What file formats do you support?

We currently support Cadence Allegro brd and dsn files; Altium designer schdoc, pcbdoc, schlib, pcblib; KiCad pcb, KiCad Schematics, Footprint Libraries (very soon), Schematic Symbols, Cadence System Capture Schematics (SDAX). For other formats reach out to our dev team at support@allspice.io.

How does AllSpice.io connect to Github/Bitbucket/Gitlab?

We offer optional Github/Bitbucket/Gitlab authenticators for signing in to AllSpice.io. This makes it easier to login without having to create and manage a new account if you already use one of those Git services. In addition, you can use our migrator tool to photocopy your existing Github/Bitbucket/Gitlab projects to AllSpice.io and even keep them as mirror backups for your AllSpice.io repositories. As always, you have the ability to link to external Github/Bitbucket/Gitlab repositories in your AllSpice.io repos using Git submodule links.

Can I host AllSpice.io on-premise?

Though most of our users are on the cloud, we do have a self-hosting option if that’s a policy for your company. Given the added complexity in deployment and support requirements, we only offer this alternative for teams with a minimum of 10 users. For ITAR controlled designs, there’s a Gov Cloud alternative as well. To check for specific IT security requirements, send us a note at support@allspice.io and we’ll be happy to verify those for you.

Do people need an ECAD license to look at my designs on AllSpice.io?

No. We render images of your designs that can be viewed by all collaborators who have access to your AllSpice.io review. Think of it as view and comment privileges only. However, to make design changes to your schematics or PCB files, you’ll need an ECAD license.

Does AllSpice.io host my designs?

Yes. Although we understand some users already have hardware projects in other hosting services (such as Github/Bitbucket/Gitlab), in order to build an amazing user experience for hardware designs, it’s necessary that we host and render files directly. However, we’ve worked to ensure a seamless transition between other hosting services. You can use our migrator tool to photocopy your existing Github/Bitbucket/Gitlab projects to AllSpice.io and even keep them as mirror backups for your AllSpice.io repositories.

How do you protect our data?

Protecting customer data is our highest priority. Our policy is to match or exceed all security measures for comparable products, such as GitHub & Gitlab. Here are a few examples of the many ways we protect your data: We use only encrypted transfers to our servers (SSH + HTTPS) and use a one-way hash of all user passwords using bcrypt (same as GitHub). We use only SOC 3 Type 2 and/or ISO27001 compliant servers with customer data encrypted at rest with LUKs encrypted mounts. We continuously test our systems against common attack vectors, including XSS, dependency injection, ReDOS, MitM, etc. We use multiple levels of protection including rootless runners on our servers, which prevent malicious actors from installing or running arbitrary code to collect user data in the case of an XSS attack. If you have further questions or concerns, please email us at security@allspice.io.

Do I need Git revision control in order to use AllSpice.io?

In a nutshell, yes. If you use SVN and are interested in migrating to Git, the process is fairly well documented. For example, Git explains it in this migration resource. If you are a new user, our team will be happy to help you with the process.

Will the diff tool continue to be free?

Yes, the diff tool is our gift to the HW community we so much appreciate. We’re engineers as well, and we want to make the hardware development process better for as many people as we can.

On-prem still makes sense in some cases—but most modern hardware teams don’t need to own and maintain infrastructure to get the control and security they expect. A managed service gives you the best of both worlds.

There are a lot of hardware design and manufacturing problems solved with on-premises hosting. It centralizes version control, guaranteed backups, and will work even if a vendor goes down. Compliance and security are must-haves for many industries. The IT staff and walled garden limitations seem like a necessary and recurring cost.

On-Prem vs Managed ECAD Hosting comparative table

Improvements to security and compliance regulation have made managed services an appealing alternative to DIY internal solutions. In addition to having a lower total cost of ownership (TCO), shifting your resources from IT to engineering helps you work on your bottom-line even more. Additionally, secure managed services open the door for more tools to help you manage and improve the cost of your workflow.

See On-Prem isn’t dead by EdgeTeam Technology

📈 Why on-prem isn’t the default anymore

On-prem ECAD hosting used to be the only way to keep everything in-house: full control, easy IT integrations, and total visibility.

But things have changed:

Cloud infrastructure has matured (SOC 2, ISO 27001, region-specific hosting)
- i..e. Solutions such as AWS GovCloud
IT teams are stretched thin and expensive
Teams are distributed and need better remote access
Hardware moves fast, and deployment speed matters

You can still have control—without having to manage servers yourself.

A lot of things have changed with software in the past two decades. The Development Operations (DevOps) movement with Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment has improved software development velocity, security, and robustness. Tool builders are able to move fast and test changes to ensure the service only improves.

Software is often categorized as a cost-sink, not a value-add, but modern software development means your host is constantly improving their tool based on your feedback on how you can save money and be more productive.

