Wokwi vs Tinkercad, compared fairly
Intermediate
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- 424parts on the bench
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Wokwi and Tinkercad Circuits are the two Arduino simulators most people try first, and they are built for different people. Tinkercad is a beginner tool from Autodesk, with blocks, a friendly parts library and 3D design next door. Wokwi is a maker’s tool, with many boards, any library from the Arduino Library Manager and serious debugging. This page compares them on the things that decide which one you should use.
We make Mokxi, a third simulator, so we have a stake. Every claim about Wokwi and Tinkercad here comes from their own public pages, listed at the bottom with the date we checked them, and where one of them is the better answer we say so. The circuit above is a DHT22 weather station on an Arduino Uno with an I2C LCD, the kind of first project all three tools can run.
The short answer
Teaching young beginners who need block coding: Tinkercad. Building maker projects on an ESP32, a Pico or an STM32, using any Arduino library, or writing MicroPython or Rust: Wokwi. A teacher-led electronics class that wants a real breadboard, analog circuits and assignments with checks and a gradebook: that is the gap Mokxi was built for, and it is covered further down.
Boards
Tinkercad Circuits simulates the Arduino Uno, the BBC micro:bit and the ATtiny. That covers most first lessons, and nothing past them: there is no ESP32, no Raspberry Pi Pico and no STM32.
Wokwi covers far more: the AVR Arduino boards and the ATtiny85, ten ESP32 chips on Xtensa and RISC-V (three of them in alpha or beta), STM32 parts, and the Raspberry Pi Pico with its PIO and ADC. For anything past the Uno, Wokwi wins this row easily.
Coding and libraries
Tinkercad offers blocks and text side by side for the Uno and the micro:bit. Blocks are the reason many middle schools choose it, and a student can flip to see the text the blocks make.
Wokwi is text only, in more than one language: Arduino, ESP-IDF, MicroPython, CircuitPython on the ESP32, and Rust. Every plan, including the free one, can use any library from the Arduino Library Manager, and the paid plans add libraries of your own. That alone settles it for many makers: a sketch from a tutorial usually runs on Wokwi as written.
Classes and schools
Tinkercad has classes with class codes, teacher moderation and student designs, and it is free and already approved in a great many districts. For a school that wants one beginner tool with no purchasing, that is hard to beat.
Wokwi offers a Classroom license, priced by quote. Its free Community plan has unlimited simulations and unlimited public projects; private (unlisted) projects need a paid plan, which matters for student work.
Debugging and instruments
Tinkercad gives beginners a multimeter and a serial monitor, which is enough for first lessons. Wokwi goes much further for firmware: a GDB session in the browser, an eight-channel logic analyzer, and the VS Code extension on its Hobby+ and Pro plans. If you debug firmware for a living, Wokwi’s tooling is the more familiar.
Mokxi takes a different angle: source breakpoints, stepping and watches in the browser, plus bench instruments you wire into the circuit, a two-channel scope, a function generator, a multimeter, a bench supply and a four-channel logic analyzer that decodes UART, I2C and SPI.
Price
Tinkercad is free. Wokwi has a free Community plan and paid Hobby, Hobby+ and Pro plans; Hobby+ and Pro add a VS Code extension, and Pro adds CI. Both let you run a simulation without paying anything.
Where Mokxi fits
Both tools leave a few things out, and those gaps are why Mokxi exists. Tinkercad has no ESP32. Wokwi’s simulation is digital: a request to simulate resistor dividers has been open on its public tracker since 2021, so a circuit that depends on analog parts behaves differently than on a bench. Neither puts a two-channel scope, a function generator and a logic analyzer on the canvas as parts you wire in.
Mokxi runs Arduino, ESP32, ESP8266, Pico and STM32 boards with your C++ compiled in the browser tab, solves analog circuits with real device models next to the firmware, and has a full class workflow: a roster, starter projects, checks that run on each submission, feedback and a gradebook export. It has no block coding and no MicroPython, so for those, use Tinkercad or Wokwi.
Moving between them
Wokwi projects move cleanly: Mokxi’s import page takes a Wokwi link, a diagram.json and sketch, or a zip, and brings the parts, wiring and code across with a report of anything that did not map. Mokxi also exports a Wokwi project zip, so the door swings both ways.
Tinkercad has no project file, so its wiring cannot be imported by any tool. Copy the code and the Component List and paste them on the import page; the parts arrive with their values, ready to wire.
Questions
Is Wokwi better than Tinkercad?
For makers and anything past an Uno, usually yes: more boards, any Arduino library and more languages. For young beginners who need block coding, Tinkercad is better.
Is Wokwi free?
Wokwi has a free Community plan with unlimited simulations and unlimited public projects. Private projects, your own libraries, VS Code and CI come with its paid plans.
Can Tinkercad or Wokwi simulate analog circuits?
Tinkercad simulates basic parts such as resistors and LEDs alongside the Uno. On Wokwi, analog simulation of a resistor divider is an open feature request. Mokxi solves analog circuits with real device models, with sweeps and Bode plots.
Which simulator is best for an ESP32?
Wokwi covers the widest range of ESP32 chips and features, including MQTT and MicroPython. Mokxi runs eleven ESP32 boards on its free plan with a class workflow and analog circuits. Tinkercad has no ESP32.
Keep going
Where the facts on this page come from
- Wokwi: plans and pricing (checked October 11, 2026)
- Wokwi docs: supported hardware (checked October 5, 2026)
- Wokwi docs: ESP32 simulation (checked October 5, 2026)
- wokwi-features #203: simulate resistor dividers (checked October 5, 2026)
- Tinkercad: Circuits (checked September 29, 2026)
- Tinkercad blog: Explore micro:bit with Tinkercad (checked September 29, 2026)
- Wikipedia: Tinkercad (checked September 29, 2026)
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