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CAD · head to head

Altium 365 vs MoI (Moment of Inspiration)

Altium 365 logo

Altium 365

CAD

Cloud workspace for Altium Designer PCB projects, now inside Renesas

From
$1990/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
MoI (Moment of Inspiration) logo

MoI (Moment of Inspiration)

CAD

NURBS modeller bought once, built for designers rather than engineers

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • 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Develop entry price is capped at five authors in total, so a growing team hits a forced migration to Agile Teams with unpublished pricing exactly when headcount is rising.; MoI (Moment of Inspiration) it is developed by one person, so releases are years apart and there is no support organisation to escalate to when something blocks your work.
  • They diverge on capability: Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, MoI (Moment of Inspiration) covers Direct NURBS modelling.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Altium 365 and MoI (Moment of Inspiration) actually diverge.

Attributes where Altium 365 and MoI (Moment of Inspiration) differ
AttributeAltium 365MoI (Moment of Inspiration)
Starting price$1990/yearOn request
Pricing modelPer user per yearOne-time purchase
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Cloud, On-premiseWindows, macOS

Identical on both: free tier (No), 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 MoI (Moment of Inspiration)

  • Direct NURBS modelling
  • Clean mesh export
  • Pen-oriented interface
  • Boolean toolset
  • STEP and IGES exchange
  • Scriptable commands

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 MoI (Moment of Inspiration)
  • A team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of Gerbersnot MoI (Moment of Inspiration)
  • A company running board and enclosure design in parallel and needing bidirectional geometry exchange with mechanical CADnot MoI (Moment of Inspiration)
  • A buyer checking component lifecycle and availability against the live BOM before a design is frozennot MoI (Moment of Inspiration)

MoI (Moment of Inspiration)

  • Converting CAD surfaces into clean quad meshes for a polygon or sculpting applicationnot Altium 365
  • Modelling hard-surface concept designs where form matters and engineering documentation does notnot Altium 365
  • Working on older or low-specification hardware that will not run mainstream CADnot Altium 365
  • Buying a modelling tool outright rather than committing to a recurring CAD subscriptionnot 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.

MoI (Moment of Inspiration)

  • It is developed by one person, so releases are years apart and there is no support organisation to escalate to when something blocks your work.
  • There is no parametric history and no assembly structure, so a late design change means remodelling rather than editing a feature.
  • It produces no dimensioned drawings or manufacturing documentation, so anything heading for production needs a second package for the paperwork.
  • Exchange is limited to surface formats such as STEP and IGES with no native interoperability with mainstream MCAD systems, so it sits at the edge of an engineering pipeline rather than inside it.
  • Each major version is a fresh purchase, and the long gaps between versions mean a fix or a feature you need can be several years away with no interim release.

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

MoI (Moment of Inspiration)

On request
  • MoI$undefined/year
    • Perpetual licence for one major version
    • Windows and macOS
    • Paid upgrade for each subsequent major version

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 MoI (Moment of Inspiration) if

  • You need direct nurbs modelling.
  • You work on Windows, macOS.
  • You also want clean mesh export.
MoI (Moment of Inspiration) review

Questions people ask

Is Altium 365 or MoI (Moment of Inspiration) better?
Neither clearly leads. Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and MoI (Moment of Inspiration) at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Altium 365 or MoI (Moment of Inspiration)?
Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and MoI (Moment of Inspiration) at On request.
Does Altium 365 or MoI (Moment of Inspiration) run on more platforms?
Altium 365 runs on Web, Windows, Cloud, On-premise. MoI (Moment of Inspiration) runs on Windows, macOS.
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 MoI (Moment of Inspiration) is typically brought in for.
What can Altium 365 do that MoI (Moment of Inspiration) cannot?
Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, Managed components, Browser review, Unlimited workspace users. MoI (Moment of Inspiration) covers Direct NURBS modelling, Clean mesh export, Pen-oriented interface, Boolean toolset.

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.

MoI (Moment of Inspiration): Is it a subscription?

No. It is bought outright per major version, and each new major version is a separate paid upgrade.

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.

MoI (Moment of Inspiration): Can it replace Rhino?

For direct form modelling, often yes. For anything needing Grasshopper, drawings, plugins or engineering interoperability, no.

Altium 365: Who owns Altium now?

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

MoI (Moment of Inspiration): Why do 3D artists use it alongside other tools?

Its NURBS to polygon conversion produces cleaner meshes than most CAD exporters, which saves retopology work downstream.

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.

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