PLC Simulator
No install · No download

A PLC Simulator That Needs Zero Install

Open a tab. Write a rung. Get graded. No MSI, no DMG, no admin password, no 20 GB vendor install, no Windows VM, no licence file.

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Join 1300+ learners practicing PLC programming

The problem

Why "no install" matters more than it sounds

Every other learner-facing PLC simulator asks you to install something. Studio 5000 Logix Emulate is 10 GB and locks to Windows. TIA Portal V17 with PLCSIM Classic is 20 GB, needs admin rights, and refuses to install on half of corporate laptops. Codesys is lighter but the SoftPLC demo shuts down after two hours. Factory IO is Windows-only and needs a separate vendor IDE to drive it.

For a learner on a school Chromebook, a work-issued MacBook, or a Linux box, each of those installs is either impossible or a weekend of VM and licence wrangling before a single rung is written.

A PLC simulator running in a single browser tab — ladder logic editor, scan-cycle runtime and I/O strip — with no install, no download, no MSI, no DMG and no Windows VM on any operating systemA web browser window running a PLC ladder logic simulator with an input/output strip, requiring no installation or download.plcsimulator.app/playno installINPUTSOUTPUTS
The whole simulator is one browser tab — no installer, no download, no admin password, no 20 GB vendor stack.

Workarounds that waste your time

What people try, and why it breaks

Parallels or VMware on Mac

$100/yr for Parallels, plus a Windows licence, plus a vendor PLC IDE. And you still fight keyboard layouts (⌘ vs Ctrl) in every TIA Portal shortcut.

Wine on Linux

Studio 5000 refuses to install. TIA Portal partially works until it crashes on a complex project. No vendor supports it officially.

Dual-boot

A weekend of partitioning, another weekend of driver hunts, and you still need a Windows licence and a vendor PLC licence after all that.

Cloud Windows (Azure, AWS, Windows 365)

Monthly subscription, latency on every click, and RDP that barely works on a Chromebook.

Dev-mode unlock on a Chromebook

Voids the warranty on a school-issued device and your IT department reverts it the moment you connect to the school wifi.

Android or iOS ladder apps

Almost all are rudimentary toys; small screen destroys productivity; no real dialect support.

The "just works" version

What you actually get from "no install"

Browser-only execution

The ladder editor, scan-cycle runtime, and scored scenarios all live in JavaScript + WebAssembly inside the tab. Chromium, Firefox, Safari — all three are fine.

Offline via PWA

Install the app to your dock or home screen. Scenarios you have opened before work offline; progress syncs when you reconnect.

Any hardware

Runs on a five-year-old Chromebook, an M-series MacBook, a Linux desktop, a tablet with an external keyboard, or the locked-down work laptop you were told to use.

What actually runs with zero install

No install does not mean no substance

The "no download" browser ladder tools you have already tried are usually thin: a drawing canvas with a couple of contacts. This one runs the real thing in the tab — a genuine IEC 61131-3 scan-cycle runtime, ladder and structured text, timers on the scan clock, and hidden test cases that grade your program. Here is what is actually executing with nothing installed.

The PLC scan cycle — read inputs, execute the program, update outputs, then repeat — running with zero install inside a browser tab on any operating systemThe repeating PLC scan cycle: read inputs, execute the ladder logic, update outputs, then housekeeping, looping continuously.1Read Inputs2Execute Logic3Update Outputs4HousekeepingSCANCYCLE
A real scan-cycle runtime — read inputs, solve logic, write outputs, repeat — with nothing installed.
A ladder logic rung with a normally-open contact driving an output coil, written and graded in the browser with no PLC software downloadedA basic ladder logic rung between two power rails: an examine-if-closed contact (XIC) in series driving an output coil (OTE).L1L2] [StartXIC I:0/0LampOTE O:0/0
Write a contact-and-coil rung and have it graded live — no download, no licence file.
The five IEC 61131-3 languages — Ladder, Function Block, Structured Text, SFC and Instruction List — all available in a no-install browser PLC simulatorThe five IEC 61131-3 PLC programming languages as chips: Ladder Diagram, Function Block Diagram, Structured Text, Instruction List and Sequential Function Chart.IEC 61131-3 — five languagesLDLadder DiagramFBDFunction BlockSTStructured TextILInstruction ListSFCSequential Func. Chart
IEC 61131-3 — the same standard TIA Portal, Studio 5000 and Codesys implement, with zero install.
An IEC 61131-3 Structured Text code block, the text language practised in a no-download browser PLC simulator alongside ladder logicA small Structured Text code block in an editor: an IF/THEN condition, a TON timer call and assignments, showing text-based PLC programming.main.st — Structured Text1IF Start AND NOT Stop THEN2 Run := TRUE;3END_IF;4DelayTmr(IN := Run, PT := T#5s);5Lamp := DelayTmr.Q;
Structured Text — the high-level IEC language, in the tab, with nothing downloaded.
Common ladder logic symbols — normally-open and normally-closed contacts, output coils, set and reset coils — used in a no-install online PLC simulatorThe core ladder logic symbols side by side: XIC examine-if-closed, XIO examine-if-open, OTE output energize, OTL output latch and OTU output unlatch.XICIfXIOIfOTEEnergizeLOTLLatchUOTUUnlatch
The full ladder symbol set — contacts, coils, set/reset — identical to vendor tooling.
An IEC TON on-delay timer timing chart, a core instruction that ticks on the scan clock in the no-install browser PLC simulatorA TON on-delay timer: the accumulated time bar ramps up toward the preset value, and the done (DN) bit turns on when the accumulator reaches preset.TONPRE 5000ACCACC ramps to PREPREDNdone bit
TON / TOF / TP timers tick on the scan clock — the same behaviour as real hardware.
PLC architecture — CPU, input modules, output modules and field devices — taught in a no-install browser simulator before moving to real PLC hardwareA modular PLC rack on a backplane: power supply, CPU processor, input module, output module and a communications module side by side.PLC RACKbackplane busPSUPowerCPUProcessorDIInputDOOutputNETComms
The CPU / input / output / field-device model — the mental map that transfers straight to real hardware.

Getting started

Three steps, no install, no download

  1. 1. Open a browser tab. Anything Chromium, Firefox, or Safari-based from the last three years works.
  2. 2. Sign up free. Email and password. No credit card. Takes 30 seconds.
  3. 3. Write a rung. Pick a scenario like motor start/stop and write your first ladder logic. The scan cycle starts immediately.

Total time to first rung: under two minutes on any device you already own.

Performance

What to expect, honestly

Good

  • Modern Chromium and Safari with hardware acceleration.
  • Any laptop from the last 5 years.
  • iPad with an external keyboard.

Degraded

  • Phones — possible, but small screen destroys the editing experience.
  • Very old browsers (IE11, Safari <14) — unsupported.
  • Aggressive corporate proxies that block WebAssembly — rare, but they exist.

What you can practise

All 40 scenarios run in the tab

Motor Start / Stop

View scenario →

Traffic Light

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Conveyor Sort

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PID Temperature

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Elevator

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Tank Fill

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Browse all scenarios, follow the free 18-lesson curriculum, read what a browser PLC simulator does, or see how scenarios map to HVAC and packaging work. No-install also means no install on Mac, Linux, or a Chromebook.

Questions

No-install PLC simulator FAQ

Yes. It is a web application — you open a URL and write PLC code in the tab. Nothing is downloaded to your device beyond the normal browser cache. No MSI, no DMG, no admin password prompt.

Two minutes to first rung.

No install. No download. No admin password. Free tier forever.

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