Free OPC Software

Automation Media is dedicated to develop the awareness and understanding about interoperability in automation by providing best information about open specifications that standardize the communication of acquired process data, alarm and event records, historical data, and batch data to multi-vendor enterprise systems and between production devices. Production devices include sensors, instruments, PLCs, RTUs, DCSs, HMIs, historians, trending subsystems, alarm subsystems, and more as used in the process industry, manufacturing, and in acquiring and transporting oil, gas, and minerals.

Supplier	Product	Notes
MatrikonOPC	OPC Explorer	Popular free OPC client used for testing. Comprehensive features, very easy to use. Sponsored Link
4CE Industry	OPCX DA	Demo version of an ActiveX control which aims to simplify Data Access client development.
Advosol	Free Tools	Advosol offers a number of test and sample clients, usually as part of a toolkit or component evaluation (requires registration). Supported specifications include DA 2, DA 3, AE, HDA and XML-DA.
Bee Computing	Oxalis	HDA client providing graphical visualization of historical data. HDA server access ceases after 30 minutes in demo version.
Canary Labs	Trend Historian, Trend Link	Evaluation versions of Canary Labs' trending and logging utilities. Updated versions include OPC Historical Data Access support: HDA server in Trend Historian, client in Trend Link.
Cogent Real-Time Systems	OPC DataHub	Time-limited demo of DA 2 and DA 3 server and client combination that supports OPC tunnelling, aggregation, and bridging. Also offers TCP and DDE client and server, plus scripted read/write connections to ODBC databases and MATLAB.
Control See	U.C.ME-OPC	Client software for alarm notification and remote control, using a variety of wired, wireless and mobile technologies. Demo download runs for one hour before requiring restart, but otherwise unrestricted.
EXELE	TopView for OPC	Evaluation download of DA 2.05 client, allowing OPC tags to be monitored for user-configured alarm conditions. Notifications may be sent by email, pager or cell phone. Voice annunciation and text-to-speech allow delivery of audible alarm messages by phone or through the computer's speakers. A Remote Viewer option allows TopView instances to be remotely monitored from a Desktop PC or Windows Mobile device.
ExperTune	OPC Test Client	Simple test client, originally intended for checking compatibility of servers with the company's PID tuning product.
GE Fanuc	OPC Data Access Object	ActiveX control. Allows limited use of custom OPC interfaces from VB client.
ICONICS	OPC DataSpy	Client for diagnostics and monitoring. Supports local and remote connections to DA and AE servers, and includes useful features such as a log of OPC calls. Slightly marred by an HMI which is counter-intuitive in parts.
ICONICS	OPC Enabled ActiveX Controls	Gauge, Switch and Vessel controls are available, allowing connection to any OPC data source.
Industrial DOT NET	Quick Data	Free DA client based on the same company's Local IO product. Includes facilities for buffering, scaling and masking of tag values. Requires .NET Framework 1.1.
Integration Objects	OPC DA Explorer, OPC AE Explorer	Free GUI clients offering simultaneous connection to multiple servers.
IOServer	IOServer	Evaluation version of an OPC server which also includes client functionality. See servers for more details.
Kassl	Freeware clients	A range of easy freeware clients for DA, AE and HDA, plus an XML-DA test client.
Kassl	dOPC Explorer	Easy to use and attractive DA and XML-DA diagnostic client, including basic trend charts. Now supports DA 3 and XML-DA 1.01. Free for non-commercial use.
Kepware	KEPServerEX	Demo server download (see servers) includes simple yet elegant OPC Quick Client.
Kepware	LinkMaster	Demo version of comprehensive bridging product. Able to act both as OPC client and server, as well as DDE server. See also products from MatrikonOPC and Northern Dynamic.
Matrikon	Operational Insight Lite	Free tool with a number of advanced capabilities, including trending and process mimics based on real-time and archived OPC data (DA and HDA). Requires periodic license renewal (free of charge) via Matrikon web site.
new MatrikonOPC	HDA Explorer	Free tool for verifying historical data through HDA, testing HDA servers, and troubleshooting connectivity to HDA servers.
