a wide range of user-generated components and examples.
  • Educational Tool
    Fritzing is widely used as an educational tool in schools and universities to teach electronics and circuit design. The visual representation of circuits helps students understand complex concepts more easily.
  • Library of Components
    Fritzing offers a comprehensive library of components, including both common and specialized electronic parts. Users can also create custom components if needed.

Possible disadvantages of Fritzing

  • Limited Advanced Features
    Fritzing lacks some advanced features found in professional-grade electronics design software (such as KiCad or Altium Designer). This might limit its utility for complex or industrial-level projects.
  • Performance Issues
    For more complex designs, Fritzing can experience performance lag, making it less suitable for large-scale or highly intricate projects.
  • Export Limitations
    While Fritzing can export to several formats (like Gerber files for PCB manufacturing), the export options and functionalities are somewhat limited compared to more sophisticated PCB design tools.
  • Community Support
    Although Fritzing has an open-source community, the level of community support and available documentation can sometimes fall short, particularly for troubleshooting specific issues or advanced usage scenarios.
  • Platform Dependency
    Fritzing is a standalone application and needs to be installed on a compatible operating system. This may be inconvenient compared to web-based tools that can be accessed from any device with a web browser.

Circuit Simulator features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    The simulator features an intuitive, graphical-based interface that makes it easy for users to design and simulate circuits even without extensive technical knowledge.
  • Web-Based Access
    Being web-based, it can be accessed from any device with a browser, negating the need for installation and ensuring compatibility across various operating systems.
  • Real-Time Simulation
    It offers real-time simulation so users can see the behavior of their circuits immediately, which helps in quick learning and debugging.
  • Educational Focus
    Designed with an educational focus, it includes features that help users understand concepts better, such as visualizing voltage, current, and other electrical parameters.
  • Free of Cost
    The simulator is free to use, which makes it accessible to a wide audience including students and hobbyists with limited resources.

Possible disadvantages of Circuit Simulator

  • Limited Component Library
    The simulator has a more limited library of components compared to professional-grade simulation software, which can be restrictive for more complex designs.
  • Simplistic Analysis Tools
    While suitable for educational purposes, the analysis tools are less advanced compared to professional simulators, which might not suffice for detailed circuit analysis.
  • Performance Issues
    Being a web-based application, performance can vary based on internet connection and browser performance, potentially causing lag in complex simulations.
  • Lack of Professional Features
    It does not offer some advanced features found in professional circuit design software, such as PCB layout tools, SPICE simulation, or integration with other EDA tools.
  • Limited Export Options
    The options for exporting designs and simulation results are limited, which can be a hindrance for users needing to share their work in different formats or integrate it into other workflows.

Analysis of Fritzing

Overall verdict

  • Fritzing is generally considered a good tool for beginners and educational purposes.

Why this product is good

  • Fritzing offers an easy-to-use interface for designing circuit schematics and PCB layouts, making it accessible for beginners. It also provides a range of components and supports breadboard views, which are beneficial for those new to electronics. The open-source nature and active community are additional advantages.

Recommended for

  • Hobbyists
  • Educators and students in electronics
  • Beginners looking to learn circuit design
  • Small projects and prototypes

Analysis of Circuit Simulator

Overall verdict

  • Circuit Simulator (falstad.com) is generally considered a good tool for circuit simulation due to its user-friendly approach, educational value, and robust simulation capabilities. However, it may lack some advanced features found in more professional-grade software used for commercial purposes.

Why this product is good

  • Circuit Simulator on falstad.com is highly regarded for its intuitive interface and comprehensive suite of features that allow users to easily simulate and visualize electronic circuits. It is web-based, making it accessible without the need for installation, and it supports a wide variety of components and circuit configurations. The tool is suitable for both beginners looking to understand fundamental principles and advanced users who need a quick and effective way to test circuit designs.

