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CAD · head to head

Altium 365 vs nTop

Altium 365 logo

Altium 365

CAD

Cloud workspace for Altium Designer PCB projects, now inside Renesas

From
$1990/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
nTop logo

nTop

CAD

Implicit computational design for lattices, heat exchangers and topology-driven parts

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Develop entry price is capped at five authors in total, so a growing team hits a forced migration to Agile Teams with unpublished pricing exactly when headcount is rising.; nTop nTop is a specialist tool that sits alongside mainstream CAD rather than replacing it, so you pay for an extra seat and accept a handoff between two geometry systems.
  • They diverge on capability: Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, nTop covers Implicit modelling.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

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

Attributes where Altium 365 and nTop differ
AttributeAltium 365nTop
Starting price$1990/yearOn request
Pricing modelPer user per yearquote
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Cloud, On-premiseWindows, Cloud

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 nTop

  • Implicit modelling
  • Lattice and cellular structures
  • Field-driven design
  • Integrated simulation
  • Reusable workflows
  • Topology optimisation
  • CAD and AM interoperability

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

nTop

  • Designing a variable-density lattice bracket where mass must drop without losing stiffness in the loaded regionsnot Altium 365
  • Generating a heat exchanger with thousands of internal channels that a conventional CAD kernel cannot representnot Altium 365
  • Producing patient-specific implant geometry with porous surfaces at scale rather than one at a timenot Altium 365
  • Automating a family of parts as a reusable design workflow that reruns when the load case changesnot 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.

nTop

  • nTop is a specialist tool that sits alongside mainstream CAD rather than replacing it, so you pay for an extra seat and accept a handoff between two geometry systems.
  • Implicit modelling requires a different way of thinking from feature-based CAD, and the retraining period is long enough that unused licences are a common and expensive outcome.
  • No pricing is published and there is no free or hobbyist tier, so evaluation runs through a sales process and small teams cannot try it seriously without engaging.
  • Subscription only, with no perpetual licence, means the geometry logic you built stops being editable the day you stop paying, which is a real risk for long-lifecycle aerospace and medical programmes.
  • The output is most valuable when you have additive manufacturing capacity to make it; organisations without machines that can print the geometry end up designing parts nobody can produce.

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

nTop

On request
  • nTop$undefined/year
    • Annual named or floating seat subscription
    • No perpetual licence offered
    • Capability tiers quoted by use case

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 nTop if

  • You need implicit modelling.
  • You work on Windows, Cloud.
  • You also want lattice and cellular structures.
nTop review

Questions people ask

Is Altium 365 or nTop better?
Neither clearly leads. Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and nTop at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Altium 365 or nTop?
Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and nTop at On request.
Does Altium 365 or nTop run on more platforms?
Altium 365 runs on Web, Windows, Cloud, On-premise. nTop runs on Windows, Cloud.
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 nTop is typically brought in for.
What can Altium 365 do that nTop cannot?
Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, Managed components, Browser review, Unlimited workspace users. nTop covers Implicit modelling, Lattice and cellular structures, Field-driven design, Integrated simulation.

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.

nTop: Is nTop the same company as nTopology?

Yes. nTopology rebranded to nTop. The product is the same lineage.

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.

nTop: Does it replace SolidWorks or NX?

No. It is used alongside them. Mainstream CAD handles the conventional geometry and assembly; nTop handles the lattice, field-driven and complex internal structure work.

Altium 365: Who owns Altium now?

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

nTop: Is there a free version?

No free commercial tier is published. Access runs through a demo and sales process, with academic programmes handled separately.

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.

nTop: Can I buy a perpetual licence?

No. It is sold as an annual subscription, so budget it as recurring cost across the life of the programme.

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