SIMA is more flexible and user friendly, OpenLCA is more complex but shareware and you need to pay for databases separately. E

SimaPro anyday..

Thank you

there was an interesting discussion few years ago on the same topic.

Benyamin Khoshnevisan provided some useful information.

please see it below.

Sima pro:

Pros

Being a highly used piece of life cycle assessment software, SimaPro is thoroughly tested and robust. As well, its popularity makes SimaPro's findings and reports easy to share with colleagues. The hardware and software requirements for running this program are also fairly light.

Cons

To run this life cycle assessment software, you have to use Windows. If you use SimaPro through an emulator on any other native operating system, the stability is potentially an issue and there is no support for any operating system other than Windows. Having 5 GB of hard drive space is also necessary for every device running SimaPro on a server. A wide monitor is strongly recommended for effective high resolution modeling.

Notable Features

SimaPro life cycle analysis software can calculate a carbon footprint of many kinds of products and systems. Using its customizable parameters and Monte Carlo analytical capabilities, SimaPro can even determine the potential environmental impact that a system or service produces with statistical accuracy. With its ability to determine key performance indicators and issue full Environmental Product Declaractions and GRI Environmental Reports, SimaPro presents a full view of the potential impact any design will have under realistic conditions.

Gabi:

Pros

Offering a full suite of software including iReport, GaBi's life cycle assessment software solutions are certain to be able to fulfill your needs. GaBi can also assist you in designing products with specifically more environmentally friendly components, such as lower emissions of greenhouse gases and reduced water use and waste. GaBi is also excellent for helping a company keep up with environmental regulations and creating value chains from research & development through the design, production, procurement and distribution networks. This piece of life cycle assessment software also allows sharing of reports and analysis internally within your company's different departments.

Cons

GaBi life cycle assessment software's tools, including iReport, often need to be downloaded and updated independently of the main program. The software is somewhat clunky and has a steep learning curve, appearing to still be on their original codebase, which is more than a decade old. Much of the background documentation for the included datasets is empty and lacks transparency, requiring reliance on their support staff.

Notable Features

GaBi allows you to sketch out your ideas in its interface. GaBi also eases the process of selecting the best dataset for the kind of data documentation you require, and uses its embedded database documentation to aid you in the design process. Using GaBi's process recording feature, you can collect data across every point of the design process and determine precisely where efficiencies occur. GaBi presents its database documentation in accordance with International Life Cycle Database formatting.

link to the discussion is below.

https://www.researchgate.net/post/What_are_the_differences_between_SimaPro_and_GaBi_software_for_building_life_cycle_assessment

I have done my undergrad thesis on comparative LCA. To my knowledge, there are more papers published with SimaPro. GaBi is a strong tool to use as well. You need to buy the license for both. Otherwise, openLCA is very useful.

I have recently finished my PhD on C footprints of CA cropping. I used excel spreadsheet. many references are there if you have EF of inputs used.

Have you tried Simapro or GaBi?