7 Best Free CAD Software Tools in 2026 (Tested & Compared)

Free CAD software in 2026 splits into two populations that have almost nothing in common. On one side is a mature open source desktop stack: FreeCAD, LibreCAD, OpenSCAD and Blender, all under GPL or LGPL licenses, all free to use on work you get paid for, none of them asking for an account. On the other side are free tiers published by commercial vendors. Onshape and SketchUp hand you a polished professional tool at no charge, then attach a rule you live with for as long as you use it.

The free versus paid framing misses the thing that actually decides whether a CAD tool is usable: the geometry kernel and the export path, not the feature list. A mesh modeler and a solid modeler produce identical looking renders and are worlds apart the moment a shop asks for a STEP file. Blender will out-model almost everything on this page and still cannot hand a machinist an editable solid. SketchUp Free lets you design an entire house and then exports only SKP, PNG and STL, so the drawing set you actually need gets redrawn somewhere else. That is the real price, and it never appears on a pricing page.

The most capable free tier here also bills you in data rather than dollars: Onshape's free plan is the full professional product and every document you create on it is public. That is not a crippled free version, it is a fair trade priced in confidentiality.

Toolradar data: of the CAD and 3D modeling tools we track with a free path, five are fully free and open source with no commercial-use restriction. Every other free CAD offer in the category is a tier of a paid product with a condition attached, which is why the license line matters more than the feature list.

Everything below was verified against the vendor's own pages, license files and release feeds in August 2026.

Parametric mechanical CAD: free tools that make manufacturable parts

This is what most people mean by "CAD": sketch, constrain, extrude, and end up with a solid body a CNC shop or a printer can use. Two of the three tools here export STEP, the format that decides whether anyone else can open your part.

FreeCAD

Best for: parametric mechanical parts and assemblies you want to own outright, offline, forever
License: LGPL 2.1, commercial use allowed, no account
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
The catch: a slow feature cadence and a stability reputation it is still working off

FreeCAD 1.0, released 19 November 2024, was the release that changed the argument: it shipped mitigation for the topological naming problem, the bug that had been silently breaking people's models for a decade, plus an integrated Assembly workbench. Version 1.1 followed on 25 March 2026 and the current stable is 1.1.3 from 25 July 2026, a security fix issued two days after 1.1.2. It reads and writes STEP and IGES through the Open CASCADE kernel, so a part modeled here opens cleanly on a shop's commercial seat. The catch: feature releases land roughly every twelve to sixteen months (0.20 in June 2022, 0.21 in August 2023, 1.0 in November 2024, 1.1 in March 2026), so a workflow gap you hit today can stay open for a year, and the workbench model means the right tool for a job is usually in a menu you have not opened yet.

Onshape

Best for: proper cloud CAD with real assemblies and version control, on any machine including a Chromebook
License: free plan, non-commercial use only, account required
Platforms: any modern browser, plus iOS and Android
The catch: every document you create on the free plan is public

Onshape is the most capable product in this roundup and the one with the sharpest condition. The free plan gives you "unlimited public storage" and is described by Onshape as "for non-commercial use only": there is no private document storage at all, so your design, your revision history and your part numbers are visible to anyone who finds them. For an open hardware project that is a feature; for a client job or anything with an NDA attached it is disqualifying. What you get in exchange is genuinely professional (modern parametric kernel, multi-part studios, assemblies, branching version history, no install or file management), and paid plans run $1,500 per user per year for Standard and $2,500 for Professional.

OpenSCAD

Best for: parts defined by variables, printable parametric libraries, and anything you want under version control as text
License: GPL v2, commercial use allowed, no account
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux and UNIX
The catch: the last tagged stable release is from February 2021

OpenSCAD calls itself "The Programmers Solid 3D CAD Modeller" and is refreshingly blunt about what it is not: "OpenSCAD is not an interactive modeller. Instead it is something like a 3D-compiler that reads in a script file that describes the object." You write code, press render, get a solid, and changing one variable updates every derived dimension, which makes it unbeatable for parts families and configurable libraries. Two honest limits: the last tagged stable release is openscad-2021.01 from February 2021, so in practice everyone runs the nightly builds the project offers alongside it, and the export set is STL, OFF and DXF for 2D outlines, not STEP. Development itself is active, with commits landing this month, but "stable" here means five years old.

2D drafting: floor plans, laser profiles and machine drawings

Plenty of real work never needs a third dimension. Cut files, site plans and dimensioned drawings are 2D problems, and a 3D modeler makes them slower.

LibreCAD

Best for: DXF drafting, laser and CNC cut profiles, and anyone who learned on AutoCAD LT
License: GPL v2, commercial use allowed, no account
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, translated into over 30 languages
The catch: 2D only, permanently, and the macOS build is the weak spot

LibreCAD descends from the community edition of QCAD and has stayed deliberately narrow: a 2D drafting board with layers, blocks, hatches, dimensioning and a command line, built around DXF. It also ships a headless converter, so librecad dxf2pdf, dxf2png and dxf2svg turn drawings into deliverables from a script, and the current stable is 2.2.1.5 from 2 May 2026, promising "no worries about trials, subscriptions, license costs or annual fees". The limits are structural rather than annoying: there is no 3D and never will be, and macOS packaging is thin enough that the download page openly asks for help with it, so Windows and Linux are the safer platforms. If you need 2D drawings out of a 3D model, use FreeCAD's TechDraw workbench instead.

Browser-based and beginner: nothing to install

TinkerCAD

Best for: a first 3D print, a classroom, or an adult who has never modeled anything
License: free Autodesk web app, account required
Platforms: browser
The catch: it is education-grade by design and you will outgrow it

Autodesk describes Tinkercad as "a free, easy-to-use app for 3D design, electronics, and coding", and that three-part scope is the point: drag-and-combine solid shapes, a Circuits simulator for Arduino work, and Codeblocks for generating geometry visually. Nothing here gets a beginner from zero to a printable object faster, which makes it the right answer for a school or a first weekend with a printer. It is also not engineering CAD: no sketch constraint solver, no editable feature history, no assemblies, no STEP, and dimensions get pushed around rather than driven. Treat it as the on-ramp and move to FreeCAD or Onshape the first time a part has to be exactly 42.5 mm because a bearing says so.

SketchUp Free

Best for: fast architectural massing, interiors and spatial concepts
License: free web tier of a paid product, account required
Platforms: browser only
The catch: no extensions and no CAD file exports

SketchUp Free runs entirely in the browser ("SketchUp's core 3D modeler runs right in your web browser"), includes 10 GB of Trimble Connect storage and full access to the 3D Warehouse library, and for pushing and pulling faces into a building concept it is still faster than anything else on this list. Two hard limits, both on Trimble's own pages. Export is limited to SKP, PNG and STL, with import of SKP, JPG and PNG, so there is no DWG or DXF path out and nothing you draw becomes a drawing set without a paid seat. And extensions, the thing that makes SketchUp genuinely powerful, require Pro at $33.25 per month billed annually: even the $10.75 per month Go plan gets neither the desktop app nor the Extension Warehouse.

Mesh modeling: where free genuinely beats paid

Blender

Best for: organic shapes, product renders, animation, and 3D-print art
License: GPL, and the project is explicit: "Free to Sell Your Work"
Platforms: Windows (x64 and ARM), macOS Apple Silicon, Linux
The catch: it is not CAD, and using it as CAD will hurt

Blender 5.2 LTS shipped 14 July 2026 with two years of LTS support, and in its own domain it is not a budget option, it is the reference: modeling, sculpting, Cycles rendering, simulation and video in one free package studios use commercially, under a license that explicitly protects selling your output. The reason it sits in its own section is that Blender works in meshes, not boundary-representation solids: no dimensional constraints, no feature tree in the CAD sense, no STEP export. A shape that looks perfect on screen can be non-manifold, unmeasurable and impossible to modify parametrically. Use it for the visual half of a project and real CAD for the half that gets manufactured, because add-ons narrow that gap without closing it.

Free CAD software compared

How to choose

If the part will be manufactured by someone else, you need STEP. That narrows the free field to FreeCAD, or Onshape if you accept public documents. Nothing else here can hand a supplier an editable solid.

If the work is confidential or billable, read the license before the feature list. FreeCAD, LibreCAD, OpenSCAD and Blender are all free for commercial use. Onshape's free plan is explicitly not, and it publishes your files.

If your output is a drawing rather than a model, start in 2D. LibreCAD does in an afternoon what a 3D modeler drags out over a week, and its DXF output goes straight to a laser cutter or a plotter.

If the geometry is defined by numbers, write it instead of drawing it. OpenSCAD turns a parts family into one file with variables at the top, and it diffs properly in Git, which no GUI CAD file does.

If you have never modeled anything, start with TinkerCAD and set a deadline to leave. The moment you need one dimension driven by another, you have outgrown it, and FreeCAD is the free next step.

FAQ

Is free CAD software good enough to replace SolidWorks?

For hobby, prototyping and most single-part mechanical work, FreeCAD 1.1 is genuinely sufficient, and the topological naming mitigation in 1.0 removed the biggest reason people used to bounce off it. For large assemblies, simulation-heavy workflows and formal drawing standards, the commercial tools still win. Worth knowing before you commit: SOLIDWORKS for Makers costs $48 per year for personal use, restricted to hobbyists generating less than $2,000 per year from their projects.

Can I use free CAD software commercially?

FreeCAD (LGPL 2.1), LibreCAD (GPL v2), OpenSCAD (GPL v2) and Blender (GPL) all permit commercial work, and Blender's license page states "Free to Sell Your Work" outright. Onshape's free plan does not: it is documented as "for non-commercial use only". Tinkercad and SketchUp Free are governed by their vendors' terms rather than an open source license, so check those before invoicing a client for work made in either.

What is the best free CAD software for 3D printing?

For printing your own parametric designs, OpenSCAD and FreeCAD both export clean STL and give you real dimensional control. For a first print with no CAD background, Tinkercad gets you there in under an hour. For sculpted or organic prints, Blender, with the caveat that you will spend time confirming the mesh is manifold before slicing.

Is Onshape's free plan really unlimited?

Unlimited in storage, yes: the plan advertises "unlimited public storage". The word doing the work is public. There is no private document storage on the free tier, so unlimited means unlimited publishing, and the entry paid plan that changes it is $1,500 per user per year.

Which free CAD tools export STEP files?

FreeCAD is the reliable free answer, reading and writing both STEP and IGES through Open CASCADE. Onshape's free plan runs the same B-rep product as its paid tiers, with the public-document condition attached. OpenSCAD, Blender, Tinkercad and SketchUp Free do not produce STEP, which is the most common reason a free CAD workflow stalls the moment a supplier gets involved.

What is the best free 2D CAD software?

LibreCAD, on current stable 2.2.1.5 from May 2026, with the caveat that its macOS packaging is the weakest of its three platforms. If you need 3D as well and only occasionally need drawings, use FreeCAD's TechDraw workbench rather than running two tools.

The bottom line

If you do mechanical work and want to own your files, install FreeCAD. It is the only free tool here that combines a solid kernel, STEP in and out, assemblies and a license that lets you charge for the result, and version 1.0 fixed the specific bug that used to make that recommendation dishonest. If you want the better product and your project is genuinely open, Onshape's free plan beats anything you can install, provided you accept that everyone can read it. If the job is 2D, use LibreCAD and stop shopping. And if you landed here because you want to make things that look good rather than things that get machined, the honest answer is that you want Blender, and Blender is not CAD at all.