Guide
Free CAD software: six real options, and the ones that aren't as free as they look
There is a lot of genuinely excellent free CAD software, and there is also a lot of software marketed as free that expires, watermarks, makes your designs public, or stops being free the moment you earn money with it. This guide separates the two. Everything in the first list is open source, installs on your own machine, and stays free permanently.
Short answer
Designing physical parts in 3D? FreeCAD. Drawing plans in 2D? LibreCAD. Those two cover most people. The rest of this page is for when they don't.
Why most “free CAD software” lists are useless
Search this and you get top-ten lists padded to ten. They mix genuinely free open-source programs with time-limited trials, hobbyist licences that forbid earning money, and cloud tools that make your designs publicly visible unless you pay. All of it is labelled “free”, in the same list, with no distinction drawn.
That distinction is the entire useful content. There is free as in “this is yours permanently and nobody can take it away”, and free as in “free until you succeed”. Both are legitimate; they are not interchangeable, and finding out which one you picked two years into a project is expensive.
So this page is in two halves. First, six programs that are open source, install locally, and are free permanently under licences that cannot be revoked. Then a plain list of the popular “free” options that come with conditions, and exactly what those conditions are.
One more thing worth saying up front: CAD is not one category. Drawing a floor plan and modelling a bracket for 3D printing are different jobs needing different software, and the most common reason people conclude free CAD is unusable is that they downloaded the wrong kind. The picks below are organised by what you are making, not by rank.
Six that are genuinely, permanently free
All open source, all installable on Windows, macOS and Linux, all free with no account, no trial period and no commercial restriction. Pick by what you're building.
FreeCAD
3D parametricBest for: designing real objects — parts, assemblies, things you'll 3D print or machine
The default answer, and deservedly so. Full parametric modelling with a design history, so changing a dimension early in a model updates everything downstream — something AutoCAD itself handles poorly. Version 1.0 fixed the long-standing topological naming problem that used to make complex models fragile, and 1.1.3 arrived in July 2026 with commits landing daily.
It is a big program with a real learning curve, and its workbench system confuses everyone at first. Push through that and it is genuinely professional-grade.
LibreCAD
2D draftingBest for: floor plans, elevations, schematics — anything that ends up printed flat
A 2D drafting program and nothing else, which is exactly why it is pleasant. It opens instantly, runs on hardware that struggles with a modern browser, and its layers and command line will feel immediately familiar if you have used AutoCAD LT.
If your work is drawings rather than objects, start here and ignore FreeCAD entirely. You will be productive within an hour.
SolveSpace
Lightweight parametricBest for: mechanical parts and linkages, when FreeCAD feels like too much program
A parametric 2D and 3D modeller in a remarkably small package — the whole program is a few megabytes and starts instantly. Its constraint solver is excellent, and it handles mechanical assemblies and linkage simulation unusually well for its size.
Less capable than FreeCAD on complex models, and a smaller community when you get stuck. But for straightforward mechanical parts it is faster to work in and much easier to learn.
OpenSCAD
Code-based 3DBest for: programmers, and parts you want to regenerate at different sizes
You do not draw in OpenSCAD, you write the model as code and it renders the result. That sounds perverse until you need forty variants of the same bracket, at which point changing one variable beats redrawing anything.
Worth knowing honestly: its last stable release is tagged 2021.01, which looks alarming. Development is very much alive — commits landed the day this page was written — and most people run the widely-used development snapshots. It is a slow-release project, not an abandoned one.
QCAD Community Edition
2D draftingBest for: 2D drafting when LibreCAD nearly fits but you want a polished alternative
LibreCAD was originally forked from QCAD, so they share ancestry and feel similar. The community edition is free and open source and covers ordinary 2D drafting well.
The paid Professional version adds DWG support and more tools. If free 2D CAD works for you except for DWG, QCAD Pro is a modest one-off purchase — a reasonable middle ground between free and $2,095 a year.
Blender
Not CAD, but asked about constantlyBest for: shapes that are sculpted or artistic, not dimensioned
Included because people searching for free CAD are told to use Blender constantly, and it is usually wrong advice. Blender is a superb mesh modeller for animation, VFX and organic shapes. It is not dimensionally precise and it has no parametric history.
If you are designing a part that must be 40.5 mm and fit another part, use FreeCAD. If you are making something that just needs to look right, Blender is outstanding and free forever.
