EPLAN Electric P8 Alternatives for Schematic and Panel Design

Eplan Electric P8 is alive and current. Eplan released Platform 2027 on September 8, 2026, with more than 500 enhancements and the Eplan Copilot AI assistant inside the software. People leave over cost and licensing, not because the product stopped. New licences have been subscription only since September 2020, and perpetual licences were last sold on July 31, 2021. Eplan's site lists no price; you ask for a quote.

Every tool below draws schematics with cross-references and produces terminal, cable and BOM reports. They split on price model, panel layout depth and platform. Apart from QElectroTech and the browser-based Capital X Panel Designer, each one is a Windows desktop program. Prices come from each vendor's own page, read on November 6, 2026.

Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

AutoCAD Electrical

Autodesk no longer sells AutoCAD Electrical on its own. It is one of seven industry toolsets inside the AutoCAD subscription, so a single seat also covers plain AutoCAD, Mechanical and the rest. Release 2027 shipped on March 25, 2026.

The toolset page lists more than 65,000 intelligent electrical symbols and a Symbol Builder for custom ones. PLC I/O drawings can be generated from a spreadsheet, database or text file, and reports update as the drawing changes. Your files stay in DWG, which many customers and contractors still ask for.

Best for: Teams that already trade DWG files and want a price they can see before calling anyone.

Pricing:

• $260 per month or $2,095 per year for AutoCAD including specialized toolsets, suggested retail before tax
• 15-day free trial

Watch out for:

• The 2027 system requirements for AutoCAD with specialized toolsets list Windows 11 64-bit only, and Autodesk's FAQ ties the toolsets to AutoCAD for Windows.
• It is subscription only. A PLCtalk poster who stopped at the 2016 version says he will not come back while that stays true.

Official site: AutoCAD Electrical. Our listing: AutoCAD Electrical.

Zuken E3.series

Zuken's E3.series comes closest to Eplan's depth. Its object-oriented database pushes a change to a device into every schematic, cable plan and panel view that uses it. Separate modules cover schematic, cable, panel, formboard and fluid design, with E3.enterprise for multi-user work.

E3.series 2027 was announced on September 8, 2026, the same day as Eplan Platform 2027. It adds E3.CloudView, a browser viewer for 2D schematics and 3D panel layouts, and a single command that builds 2D manufacturing views for a whole enclosure. Zuken also ships an official Python package and an open API.

Best for: Engineering teams doing wire harness and cabinet design who need Eplan-level data consistency.

Pricing:

• No public price. The FAQ says sales quotes depend on the modules a team needs.
• Cloud-based evaluation with no install, plus the free E3.viewer

Watch out for:

• A July 2024 Capterra review says it has "too many configurable parts, which makes it very complex".
• Desktop only on Windows: the FAQ lists Windows 10, Windows 11 Pro and Windows Server.

Official site: Zuken E3.series. Our listing: Zuken E3.series.

SOLIDWORKS Electrical

Dassault splits SOLIDWORKS Electrical into Schematic Standard, Schematic Professional and Electrical 3D. Professional adds floating network licences, custom reports and PLC management, according to reseller GoEngineer. Electrical 3D places components and routes wires inside the SOLIDWORKS model, with schematic and 3D kept in sync both ways.

The reason to pick it over Eplan is that mechanical link. The product page describes shared libraries and concurrent work between electrical and mechanical teams. If the machine frame already lives in SOLIDWORKS, the cabinet and harness can sit in the same assembly.

Best for: Machine builders whose mechanical team already designs in SOLIDWORKS 3D.

Pricing:

• No public price. The product page offers "Request a quote" and routes buyers to resellers.
• Electrical 3D also needs a SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD licence

Watch out for:

• Projects live in Microsoft SQL Server. A December 2024 Javelin support article notes that SQL Express caps a database at 10 GB, after which you upgrade to SQL Standard or archive old projects.
• Windows only. The system requirements list Windows 11 64-bit for the client, and Windows 10 support ended with SOLIDWORKS 2025 SP5.

Official site: SOLIDWORKS Electrical. Our listing: SOLIDWORKS Electrical.

Capital X Panel Designer

This is the former Electra line from Radica Software, now part of Siemens. Radica says the platform was "previously known as Electra Cloud", and electra.cloud now redirects to a GoDaddy for-sale page. The Essentials plan runs in a browser with nothing to install.

Drop a symbol on a wire and the wire splits and renames itself. Terminals are generated, counted and numbered automatically and stay in sync with the terminal list, per the product page. Standard adds an installable desktop version that works offline, and Advanced connects to Solid Edge, Designcenter X and Teamcenter.

Best for: Small panel shops and solo designers who want automation without a Windows install or a sales call.

