Zorowire vs harness.design
harness.design is a young browser and desktop tool (full release April 2026) with the most generous free plan we found: unlimited harnesses up to 100 connections, and a 1:1 formboard printed as tiled panels. Zorowire's free plan goes to 150 connections, keeps two revisions, applies your cut-length allowances and quotes the job.
harness.design · checkedIn short
For drawing a harness and printing a board for free, harness.design is very good. If you build harnesses for customers and need cut lengths with allowances, a cut list for the bench and a price, Zorowire adds those on a free plan with more connections, and costs less than a Pro seat when you pay.
What you get with Zorowire
- Cut lengths with your end and splice allowances, loops and rounding, and a cut list with strip lengths, terminals and seals per end. In our test harness.design gave bare bundle sums.
- Quotes from labour operations, setup, quantity breaks and margin — 3 a month on Free.
- Direct Excel and CSV import with column mapping, without an AI assistant.
- Revision diff of the cut list, BOM and operations.
- Tiles with overlap, registration marks and a check ruler on every page.
- Five users and unlimited viewers in one Shop plan.
Where harness.design is strong
- A free plan with unlimited harnesses and a real 1:1 formboard on office paper; its tiles printed exactly to scale in our test.
- Browser plus desktop apps for macOS and Windows that work offline.
- An MCP server to edit harnesses with your own AI assistant.
- An openly licensed, documented .harness file format — which is why Zorowire can import it.
Plan by plan
| harness.design | Zorowire | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature | Free | Pro, monthly | Pro, yearly | Free | Starter | Shop | Pro |
| Price, as listed | $0source: harness.design · checked | $29 per seat a monthsource: harness.design · checked | $24 per seat a month, billed yearly ($288)source: harness.design · checked | €0 | €24 a month or €190 a year | €79 a month or €790 a year | €149 a month or €1,490 a year |
| Users | 1 editor; read-only sharingsource: docs.harness.design · checked | Per seat; members without a seat see team harnesses read-onlysource: docs.harness.design · checked | Per seatsource: docs.harness.design · checked | 1 | 1 | 5, plus unlimited read-only viewers | 15, plus unlimited read-only viewers |
| Limits | Unlimited harnesses × 100 connections; revisions can be viewed but not createdsource: docs.harness.design · checked | Unlimited connectionssource: harness.design · checked | Unlimited connectionssource: harness.design · checked | Unlimited harnesses × 150 connections; 3 quotes a month | 1,000 connections per harness; unlimited quotes | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Platform | Browser, plus macOS and Windows desktop apps (offline once signed in)source: docs.harness.design · checked | Browser, plus macOS and Windows desktop apps (offline once signed in)source: docs.harness.design · checked | Browser, plus macOS and Windows desktop apps (offline once signed in)source: docs.harness.design · checked | Browser on macOS, Windows and Linux; nothing to install | Browser on macOS, Windows and Linux; nothing to install | Browser on macOS, Windows and Linux; nothing to install | Browser on macOS, Windows and Linux; nothing to install |
| 1:1 formboard | Formboard mode at 1:1; tiled panels A4–A1 or custom; exactly to scale in our test, without overlap or registration markssource: Zorowire test, 2026-10-30 · checked | Formboard mode at 1:1; tiled panels A4–A1 or custom; exactly to scale in our test, without overlap or registration markssource: Zorowire test, 2026-10-30 · checked | Formboard mode at 1:1; tiled panels A4–A1 or custom; exactly to scale in our test, without overlap or registration markssource: Zorowire test, 2026-10-30 · checked | Automatic 1:1 layout; tiled A4/A3/Letter/Tabloid with overlap, registration marks and a 100 mm check ruler, or one piece; peg coordinates | Automatic 1:1 layout; tiled A4/A3/Letter/Tabloid with overlap, registration marks and a 100 mm check ruler, or one piece; peg coordinates | Automatic 1:1 layout; tiled A4/A3/Letter/Tabloid with overlap, registration marks and a 100 mm check ruler, or one piece; peg coordinates | Automatic 1:1 layout; tiled A4/A3/Letter/Tabloid with overlap, registration marks and a 100 mm check ruler, or one piece; peg coordinates |
| Cut list and cut lengths | Routed length in the wiring table; in our test bundle sums with no allowance setting; no strip lengths foundsource: Zorowire test, 2026-10-30 · checked | Routed length in the wiring table; in our test bundle sums with no allowance setting; no strip lengths foundsource: Zorowire test, 2026-10-30 · checked | Routed length in the wiring table; in our test bundle sums with no allowance setting; no strip lengths foundsource: Zorowire test, 2026-10-30 · checked | Your allowances per connector and splice end, loops, slack, rounding; strip length, terminal and seal per end | Your allowances per connector and splice end, loops, slack, rounding; strip length, terminal and seal per end | Your allowances per connector and splice end, loops, slack, rounding; strip length, terminal and seal per end | Your allowances per connector and splice end, loops, slack, rounding; strip length, terminal and seal per end |
