I'am very surprised and I'm wondering why can't they promote their low prices better? It can be a huge difference.
We bought an OrCAD Professional around 9000€ (base price) in 2014. Last year we bought Altium17 for 7000€.
Well, this was four years ago. At this time v16 was on sale. The prices we mentioned here are from the v17.2 timeframe (2 years).
The other key part is maybe the size of your company and the discount you get?
![Confused :-//](https://www.eevblog.com/forum/Smileys/default/confused0024.gif)
For 9k you asked for several options, right? PSice? CIS + CIP? PCB High-Speed Option? Advanced Analysis?
Real world example:
In mid 2017: AD17, one license, 1 year subscription = 5600€ (without tax!)
Early 2017: OrCAD Professional v17.2, 1.5 years subscription, CIS = 3250€ (without tax!)
Both quotes for a newly founded company. Both companies have a discount for startups.
The support from FlowCAD upfront was excellent. The needs for my designs were analyzed and the matching package and options were defined and I got a test license for some weeks to test this package.
Altium on the other hand was just a sink or swim. One short call, five minutes to get an impression of my financial capabilities and two days after that an offer via email with the already mentioned price.
Even if the price of both packages would be the same, I would have choosen Cadence! Excellent support and service for me, still to this day.