Turn practice into proof you can show employers

Build graded projects, a verifiable completion record, and an interview portfolio that shows your working code. Free to learn the fundamentals — go Pro for the full career toolkit.

Free

forever free

Start learning for free — no card needed.

27 free practice scenarios, including 10 guided beginner PLC labs
24 free learning modules + the first 6 Curriculum 101 lessons
54 free syntax lessons across 9 PLC dialects
Starter wiring + fault-finding practice
Scan-cycle highlight in slow mode
IEC 61131-3 dialect included
Fundamentals quiz
Junior interview track preview
Public Modbus, PID, instrumentation and multimeter foundation labs
1 saved industrial-lab project + 5 recent graded attempts

Start free

Lighter option

Basic

$8/mo

$99/yr billed annually

Save 31%

7-day money-back

Serious learners and students.

Everything in Free
All 60 Free and Basic scenarios unlocked
Guided 3D pick-and-place scenario
Full 12-lesson core curriculum + 10 Free/Basic quizzes
Choose one additional vendor dialect
Interactive Sensor School module
Unlimited sandbox sessions + 1 save slot
Progress tracking + attempt history
10 industrial-lab projects + 250 visible graded attempts

Go Basic

You won’t be left staring at a failing rung

The product guides the next step before asking you to contact anyone, then gives you a real human escalation path when self-service is not enough.

Start

A recommended-next dashboard and five-minute first rung remove the blank-page problem.

Diagnose

Readable failed checks and scenario-specific traces show what did not behave correctly.

Unblock

Step tutoring and progressive hints appear in the exercise; Pro adds full solution walk-throughs and the contextual AI Rung Tutor.

Escalate

Human email support reads every request, with priority handling for Pro learners.

Prices in USD. Any local tax (VAT/GST/sales tax) is added at checkout based on your country.

A hands-on PLC practice library, interview portfolio, and reference handbook for less than one hour of a controls engineer's rate. No install, no vendor lock-in, no six-figure PLC hardware. Vendor training tools run $1,500+ in licenses and $1,000+ per course — we're a fraction of that, browser-first.

Plan selection guide

Choose the smallest plan that proves your next PLC skill

The practical difference between plans is not how many pages you can open. It is the kind of evidence you need to produce next. Free is enough to confirm that browser PLC practice fits your learning style. Basic expands the structured practice surface for a learner building core competence. Pro is for repeated advanced practice, job or certification preparation, portfolio evidence and deeper troubleshooting. Teams adds cohort administration around the same learner work. Start with the decision you need to make, then upgrade only when a specific limit blocks it.

Before choosing, write down the next competency, the hours you can actually practise this month, the browser or device you will use, and the artifact you expect to keep. A good plan decision has a review date: complete the named work, inspect the evidence, and then decide whether broader access still solves a real constraint. This keeps a monthly subscription from becoming an unused intention and keeps an annual purchase tied to a sustained curriculum rather than a headline discount.

Use Free to test the learning loop

Choose Free when the immediate question is whether you can write a rung, run a scenario, read scan state and learn from a failed check in your browser. Complete several free scenarios from a clean initial state. If you can predict the output, explain why the check passed and diagnose one changed case, the platform is giving you useful practice. A paid plan is unnecessary until you need more scenarios, paths, dialect coverage, retained project capacity or portfolio features.

requirement → rung → machine result

Use Basic for a structured foundation

Choose Basic when you want a larger guided curriculum and scenario set but do not yet need the complete advanced career toolkit. It fits a student working through timers, counters, sequences, sensors and one additional vendor dialect in a deliberate order. The useful checkpoint is not course completion alone: keep the program, initial condition, observed behavior and explanation for a changed input or fault. Move to Pro when the remaining limits are repeatedly interrupting your study plan.

lesson → practice → repeatable explanation

Use Pro for job-ready evidence

Choose Pro when your outcome is a controls interview, advanced troubleshooting practice, broad dialect exposure, certification preparation or a portfolio of graded work. Pro is most valuable when you use the advanced paths, solutions, tutor context, fault scenarios and portfolio artifacts as one evidence loop. A certificate or screenshot is not the whole result. You should be able to defend the signal path, diagnose a variation and state which production details still need official software, real hardware and supervised practice.

