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DesignSpark PCB vs Proteus Design Suite: catalog facts
DesignSpark PCB	Proteus Design Suite
Best for: Hobbyists and engineers designing circuit boards on a budget	Best for: Embedded engineers and students who want to simulate firmware and circuits before building a board
Free + paid options Free plan available, with paid Creator and Engineer plans that add advanced features.	Paid Commercial software sold by Labcenter Electronics.
Windows	Windows
Free plan without limits on layers, connections or schematic size Schematic capture and PCB layout in one program All 3 strengths for DesignSpark PCB Free plan without limits on layers, connections or schematic size Schematic capture and PCB layout in one program Interactive HTML BOM export and length-matching routing in higher plans	Simulates microcontroller firmware together with the circuit Schematic capture and PCB layout in one suite All 4 strengths for Proteus Design Suite Simulates microcontroller firmware together with the circuit Schematic capture and PCB layout in one suite IoT Builder for Arduino and Raspberry Pi projects Actively developed, with version 9.2 recently released
Several newer features are limited to paid plans Not open source	Commercial licence required Pricing is not listed on the homepage
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Not open source	Not open source
License not stated	License not stated
Not stated if an account is needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Not stated if it works offline	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for DesignSpark PCB rs-online.com/designspark/pcb-software Catalog checked September 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Proteus Design Suite labcenter.com Catalog checked September 23, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.