Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Blender

Blender

Overview

What is Blender?

Blender is a free and open source 3D creation suite available in under the GNU General Public License. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline. Blender…

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Blender has proven to be a versatile and valuable tool for a wide range of use cases. Users, including professionals in the fields of 3D …
Continue reading

Blender For Free.

10 out of 10
January 20, 2023
Incentivized
For our Livestream service, modeling was used for fill-in effects. Blender, being free, was used to model graphics for this production. We …
Continue reading

Free, fast and fun!

10 out of 10
January 20, 2023
When creating educational content, powerpoint slides are fine, but having animation is much better. I became aware of Blender from a …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing

Blender Cloud Membership

$11.50

Cloud
per month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Blender?

Blender Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac, SteamOS
Mobile ApplicationNo
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(87)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Blender has proven to be a versatile and valuable tool for a wide range of use cases. Users, including professionals in the fields of 3D modeling and sculpting, have found Blender to be an essential tool for their work. It allows them to create precise and detailed 3D models for various purposes, such as virtual environments, product visualization, and interior design projects. Additionally, Blender's animation capabilities have been highly valued by users in educational content creation, as it provides a more engaging experience compared to static slides.

Blender's features extend beyond 3D modeling and animation. Many marketing agencies have found it indispensable for creating eye-catching visuals for product launches, videos, and client logos. The software's rendering capabilities have been particularly appreciated, surpassing those offered by CAD-integrated renderers. Moreover, Blender's integration with three.js has allowed users to generate interactive experiences for websites, further enhancing their marketing efforts.

Blender's lightweight and cost-effective nature have made it accessible to students and those on a budget, serving as an alternative to pricier software like Autodesk 3ds Max. However, the initial learning curve may be steep for beginners without prior knowledge of 3D modeling tools and terminology. Nevertheless, motivated users who take advantage of tutorials and resources have managed to become familiar with Blender's features over time. Its free and open-source nature, along with its support for multiple operating systems, has also attracted a loyal user base.

  1. Free and open-source platform: Users appreciate that Blender is accessible to beginner animators as it doesn't require any charges, making it an ideal choice for those starting out in animation.

  2. Powerful features and tools: Users find the wide array of features in Blender essential for their creative process, allowing them to tackle various tasks efficiently. The availability of precise 3D object placement and manipulation tools, as well as intuitive free-form sculpting tools, are particularly valued by users.

  3. Supportive community and resources: The Blender community's size and online resources are highly regarded by users, making it easy for them to find tutorials and solutions to their queries. This accessibility to resources enhances the overall Blender experience.

Cons:

  1. Performance Issues: Some users have experienced performance issues with Blender, such as slow rendering times and crashes during complex projects.
  2. Steep Learning Curve: Several reviewers have mentioned that Blender has a steep learning curve, making it difficult for beginners to grasp all of its features and functionalities.
  3. Lack of Intuitive Interface: A number of users have expressed frustration with the interface of Blender, finding it less intuitive compared to other 3D software programs.

Users commonly recommend starting with tutorials on YouTube and blender.org to learn the basics of Blender. These resources are found to be valuable for gaining knowledge and skills in using the software.

Users advise not being afraid of the interface and taking time to learn and practice. They suggest that investing time and effort into learning Blender is worth it for 3D modeling and rendering.

Users also recommend exploring the various functionalities of Blender, such as its rendering tool, for different purposes like financing project management, animation, digital content molding, and more. Blender is also suggested for both 3D and 2D work, making it versatile for users with low configuration systems.

