KiCad
KiCad is a free and open-source Electronic Design Automation (EDA) suite for designing schematics and PCB layouts. It includes a schematic editor with symbol libraries, a PCB layout editor supporting up to 32 copper layers with push-and-shove routing, a 3D viewer for board inspection, and tools for generating manufacturing files (Gerber), bills of materials, and netlists. KiCad is cross-platform, available on Windows, macOS and Linux, and is regularly maintained by an active developer community. It is widely used by hobbyists, students, and professionals for circuit design and board layout work.
AI Recommendation
1 suggestionKiCad ships a native Apple Silicon build as a Universal Binary, meaning the same installer works on both Intel and M-series Macs and automatically selects the native arm64 architecture on Apple Silicon hardware. The latest version is available from the official KiCad downloads page (downloads.kicad.org) as "kicad-unified-universal" — this is the correct file to download, and it will run natively on any M-series Mac without Rosetta. If you are currently running an older Intel-only build under Rosetta, simply download and install the current version and you will see immediate improvements in performance and battery life. The transition is seamless — your existing projects and preferences carry over without any manual migration needed.
Recommended reading
What happens to your Intel apps in macOS 28