What's the best CAD software in 2026?
The right CAD tool opens your customers' files and still makes sense on year three's invoice.
CAD (computer-aided design) is for things that get built. A machined bracket, a sheet metal enclosure, a 3D-printed housing, a dimensioned drawing that goes to a supplier. So the choice isn't about pretty renders. It comes down to three questions most roundups skip: 2D drawings or parametric 3D, which files your customers and vendors send you (DWG, STEP), and what you'll pay over three years.
The short answer: SolidWorks if you do mechanical design for manufacturers and run Windows. Autodesk Fusion if you design and program your own CNC jobs, on Mac or PC. Onshape for a hardware team that wants everything in the browser. FreeCAD if you need free software you can actually sell work from. BricsCAD for DWG drafting at a listed price, Solid Edge for its free Community Edition.
Looking for organic modeling, visualization or animation instead? Our ranking of the best 3D modeling software covers that.
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
The best CAD software for your shop
The format suppliers expect, pro pricing by quote
Design to CNC in one fileCAD and CAM together, Mac or PC
Hardware teams, any OSRuns in the browser, $1,500 a year
Free, even for paid workOpen source, no account, version 1.1
2D drafting in DWGListed price, Pro €710 a year
Learning pro CAD for freeFree Community Edition, personal use
6 CAD tools side by side
The price column shows the official paid entry point, or "by quote" when the vendor publishes no figure. "Free plan" only counts free tiers that last, not 30-day trials. Rank reflects a small team that designs physical parts, not just the score.
| Best for | What it does best | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Autodesk Fusion | Best CAD plus CAM | Model and toolpaths in one place | 4.2/5 | Free personal use ($0); paid plans by subscription | ✓ | Makers, shops, hardware startups | Visit → |
| 4 | FreeCAD | Best free CAD | Commercial use allowed, no account | 4.1/5 | Free and open source | ✓ | Freelancers, makers, zero budget | Visit → |
| 1 | SolidWorks | Best for mechanical design | The native format most job shops read | 4.0/5 | Pro by quote; Makers $48/yr (non-commercial) | — | Engineering firms, manufacturers | Visit → |
| 5 | BricsCAD | Best for DWG drafting | 2D and 3D in one DWG file | 3.9/5 | Pro €710/yr (EU store, excl. VAT) | — | Drafters, millwork, fit-out | Visit → |
| 3 | Onshape | Best for collaboration | Browser-based, version control built in | 3.8/5 | Standard $1,500/yr per user | ✓ | Distributed teams, Mac and Linux | Visit → |
| 6 | Solid Edge | Best free way to learn pro CAD | Full-featured Community Edition | 3.7/5 | Paid by quote; Community free | ✓ | Students, future design teams | Visit → |
Official prices before tax. Fusion, Onshape and SolidWorks Makers list prices in US dollars; BricsCAD's store lists euros. "By quote": the vendor sells through resellers and publishes no figure.
How we compared and scored
You live with a CAD tool for years. Your part library piles up in its native format, your customers get used to your drawings, your team learns its shortcuts. Switching is expensive, so we looked at what weighs over three years, not over a free trial.
We read each vendor's pricing page and license terms, with a close eye on free tiers: who may sell what they design, and under which revenue cap. We checked recommended hardware, supported exchange formats (DWG, DXF, STEP, Parasolid) and user comments from maker and engineering communities, complaints first. FreeCAD (4.1) and Onshape (3.8) keep the scores from our 3D modeling ranking, on the same five criteria: one tool, one score, everywhere. The other scores were set for this ranking.
Rank doesn't always follow score. SolidWorks sits above Fusion because a contract design firm mostly receives SolidWorks files. FreeCAD outscores Onshape on price, yet it has the slowest learning curve here.