“Free” CAD that comes with strings
These are all legitimate products and some are excellent. They are also all listed as “free CAD software” in roundups that never mention the conditions. Here are the conditions:
- Fusion 360 (Personal Use) — genuinely capable and genuinely free, for non-commercial hobby use only, on a licence you must keep renewing. Features get removed from the free tier over time, and it has been narrowed repeatedly since it launched. Fine for a hobby. Do not build a business on it.
- Onshape (Free plan) — full cloud CAD at no cost, with one significant catch: on the free plan your documents are public. Anyone can find and copy your designs. Perfectly reasonable for learning or open hardware, unacceptable for client work or anything confidential.
- Tinkercad — free, browser-based, owned by Autodesk, and genuinely the best starting point for a complete beginner or a child. It is also deliberately simple: you will outgrow it, it needs an account, and it needs an internet connection.
- nanoCAD Free / “free” DWG editors — usually a limited tier of a commercial product, often requiring registration, sometimes with the free version quietly discontinued later. Read what happens to your files if the free tier goes away.
- AutoCAD student licence — the real AutoCAD, free for a renewable year if you are at an accredited school or university. Strictly education-only; you cannot use it for paid work. If you're eligible, take it — it beats everything on this page for coursework.
None of this is a criticism of those products. The point is only that “free” means two different things, and the six above are the kind that cannot be taken back.
The six, side by side
Every one of these is free forever with no commercial restriction. The columns that actually decide it are the first two.
| FreeCAD | LibreCAD | SolveSpace | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3D modelling | YesFull parametric | No2D only, by design | YesParametric, lighter |
| 2D drafting & dimensioning | PartlyVia Draft/TechDraw | YesIts entire purpose | YesGood |
| Design history / parametric | Yes | No | Yes |
| Assemblies | Yes | No | PartlySimple assemblies |
| Exports STL for 3D printing | Yes | No | Yes |
| Opens DWG | PartlyNeeds external converter | PartlyBasic support | No |
| Runs on an old laptop | PartlyWants RAM and a GPU | YesVery light | YesTiny |
| Easy to learn | NoSteep — workbenches confuse everyone | YesAn hour | PartlyModerate |
Questions people actually ask
What is the best free CAD software overall?
FreeCAD, for most people, because it does the widest range of real design work without restrictions and is actively developed.
But “best” depends entirely on the job. For 2D plans LibreCAD is better and much easier. For simple mechanical parts SolveSpace is faster to learn. Anyone naming one winner for all CAD work has not thought about the question — the split between 2D drafting and 3D modelling is the thing that actually matters.
Is free CAD software good enough for professional work?
For design and manufacturing, increasingly yes. FreeCAD 1.0 resolved the topological naming problem that had made complex models fragile for years, and plenty of small engineering firms and makers now use it commercially.
Where free CAD still loses is interoperability, not capability. If your clients send DWG files and expect DWG back, or your industry standardises on Autodesk or SolidWorks, that is a business constraint no free program solves.
Can free CAD software open DWG files?
Partly, and never dependably. DWG is Autodesk's proprietary and deliberately undocumented format.
FreeCAD converts DWG by calling an external tool — the free ODA File Converter or LibreDWG — which turns it into DXF first. LibreCAD has basic built-in support. Simple drawings usually survive; complex ones lose blocks, styling or layers.
Work in DXF wherever you control the format. It is the open interchange standard, every program here handles it natively, and AutoCAD exports it perfectly well if you ask a collaborator to send it.
Which free CAD software is easiest for a complete beginner?
If you have never used CAD at all, Tinkercad in a browser will get you making shapes in ten minutes — with the caveats that it needs an account, needs internet, and you will outgrow it.
For something you install and keep: LibreCAD if you want to draw plans, SolveSpace if you want to make objects. Both are dramatically gentler starts than FreeCAD, and you can move to FreeCAD later once you know what you're doing.
Do any of these work for 3D printing?
Yes. FreeCAD, SolveSpace, OpenSCAD and Blender all export STL, which is what slicers want.
FreeCAD is the usual choice for functional printed parts because it is dimensionally precise and parametric. OpenSCAD is popular with people printing many variants of the same design. LibreCAD is 2D only and not useful here.
Is it safe to download these?
Yes, from the official sites linked above. All six are open source with no ads, no bundled extras, no telemetry and no account.
The real risk in this category is third-party download portals that repackage popular free software with adware attached — and CAD software is one of their favourite targets, with several such sites ranking well for these names. Always take the download from the project's own domain.