| Labels | No label printer output foundsource: docs.harness.design · checked | No label printer output foundsource: docs.harness.design · checked | No label printer output foundsource: docs.harness.design · checked | Wire-end, connector and bundle labels: PDF sheets and CSV for label software | Wire-end, connector and bundle labels: PDF sheets and CSV for label software | Wire-end, connector and bundle labels: PDF sheets and CSV for label software | Wire-end, connector and bundle labels: PDF sheets and CSV for label software |
| BOM | BOM CSV with part linkssource: docs.harness.design · checked | BOM CSV with part linkssource: docs.harness.design · checked | BOM CSV with part linkssource: docs.harness.design · checked | BOM CSV, wire and covering in metres | BOM CSV, wire and covering in metres | BOM CSV, wire and covering in metres | BOM CSV, wire and covering in metres |
| Quote and costing | None found; material prices add upsource: Zorowire test, 2026-10-30 · checked | None found; material prices add upsource: Zorowire test, 2026-10-30 · checked | None found; material prices add upsource: Zorowire test, 2026-10-30 · checked | Labour from operations, setup, quantity breaks, margin, customer PDF: 3 a month | Same, unlimited; your labour table and price list | Same, for 5 users; quote PDF with your logo | Same, plus NRE lines and several price lists |
| Missing information before quoting | None foundsource: docs.harness.design · checked | None foundsource: docs.harness.design · checked | None foundsource: docs.harness.design · checked | Missing part numbers and prices flagged | Flagged; basic RFQ checklist | Full RFQ checklist: missing customer information, unidentified parts, supplier price requests | Full RFQ checklist |
| Revisions | View and restore onlysource: docs.harness.design · checked | Named snapshots; no diffsource: docs.harness.design · checked | Named snapshots; no diffsource: docs.harness.design · checked | Last 2 revisions | Full history; diff of inputs, cut list, BOM and operations | Full history with diff | Full history with diff |
| Imports | Excel through an AI assistant over MCP; its own .harness filessource: docs.harness.design · checked | Excel through an AI assistant over MCP; its own .harness filessource: docs.harness.design · checked | Excel through an AI assistant over MCP; its own .harness filessource: docs.harness.design · checked | Excel and CSV with column mapping | Excel, CSV and WireViz YAML | Excel, CSV and WireViz YAML | Excel, CSV and WireViz YAML |
| Cutting-machine export | None foundsource: docs.harness.design · checked | None foundsource: docs.harness.design · checked | None foundsource: docs.harness.design · checked | Generic metric cut-list CSV | Generic metric cut-list CSV | Generic metric cut-list CSV | Saved machine column profiles (planned)planned |
| Languages | English; no other language statedsource: docs.harness.design · checked | English; no other language statedsource: docs.harness.design · checked | English; no other language statedsource: docs.harness.design · checked | 32 interface languages; native text in English, German, Italian, Polish, Romanian | 32 interface languages; native text in English, German, Italian, Polish, Romanian | 32 interface languages; native text in English, German, Italian, Polish, Romanian | 32 interface languages; native text in English, German, Italian, Polish, Romanian |
| Try before buying, support | Free plan; support by e-mail and Discordsource: docs.harness.design · checked | Free plan; support by e-mail and Discordsource: docs.harness.design · checked | Free plan; support by e-mail and Discordsource: docs.harness.design · checked | Free plan, no card; community support | E-mail support | E-mail support | Priority support |
Price difference per year
| One user | Pro: $288 a yearsource: harness.design · checked | Starter: €190 a year (≈ $212), quotes included | ≈ $76 a year less |
|---|---|---|---|
| Five users | 5 Pro seats: $1,440 a yearsource: harness.design · checked | Shop: €790 a year (≈ $883), unlimited viewers | ≈ $557 a year less |
| Free | 100 connections per harness, no revisions createdsource: docs.harness.design · checked | 150 connections, last 2 revisions, 3 quotes a month | both €0 |
harness.design lists USD prices and does not state VAT. Zorowire prices exclude VAT; dollar amounts are converted at the rate in our pricing (≈) and rechecked on the day of publishing.
Looking for a harness.design alternative?
Zorowire imports your .harness files, keeps the bundle lengths, and adds allowances, a production cut list and the quote.
Switching from harness.design?
Show us a paid harness.design licence or invoice and get your first year of Shop at the founding price, €49 a month instead of €79. We help you import your first harnesses.
How to switch
- In harness.design, save the harness as a .harness file.
- In Zorowire, import the file: connectors, wires, cables, splices and bundle lengths come across; anything that cannot be represented is listed as a finding.
- Set your connector and splice allowances and rounding; the cut lengths update.
- Enter your labour times and prices, then quote and print the board.
Other comparisons
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Competitor facts come from each vendor's public pages and our own tests, checked on the date shown in every cell. Prices are as listed, with currency and VAT status; conversions are marked ≈. Names are used only to identify the products. Tell us at [email protected] if something has changed and we will correct it.