Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Fritzing VS Autodesk Tinkercad

Compare Fritzing VS Autodesk Tinkercad and see what are their differences

Fritzing logo Fritzing

Fritzing is an open-source initiative to support designers, artists, researchers and hobbyists to...

Autodesk Tinkercad logo Autodesk Tinkercad

Tinkercad is a super easy-to-use, browser based 3D design tool.
  • Fritzing Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-12
  • Autodesk Tinkercad Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-08

Fritzing features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Fritzing offers a highly intuitive and easy-to-use interface, which is particularly useful for beginners and hobbyists in electronics design. It provides a graphical environment that simplifies the layout and design process.
  • Breadboard View
    Fritzing includes a breadboard view that allows users to create and visualize breadboard circuits easily. This is advantageous for prototyping and testing circuits before designing a PCB.
  • Open Source
    Fritzing is an open-source tool, meaning it is free to use and the community can contribute to its development and improvement. This encourages collaboration and access to a wide range of user-generated components and examples.
  • Educational Tool
    Fritzing is widely used as an educational tool in schools and universities to teach electronics and circuit design. The visual representation of circuits helps students understand complex concepts more easily.
  • Library of Components
    Fritzing offers a comprehensive library of components, including both common and specialized electronic parts. Users can also create custom components if needed.

Possible disadvantages of Fritzing

  • Limited Advanced Features
    Fritzing lacks some advanced features found in professional-grade electronics design software (such as KiCad or Altium Designer). This might limit its utility for complex or industrial-level projects.
  • Performance Issues
    For more complex designs, Fritzing can experience performance lag, making it less suitable for large-scale or highly intricate projects.
  • Export Limitations
    While Fritzing can export to several formats (like Gerber files for PCB manufacturing), the export options and functionalities are somewhat limited compared to more sophisticated PCB design tools.
  • Community Support
    Although Fritzing has an open-source community, the level of community support and available documentation can sometimes fall short, particularly for troubleshooting specific issues or advanced usage scenarios.
  • Platform Dependency
    Fritzing is a standalone application and needs to be installed on a compatible operating system. This may be inconvenient compared to web-based tools that can be accessed from any device with a web browser.

Autodesk Tinkercad features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Tinkercad offers an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it accessible for beginners and those with little to no experience in 3D design.
  • Cloud-Based
    Since Tinkercad is available as a cloud-based application, users can access their projects from any device with an internet connection, promoting flexibility and convenience.
  • Educational Resources
    Tinkercad provides a wealth of tutorials, guides, and resources that are designed to help users learn and improve their 3D modeling skills.
  • Free to Use
    Tinkercad is completely free, making it an economical choice for hobbyists, educators, and students.
  • Integration with 3D Printing
    The software is equipped with features that make it easy to create models that can be directly used for 3D printing, fostering hands-on learning and rapid prototyping.
  • Collaboration Features
    Tinkercad supports collaboration, allowing multiple users to work on the same design project simultaneously, which is ideal for educational and team-based environments.
  • Versatile Design Tools
    Despite its simplicity, Tinkercad offers various design tools that enable users to create complex and detailed models.

Possible disadvantages of Autodesk Tinkercad

  • Limited Advanced Features
    While Tinkercad is powerful for basic and intermediate 3D designs, it lacks the advanced features and toolsets found in more professional CAD software, which can be limiting for experienced users.
  • Relies on Internet Connection
    As a cloud-based tool, Tinkercad requires a stable internet connection to access and save projects, which can be a drawback in areas with unreliable internet service.
  • Performance Issues
    Heavy or complex projects can lead to performance issues and slow load times, particularly on less powerful hardware or with slower internet connections.
  • Limited File Import/Export Options
    Tinkercad has a limited range of supported file formats for import and export, which might complicate integration with other design tools or systems.
  • Basic Collaboration Tools
    While collaboration is supported, the tools provided are relatively basic, lacking the rich, advanced features available in other collaborative platforms.
  • Privacy Concerns
    As a cloud service, user designs are stored on Autodesk's servers, which may raise privacy and security concerns for some users.

Fritzing videos

INVESTIGATING: The Best Schematic PCB Software (EasyEda, Fritzing, DesignSpark) With Demonstration

More videos:

  • Tutorial - Fritzing Tutorial - A Beginners Guide to Making Circuit & Wiring Diagrams
  • Tutorial - How to design PCB in fritzing and Export Gerber File

Autodesk Tinkercad videos

No Autodesk Tinkercad videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Fritzing and Autodesk Tinkercad)
Simulation
100 100%
0% 0
3D
0 0%
100% 100
Electronics
100 100%
0% 0
Architecture
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Fritzing and Autodesk Tinkercad

Fritzing Reviews

11 KiCad Alternatives
Fritzing is an all-in-one open-source hardware initiative that lets you use electronics as a creative medium. The program includes advanced and useful capabilities that enable users to create a creative environment in which they may document and share their prototypes. Designers and artists can increase productivity by experimenting with the prototype to create a more...