advanced case → diagnosis → portfolio proof

Use Teams for managed cohorts

Choose Teams when an instructor or employer needs to organize learners, assign private paths or scenarios and review cohort progress. The plan decision should include class size, required competencies, reporting, privacy, procurement and the boundary between browser and physical labs. Pilot one representative module with real learner accounts before a larger rollout. Check that assignment, completion evidence, instructor review and escalation fit the actual teaching workflow rather than buying seats from a feature list alone.

assignment → learner evidence → cohort review

Keep vendor transfer in scope

Every plan teaches transferable control reasoning; none turns the browser into proprietary controller firmware. If the next decision depends on an ACD, TIA Portal, GX Works, CX-One or native robot project, include the official engineering environment and target equipment in the plan. Use the browser to define and test expected behavior, then recreate that bounded case in the vendor tool. This separation lets you practise quickly without overstating file compatibility, task timing, I/O electrical behavior or commissioning readiness.

browser behavior → official tool → target test

Choose monthly or annual deliberately

Monthly billing is the lower-commitment option when your schedule, fit or immediate project is uncertain. Annual billing lowers the effective monthly cost when you already expect sustained practice across a curriculum or cohort. Compare the displayed annual total with twelve monthly payments, include any tax shown at checkout and record who owns cancellation or renewal for a team. The annual discount is a price difference, not a reason to buy before the learning scope and available time are clear.

study horizon → total cost → review date

Evidence comparison

What each plan should let you demonstrate

Use this table as a buying and review checklist. The quantities in the plan cards are the current commercial entitlements; the rows below explain how to turn access into a defensible learning result. Product access is only the input. The output should be a program or configuration, an observable machine result, a failed or boundary case, a recovery check and an explanation that another person can review.

PLC Simulator plan selection by learner goal, evidence and upgrade trigger
Plan	Best starting goal	Evidence to produce	Upgrade or review trigger
Free	Confirm the browser workflow and learn core PLC execution.	A working basic program, repeated run and explanation of one failed or changed case.	A required scenario, path, dialect, project slot or advanced diagnostic is outside Free.
Basic	Build a broader structured foundation with guided practice.	A small set of tested timer, counter, sensor and sequence programs with attempt evidence.	Career preparation or repeated advanced scenarios require the complete paths and portfolio tools.
Pro	Prepare for advanced work, interviews, certification topics and troubleshooting.	Graded advanced cases, fault reasoning, solutions reviewed critically and portfolio artifacts.	Review renewal against actual practice frequency and the remaining skills in your plan.
Teams	Assign and review training across a cohort.	Assigned work, learner attempts, review records and a clear physical-lab transfer boundary.	Seat count, reporting, procurement, privacy or support needs change.

How to evaluate the Free plan before paying

Pick one free scenario that is close to your goal. Write the expected inputs, output and stopping behavior before running it. Complete it once, reset to the same initial state and complete it again. Then change one condition or inspect a failing check and explain the first point where observed behavior differs from expectation. Also test the browser and device you intend to use regularly. If this workflow is useful but a named entitlement blocks the next competency, the upgrade has a concrete reason. If the learning model does not fit, keep the free account and do not pay on the assumption that a larger library will change the basic workflow.

What a subscription does not prove

Paying does not certify production code, electrical competence, robot-cell access, safety validation or exact vendor-controller behavior. Those claims require the relevant issuer, employer, supervised environment and target equipment. Treat browser artifacts as evidence of learning-model reasoning: requirements, code, observations, tests and diagnosis. In a portfolio or interview, state what ran in the simulator, what you learned and what still needs official software or hardware. That honest boundary makes the evidence more credible and prevents a plan comparison from implying qualifications the product cannot award.

