For that reason there are a lot of extensive component and footprint libraries available for many of the parts used by hobbyists and the open source community. Eagle CADĮagle CAD is the favorite PCB layout software among open source hardware designers. For that reason I don't give these programs a second look. If you want to have your PCB made elsewhere, you are out of luck. While some of these products may be quite capable, they suffer from one huge drawback - you are locked into their services. Some commercial PCB fabricators offer their own free online software.

I also have a more extensive comparison here. This guide will look at the options and make recommendations based on the author's knowledge and preferences.

While there are a plethora of commercial products (most of them expensive - very expensive), there are relatively few that are low cost or free for the open source designer. When you finish the design and prototyping of your project and you want to make a PCB, you need to use some kind of PCB layout software.

Diptrace freeware limitations