Pricing:

• Essentials: $1,236.36 per seat per year
• Standard: $1,930.92 per seat per year
• Advanced: $3,651.48 per seat per year
• All USD on the US pricing page. Essentials is the only plan also sold monthly.
• 30-day free trial, then a free plan without automation tools

Watch out for:

• The pricing page warns that Essentials monthly rates are "going up soon", so confirm the figure before you budget.
• Essentials is cloud only. Offline work on the installed Capital Panel Designer needs the Standard plan.

Official site: Capital X Panel Designer.

SEE Electrical

SEE Electrical came from IGE+XAO, which joined forces with ETAP on April 6, 2023. ETAP now sells it as three annual subscription tiers named Launch, Grow and Scale.

Launch is a schematic editor with basic reports, DWG import and export and PDF output. Grow adds automatic wire numbering, PLC management, a 2D panel layout editor and cabinet thermal calculation. Scale adds IEC 81346 aspect management, multi-user work, PLM and ERP interfaces and an API for plugins. 3D cabinet design is a separate add-on, per the ETAP product page.

Best for: Buyers who want to start on a basic schematic tier and add PLC and panel features later.

Pricing:

• No public price. Each tier shows "Request pricing" on the ETAP page.
• 30-day trial with all features, capped at 3 schematic pages per project

Watch out for:

• Capterra reviewers rate its value for money 2.2 out of 5 across 5 reviews, and a February 2023 review complains of no after-sales service and no phone line.

Official site: SEE Electrical. Our listing: SEE Electrical.

WSCAD ELECTRIX

WSCAD sells ELECTRIX AI as its current electrical CAD, and its homepage announces ELECTRIX OS for the end of November. Subscribers get wscaduniverse, a parts library of about 2.2 million components from 457 manufacturers.

Contracts run one or three years, with 10% off the annual rent on the three-year term. Each year includes one free four-week temporary licence and one online training session that WSCAD values at €499, per the subscription page. Schools can order a free WSCAD Education edition.

Best for: Control cabinet builders who want manufacturer part data included in the subscription.

Pricing:

• No public price. Offers come through a request form on the WSCAD site.
• One-year or three-year subscription; three years gets 10% off the annual rent
• Free trial and a free Education edition

Watch out for:

• Subscriptions renew automatically and need three months' notice to cancel, per the subscription terms.
• ELECTRIX AI needs Windows 11 64-bit (25H2). The requirements page also flags a Windows 11 24H2 bug where the Wibu CodeMeter licence service stops and shows "No matching dongle found".

Official site: WSCAD ELECTRIX.

QElectroTech

QElectroTech answers the "eplan alternative open source" search. It is free, licensed under the GNU GPL, and runs on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. Version 0.100, the current release, came out on January 25, 2024 and ships with more than 8,000 symbols.

Beyond industrial control circuits it draws hydraulic, pneumatic, HVAC, P&ID and photovoltaic diagrams, per the project site. A KiCad forum thread from January 2018 asking for an Eplan-like tool on Linux ended with "Try QET first, and only if you are not satisfied, look at Eplan or Treesoft".

Best for: Students, hobbyists and small shops that need clean control schematics at zero cost, on any OS.

Pricing:

• Free, GPL v2

Watch out for:

• A February 2025 forum thread calls the panel layout documentation thin, and a team member said one manufacturer collection is shared only on email request.
• No stable release since January 2024. The project wiki lists a Qt6 migration as the next planned version, without a date.

Official site: QElectroTech. Our listing: QElectroTech.

ProfiCAD

ProfiCAD is a small Windows program for control circuits and wiring diagrams. It ships with more than 2,000 symbols and builds a bill of materials, wire list, terminal list and cable list, with cross-references between a relay coil and its contacts, per the homepage.

It is the only pick here sold once with no subscription. Version 14.1.4 of the Windows download runs on Windows 10 and 11. The free Home edition is for hobby use and stops at 3 pages, against 600 on the paid licence, per the edition comparison.

Best for: Freelancers and small builders drawing control circuits who refuse another yearly subscription.

Pricing:

• Single user: $277 one-time, no subscription
• Site licence: $827; School licence: $277
• Prices exclude tax. Free Home edition for hobby use and a 30-day full trial.

Watch out for:

• Windows 10 and 11 only. The download page points Mac users to Parallels.
• The homepage says it is not suited to PCB layout, 3D modelling or full DWG/DXF editing, and it lists no PLC tools.

Official site: ProfiCAD. Our listing: ProfiCAD.

How to choose

When to stay with EPLAN Electric P8

Keep Eplan Electric P8 if your customers or OEM partners require Eplan project files, or if your team runs on Eplan macros and manufacturer device data. Platform 2027 added two-way sync of device data, symbol libraries and plot frames between the Eplan Cloud and local systems, per the release notes. If price is the only complaint, get a renewal quote before you move. Rebuilding macros and symbol libraries in a new tool is real work.

Frequently asked questions