the GUI of DipTrace, aligning components etc and general feel is much nicer but KiCAD has good integration with Python and the file formats/structures are readable so scripting is possible. I am yet to decide whether to pay $125 for a non-profit DipTraceStandard (1k pins, 4l) or just go with KiCAD. and I have quite a few components defined in both.

It is free for non-commercial use and extremely cheap for commercial use - About 100 would get you enough to. all my old designs are in DipTrace and all my new ones are in KiCad. My life has changed since I discovered DipTrace. again this would not have been supported by my licence. Along the way I had a design that was so space constrained I had to go to 4-layers. My experience is that KiCad does work and I have had a few boards manufactured by the usual suspects (JLCPCB/PCBWay.) without a hitch it was relatively painless. I even tried KiCad DipTrace import but that was not very convincing). (I was offered a temporary trial but I decided to not try it as I knew my design would inevitably need revisions and I might find myself stuck. I was forced to try something else because my latest design had 503 pins! At that time I wasn't sure whether to buy a licence or to try KiCad so I tried KiCad.

Diptrace to kicad