Comparison
Circuit Sherpa vs Octopart — an Octopart alternative for part pricing and BOMs
Octopart is a free, broad part-search engine. Circuit Sherpa is a narrower, paid tool built around one loop: search Digi-Key and Mouser live, price a whole BOM at your actual build quantity, and get emailed when a part hits your target price. If you want the longest list of distributors for one part, Octopart is the better choice. If you keep re-pricing the same BOMs and want alerts, saved searches, history and an API in one account, Circuit Sherpa is what we built for that.
What Octopart is
Octopart is an electronic component search engine that aggregates offers from a large number of distributors into one results page. It is operated by Nexar, the supply-chain data business of Altium, and it is free to use. It is the tool most engineers reach for first when they need to find who stocks a part, and it also offers a BOM tool and, through Nexar, a commercial API for the same data.
None of that is a knock on it. The reason an alternative exists at all is that a broad search engine and a purchasing workflow tool solve different problems.
What Circuit Sherpa does differently
Circuit Sherpa queries Digi-Key and Mouser directly through their official APIs on every search and merges the results into one ranked list. When Nexar credentials are configured it also asks the Nexar API for additional offers, which can add distributors such as Arrow, Avnet and TTI. Results are cached for 24 hours so repeat searches are fast and do not burn distributor rate limits. Beyond search, the product is organised around things you do repeatedly:
- Quantity-aware BOM costing. Upload a CSV with part numbers and quantities. Each line is priced at the price break that applies to your quantity, not the single-unit price, and any line below a distributor's MOQ is flagged with the tier that was used.
- Price alerts. Set a target price on a part. A scheduled job re-searches it once a day and emails you when the lowest single-unit price across every offer found is at or below your target.
- Saved searches and BOM history. Pro keeps 90 days of BOM uploads so you can see what a build cost last month versus today.
- REST API on Team. An API key that returns the same merged search results, with no separate data agreement.
- No advertising. Circuit Sherpa is paid for by subscriptions, so search ranking is by price and stock only.
Side by side
| Feature | Circuit Sherpa | Octopart |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free (10 searches/day); Pro $29/mo; Team $99/mo | Free |
| Distributor coverage | Digi-Key + Mouser direct; Nexar network offers when available | Broad aggregator network (the larger catalogue) |
| BOM pricing at quantity | Yes: CSV up to 500 lines, price-break tier per line, MOQ warnings | BOM tool available; see Octopart for current details |
| Price alerts | Yes: daily check, email (and push in the iOS app), 20 active on Pro | Not the product's focus; check Octopart for current features |
| Saved searches | Yes on Pro and Team | Requires an Octopart account; check current features |
| Price history | Recorded from first search on Circuit Sherpa, shown on part pages | Long-running historical data |
| API | REST API key on Team | Nexar API, a separate commercial product |
| Ads | None | Ad and affiliate supported |
| Account to search | Yes (magic link, no password) | No |
The Octopart column describes the product as publicly documented on 2026-09-16. We do not track their feature list day to day; check their site for anything you are relying on.
When Octopart is the better choice
- You need to find any seller at all for a hard-to-source or end-of-life part.
- You want years of price history on a common part.
- You search rarely and do not want an account.
- You need a large-scale data feed and are prepared to license the Nexar API.
When Circuit Sherpa is the better choice
- You price the same BOM repeatedly and want the cost at your build quantity, with MOQ problems called out.
- You want to be emailed when a part reaches a target price instead of checking by hand.
- You buy mostly from Digi-Key and Mouser and want their live prices ranked together without tabs.
- You want a REST API for internal tooling on a flat monthly price.
Read the BOM pricing guide for the mechanics of price breaks and MOQ, or the price alerts guide for how alerts are evaluated. Circuit Sherpa is also compared with Findchips.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Circuit Sherpa a free Octopart alternative?
- Partly. Circuit Sherpa has a free plan with 10 searches a day and live Digi-Key and Mouser pricing, which covers occasional part lookups. Octopart is free without a search cap. The things Circuit Sherpa charges for are the ones Octopart does not do in the same way: quantity-aware BOM costing with MOQ warnings, daily price alerts, saved searches, 90 days of BOM history and a REST API, on Pro ($29/month) or Team ($99/month).
- Does Circuit Sherpa search as many distributors as Octopart?
- No, and we will not pretend otherwise. Circuit Sherpa queries Digi-Key and Mouser directly through their official APIs on every search, and also asks the Nexar API (the same supply data platform behind Octopart) for additional offers when it is configured, which can surface distributors such as Arrow, Avnet and TTI. Octopart's own site is the broader catalogue. If your priority is the longest possible list of sellers for an obscure part, use Octopart.
- Can I move a BOM from Octopart to Circuit Sherpa?
- Yes. Export or save your BOM as a CSV with a part-number column (headers accepted: mpn, part number, part_number, partnumber or part) and an optional qty or quantity column, then upload it on the BOM page. Up to 500 lines and 2 MB per upload. Circuit Sherpa prices each line at the price break that applies to your quantity and flags lines that fall below a distributor's minimum order quantity.
- Does Circuit Sherpa show price history like Octopart?
- Circuit Sherpa records the best price it sees every time a part is searched and shows the recent history on that part's public page. That history only starts when a part is first searched on Circuit Sherpa, so a part nobody has looked up has no history yet. Octopart has been collecting data for far longer, so for long-run historical curves Octopart is the better source.
- Who is Circuit Sherpa for, compared with Octopart?
- Engineers and small hardware teams who price the same BOMs repeatedly, want to be emailed when a part drops to a target price, and want an API key without negotiating a data contract. Octopart is the better fit for one-off part discovery and for the widest distributor coverage.
Try it on your own part numbers
The free plan gives you 10 searches a day with live Digi-Key and Mouser pricing, no credit card. BOM upload and price alerts are on Pro ($29/month) and Team ($99/month).
Last reviewed for accuracy on 2026-09-16. Statements about other products describe them as publicly documented on that date; if something here is out of date, email [email protected] and we will fix it.