Autodesk Tinkercad Reviews

10 Best Cinema 4D Alternatives for 3D Animation in 2024
TinkerCAD is a great desire for beginners, students, and anybody who desires to learn the fundamentals of 3-D Animation, 3-D modelling and electronics in a user-friendly environment. Its free plans, educational resources, and intuitive interface make it a top-notch option for these innovative fields.
10 Best Blender Alternatives: An Overview
In the vast spectrum of 3D Modelling software, TinkerCAD carves its own niche as one of the alternatives to Blender by emphasising accessibility. A web-based application developed by Autodesk, TinkerCAD removes the barriers to 3D Design with its beginner-centric approach. It’s not just a tool; it’s an invitation for everyone irrespective of age or technical prowess to enter...
Looking for a SketchUp alternative? Check out the 10 best options
Tinkercad is a browser-based program specifically designed for 3D printing and CAD beginners. With a drag-and-drop interface and library of basic shapes pre-made for you, it’s great for the beginner 3D printer enthusiast.
Source: all3dp.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Autodesk Tinkercad should be more popular than Fritzing. It has been mentiond 75 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Fritzing mentions (26)

  • Beginner IoT project: LED Web trigger
    References: Felipe Flop’s website https://www.filipeflop.com/blog/controle-monitoramento-iot-nodemcu-e-mqtt/ accessed on 01/27/2018. Eclipse server for MQTT Broker https://iot.eclipse.org/ accessed on 01/27/2018. Mosquitto https://mosquitto.org/ accessed on 01/27/2018. Cloud MQTT https://www.cloudmqtt.com/ accessed on 01/27/2018. DuckDNS https://www.duckdns.org/ accessed on 01/27/2018. Proftpd... - Source: dev.to / about 1 year ago
  • Jumperless: Breadboard Without Jumper
    Https://tinyurl.com/yr34sym6 https://wokwi.com/ is great for simple, digital only stuff. https://fritzing.org/ will kind of lay out the PCB for you, but it's kind of a pain in the ass. Wokwi and Fritzing are more "Breadboard Simulators" than real circuit simulators, but they do have their place. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • double sided perfboard options
    For designing them there are various tools out there. Personally I find https://easyeda.com/ and https://upverter.com/ easier to get started with. Other popular option (but with a much steeper learning curve) are kcad, but I have always found that to be clunky UI. https://fritzing.org/ is another local option that is easy to use but last time I tried it would crash on me all the time making it basically unusable -... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Recommendations for simple PCB design
    Fritzing - Opensource, a simpler tool but still fully capable. Though last time (many years ago) I tried to use it, despite quite liking it I found it to be very unstable to the point I could not use it without it crashing many times. Maybe that was just my system or maybe things have improved since then though. Might be worth a try. I quite liked it when it was not crashing. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Anyone know how to put this on breadboard?
    I'd recommend you check out the software called Fritzing! Source: almost 2 years ago
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Autodesk Tinkercad mentions (75)

  • Extreme Pi Boot Optimization
    No OS. There's just a setup() function and a main loop() that runs forever. It's really really fun, at least to my brain. If you want to see how it works without spending any money, TinkerCAD (https://tinkercad.com) will let you layout, program, and simulate an Arduino. They're somewhat less powerful than the ESP32 CAM proposed to replace this, but it's a good way to "dip your feet" in programming and wiring up... - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Need advice on Arduino projects and programming
    In addition to the other great suggestions here I wanted to point out that you can practice and learn a lot for free using an online simulator such as wokwi.com and tinkercad.com (among others)! And you don't have to buy an Arduino or any parts to get started! Source: about 1 year ago
  • Arduino calender clock project
    And you can prototype all of this first to get it working for free using an online simulator at sites like wokwi.com or tinkercad.com! Source: about 1 year ago
  • I’m not a mechanic, but I just rolled these guys out of my shop for a cat show I was vending at.
    Hit up tinkercad.com and you can start making things right away. My first design was there and it probably took 5 minutes for the prototype, then 15 minutes to tweak measurements. Really easy (and free) to dive in by doing. Once you nail that, you can get Fusion360 (also free for personal use) or a number of others. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Anyone know where I can find an STL for record player Stitch?
    When it comes to somewhat simple designs like this, I use tinkercad.com - it's a realllly basic drawing CAD web interface and you can make some pretty great stuff with it with a little creativity. Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Fritzing and Autodesk Tinkercad, you can also consider the following products

KiCad - A Cross Platform and Open Source Electronics Design Automation Suite

Blender - Blender is the open source, cross platform suite of tools for 3D creation.

Proteus PCB design - Proteus PCB design combines the schematic capture and ARES PCB layout programs to provide a...

FreeCAD - An open-source parametric 3D modeler

LibrePCB - LibrePCB is a free EDA software to develop printed circuit boards.

Onshape - Onshape is the first full-cloud 3D CAD system. It runs in a web browser and on any mobile device.