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CAD · head to head

Altium 365 vs Zoo

Altium 365 logo

Altium 365

CAD

Cloud workspace for Altium Designer PCB projects, now inside Renesas

From
$1990/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Zoo logo

Zoo

CAD

Cloud CAD with a scripting language and a geometry engine exposed as an API

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Zoo has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Altium 365 the 1,990 US dollar Altium Develop entry price is capped at five authors in total, so a growing team hits a forced migration to Agile Teams with unpublished pricing exactly when headcount is rising.; Zoo the geometry engine runs entirely in Zoo's cloud and there is no offline mode, so an aircraft, a customer site with no guest wifi or an outage stops modelling work completely.
  • They diverge on capability: Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, Zoo covers KCL scripting.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Altium 365 and Zoo actually diverge.

Attributes where Altium 365 and Zoo differ
AttributeAltium 365Zoo
Starting price$1990/yearFree
Pricing modelPer user per yearPer user per month
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Cloud, On-premiseWeb, Windows, macOS, Linux, API

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (CAD).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Altium 365

  • Shared workspace
  • Managed components
  • Browser review
  • Unlimited workspace users
  • MCAD CoDesigner
  • Manufacturing portal
  • Requirements Portal
  • BOM Portal

Only in Zoo

  • KCL scripting
  • Design Studio
  • Design API
  • Zookeeper agent
  • Format conversion
  • Open source client

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Altium 365

  • A hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight CAD seatsnot Zoo
  • A team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of Gerbersnot Zoo
  • A company running board and enclosure design in parallel and needing bidirectional geometry exchange with mechanical CADnot Zoo
  • A buyer checking component lifecycle and availability against the live BOM before a design is frozennot Zoo

Zoo

  • A hardware startup that wants part models reviewed in pull requests alongside firmwarenot Altium 365
  • A software team generating thousands of parametric part variants programmatically rather than by handnot Altium 365
  • A SaaS product that needs to render and convert customer CAD files without licensing a geometry kernelnot Altium 365
  • An engineer who models occasional brackets and enclosures and does not want a four figure annual seatnot Altium 365

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Altium 365

  • The 1,990 US dollar Altium Develop entry price is capped at five authors in total, so a growing team hits a forced migration to Agile Teams with unpublished pricing exactly when headcount is rising.
  • Add-on portals are expensive per seat; BOM Portal has been quoted at around 1,999 US dollars per user per year and MCAD CoDesigner at around 499, so the real cost of a working configuration is well above the headline.
  • It is tied to Altium Designer; there is no meaningful use of the platform for teams designing in KiCad, OrCAD or Allegro, which makes it a lock-in decision rather than a tooling one.
  • Renesas acquired Altium in 2024, and a semiconductor manufacturer owning the design tool used to select competing semiconductors is a conflict some buyers will want addressed in writing before uploading a library.
  • Repeated repackaging, from Altium 365 Standard and Pro tiers to Altium Develop and Agile Teams, has made renewal comparisons difficult and customers have found their previous tier no longer maps to anything on the price list.

Zoo

  • The geometry engine runs entirely in Zoo's cloud and there is no offline mode, so an aircraft, a customer site with no guest wifi or an outage stops modelling work completely.
  • STEP and SLDPRT import are still labelled experimental, which means the most common way of receiving a supplier or customer model is the least reliable path into the tool.
  • Drawing production, GD&T and tolerance annotation are far behind SolidWorks, Creo and NX, so most users still need a second package to release a manufacturing drawing.
  • Zookeeper is billed in reasoning minutes rather than per seat, so a team cannot forecast next month's bill from headcount the way it can with conventional CAD subscriptions.
  • The open source label applies only to the Design Studio client; the kernel that does the modelling is closed and hosted, so forking the repository does not give you a product you can run yourself.

Pricing, plan by plan

Altium 365

$1990/year
  • Altium Develop$1990/year
    • One Altium Designer author licence
    • One workspace for shared projects and libraries
    • Unlimited workspace users for review, comment, tasks and BOM access
  • Altium Agile Teams$undefined/year
    • For teams beyond five ECAD authors
    • Extended workspace governance and administration
    • Quoted, no published price
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • On-premise or private cloud workspace server
    • Formal ECO and lifecycle governance
    • Quoted, no published price

Zoo

Free
  • FreeFree
    • Design Studio access
    • About 20 minutes of Zookeeper reasoning per month
    • Around $10 of API calls included
  • Plus$20/month
    • Roughly 400 Zookeeper minutes per month
    • Pay as you go beyond the allowance
    • Design Studio and API access
  • Pro$99/month
    • Unlimited Zookeeper reasoning
    • Higher API allowance
    • Priority support

Which should you pick?

Choose Altium 365 if

  • You need shared workspace.
  • You work on Web, Windows, Cloud, On-premise.
  • You also want managed components.
Altium 365 review

Choose Zoo if

  • You need kcl scripting.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, API.
  • You also want design studio.
Zoo review

Questions people ask

Is Altium 365 or Zoo better?
Neither clearly leads. Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and Zoo at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Altium 365 or Zoo?
Zoo has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $1990/year for Altium 365 and Free for Zoo.
Does Altium 365 or Zoo run on more platforms?
Altium 365 runs on Web, Windows, Cloud, On-premise. Zoo runs on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux, API.
Can I use Zoo for free?
Yes. Zoo has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Altium 365 starts at $1990/year.
What is Altium 365 best used for?
Altium 365 is most often used for a hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight cad seats, a team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of gerbers, a company running board and enclosure design in parallel and needing bidirectional geometry exchange with mechanical cad, a buyer checking component lifecycle and availability against the live bom before a design is frozen. Of those, a hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight cad seats and a team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of gerbers are not what Zoo is typically brought in for.
What can Altium 365 do that Zoo cannot?
Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, Managed components, Browser review, Unlimited workspace users. Zoo covers KCL scripting, Design Studio, Design API, Zookeeper agent.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Altium 365: Is Altium 365 free with Altium Designer?

A workspace is included with a current subscription, but the higher tiers, extra authors and the add-on portals are chargeable. The unlimited non-author users are genuinely included.

Zoo: Is Zoo the same company as KittyCAD?

Yes. KittyCAD renamed itself Zoo; the GitHub organisation is still KittyCAD and the scripting language KCL keeps the old initials.

Altium 365: What does it cost?

Altium Develop starts at about 1,990 US dollars a year for one author plus a workspace, with extra authors at 995 US dollars each up to four more. Larger teams are quoted.

Zoo: Can I use Zoo without an internet connection?

No. The geometry engine is a cloud service, so Design Studio needs a live connection to model anything.

Altium 365: Who owns Altium now?

Renesas Electronics completed its acquisition of Altium in 2024. Altium 365 is therefore a Renesas-owned platform.

Zoo: Is Design Studio free?

There is a genuine free tier with a small monthly allowance of AI reasoning and API calls. Paid plans start at $20 per month.

Altium 365: Can I keep design data on my own servers?

Yes, through the Enterprise on-premise workspace server, but that is a quoted product and most of the newer portal features assume the hosted platform.

Zoo: Can I replace SolidWorks with Zoo?

Not for drawing release, large assemblies or GD&T. Teams typically use Zoo for programmatic part generation and keep an established package for production documentation.

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