Are there any alternatives to 5spice in the market place and how easy are these packages to use??

 

There are many other Spice simulators out there. Too many to list. You can do a google search on them. There are free ones, low cost ones and expensive ones.

I have used several Spice based simulators over time. The functionalities can differ a lot, but the core simulation engines are similar. PSpice (now Orcad) is probably the most popular and that is why a lot of component models out there supplied and tested as PSpice compatible. It is also a mixed-mode simulator capable of handling digital circuit.

The original Berkeley Spice is good and you get a good support for new devices such as BSIM3v3 or BSIM4 (only important if you do MOSFET IC simulation). But not a lot can be say of user interfaces and it is a lil bit slow, but you can get one for free. It is analogue only.

Other popular packages are Multisim (analogue + digital) , Altium (was Protel, analogue + digital), Easy Spice (low cost), HSpice (lean towards IC design, analogue only) etc.

Modern packages such as Orcad, Multisim and Altium are pretty easy to use, they have schematic captures and extensive libraries of devices. Specialist packages such as HSpice is netlist only and cumbersome to use. But it is powerful and have extensive functionalities for its designed purposes.

There are several open source port of Spice available. You can search and find them on sourceforge.