FREE HMI SOFTWARE
Free HMI Software for Learning HMI Design (2026)
You can learn HMI design on a laptop without buying a panel. Here is which HMI software is free, which is a trial, what each one limits, and a free course for each.
The best free HMI software for learning HMI design is Weintek EasyBuilder Pro, a free download with offline simulation, and FactoryTalk Optix Studio Standard, which Rockwell offers free. Siemens WinCC and Pro-face GP-Pro EX are available as trials. Each one lets you design and simulate screens on a PC without buying a panel.
Checked 26 September 2026. The licence terms below come from each vendor's own pages on that date, listed under Sources.
HMI or SCADA: which are you learning?
The two overlap, and people search for both, so it is worth being clear. An HMI is the operator panel on one machine or one process area: a touch screen bolted to the panel door, talking to one PLC, showing that machine's status, alarms and settings. A SCADA system supervises many machines or sites from a control room or a browser, with a central database of tags, long-term history, reports and many operator clients.
The design skills are the same: clear screens, sensible alarms, safe operator actions. The software differs. This guide covers HMI panel software; for SCADA, see our comparison of free SCADA courses with certificate and the free SCADA courses page. Most engineers learn a panel tool first, because the projects are smaller and the feedback is immediate.
What to look for in free HMI software
For learning, three things matter more than the feature list.
- Simulation on the PC. You need to press buttons and watch values change without a panel. All the tools here do this.
- No short time-out. A trial that stops after a few days is fine for a course you finish in a burst, and frustrating for a course you do on weekends. Plan around it.
- The brand you will meet at work. HMI skills transfer well between brands, but an employer still likes to see the editor they use. Weintek and Delta panels are common on smaller machines, PanelView and Optix on Rockwell lines, Siemens panels on Siemens lines.
Weintek EasyBuilder Pro: free, and the easiest start
Weintek offers EasyBuilder Pro as a free download on its product page, and says it supports more than 400 PLC drivers. Weintek's quick start guide describes two simulation modes:
- Offline simulation runs without any PLC and checks that your project behaves as designed.
- Online simulation talks to a real PLC, so the PC behaves like the panel would on the machine.
That makes it the simplest way to learn the basics of screens, objects, tags, alarms, recipes and user levels. The free Weintek HMI with EasyBuilder Pro course is written for complete beginners and needs no hardware.
FactoryTalk Optix: free Standard edition
Rockwell's newer HMI platform has a genuinely free entry point. On its "Try it now" page, Rockwell offers FactoryTalk Optix Studio Standard as a free download, and a 90-day trial of Studio Pro in the cloud. The Optix documentation says the emulator that runs your application on the development computer does not need a runtime licence, so you can build and test for as long as you like.
What Pro adds, per the same documentation, is mostly teamwork and cloud: the web-based studio, saving to a remote repository with version control, several people on one project, and deploying to or monitoring devices from the cloud. None of that is needed to learn.
The free FactoryTalk Optix HMI course uses Studio with Logix Echo or the Micro800 simulator for tags.
Siemens WinCC in TIA Portal: a trial
WinCC is not free. Siemens offers a free 21-day trial of WinCC Unified engineering and runtime simulation through SiePortal, and publishes trial downloads of STEP 7 with PLCSIM and WinCC for TIA Portal. With PLCSIM you can run the PLC and the panel together on one PC.
Twenty-one days is enough if you plan: install on a day you can study, finish the core screens, alarms and trends inside the trial, and keep notes so you can redo a project quickly on a later install. The free HMI design course covers WinCC Basic and Comfort alongside FactoryTalk View ME, and the free Siemens WinCC Unified course goes further into Unified.
Pro-face GP-Pro EX: a limited trial
Pro-face (Schneider Electric) offers GP-Pro EX Limited Edition, which it describes as a trial version you can use without buying a licence. You download it after registering for a free membership of the Pro-face website. Pro-face says the Limited Edition can transfer screen data to the GP4100 Series monochrome model, and that other series have restrictions, so read its limitations page before you install. For learning on a PC, the built-in simulation is what you need. The free Pro-face GP-Pro EX course is a beginner course that runs in the trial.
Delta DOPSoft
DOPSoft is Delta's configuration software for its DOP panels, and it is widely used on smaller machines. We could not confirm its licence terms on Delta's own site on the day we checked, so read the terms on Delta's Download Center before you install.
