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Comparison · Design
Horizon EDA vs Octopus.do
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Horizon EDA and Octopus.do — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Horizon EDA vs Octopus.do: at a glance
| Feature | Horizon EDA | Octopus.do |
|---|---|---|
| Sector | Design | Design |
| Velocity score | 0.0 | 5.0 |
| Sparks · 30d | 0 | 0 |
| Top themes | eda, pcb-design, editor-ergonomics, slow-cadence | sitemap, ux-planning, team-collaboration, mcp |
| Last editorial update | 2mo ago | 29d ago |
| Website | Visit → | — |
What is Horizon EDA?
Horizon EDA ships one feature release a year and spends the rest fixing what it broke.
Horizon EDA runs a slow, deliberate cadence: roughly one named feature release per year — Kepler in 2023, Luna in 2024, Mirage in 2025 — followed by two bugfix releases in the same series. The 2.7 series added pick-and-place export save/load, polygon pad rendering performance, project pool cache updates from the editors, and parameter fixing in the package editor. Its two patch releases were crash fixes and export correctness, mostly around silkscreen and PDF output.
What is Octopus.do?
Octopus.do adds an activity feed and email digests, filling in the team layer around its agent apps.
Octopus.do is a sitemap and content-planning tool that became agent-operable in August through official ChatGPT and Claude apps, an MCP server, and a public REST API. September has been about teams: project templates, Google Analytics data on the sitemap, a workspace-level shared symbol library on the Team plan, and now an Activity page that lists comments and changes across a user's projects, with email delivery at a chosen pace.
Horizon EDA vs Octopus.do: editorial side-by-side
Horizon EDA
0.0DESIGN
Horizon EDA ships one feature release a year and spends the rest fixing what it broke.
◆ Current state
Horizon EDA runs a slow, deliberate cadence: roughly one named feature release per year — Kepler in 2023, Luna in 2024, Mirage in 2025 — followed by two bugfix releases in the same series. The 2.7 series added pick-and-place export save/load, polygon pad rendering performance, project pool cache updates from the editors, and parameter fixing in the package editor. Its two patch releases were crash fixes and export correctness, mostly around silkscreen and PDF output.
◆ Where it's heading
The feature work tracks a single theme across all three named releases: making the editors forgiving. Undo and redo that never forgets, undo/redo of selection, sticky selection and configurable selection modifiers arrived in 2.5 and 2.6; 2.7 pushed into export workflows and rendering speed. The bugfix pattern is consistent too — most patches land in the board editor, which is where the complexity lives.
◆ Prediction
On the established cadence a 2.8 feature release is due, and the recent bugfix concentration suggests export and silkscreen handling get attention in it.
Octopus.do
5.0DESIGN
Octopus.do adds an activity feed and email digests, filling in the team layer around its agent apps.
◆ Current state
Octopus.do is a sitemap and content-planning tool that became agent-operable in August through official ChatGPT and Claude apps, an MCP server, and a public REST API. September has been about teams: project templates, Google Analytics data on the sitemap, a workspace-level shared symbol library on the Team plan, and now an Activity page that lists comments and changes across a user's projects, with email delivery at a chosen pace.
◆ Where it's heading
Two tracks run in parallel. The agent interface makes the sitemap something an assistant can build or edit directly; the collaboration features (roles, shared symbols, templates, activity) make the workspace the place a team's site planning lives. Four releases in September against one every month or two earlier in the year shows the pace picking up, and most of the new surface is aimed at multi-person, multi-project accounts.
◆ Prediction
The next releases likely keep extending workspace-level features, with more of them gated to the Team plan as the symbol library was. Whether agent-made changes will surface in the new activity feed is not stated in the entries.
Alternatives to Horizon EDA and Octopus.do
Other Design products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Horizon EDA or Octopus.do.
Spectra
Spectra Blocks Pro 1.0.6 fixes dynamic data and Loop Builder on the front end.
Astra
Astra keeps security first, with a more flexible custom-layout trick in Pro 4.13.11.
JotForm
JotForm's last product launch was in August; September brought a G2 press release instead.
Frame.io
Frame.io becomes Adobe's review-to-edit bridge as Firefly integration ships direct video editor handoff.
Recraft
Recraft is becoming a multi-model AI design platform with a new Studio UI, agentic Chat mode, and 1.3-second generation
See all Horizon EDA alternatives → · See all Octopus.do alternatives →
Recent activity from Horizon EDA and Octopus.do
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 1mo agoOctopus.doActivity and notifications
- 1mo agoOctopus.doShared symbol library
- 1mo agoOctopus.doGoogle Analytics on your sitemap
- 1mo agoOctopus.doSave any project as a template
- 2mo agoOctopus.doOctopus in ChatGPT and Claude ⚡
- 4mo agoOctopus.doCopywriter role in team projects
- 10mo agoHorizon EDASecond 2.7 bugfix release: silkscreen arcs and PDF export
- 1y agoHorizon EDAFirst 2.7 bugfix release: smashed silkscreen text crash
- 1y agoHorizon EDAPick-and-place export presets and faster polygon pad rendering
- 2y agoHorizon EDAUser layers, undo/redo of selection, meson build
- 3y agoHorizon EDABlind and buried vias, undo/redo that never forgets
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Horizon EDA and Octopus.do?
They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Octopus.do is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Horizon EDA better than Octopus.do?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Octopus.do is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Design products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Horizon EDA?
Top Horizon EDA alternatives in Design are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Horizon EDA alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/horizon-eda for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Octopus.do?
Top Octopus.do alternatives in Design are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Octopus.do alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/octopus-do for the full list with editorial commentary on each.