Not ranked, and why. AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT are still the 2D reference, but Autodesk sells them by subscription only and we couldn't read a current official figure, so they're covered in the BricsCAD card. Inventor and CATIA target large enterprises. Siemens NX and PTC Creo sit in the same tier. Shapr3D, Rhino 9 ($995 perpetual, 4.3) and SketchUp (Pro $399 a year, 4.1) are ranked on our 3D modeling page.
- Power in its disciplineParts, assemblies, dimensioned drawings, sheet metal, parametric constraints.30%
- Three-year costSubscription or perpetual, official price, multi-year discounts, listed or hidden.25%
- Learning curveTime to a first clean part, quality of docs and tutorials.20%
- Free versionWhat the free tier allows, above all whether you can use it commercially.15%
- Platforms and formatsWindows, Mac, Linux or browser; DWG, DXF and STEP in and out.10%
The ranking is editorial: a sponsored spot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
SolidWorks
SolidWorks (Dassault Systèmes) is the format you'll meet most often at machine shops and contract manufacturers. Parts, assemblies, drawings: it's built around making things. Users often say it has the shortest learning curve of the professional tools.
The catch is pricing transparency. Standard, Professional and Premium are sold by quote through resellers, with no official list price on the site. For personal projects, SolidWorks for Makers gives you full 3D CAD for $48 a year before tax. It's non-commercial only, with a 15-day refund window.
If you're starting a hardware company, the Startups program is the move: first year free, then 70% off in year two and 50% off in year three. You need under $1M in revenue, a company under five years old and a physical product. Design consultancies and contract manufacturers don't qualify.
The limit: hardware. SolidWorks runs on 64-bit Windows only. For the 2026 release, plan on 16 GB of RAM minimum, 32 GB recommended, and a certified graphics card and driver. Skip that and crashes become routine on bigger assemblies.
Tip: no Mac version exists, so if your team is on MacBooks, either budget for Windows machines or look at Fusion and Onshape first.
- Most common native format at job shops
- Full drawing and sheet metal tools
- Startups program: year one free
- ✓Users rate it the quickest pro tool to learn
- ✓Huge library of tutorials and parts
- ✓Makers plan at $48 a year
- ✗No published pro pricing
- ✗Windows only
- ✗Certified GPU strongly advised
The default for anyone designing for manufacturers. Get quotes from several resellers, and apply to the Startups program before you pay anything.
Autodesk Fusion
Fusion (Autodesk) combines parametric CAD with CAM, the step where you turn a model into toolpaths for a CNC machine. If you cut your own parts, you skip the export to a second program. It runs on Mac and Windows, and users regularly describe it as easy to learn without feeling limited.
For commercial work, Fusion is rent-only: monthly, yearly or three-year terms, per user, with no perpetual option. Autodesk shows the current rate in its online store by country, so check it in your currency and run the three-year total before you compare.
The free personal use license is real but tight: non-commercial, under $1,000 a year in revenue, 10 editable documents at a time, limited DXF and DWG export, CAM limited to 2, 2.5 and 3 axes. Longtime hobby users have watched these limits tighten with each license change.
The limit: your files live on Autodesk's servers. If your subscription lapses, you're working with whatever export options the account still gives you.
Tip: export every finished part to STEP and store it outside your Autodesk account. That's the habit of everyone who lived through a license change.
- CAD and CAM in one tool
- Mac and Windows
- Listed price, monthly option
- ✓Users call it the easiest to learn
- ✓Toolpaths without a second program
- ✓Monthly billing available
- ✗Subscription only
- ✗Free tier is non-commercial and capped
- ✗Files stored with Autodesk
The best power-to-price ratio for a shop that makes its own parts. Keep STEP backups, and don't build a paid business on the free license.
Onshape
Onshape (PTC) is parametric CAD that runs entirely in a browser. Nothing to install, no certified GPU to buy. Two engineers can edit the same assembly at once, and every change lands in a history you can roll back. That's version control other tools sell as a separate PDM (product data management) add-on.
Prices are listed: $1,500 per user per year for Standard, $2,500 for Professional, Enterprise by quote. Over three years, a three-person team on Standard pays $13,500. That's why its cost score (3.0) is the lowest here.