MatrikonOPC	OPC Client for ODBC	OPC client which enables any ODBC-compliant database to exchange process data with an OPC server, using standard SQL queries.
MatrikonOPC	OPC Data Manager	'Thin' OPC client which bridges between two OPC servers, taking data from one and writing it directly to the other. See also products from Kepware and Northern Dynamic.
MatrikonOPC	OPC Desktop Historian	Process Historian that collects and archives time-series process data, with reporting, analysis, and viewing facilities. Efficiently stores an unlimited amount of data and an unlimited number of tags.
MatrikonOPC	OPC Redundancy Broker	Enables easy implementation of redundancy in OPC-based systems, being designed for applications that must use redundant hardware and/or software to achieve a high degree of communication reliability.
MatrikonOPC	OPC Trender	Comprehensive yet easy to use trending tool. OPC DA is used to gather real-time data from any OPC server, while OPC HDA may also be used for historical data retrieval.
MMI OPC	OPC Explorer	Very simple GUI client for browsing available Data Access servers and items.
National Instruments	Server Explorer	Powerful and easy to use test client. Connection Wizard allows a server connection with a group and multiple items to be established with just five mouse clicks.
Nautsilus	OPC Explorer	Demo version of a Data Access 2.0 diagnostic client. Allows live linking to other applications (e.g. Microsoft Excel) via a simple Copy and Paste operation, plus bridging between two servers.
NETxAutomation	OPC Voyager	Visualization software for buildings and industrial plants. Free tester version has no time restriction, but is limited to 5 pages and 5 elements per page.
OpenOPC	Command-line Client	Powerful console client, supporting a full range of OPC DA operations. Great flexibility through ability to use pipes, plus CSV files as input/output.
New Century Technologies	OPC Proxy	Gathers and caches data from multiple OPC servers in a networked environment. The data is then presented to client programs using simplified (non-OPC) COM interfaces.
Northern Dynamic	OPC Gateway	Enables data transfer between two OPC servers using only point and click or drag/drop configuration. Provides support for data transformations. Trial version is functionally unrestricted, but limited to 30 days use. See also products from Kepware and Matrikon.
Northern Dynamic	OPC DA Server Toolkit	A simple but effective OPC Browser utility is provided with Northern Dynamic's toolkit download.
OPC Programmers' Connection	Delphi OPC Sample	Our own simple console client, written in Borland Delphi. Includes Delphi conversions of all published custom OPC interfaces.
Open Automation Software	OPC for DB	Time-limited demo version of a Visual Basic application for bidirectional data transfer between databases and OPC servers. Source available at extra cost.
PowerOPC	OPC Browser, OPC Data Access Client	Simple DA 2.0 (and 1.0) browser and client utilities. Data Access Client subscribes to the first 100 server tags it finds and continuously displays updates of their values.
Prosys	Prosys OPC Client	Simple DA client with source, demonstrating capabilities of the Prosys Sentrol rapid development framework.
Rensen Information Services	OPC Office Link	Greatly simplifies the task of importing live OPC data into Office applications (e.g. Excel) and ODBC databases. Free time-limited download available for evaluation.
Resolvica	OPCEx	Provides an easy way to access real-time data from any OPC server via Microsoft Excel. Free trial download is available.
Rockwell Software	OPC Test Client	Simple MDI application, with comprehensive support for the Data Access interfaces.
Softing	OPC Demo Client	Flexible and easy to use client. One of our favorites. Version 4.10 adds integrated XML-DA support to the existing support for DA and AE.
SST	OPC console client	A simple console client, including source. Supports OPC Data Access 2.
SST	OPC Simulation server and GUI client	A simple GUI client, supplied with an in-process server (see servers) for testing.
WinTECH Software	Various clients	ClntDemo2.zip usefully displays all OPC interface calls in a logging window. Also available are demo clients for Alarms & Events and Historical Data Access.