Alternatives to ngspice
An open-source SPICE simulator for analog, digital and mixed-signal electronic circuits described as netlists. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
ngspice
An open-source SPICE simulator for analog, digital and mixed-signal electronic circuits described as netlists.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as ngspice.
LTspice
A free SPICE circuit simulator with schematic capture and a waveform viewer, from Analog Devices.
LTspice is a free but closed-source SPICE simulator from Analog Devices with built-in schematic capture and a waveform viewer, and it runs on Windows only.
Qucs-S
An open-source circuit simulator interface that drives SPICE engines such as Ngspice.
Qucs-S adds graphical schematic entry on top of SPICE engines including Ngspice, is open source under GPL-2.0, and runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
Proteus Design Suite
Electronics design software combining schematic capture, circuit and microcontroller simulation, and PCB layout.
Proteus Design Suite simulates circuits and microcontroller firmware with graphical schematic capture and PCB layout, but it is commercial, closed source and runs only on Windows.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
KiCad
A full electronics design suite: draw the schematic, lay out the board, view it in 3D, send it to a fab.
OrCAD X
Cadence's commercial PCB design suite for schematic capture, simulation and board layout.
Lepton EDA
An open-source electronic design automation suite for schematic capture and netlisting, forked from gEDA.
LibrePCB
A free, open-source electronics design suite for drawing schematics and laying out printed circuit boards.