Reviews

(1-23 of 23)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Kèlene Poyurs | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Relatively user-friendly interface given the complexity of what it is capable of
  • Excellent physics engine which makes it easy to create "realistic" animations and images
  • Wide array of importable and exportable file formats, make it easy to work within client specifications and with the files that clients provide
  • Rigging is fairly easy
  • Very cost-effective, being free.
  • Interface, though user-friendly, can be quite intimidating when just starting out
  • Extremely hardware intensive, requiring a lot of GPU and CPU power.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Rendering in a realistic way.
  • Animation with movie-grade capabilities.
  • Integration of said renderings/animation with real world with motion capture.
  • It's really a hard question, but it could be: a game engine. Older versions used to have it; I would use it to simulate machines game-like.
  • I'm struggling to find another one; maybe the fact that it is so powerful and has so many features that learning it can be daunting; better documentation WITH examples and/or a map of Blender capabilities would help to know where you are in terms of knowledge and the planning the roadmap to where you want to go.
  • Precision modeling. Coming from CAD and using Blender as part of my design workflow, I'd love to be able to model inside Blender as I model with CAD tools. At this moment, it's simply impossible.
Arpad Szucs | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 3D modeling
  • 3D animation
  • Sculpting
  • Rendering
  • Improved performance for large and complex scenes.
  • Better support for multi-resolution sculpting and retopology.
  • Enhanced support for industry-standard file formats and workflows.
Jitendra Choubisa | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Creating complex polygonal geometries is very easy in Blender.
  • Edit Mode and Sculpt Mode helps in creating non uniform surfaces for objects like rocks, surfaces, terrains etc.
  • Blender can use various external plugins to make it work in more smoother way. For example to import any 3d object one can use sketchfab plugin and easily import the free assets from web after logging in.
  • Blender has a better rendering engine known as Cycles, it is far more better than any other stock rendering engine which can generate realistic lightning, shadows and reflections.
  • The animations can easily be generated with blender animation toolbar and also it incorporate any other animations made in any other software.
  • The bone generation and its behavior of animations can be achieved easily in blender.
  • It doesn't run on the old system. A system must have OpenGL 3.0 at least with a dedicated graphics card installed in the hardware.
  • The older versions might work without graphics card but it becomes very slow and that make it not usable.
  • Blender is very less in size, which comes on the cost of cutting some of the features and that increases our dependency on other 3rd part plugins to do some specific works like importing, using HDR's etc
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Powerful and precise 3D object placement and manipulation
  • Intuitive free-form sculpting tools
  • Easy to keep complex 3D elements organized
  • Deep bench of tools to make complex design processes easy
  • Huge online community -- you can easily Google how to do anything you want to do
  • Very steep learning curve -- interface is complex to get your head around
  • Functions aren't intuitively organized, so you generally have to look up how to do something new.
January 20, 2023

Blender is the best

Zeel Pandya | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • you can create your 3D model portfolio using blender
  • you can also create realistic renders using its powerful Cycles renderer
  • Light weight , cost effective and more flexible
  • The biggest challenge is learning curve for beginners
  • Using cycles for rendering takes a lot of time
  • User interface is not so good , specially navigation is bit confusing and difficult
January 20, 2023

Blender For Free.

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Rastor graphics
  • Animation and motion graphics
  • 3-D modelling
  • Texturing
  • It is difficult to tell when I am running out of RAM and thus slowing the rendering.
  • I seem to experience system crashes when running Blender.
  • Blender failing to start in Windows 10.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Being open source - being widely available and free for anyone was my first reason for downloading it.
  • The UI of the platform is easy to use, and if there's something missing there are plugins to fill the need.
  • The rigging tools are so robust.
  • It take a bit of learning to get use to but the massive community helps.
  • It can be quite intensive if you don't have a powerful PC to run high demand items.
  • The sculpting tools were confusing as a beginner.
January 20, 2023

Free, fast and fun!

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
  • enables a fairly non-skilled person to make good animated content.
  • Fabulous support group to get questions answered.
  • can’t beat free!
  • Since I’ve never used other animation software, I don’t have anything to compare it to. I’ve been pleased with it as it does everything I need.
November 29, 2021

Open source Tool

Mahmoud obaid | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Creating meshes that would be used for post process for CFD.
  • Split any object to a certain number of elements in order to proceed with creating meshes.
  • Export your model to different formats which is very convenient since you are planning to use it afterwards.
  • I would recommend to include trouble shooting icon to identify any issue would face the designer.
  • If possible to make this program as a compact software. What I mean is instead for me “ as a engineer “ to use another software to process the elements exported from Blender, why not adding a tool in blender to do this task instead.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Providing an array of tools[.]
  • Providing free printed tutorials[.]
  • The program can be downloaded free of charge[.]
  • The interface is simple and you can save your projects easily[.]
  • It is a big program and requires large computer ram[.]
  • I would enjoy more video tutorials[.]
  • Making labels and buttons easier to find for new users[.]
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • 3D Modeling
  • Texturing
  • Graphics creation
  • Simple animations
  • Moving from 2.7X to 2.8X was somewhat challenging since the entire UI had changed.
  • Not as intuitive as other alternatives for more detailed animations.
  • Steep learning curve for detailed texturing.
Aniket Kumar Chaudhary | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • It is a totally free and open-source platform. Made for beginner animators.
  • The interactive game features like collision detection, dynamic re-enactments, and logic.
  • Blender accepts graphic formats such as TGA, JPG, IRIS, HDRI, or TIFF. It can also read Inventor files.
  • Integrated 3D game engine with a logic brick system. For more control, Python programming is used.
  • It includes Inverse Kinematics, Grid Strains, Load Vertices, and Static and Dynamic Particles.
  • Tough to learn. Beginners may be overwhelmed by its jargons full of shortcut keys. It has a lot of features to learn.
  • It slows in an AMD processor with 4GB RAM.
  • I can't find more cons about Blender, but new users may [be] confuse[d] due to its tricky layout.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Quick export renders using Eevee
  • Super realistic renders when adding light or when objects are created to match the products
  • Very fast moving objects around and applying modifiers
  • Honestly Blender makes improvements with software updates weekly if not monthly and I love that
Return to navigation