A bonus: Ignition Perspective
Ignition is usually called SCADA, but Perspective screens are HMI design too, and they run in a browser. Ignition Maker Edition is free for personal and educational use, with a 10,000-tag limit and Perspective as the only visualisation module. Businesses cannot use it. If you want a modern web HMI to practise on, it is a good free option.
Learn design, not only the editor
Most HMI courses teach where the buttons are. The skill employers notice is a screen an operator can read at a glance at 3 a.m. A few habits make a big difference: neutral backgrounds, colour reserved for abnormal states, units on every value, one navigation pattern, and deliberate actions for anything that starts a machine. Use this checklist on your first project.
A first project for any of these tools
Pick one tool and build this small machine panel. It exercises every basic skill, and it is the same whatever the brand.
- Home screen. Machine name, a running or stopped indicator, the current recipe, and buttons to the other screens.
- Manual screen. Jog buttons for two motors as momentary buttons, with an interlock indicator that shows why a motor will not start.
- Settings screen. Two setpoints (a speed and a time) with minimum and maximum limits, so an operator cannot type a nonsense value.
- Alarm screen. At least three alarms with a banner on every screen and an acknowledge button.
- Trend. One value plotted over the last few minutes.
- User levels. An operator can run the machine; only an engineer can change settings.
Build it with internal tags first. When it works, connect it to a simulated PLC: PLCSIM with the TIA Portal trial, Logix Echo or the Micro800 simulator for Rockwell, or the simulator of whichever PLC you already know. Then test it like an operator would: press things in the wrong order, type out-of-range values, and pull the simulated PLC offline to see what the screen does.
Keep screenshots of each screen and the project file. They make a better portfolio than a list of software names on a CV.
- Complete beginner, any industry: Weintek EasyBuilder Pro.
- Heading for Rockwell plants: FactoryTalk Optix Studio Standard, then FactoryTalk View ME.
- Heading for Siemens plants: WinCC in the TIA Portal trial, after the free TIA Portal course on free PLC training.
- Machine builders using Schneider panels: Pro-face GP-Pro EX.
Whichever you choose, the second tool will take a fraction of the time the first one did.
Free HMI courses and the certificate
Every HMI course on EDWartens is free in full: video lessons from independent YouTube creators (credited on each course page), written notes with worked examples, a practice task per module and one final assessment of 15 questions, with a 60% pass mark and three attempts before a 24-hour wait and a fresh paper. You need a free account so your progress is saved. No card and no trial.
The only paid item is the optional EDWartens Certificate of Completion, issued after you pass. The HMI courses here are beginner level, so the certificate is a small one-off fee, from US$2.99, and checkout shows your price. It has a unique code and a QR code that anyone can check at edwartens.com/verification. It is not a Weintek, Rockwell, Siemens or Pro-face certificate, and it is not accredited.
Browse every course on the free HMI courses page, or create a free account and start the Weintek course today.
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Questions
What is the best free HMI software for a beginner?
Weintek EasyBuilder Pro, because it is a free download with offline simulation, so you can build and test screens without a panel or a PLC. FactoryTalk Optix Studio Standard is the best free choice if you are heading for Rockwell plants.
Is FactoryTalk Optix free?
Rockwell offers FactoryTalk Optix Studio Standard as a free download and a 90-day cloud trial of Studio Pro. Its documentation says the emulator that runs your application on the development computer needs no runtime licence.
Is Siemens WinCC free?
No, but Siemens offers a free 21-day trial of WinCC Unified engineering and runtime simulation. That is enough to work through a course if you plan your time.
Can I learn HMI design without a PLC?
Yes. Every tool in this list simulates the panel on a PC, and most can simulate or use internal tags so you do not need a PLC at all for the first projects.
Do the free HMI courses give a certificate?
The courses are free in full. An EDWartens Certificate of Completion is optional and paid, issued after you pass the final assessment; for these beginner courses it costs from US$2.99. It is not a vendor certificate.
Sources
- Weintek: EasyBuilder Pro
- Weintek: EasyBuilder Pro Quick Start Guide (simulation)
- Rockwell Automation: Try FactoryTalk Optix now
- Rockwell Automation: FactoryTalk Optix licences
- Siemens: SIMATIC WinCC Unified Engineering
- Pro-face: GP-Pro EX Limited Edition (trial version)
- Inductive Automation: Ignition Maker Edition
Written by the EDWartens engineering team for general education. Product names are trademarks of their owners; mentioning them does not imply endorsement. Prices and terms of other providers were checked on the date shown and can change.
