SOLIDWORKS Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
SOLIDWORKS alternatives: FreeCAD, Onshape, Autodesk Fusion, SolveSpace and 1 more. Prices and licenses checked October 23, 2026.
•3 min read•3D & CAD
Verdict:Leave SolidWorks if you are paying for a seat you use for hobby parts or for light 3D printing. SolidWorks' own FAQ lists Standard at $2,820 a year per user, with Professional at $3,456 and Premium at $4,716. FreeCAD is the standard free answer: parametric, open source, and able to open STEP files, but its drawings and assemblies are rougher. Onshape moves the work into a browser and removes file management through built-in versioning; the free tier is for non-commercial use and makes documents public. Autodesk Fusion has a personal-use license for hobbyists, subject to revenue and document limits, and includes CAM, which SolidWorks does not bundle. SolveSpace is a tiny GPLv3 option for constraint-based parts. OpenSCAD suits parts you can express in code. The trade-off is what you lose: SolidWorks has mature drawings, large-assembly handling, simulation and supplier support in industry. If a client or employer requires native SLDPRT files, none of these replaces it. If you work solo, design for 3D printing or CNC, and own the output, FreeCAD or Fusion personal use will do most of what you need.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeCAD | Free (Free, no sign-up) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Zero-cost parametric modeling | Docs only |
| Onshape | Free (Free plan for non-commercial use; all documents are public); paid from $1500 per user/year, Standard, billed annually | Web | Teams who want browser CAD | Docs only |
| Autodesk Fusion | Free (Personal-use license for hobbyists earning under $1,000 USD a year from home-based non-commercial projects; limited to 10 active editable documents, per Autodesk's personal-use page as quoted in search) | Windows, macOS | Hobby CAD with CAM included | Docs only |
| SolveSpace | Free (Free and open source) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Light free constraint-based CAD | Docs only |
| OpenSCAD | Free (Free software; no paid tier) | Windows, macOS, Linux | Parts defined in code | Docs only |
| AutoCAD | Paid from $175 per month, shown as Starting at on the product page | Desktop, Web, Mobile | CAD | Docs only |
| SketchUp | Paid from $10.75 per user/month, billed annually (Go plan) | Windows, macOS, Web | 3D modeling | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You design hobby parts and want to pay nothing (FreeCAD is the pick)
- You want browser CAD with versioning (Onshape is the pick)
- You also need CAM for CNC work (Autodesk Fusion is the pick)
- You prefer a small free tool for simple parts (SolveSpace is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on SOLIDWORKS features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
SOLIDWORKS today: Paid from $2820 per year (Standard, single-user subscription, excluding taxes) (SOLIDWORKS pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
FreeCAD
Compared with SOLIDWORKS: Free, open-source parametric CAD for mechanical parts. You lose SolidWorks' polish, drawings workflow and simulation, and FreeCAD is slower to learn, but there is no per-seat cost.
Price: Free (Free, no sign-up) (FreeCAD pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. LGPL-2.1 (open source).
Project activity: 34.9k GitHub stars · latest release 1.1.4 (Sep 28, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Zero-cost parametric modeling.
Worth knowing: Mainly parametric 3D; 2D drafting is not its strength.
Onshape
Compared with SOLIDWORKS: Cloud parametric CAD with version control built in, on Windows, Mac and Linux via the browser. Its free plan is for non-commercial use with public documents, unlike SolidWorks' license.
Price: Free (Free plan for non-commercial use; all documents are public); paid from $1500 per user/year, Standard, billed annually (Onshape pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary.
Best for: Teams who want browser CAD.
Worth knowing: Cloud 3D parametric CAD, not a DWG drafting tool.
Autodesk Fusion
Compared with SOLIDWORKS: Autodesk's CAD plus CAM with a personal-use license for hobbyists under $1,000 USD a year. You lose SolidWorks' deep assemblies; commercial pricing was not on a page we could fetch.
Price: Free (Personal-use license for hobbyists earning under $1,000 USD a year from home-based non-commercial projects; limited to 10 active editable documents, per Autodesk's personal-use page as quoted in search) (Autodesk Fusion pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS. Proprietary.
Best for: Hobby CAD with CAM included.
SolveSpace
Compared with SOLIDWORKS: Free, GPLv3 and small. It handles constraint-based parts and assemblies of modest size, without SolidWorks' drawing, simulation and PDM tools.
Price: Free (Free and open source) (SolveSpace pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. GPL-3.0-or-later (open source).
Project activity: 4.2k GitHub stars · latest release v3.3 (Oct 21, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Light free constraint-based CAD.
OpenSCAD
Compared with SOLIDWORKS: Free, script-based solid modeler. No sketches or assemblies like SolidWorks, but ideal for parametric parts you describe in code.
Price: Free (Free software; no paid tier) (OpenSCAD pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Windows, macOS, Linux. GPL-2.0 (open source).
Project activity: 10.5k GitHub stars · latest release openscad-2021.01 (Feb 7, 2021) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Parts defined in code.
Worth knowing: Script-based solid modeler: you describe parts in code, there is no drag-to-sketch interface. License from an archived copy of openscad.org; other listings say GPL-2.0-or-later.
Other popular options (paid)
AutoCAD
Compared with SOLIDWORKS: Autodesk's CAD, listed from $175 a month with desktop, web and mobile access and a 15-day trial. That is below the roughly $235 a month a $2,820 SOLIDWORKS Standard year works out to.
Price: Paid from $175 per month, shown as Starting at on the product page (AutoCAD pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
SketchUp
Compared with SOLIDWORKS: Trimble's modeler runs on Windows, macOS and the web, with the Go plan at $10.75 per user per month billed annually. Far cheaper than SOLIDWORKS Standard at $2,820 a year, and not tied to Windows.
Price: Paid from $10.75 per user/month, billed annually (Go plan) (SketchUp pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Which one to pick
- You design hobby parts and want to pay nothing: FreeCAD
- You want browser CAD with versioning: Onshape
- You also need CAM for CNC work: Autodesk Fusion
- You prefer a small free tool for simple parts: SolveSpace
Limits of this review
Docs-only for FreeCAD, Onshape, Autodesk Fusion, SolveSpace, OpenSCAD: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from SOLIDWORKS. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-23: SOLIDWORKS, FreeCAD, Onshape, Autodesk Fusion, SolveSpace, OpenSCAD, AutoCAD, SketchUp. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.