Recommended for

  • Students learning electronics and circuit design
  • Hobbyists experimenting with circuit ideas
  • Educators seeking a teaching tool for electronics
  • Individuals looking for a free and easy-to-use simulation tool

Fritzing videos

INVESTIGATING: The Best Schematic PCB Software (EasyEda, Fritzing, DesignSpark) With Demonstration

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Fritzing Tutorial - A Beginners Guide to Making Circuit & Wiring Diagrams
  • Tutorial - How to design PCB in fritzing and Export Gerber File

Circuit Simulator videos

Best circuit simulator for beginners. Schematic & PCB design.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Fritzing and Circuit Simulator)
Simulation
62 62%
38% 38
Electronics
100 100%
0% 0
Technical Computing
0 0%
100% 100
Design Tools
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Fritzing and Circuit Simulator

Fritzing Reviews

11 KiCad Alternatives
Fritzing is an all-in-one open-source hardware initiative that lets you use electronics as a creative medium. The program includes advanced and useful capabilities that enable users to create a creative environment in which they may document and share their prototypes. Designers and artists can increase productivity by experimenting with the prototype to create a more...

Circuit Simulator Reviews

Electronic circuit design and simulation software list
QUCS – Quite Universal Circuit Simulator is a free simulation software developed on GNU/Linux environment. Well, this software really works on other operating systems such as Solaris, Apple Macintosh, Microsoft windows, FreeBSD, NetBSD etc. User can simulate large signal, small signal and noise behavior of the circuit using this simple circuit simulator.

Social recommendations and mentions

Circuit Simulator might be a bit more popular than Fritzing. We know about 29 links to it since March 2021 and only 26 links to Fritzing. 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.

Fritzing mentions (26)

  • Beginner IoT project: LED Web trigger
    References: Felipe Flop’s website https://www.filipeflop.com/blog/controle-monitoramento-iot-nodemcu-e-mqtt/ accessed on 01/27/2018. Eclipse server for MQTT Broker https://iot.eclipse.org/ accessed on 01/27/2018. Mosquitto https://mosquitto.org/ accessed on 01/27/2018. Cloud MQTT https://www.cloudmqtt.com/ accessed on 01/27/2018. DuckDNS https://www.duckdns.org/ accessed on 01/27/2018. Proftpd... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Jumperless: Breadboard Without Jumper
    Https://tinyurl.com/yr34sym6 https://wokwi.com/ is great for simple, digital only stuff. https://fritzing.org/ will kind of lay out the PCB for you, but it's kind of a pain in the ass. Wokwi and Fritzing are more "Breadboard Simulators" than real circuit simulators, but they do have their place. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • double sided perfboard options
    For designing them there are various tools out there. Personally I find https://easyeda.com/ and https://upverter.com/ easier to get started with. Other popular option (but with a much steeper learning curve) are kcad, but I have always found that to be clunky UI. https://fritzing.org/ is another local option that is easy to use but last time I tried it would crash on me all the time making it basically unusable -... Source: about 2 years ago
  • Recommendations for simple PCB design
    Fritzing - Opensource, a simpler tool but still fully capable. Though last time (many years ago) I tried to use it, despite quite liking it I found it to be very unstable to the point I could not use it without it crashing many times. Maybe that was just my system or maybe things have improved since then though. Might be worth a try. I quite liked it when it was not crashing. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Anyone know how to put this on breadboard?
    I'd recommend you check out the software called Fritzing! Source: over 2 years ago
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Circuit Simulator mentions (29)

  • I am trying to recreate this circuit in TinkerCAD, which is not giving me the correct current values. What am I doing wrong here?
    Have you tried modeling it in falstad's onine circuit simulator? Source: almost 2 years ago
  • How do engineers be confident when printing a PCB?
    Simulation is not viable for all but the most trivial circuits, and even then it won't catch things like a wrong footprint. I do occasionally use the Falstad simulator for simple analog circuits, but that just isn't possible with complicated digital ICs. Source: about 2 years ago
  • How can I derive the equation on the right? Please help!
    I don't know, but you could try simulating the circuit in Falstad circuit simulator to look at what is going on. Source: about 2 years ago
  • ELI5: How to make an electrical circuit that can be switched on and of at specific intervals?
    You can use Falstad to make sure you have a basic understanding of how relays work. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Need recommendations for PCB simulation and printing software
    This is quit comprehensive, but missing the awesome and intuitive online simulator: falstad. Source: about 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Fritzing and Circuit Simulator, you can also consider the following products

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

Pspice - OrCAD PSpice technology provides the best, high-performance circuit simulation to analyze and refine your circuits, components, and parameters before committing to layout and fabrication

LibrePCB - LibrePCB is a free EDA software to develop printed circuit boards.

Solve Elec - Solve Elec is a free educational program to draw and analyze electrical circuits.

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

Oregano - oregano - An electrical engineering tool for GNOME