The Free plan is popular, with one big catch: your documents are public and commercial use isn't allowed. Makers often rank it as the best free CAD, as long as they don't mind sharing their models. Eligible startups get Professional for free, and the Discovery offer opens Professional for up to six months.
The limit: no connection, no CAD. And your data sits on PTC's servers.
Tip: apply to the Startup Program before paying for a single seat. For a young hardware company, that's often a year of Professional for nothing.
- Runs in any browser, Mac, Linux, Chromebook
- Built-in history and branching
- Free Startup Program
- ✓No workstation needed
- ✓Real-time collaboration
- ✓Published pricing
- ✗Free plan documents are public
- ✗$1,500 per user per year
- ✗Doesn't work offline
The best pick for a distributed team with no IT department. Solo and on a tight budget, Fusion or FreeCAD cost less.
FreeCAD
FreeCAD is the only tool in this ranking that's both free and open for commercial use. No account, no document limit, no revenue cap. It runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. Its three-year cost is zero, which earns it the top cost score here.
It covers the core of mechanical CAD: constrained sketches, parametric parts, assemblies, drawings, STEP and DXF export. Version 1.0 eased the problem that used to drive beginners away, the "topological naming" issue, where an upstream edit broke downstream features. In 2026, grab version 1.1 and recent tutorials; older videos describe bugs that are long fixed.
The limit: the interface. Users call it heavy, with separate workbenches (Part Design, Sketcher, TechDraw) you learn one at a time. Its learning curve score (2.8) is the lowest here. There's no commercial support either: help comes from the forum and the docs.
Tip: start in Part Design with one fully constrained sketch per feature. Half of beginner problems come from sketches that are only partly constrained.
- Free, open source, commercial use allowed
- Windows, Mac and Linux
- Version 1.1, topological naming eased
- ✓$0 over three years
- ✓No account, no file limits
- ✓Files stay on your drive
- ✗Heavy interface, slow to learn
- ✗No commercial support
- ✗Many tutorials are out of date
The only free CAD you can build a business on. Budget a few evenings before your first clean part.
BricsCAD
BricsCAD (Bricsys, part of Hexagon) works natively in DWG, AutoCAD's file format. A drafter used to AutoCAD opens existing files without conversion. Beyond 2D, the Pro, Mechanical, BIM and Ultimate editions add 3D and trade-specific tools.
Its strongest argument is rare in CAD: the price is on the page. On Bricsys's European store, Pro costs €710 a year before VAT, Mechanical €998, BIM €1,060, Ultimate €1,176. A three-year term takes 10% off: roughly €1,917 for Pro instead of €2,130. The store also has a perpetual license tab, without a listed figure.
Versus AutoCAD: Autodesk sells AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT by subscription only, no perpetual option, and states its prices are subject to exchange rates. If you mostly draft in 2D and clients send you DWG files, BricsCAD does the job at a price you know upfront.
The limit: no lasting free tier, just a 30-day trial. And for pure mechanical work, assembly drawings feel less smooth than in SolidWorks.
Tip: if someone only needs to view and convert DWG files, Autodesk's DWG TrueView is free. Buy seats only for people who draw.
- Native DWG, no conversion
- Listed pricing
- Perpetual license offered
- ✓Pro at €710 a year
- ✓2D and 3D in the same file
- ✓10% off over three years
- ✗No lasting free tier
- ✗Mechanical tools behind SolidWorks
- ✗Perpetual price not listed
The best AutoCAD alternative for 2D drafting, with a price you know before you talk to anyone.
Solid Edge
Solid Edge (Siemens) is a complete mechanical modeler for parts, assemblies and drawings. Siemens also offers Solid Edge X, a cloud-delivered version. For a small team, what stands out most is how generous its free edition is.
The Community Edition is free and full-featured, with four limits to know: personal and non-commercial use, Windows only, watermarked 2D drawings, and files you can't open later in a commercial version. Your learning projects don't carry over to a paid license.