Compare us to what you were considering

Side-by-side breakdowns of how we stack up against the usual alternatives.

vs CodesysFree vendor IDE vs our browser-native simulator.vs OpenPLCOpen-source runtime vs an interview-focused teaching product.vs LogixProThe old-school classroom standard vs modern browser tooling.vs Best simulator 2026Roundup of the current market — where we fit.vs Ladder vs Structured TextWhich language to learn first and why it matters.vs In-person vs onlineWhen to pay for a classroom vs learn from the simulator.

Certification Prep Packs

Independent controls practice bundles — timed mock exam included. The ISA CCST Practice Pack is included with Pro ($99 value), or buy it separately for $99.

Independent practice — not affiliated with ISA or any certification body. This is not the official exam or a complete exam-coverage guarantee.

Browse packs →

CCSTISA credential · independent practice

Independent ISA CCST Practice Pack

40 practice scenarios covering ladder logic, diagnostics, safety, motion, HMI/SCADA, and documentation.

$99 one-timeView pack →

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Siemens S7 Cert-Prep

Coming soon

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Mitsubishi MELSEC Cert-Prep

Coming soon

Common questions

Is there a free trial?: Yes — the Free tier is a real product, not a capped demo. You get 27 free practice scenarios (including 10 guided beginner PLC labs), 24 free learning modules, 54 dialect lessons, and starter wiring and fault-finding practice, yours forever without a credit card.
Can I cancel?: Absolutely. Cancel from your account page at any time. You keep access until the end of the period you paid for — no clawbacks.
Do you offer refunds?: Yes. If you cancel within 7 days of your first payment and feel the tool wasn't what you expected, email us and we'll refund in full.
Do certificates expire?: No. Once you earn a certificate while on Pro, you can download it forever, even if you later switch to Basic or cancel. New certificates require active Pro.
What about teams or company training?: Teams plan is free to create and free to use at Free-tier limits. Add Pro features for your members at $199/seat/year — a discount on individual Pro ($249/yr). Includes team admin console, cohort reports, and org-private paths and scenarios. Annual billing by card after you upgrade; contact us at hello@plcsimulationsoftware.com for procurement or invoicing.
Do I need to install anything?: No install, no vendor lock-in, no six-figure PLC hardware. The PLC editor, guided scenarios, HMI and 3D Sandbox all run in the browser.
Which plan includes the 3D Sandbox?: The public component viewer is free and Basic includes a guided 3D pick-and-place scenario. Pro unlocks every guided 3D scenario plus the custom 3D Sandbox for composing and saving your own PLC-driven factory scenes.
What is the annual discount?: Paying annually saves 31% on Basic ($99/yr vs $144 monthly) and 28% on Pro ($249/yr vs $348 monthly). The price is locked for the year.
Which dialect do I get on the Free plan?: IEC 61131-3 is included on Free. Basic lets you choose one additional vendor dialect. Pro unlocks every supported dialect across the curriculum.
What is scan-cycle highlight?: Scan-cycle highlight overlays your ladder program with colour-coded indicators as the virtual processor evaluates each rung in real time. Slow mode pauses after each rung so you can inspect contact and coil states. It is available on all plans, including Free.
What is the fault injection module?: Fault injection inserts a hidden wiring fault into a running simulation — a swapped NC/NO contact, a broken wire, or a floating input. Your job is to find it using the scan-cycle highlight and variable table. Available on Pro.
What is included in the PLC handbook?: Pro includes the downloadable 150+ page Industrial PLC Training Handbook. It brings together all 55 curriculum modules, worked PLC examples, safety guidance, a glossary, and current IEC 61131-3, Modbus, EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, and OPC UA reference notes. The PDF is generated from the same maintained lesson source as the product, so it stays aligned with the online training.
Which dialect should I learn first?: If you already know which vendor your target employer uses, start with that dialect. If you are uncertain, start with IEC 61131-3 (included free) — it is the international standard and the concepts transfer directly to any vendor-specific dialect.

Still deciding?

The free tier is a real product, not a teaser. Start there — no card required.

Start free →