HeyPCB adds live multiplayer editing to its hardware-design workspace

Why it matters

HeyPCB is betting that hardware teams will adopt browser-based collaboration when it is attached to editable KiCad files, AI assistance and mechanical design tools. The launch also enters a category where real-time PCB collaboration already exists, making the scope and reliability of the full workflow more important than the Figma analogy.

HeyPCB founder Justin Kim (@justinplaygame) launched live multiplayer editing for hardware design on September 26th, pitching the feature as a shared workspace where electrical and mechanical engineers can work on the same project. The product is available through HeyPCB’s browser-based workspace, which synchronizes saved schematic and board edits across collaborators’ screens.

https://x.com/justinplaygame/status/2103955275640447314

Kim’s pitch is personal to the product: he has described hardware work as something that should not be “single-player,” and said the goal is to put electrical engineers and mechanical engineers in the same room. Kim, whose public profile identifies him as Junhyun Kim and lists the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, recently participated in Founders, Inc.’s Off Season II and has also cited YC Startup School and The Residency as part of his path back to building HeyPCB.

The collaboration feature lets a project owner invite people by email or turn on an invite link, with view or edit permissions. The company’s product page shows collaborators’ identities and cursors in the editor; it says saved changes to the schematic or board appear on every open screen. In a demonstration documented on that page, multiple users edit the same KiCad-based reference design, including routing a trace and moving a USB-C connector.

HeyPCB is positioning this as one part of an AI-assisted design environment, not a standalone meeting layer. In the launch thread, Kim described a workflow spanning electronic design automation (EDA) and mechanical CAD (MCAD), with AI assistance for questions, history and logs. The company says its tools work with KiCad-native files and can produce schematics, PCB layouts and fabrication files. Its site also lists enclosure and 3D product design features, and says exported designs include Gerbers, STEP files and editable CAD.

The comparison to Figma captures the appeal of shared editing, but the feature category already has competitors. Flux markets a browser-based PCB design platform with real-time collaboration and version history. HeyPCB’s broader pitch is that a team can use AI-assisted design alongside collaborative editing, mechanical work and reusable open-hardware projects. The company says its Circuit World catalog contains more than 8,800 published boards that users can inspect and build from. That count describes the catalog’s size; it does not establish how many designs are production-ready or how many teams use the collaboration feature.

The product’s pricing separates collaboration from sustained AI usage. Kim said in the thread that multiplayer was free to use and share. HeyPCB’s pricing page currently lists paid AI plans at $20 per month for Starter, $60 for Pro, $200 for Max and $500 for Ultra, alongside a free trial. The company does not describe multiplayer as a separate paid tier on the page.

Kim’s co-founder, Inky Ganbold, brings hands-on hardware work to the team. His listed projects include an electricity-monitoring IoT device, a 3D printer and a six-legged robot. That background fits HeyPCB’s focus on getting hardware designs into a shared workspace, where a mechanical change or an electrical revision can be seen by the other contributors without circulating another project copy.

The tougher test is whether shared editing can become useful in a real design process, where mistakes carry manufacturing costs and engineers need to trust the files they send to a fabricator. HeyPCB says boards are checked against electrical, layout and fabrication rules and that users retain portable design files. Those are product claims, not evidence of customer adoption or manufacturing outcomes. The launch establishes what Kim is betting on: browser collaboration and AI can make hardware work easier to share, while keeping the underlying CAD files editable outside the platform.