Commercial editions are subscriptions sold by quote: Siemens's pricing page lists no figure. You do get a 30-day trial, a first month for $1 for new customers, and a free program for startups.
The limit: a smaller footprint than SolidWorks at US job shops, and a price you only learn after a sales call.
Tip: use the Community Edition to learn, never for a project you'll invoice. Those files won't follow you.
- Free, full Community Edition
- Cloud version Solid Edge X
- Free Startups program
- ✓Most complete free industrial CAD
- ✓First month for $1
- ✓Free program for startups
- ✗Commercial price by quote
- ✗Community: watermark, incompatible files
- ✗Windows only
The best way to learn industrial CAD for free. To sell work, you'll need a paid license and fresh files.
Three questions most roundups don't ask
A "starting at" price won't help you choose. What matters is the file format you trade, what the free tier lets you do, and the machine you need.
2D drawings or 3D parts: start with the file format
If clients send DWG drawings and expect DWG back, you need native DWG drafting: BricsCAD, AutoCAD or DraftSight. If you receive STEP or Parasolid parts and deliver 3D models with drawings, you need a parametric modeler: SolidWorks, Fusion, Onshape, FreeCAD or Solid Edge. All of them export STEP, the neutral format machine shops and print services read. Native files don't move between programs.
Free plans: who's allowed to sell
Only one ranked tool lets you sell what you design without paying: FreeCAD. Fusion personal is non-commercial and capped at $1,000 a year in revenue. Onshape Free makes your documents public. Solid Edge Community watermarks your drawings. SolidWorks for Makers ($48 a year) is personal use only. For a young hardware company, the startup programs from SolidWorks, Onshape and Siemens are the legit path to a free pro license.
Your machine: Mac, PC or browser
SolidWorks and Solid Edge are Windows only, and SolidWorks recommends 32 GB of RAM and a certified GPU. Fusion runs on Mac and Windows. FreeCAD adds Linux. Onshape needs only a browser and a solid connection. A MacBook team is down to Fusion, Onshape and FreeCAD. To reach a powerful CAD workstation from home, remote desktop software saves you buying a second machine.
- Ask your three biggest customers which file format they send and expect back.
- Price three years: subscription × 3, or license plus upgrades.
- Read the commercial-use clause of any free tier before drawing a paid project in it.
- Apply to startup programs before buying a seat.
- Check your graphics card against the vendor's certified list.
- Export every finished part to STEP and keep it outside the CAD tool.
Six habits to pay less and lose nothing
These come from the mistakes CAD users describe most: locked files, free licenses pulled back, inflated quotes.
Keep a STEP copy of every part
PriorityNative CAD files only open in the program that made them. When a subscription ends or a free license changes, your history is stuck. Export every finished part and assembly to STEP, in a folder you control.
You lose the feature tree, but you keep exact geometry any modeler can reopen.
- Format
- STEP
Get quotes from at least three resellers
PriceSolidWorks, Solid Edge and CATIA sell through resellers, and the final number depends on negotiation, bundled training and maintenance. Ask three resellers for a three-year quote with training included.
Compare line by line: license, maintenance, training. A low quote without training often costs more in year one.
- Applies to
- SolidWorks, Solid Edge, CATIA
Use a startup program
FreeSolidWorks gives year one free to startups under five years old with under $1M in revenue and a physical product. Onshape gives Professional to eligible startups. Siemens runs its own program for Solid Edge.
Design consultancies and contract manufacturers are usually excluded, so check before you apply.
- Upside
- Up to a year of pro licensing
Don't pay for a seat just to view DWG
2DIn many companies, half the AutoCAD seats belong to people who only look at drawings. Autodesk's DWG TrueView is free for viewing and converting DWG files. Keep paid seats for the people who draft.
For them, compare BricsCAD Pro (€710 a year) with your AutoCAD reseller quote.
