Skip the schematic.
Draw the board.

Yes. You can design a board and etch it at home for free. You only need a free account, with no credit card and no trial period. The editor, the autorouter, the footprint library and PDF export for home etching will always be free.

That covers the full editor with the autorouter, ground pours and Design Rule Check, 3,400+ footprints plus 5 of your own, copper on both sides with silkscreen, unlimited boards on your device with 3 synced to the cloud, and opening your Sprint Layout, KiCad and Eagle boards. When it's ready, print the mirrored 1:1 PDF for toner transfer or UV exposure. A small footer line sits outside your board.

A plan adds extras if you want them:

• Maker, $5.99/month: several boards per sheet (mosaic printing), no watermark, footprint import from KiCad and GitHub, and generators such as coils and QR codes.
• Engineer, $10.99/month: everything in Maker, plus Gerber and drill files so a factory can make the board for you, thermal pads, and the antenna and via stitching generators.

Yes. Protoboard Designer runs entirely in your browser as a WebAssembly web app — there's nothing to install. It's a full online PCB editor: design boards, route copper, run a Design Rule Check, and export Gerber or PDF files. The same editor is also available as an iPhone, iPad and Android app, and your projects sync between them.

No. Protoboard Designer is a WYSIWYG editor: you place footprints and draw copper traces directly on the board — no schematic or netlist required. What you see on screen is what gets fabricated.

Yes, and whole boards too. Opening a .kicad_pcb board as a new project is free on every plan. Importing single footprints is part of the Maker plan: pick a .kicad_mod file, or browse any public GitHub repository and place the part you need. Footprints come in one at a time and go onto your board. To reuse one later, save it to My footprints.

Yes. Sprint Layout .lay6, Eagle .brd and KiCad .kicad_pcb files all open as new projects — traces and pads included — free on every plan. We don't gate the way in; the only limit for free users is the number of cloud boards. Importing reusable footprint libraries (.kicad_mod, including straight from GitHub) and Sprint Layout .lmk macros starts with the Maker plan.

Yes. Protoboard Designer exports industry-standard Gerber X2 and Excellon drill files (Engineer plan), with the solder paste layers for a stencil, that any PCB manufacturer — JLCPCB, PCBWay, OSH Park, Aisler, and others — accepts directly.

Yes, on the free plan. Export your layout as a PDF mask — mirrored for toner transfer or photoresist — print it at 1:1 scale, and etch the board at home. Mirroring is free on every plan. Maker adds mosaic printing, which fits several copies of the same board on one sheet — so a sheet of transfer film or photoresist gives you spares instead of one board.

Yes. The full editor runs on iPhone and iPad, on Android phones and tablets via the Google Play app, and in any modern desktop browser as a WebAssembly web app. Projects sync between devices automatically.

Yes. Protoboard Designer is on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and needs iOS 15 or later. It's the same editor as the Android and web versions, and your projects sync between all of them — so you can lay a board out on an iPad and pick it up on your desktop. If you'd rather not install anything, the web app still works in Safari.

KiCad is a full schematic-driven EDA suite — powerful, but with a steep learning curve. Fritzing focuses on breadboard diagrams. Protoboard Designer sits in between: a direct, visual PCB layout editor that gets you from idea to a fabricatable board in minutes, on whatever device you have to hand. For complex multi-sheet schematic projects, a full EDA suite is still the right tool.

Yes, on every plan. The 3D view shows the board in the solder mask colour (green, purple, red, yellow, blue, white or black) and the surface finish (HASL, ENIG or OSP) you will order, and you can turn it like a board in your hand. X-ray shows the other side's copper. Showcase runs the turning board full screen for a fair or a demo, and a shared board opens in 3D from its link — no account needed to look.

Yes. The Gerber export (Engineer plan) writes the solder paste layers a stencil maker such as JLCPCB needs. To cut a stencil at home, the PDF export has a Solder Paste Stencil preset that compensates for your laser's kerf, with a test strip to measure it — free on every plan.

Yes, on every plan. The Add designators tool numbers your parts R1, C3, U2 in board order, and the parts list export writes a CSV grouped by value and package for LCSC, Mouser or JLCPCB, with the quantity for as many boards as you build.

Yes. Offline mode keeps you working on the device and uploads your changes when you turn it off, and Download all brings every cloud board onto the device first. Without a connection the app still opens on your boards, and if it ever closes before a save, it offers your unsaved changes back.

Thirteen: English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Russian, Turkish, Korean, Hindi, Indonesian and Tagalog — using the terms makers in each language actually use. It follows your phone's language, or you can pick one in Settings.