What EDABoard does

EDABoard is a private online discussion forum dedicated to electronics engineering, established in 2010 and operated by Arrowfly, LLC, a Cleveland, Ohio-based holding entity. The platform serves professional electronics engineers, students, hobbyists, and repair technicians by providing threaded discussions on topics such as component datasheets, circuit design, embedded systems, repair techniques, semiconductor devices, and product recommendations. Built on the XenForo community platform, the forum has accumulated 615,410+ registered members, 389,035+ discussion threads, and 1,725,504+ messages, making it one of the larger English-language electronics engineering communities online.

The platform is free for end users, with no subscriptions, paid tiers, or enterprise products. Revenue is generated through advertising, most visibly via a dedicated "Business, Promotions, and Advertising" sub-forum where vendors and component sellers post, and a classifieds section. There is no disclosed management team, no funding history, no partnerships, no patents, and no product roadmap. The forum maintains a social media presence on Facebook, X (Twitter), and YouTube, and operates without geographic restrictions, serving a global audience.

The underlying technology is commodity XenForo forum software; no proprietary technology, AI features, or differentiated tooling is described. The principal asset is the 14-year content archive, which functions as both an organic SEO magnet and a long-tail reference corpus for practicing engineers. The business operationally appears to be a low-overhead, ad-supported community property operating in maintenance mode under a small private owner rather than as a venture-backed growth business.

Name

EDABoard

Website

https://edaboard.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Short description

EDABoard is a free, ad-supported online discussion forum for professional electronics engineers, students, hobbyists, and repair technicians, hosting 615,000+ members and 1.7 million+ messages on circuit design, embedded systems, and component topics.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Electronics Engineering Community

NAICS

Information (51), Software Publishers (513210)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

EDA Software Platforms (Digital Implementation, Verification & Signoff) (HDAHAFAA)

akta.pro secondary industry

EDA Cloud/SaaS, Design Data Management & Collaboration (HDAHAFAJ)

Keywords

• Electronics engineering forum
• EDA discussion community
• ASIC FPGA design forum
• PCB circuit design community
• Microcontroller programming forum

Headquarters

HQ city

Cleveland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Advertising and Promotions: The Classifieds section and Business, Promotions, Advertising forum allow paid advertising and promotional content. This is the only section where advertising is explicitly permitted, suggesting a freemium/community model with advertising as a revenue stream.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

EDABoard is a free, international online discussion forum where electronics engineers, students, hobbyists, and technicians post and answer technical questions on EDA software, ASIC/FPGA design, microcontrollers, RF/analog circuits, PCB design, embedded systems, service manuals, and related electronics topics. The platform organizes content into specialized sub-forums, supports Best Answers voting, social groups, classifieds, and a job board, and is funded through permitted advertising in designated sections.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• EDABoard Electronics Discussion Forum Free, internationally accessible XenForo-based online forum where registered users post and answer technical questions across EDA software, ASIC/FPGA design, microcontrollers, RF/analog circuits, PCB design, embedded systems, service manuals, and related electronics topics. Includes Best Answers voting, social groups, classifieds, and a job board.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• Hackaday: Established electronics and hardware-hacking media property with active comment community and project write-ups. Comparable as a destination for practicing engineers and hobbyists, but operates primarily as editorial content rather than a discussion forum.

Others

• ResearchGate: Professional network for researchers and engineers, including semiconductor and electronics researchers. Adjacent rather than directly competing, but overlaps in serving technical specialists and provides a comparison point for community-driven technical content monetization.
• Adafruit: Major hobbyist electronics retailer and educator with an active blog, YouTube channel, and community forums. Adjacent to EDABoard in serving the maker/hobbyist electronics segment, though its community is built around its own product ecosystem rather than open discussion.

Emerging players

• Dangerous Prototypes Forum: Smaller hobbyist-focused electronics forum with overlap in microcontrollers, FPGA, and open-source hardware topics. Partial peer to EDABoard: shares the embedded/electronics hobbyist audience but with narrower scope and smaller scale.
• Overclock.net Forums: Long-running enthusiast forum covering PC hardware, electronics, and adjacent technical topics. Comparable as a forum-based community for technical users, though with a stronger PC-hardware orientation than EDABoard's EDA/electronics focus.
• Reddit r/electronics and r/FPGA: Subreddit communities for electronics and FPGA topics that increasingly serve the same audience EDABoard targets. Comparable in topical coverage but with modern UX, broader social features, and a younger user demographic that competes for engagement.

Direct peers

• Electronics Stack Exchange: Q&A community for electronics engineers covering circuits, EDA tools, microcontrollers, and embedded design. Closest functional peer to EDABoard with the same target user (professional and hobbyist electronics engineers) but with a moderated Q&A format rather than threaded discussion.
• EEVblog Forum: Active discussion forum tied to the popular EEVblog electronics engineering YouTube channel. Directly comparable to EDABoard in serving practicing electronics engineers and hobbyists with technical troubleshooting and design discussions.
• element14 Community: Community platform for electronics design engineers and makers, sponsored by element14/Farnell. Comparable to EDABoard as a discussion and project-sharing destination for practicing electronics engineers, with a stronger commercial/sponsorship backbone.
• All About Circuits Forum: Technical forum for electrical and electronics engineers covering analog, digital, PCB design, and embedded topics. Comparable user base and content scope to EDABoard, with similar long-form thread structure and educational article companion content.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/EDAboard
• Facebookfacebook.com/EDABoard

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about EDABoard