- Free tool
- DWG TrueView
Pick the software before the computer
HardwareA MacBook rules out SolidWorks and Solid Edge. A gaming PC may run SolidWorks, but its GPU may not be certified. Choose the software first, then buy a machine from its certified list.
Still undecided? Onshape runs in a browser and lets you put off the hardware purchase.
- SolidWorks
- 32 GB RAM recommended
Organize files and revisions from day one
TeamWith two designers, "bracket_v3_final_OK" files pile up fast. Onshape handles versions on its own. For the rest, set a naming rule and a shared folder from the start, and track change requests in project management software.
Write down your templates, materials and title blocks in a knowledge base: the next hire saves days.
- Built-in versions
- Onshape
Go further
These pages pick up where this one stops.
Blender, Rhino, SketchUp, Plasticity.
Your drawings go to a job siteConstruction management softwareSchedules, punch lists, crews.
You make and stock partsInventory management softwareRaw stock, finished parts, counts.
You work on your CAD box remotelyRemote desktop softwareReach the shop PC from home.
You want to write a macro or scriptAI assistantsFor a FreeCAD macro or a CAD API.
You track projects and engineering changesProject management softwareChange requests, deadlines, sign-offs.
CAD software · FAQ
What CAD software do most engineers use?
In mechanical design, SolidWorks is the format you'll run into most at job shops and contract manufacturers. Large enterprises also run CATIA, Siemens NX or PTC Creo. Startups and small shops lean toward Fusion and Onshape, which are cheaper and run on more systems.Is there free CAD software you can use commercially?
Yes: FreeCAD, and it's the only one in this ranking. It's open source, with no account and no revenue cap. For 2D only, LibreCAD and QCAD are open source too. Fusion personal, Onshape Free, Solid Edge Community and SolidWorks for Makers all forbid commercial use.Is Fusion still free for hobbyists?
Yes, with limits. The personal-use license is free if your work is non-commercial and you earn under $1,000 a year from it. You get 10 editable documents at a time, restricted DXF and DWG export, and CAM capped at 3 axes. Export your parts to STEP regularly in case the terms change again.What's the best CAD software for Mac?
Fusion, Onshape or FreeCAD. SolidWorks and Solid Edge don't run on macOS. Fusion is the most complete native option, Onshape runs in Safari or Chrome, and FreeCAD is free. For freeform design, Shapr3D and Rhino are covered on our 3D modeling page.SolidWorks or Fusion: which should you learn?
SolidWorks if you're aiming for a mechanical engineering job, Fusion if you make your own parts. SolidWorks is what many employers and suppliers use, but it needs Windows and a quote. Fusion is a monthly or yearly subscription, runs on a Mac and includes CAM for CNC work.AutoCAD vs SolidWorks: what's the difference?
AutoCAD is mainly for 2D drawings, SolidWorks models 3D parts and generates drawings from them. If your job is dimensioned plans (millwork, layouts, fit-out), a DWG drafting tool is enough, and BricsCAD Pro lists at €710 a year. If you design parts that fit together, use a parametric 3D modeler.How much does professional CAD software cost?
From $0 to several thousand dollars per seat per year. FreeCAD is free, Onshape Standard is $1,500 per user a year and Professional $2,500, SolidWorks for Makers is $48 a year for personal use. SolidWorks and Solid Edge are sold by quote, so always ask for a three-year price with training included.What computer do you need for CAD?
For SolidWorks, a Windows PC with 16 GB of RAM minimum (32 GB recommended) and a certified graphics card. Onshape works in a browser on modest hardware. Fusion and FreeCAD run well on a recent Mac. Choose the software first, then buy from its certified hardware list.What file should you send to a machine shop?
A STEP file for the part, plus a dimensioned PDF or DWG drawing for tolerances. STEP keeps exact geometry every CAM program reads. STL, meant for 3D printing, turns the part into triangles and loses that precision. Ask the shop which STEP version it prefers.