See Are You Sure You Still Need That On-Prem Server? Most Businesses Don’t.

⚖️ On-prem vs. managed services for ECAD hosting

Your IT staff is talented, but they are not Electrical Engineers. They understand how to connect an ECAD tool to a PLM/ERP system, but not why. Managed service providers specialize in the tool they’re providing and provide a Product Manager (PM) and a Customer Experience (CM) manager. They have technical expertise in both designing software, and designing hardware. They work closely with your team to implement features quickly and at a much lower cost than your internal IT team. Just like we leverage and externalize the expertise and capital investments of Contract Manufacturers, Hardware Directors can shift and externalize the cost of productivity improvements.

Your Electrical Engineers get to be experts in your problem domain, and your managed service provider gives you the same stable experience, but with better results and at a lower cost.

Feature	On-prem ECAD hosting	Managed ECAD hosting (single-tenant)
Control	✅ You own it all	✅ High control, zero infrastructure burden
Compliance	✅ Manual but possible	✅ SOC 2, ISO 27001, and more built-in
IT integration	✅ Works with your systems	✅ VPN/private networking supported
Latency	✅ Local speed	✅ Region-specific deployments
Cost	❌ Staff, hardware, upkeep	✅ Predictable monthly cost
Maintenance	❌ You’re on the hook	✅ Vendor-managed uptime, patches, and backups
Scalability	❌ Hardware-limited	✅ Flexible resource scaling
Deployment speed	❌ Slow	✅ Up and running in days

See Differences between traditional, on-premises Privileged Access Management (PAM) versus modern PAM delivered as-a-service?

🔧 What to try before committing to on-prem

On-Prem DIY servers may seem like a hard requirement, but there are a number of strategies that can be used to incorporate an external managed service. We recommend evaluating one of these approaches before sticking with home-grown IT solutions.

If your team says “we need on-prem,” here are some hybrid-friendly ideas that might meet the same goals:

Export design and BOM data to your internal systems on a schedule.
Mirror your Git repos to a server inside your firewall.
Use our APIs to pull data into your systems on your terms.
Restrict access with VPN or IP whitelisting.
Provide docs to satisfy your compliance team without needing internal audits.
Use a managed service as a first step to test security and control before committing to infrastructure.

See On-Prem vs Cloud by Cleo.

🔐 Security at a glance: on-prem vs. managed vs. cloud

Security feature	On-prem	Managed service	Cloud (multi-tenant SaaS)
Data ownership	✅ Yours	✅ Yours	✅ Yours
Physical security	🚧 Your problem	✅ Certified datacenters	✅ Same
Access control	🚧 Manual setup	✅ Built-in (SSO, SCIM)	✅ Built-in
Audit logs	🚧 Custom	✅ Included	✅ Included
Isolation	✅ Physical	✅ Single-tenant VPC	🚧 Logical
Patching	❌ Manual	✅ Vendor-managed	✅ Vendor-managed
Disaster recovery	🚧 Build it yourself	✅ Baked in	✅ Baked in
Compliance	🚧 Do it yourself	✅ Shared responsibility model	✅ Shared responsibility model
Integration	🚧 Manual, slow	✅ API-first	✅ API-first
Latency control	✅ Local	✅ Regional hosting	🚧 May vary
Security cost	❌ High	✅ Lower	✅ Lowest

We also support GovCloud and AWS managed services for teams with elevated compliance needs. More here →

References Differences between On-Prem vs Cloud Computing.

What’s the difference between SaaS and On Premises?

💸 What on-prem actually costs

Paying for and managing your own servers is a wholly internalized cost. Using a managed service externalizes your costs with lower maintenance and development costs, leading to a total lower cost of ownership (TCO). Save your budget and energy for your engineering teams.

Expense	On-prem	Managed service
IT admin	$130k/year	N/A
Hardware refresh	$30k+	N/A
Maintenance time	Weekly hours	Included
Downtime	Higher risk	Vendor SLA (99.9%+)

🧮 Want to know what it would cost your team?

Talk to one of our engineers and we’ll walk through your setup, your needs, and what it really takes to switch.

👉 Learn more →

References:

Why Cloud is cheaper than On-Prem r/DevOps

Dell’s take on True costs of running On-Prem vs Cloud

Parallels article on Cost of Server Comparison: On-Premises vs Cloud

Cloud vs On-Premises Cost Comparison by Wasabi

✅ Wrap-up

Our job as Engineering Directors is to speed up development without compromising quality, while keeping costs low. We need to focus our energy on what is important and in our field of expertise and minimize the effect of anything that gets in the way. Although on-premise servers have been a safe bet in the past, the improvements to managed services makes them easy to pick and easy to onboard.

On-prem ECAD hosting still has a place—but for most teams, it’s no longer the right default.

A managed ECAD service gives you: