Onshape is a cloud-native product development platform with integrated CAD, data management and analytics. Onshape aims to accelerate time to market and improve innovation by: 1) Access: Unlike file-based CAD which is on-premise only, Onshape enables remote access for designers and engineers from anywhere, and on any internet-connected device -including tablets and smart phones. 2) Collaboration: Onshape aims to eliminate the version control problems and blocking of file-based…
$1,500
per year per user
SOLIDWORKS
Score8.7 out of 10
N/A
Dassault Systemes offers SOLIDWORKS, a computer-aided design (CAD) system for education and manufacturing supporting 2D or 3D design, electrical design, simulations, and product development with collaboration tools.
$1,295
per year
ZBrush
Score9.5 out of 10
N/A
Pixologic in Los Angeles offers ZBrush, a digital sculpting and painting program for the 3D industry. Built within its interface, ZBrush offers tools for digital artists with an arsenal of features that have been developed with usability in mind, to create a user experience designed to feel natural while simultaneously inspiring the artist. With the ability to sculpt up to a billion polygons, ZBrush allows users to create almost limitless models.
$39.95
per month
Pricing
Onshape
SOLIDWORKS
ZBrush
Editions & Modules
Standard
1,500
per year per user
Professional
2,500
per year per user
Enterprise
Contact sales team
per year per user
Solidworks Annual Subscription
1,295
per year
Solidworks Standard
3,996
per standalone license
Individual
$39.95
per month
Individual
$179.95
per 6 months
Individual
$895.00
perpetual license
Companies & Students
price varies
floating perpetual license
Companies & Students
price varies
academic perpetual license
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Onshape
SOLIDWORKS
ZBrush
Free Trial
Yes
No
No
Free/Freemium Version
Yes
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
No dedicated hardware is required. Works on all web-connected devices including tablet, Chromebook, iPhone, Android.
General Manager in Manufacturing at Kuhns Mfg LLC (Farming, 11-50 employees)
Chose Onshape
Onshape does not have complete feature parity with SOLIDWORKS. But neither does SOLIDWORKS have all the features Onshape has. The reasons we went with Onshape was the ability to collaborate and the lack of need for file management. There is also no need for an initial purchase. …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Metal Manufacture Engineer, CNC Programmer in Engineering at Metal Moulding Corporation (Design, 51-200 employees)
Chose Onshape
Onshape is quickly becoming the CAD software I recommend over any other. SOLIDWORKS and Inventor are feature rich and leaders in the industry, however, Onshape is beginning to match them with constant updates and is already as feature rich as the two mentioned.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
design leader in Engineering at phil&teds (Consumer Goods, 51-200 employees)
Chose Onshape
For us, we made the permanent switch from SOLIDWORKS to Onshape. SOLIDWORKS is a great product that we used for many years, but the file management and the transfer of large files were often hampering our progress. Onshape is just a little more agile for us!
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Director of Engineering in Engineering at Zemax, LLC (Design, 1-10 employees)
Chose Onshape
Onshape is better than SOLIDWORKS for online / collaboration. SOLIDWORKS is better for the feature set and integration with other tools. Rhino3D is better at surfacing and workflow with my optical design programs. I have not used Fusion360 except for evaluating in general so I …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Lead Mechanical Engineer in Engineering at Inline Design (Medical Devices, 51-200 employees)
Chose Onshape
I have used SOLIDWORKS for over four years, and the vault system is time intensive for control of design history, and revision management. I have used Pro-E for over four years, and this has the capability but is not user-friendly. Not needing high-end computers is another …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose Onshape
OnShape was lower cost, with a reasonably comparable set of tools to Inventor and SOLIDWORKS. The cost and ease of assimilation (ability to change mouse and keyboard shortcuts to SOLIDWORKS or Inventor controls) made the choice easier.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Co-Founder and COO in Engineering at Hirebotics, LLC (Machinery, 1-10 employees)
Chose Onshape
When we started the business we knew we wanted to use Macs for our day to day computer as we do a lot of programming both robot software as well as mobile apps and embedded firmware. This choice limited the number of selections we could look at as companies such as SOLIDWORKS …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Product Design Engineer in Engineering at informal (Mechanical Or Industrial Engineering, 1-10 employees)
Chose Onshape
Better: Similar user interface and control scheme. Much better multi-body modeling. Real-time flattened sheet metal views. Faster to create robust models due to features like mate connectors and allowing fillets to work on multiple bodies. Doesn't need an expensive …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Founder, Systems Engineering in Engineering at Bowery Farming (Food & Beverages, 51-200 employees)
Chose Onshape
We chose Onshape for a couple of reasons - the first is pricing. We were looking for a light-weight program that packs a heavyweight punch. The ability to access from any computer (Mac or PC) from anywhere is ultimately what sealed the deal for us. For our needs, there wasn't …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Dassault Systemes
Verified User
Chose SOLIDWORKS
Onshape is a direct competitor. It has great entry level pricing and it is easy to access with no installation required. Being a web based app there is sometime some lag being based in NZ. Management also have concerns over where the data is stored on the cloud. With SW we can …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Product Development Lead in Engineering at Rockmore International (Mining & Metals, 51-200 employees)
Chose SOLIDWORKS
In many scenarios, SolidWorks and Inventor actually compare fairly evenly to each other. However, I believe that where SolidWorks really stands out is the fact that it was designed from the start as a 3D parametric solid modeling application whereas Inventor comes from a …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose SOLIDWORKS
Originally my company was using Onshape for CAD but many of our engineers were not familiar with the program and found it more difficult and less intuitive to use. SOLIDWORKS PDM vault works well so the cloud-based aspect of Onshape wasn't that unique.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Project Engineer in Engineering at SageGlass (Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 51-200 employees)
Chose SOLIDWORKS
Solidworks is easier to use than Creo, but not as usable as Inventor. It is superior to Onshape and Fusion, however, Onshape is better for collaboration.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Product Development Engineer in Engineering at Gardner Denver (Mechanical or Industrial Engineering, 501-1000 employees)
Chose SOLIDWORKS
Let's face it: SOLIDWORKS has shaped the direction and look of CAD for more than two decades. Even well-established 3D brands such as PTC and Siemens have, over the course of the years, modified their products to behave and look more like SOLIDWORKS. And newer entries in to the …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Mechanical Engineer in Engineering at Zemax, LLC (Design, 11-50 employees)
Chose SOLIDWORKS
SOLIDWORKS has all of the features and functionality needed for nearly any engineering and design task. Onshape is catching up and will work for many tasks, but SOLIDWORKS still has the edge. SOLIDWORKS is easy to pick up and use and, with a wide reach and large install base, …
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Verified User
Chose SOLIDWORKS
AutoCAD is great for 2D detailing, but I like having the additional features of SOLIDWORKS.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Onshape shall be used by organizations where cost is a major factor as the license is relatively competitive than the competition. Where Onshape , excels the most is the ability to be operational on any device with internet connection and webbrowser. Onshape doesn't require your hardware to be beefed with Graphic cards (if added better). Where onshape can be better. If they are able to include simulation packages bundled like SOLIDWORKS.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
As a mechanical engineer, it is one of the best tools to just start modeling and engineering with. The UI tools are intuitive and engineering analysis such Mold Analysis, FEA, are great! Other 3D CAD modeling tools have a longer learning curve to master. All in all, if you're not planning to design an entire airplane with large assembly files, then Solidworks is your tool!
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Blender is still behind Zbrush when it comes to production quality. But ZBrush is a bit on the expensive side. But again, I've used it for 20 years. So the $100s of spent back then have paid off many times over by now. Just something to consider when purchasing, though.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
The collaborative work environment is a cool and useful feature where groups of people can work on the same model at the same time, and SOLIDWORKS ensures that you don't overwrite each other's work.
The ease and amount of customization options are very useful for creating a personalized and intuitive user interface, whether SOLIDWORKS is your native CAD package or not.
It is very easy to quickly edit a model you have already created. The software allows sketch and feature editing without having to take the time to actually enter the sketch/feature environment.
The use of configurations and configurations-specific dimensions in the same sketch is very useful for creating different forms of the same part
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Dimensioning a hole feature in a drawing when there are multiple holes, the hole count does not parametrically update. For example, when there are 3x of the same hole, Onshape forces you to manually type in 3x instead of parametrically populating the hole count. This gets very dangerous if say, one of the 3x holes changes but you forget to update the 3x to 2x. Other CAD software does provide this.
I know Onshape provides guidance on performance considerations and how to structure a project through their literature, however, a dedicated video from Onshape that directly addresses the guidelines on how to minimize file load and reload times would be beneficial to all future and current Onshape users. I think they should incorporate this directly in their training. Poindexter by Design went through the growing pains of this issue but through the Onshape literature and our own experiences we've developed guidelines on how to keep our Onshape performance maximized!
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Save DWG 2D files in inches or metric easily, defaults to metric and has to be manually converted to inches
When using the sketch feature, the ability to disable ALL references. If I don't know the exact shape and I want to draw/adapt my design, it harshly interprets the references which have no value to me. The easiest exact is to think about when you have a Microsoft Word document that has a lot of formatting, photos, tabs, etc. If you accidentally hit the "enter" key, you can explode the formatting and everything goes crazy. SW does this to me, I just want to "doodle" my sketches, edit/delete/etc and not be bound by arbitrary references.
For the sketch feature, ability to use a DraftSight plugin of some sort. I'm super fast in DS, if I could draw using the commands in SW then I would probably never open DS again and convert to SW full time. Currently, I only use SW as a way to convert 3D files so I can build everything in DraftSight.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Familiarity and ability to work from any location. Also easy to cooperate with potential customers, existing customers, systems users, and fabricating shops. Most of the standard designs are now in On Shape and I would like to continue using it. It is easier to run versions to clarify imrovements to the previous designs
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
I have been using SOLIDWORKS for around 12 years as of writing this review, so have learned where most things are and how they work. When first starting out it was quite daunting, but the interface is well laid out with like functions near each other which made finding new functions relatively easy.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Been fairly standard experience with support team. Issues have always been addressed, but is understandably focused on business side applications which typically has different issues than education applications. I have very few IT issues with the design side of the software, my issues are more often with the control of users and access
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
We have an unusual arrangement. We don’t pay for support, but we’re partnered with a VAR for second-tier support.
I work with other users if I have questions but when we’ve had to ask the VAR, they always have answers. It appears that all of the VARs have access to a support platform from DS SOLIDWORKS that helps them answer most questions.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
I might be biased by coming from using three different CAD softwares in the past, so I already understood many modeling concepts, but the training OS offers is really good. Videos are clear, they explain operations in good detail and besides that OS has a really good help system that explains even more how every tool works.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Onshape is revolutionary. Its advantage is that it can be used without having to download it. You are free to work wherever you want. This means that even if you take a vacation or attend a family event, your work will not be interrupted. You can still bring your work and complete it quickly.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
I have used SOLIDWORKS for over four years, and the vault system is time intensive for control of design history, and revision management. I have used Pro-E for over four years, and this has the capability but is not user-friendly. Not needing high-end computers is another great reason to choose Onshape
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Onshape is a direct competitor. It has great entry level pricing and it is easy to access with no installation required. Being a web based app there is sometime some lag being based in NZ. Management also have concerns over where the data is stored on the cloud. With SW we can control where it is stored
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
Even though it's 4x as old, ZBrush is still better in my opinion. Plus, I'm just so used to it by now after 20 years. Blender will indeed become better over time and the leading industry standard soon, but for now, ZBrush is still better for me for sure. Love it!
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info