Autodesk 3ds Max vs. Blender

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Autodesk 3ds Max
Score 8.2 out of 10
N/A
Autodesk offers 3ds Max, 3D modeling and rendering software for design visualization, games, and animation. The vendor states that users can produce professional-quality 3D animations, renders, and models with an efficient and flexible toolset to help create better 3D content in less time.
$235
per month per user
Blender
Score 9.3 out of 10
N/A
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 Cloud is a related service accessible via subscription, and is a training and content platform providing access to expertise from the Blender Institute for advancing one's use of Blender.
$11.50
per month
Pricing
Autodesk 3ds MaxBlender
Editions & Modules
Monthly Subscription
$235
per month per user
Yearly Subscription
$1875
per year per user
3-Year Subscription
$5625
3 years per user
Blender Cloud Membership
$11.50
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Autodesk 3ds MaxBlender
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsFlex pricing available for limited usage. Minimum plan $300 for 100 tokens. 3ds Max costs 6 tokens per day.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Autodesk 3ds MaxBlender
Considered Both Products
Autodesk 3ds Max
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
I use Blender, Maya is expensive learned it once but about the same as 3ds Max, just more expensive. Blender is great, open source and hard to learn, but work it. But since I have so much experience in 3ds Max it is my go to software.
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
Back when 3d programs were becoming more powerful and stable, 3d Studio (yes, it was 3d Studio before it was 3ds Max, more on that later) and Maya were owned by different companies. At that time, you had to
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
In Autodesk 3ds Max you can do camera animation with ease, its complex in Cinema 4d. Even I think same with light setup. Setting up light is quite easy in Autodesk 3ds Max as compare to Cinema 4d. Overall Autodesk 3ds Max is less complex in compare to other 3D softwares.
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
Maya is an overall better rendering program.
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
[Most] people like to use Maya for modeling but Maya is only good for soft surface modeling not for hard surface. The [Autodesk 3ds] Max has no limitations in this field, it is open to [making] hard or soft surface modeling. [It] even has great command on fx effects [made] by …
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
3ds Max provides me with good animations, as well as rendering images and stability for my gaming models. Therefore, I prefer it over Maya software
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
Blender is a very small and quite easy-to-use software but it lacks some of the things and for that, you need a lot of addons. So that's not a good thing. 3ds Max on the other hand is big in size but it can do pretty much all the tasks by itself.
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
Best for rendering and geometry flexibility. Interphase is also superior. The stacking of modifiers is unique and allows for combining, and turning on and of which makes presenting options very agile, and clear without destroying the geometry. It's easily reversible. All others …
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
Complex models are very easy to make in 3ds Max compared to other software, as Autodesk provides safety and security for your data and there are always there to serve you better. My experience with Autodesk was remarkable and Upmarket integration with other plugins makes 3ds …
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
Sketch-up week to be vertically integrated to produce concept all the way to high-end render, an animation (effects, particles, soft-body, etc..) All 3 other softwares are fully capable, it just comes down to what software an operator is most familiar with and if it works in …
Chose Autodesk 3ds Max
Some functionalities are not available on the other software we use.
Blender
Chose Blender
In addition to being free to use, Blender is competent and complete enough to do the same things as these programs. While some stabilization is still needed in some aspects, many of these They work quite well and practically the same as them. In addition, Blender has a …
Chose Blender
Most obvious answer for why we have chosen blender over others is cost. The cost of other software is too high but because blender is free it helps to put our money and resources in the right places. It also helped us to get quality output without additional cost as octane is …
Chose Blender
Blender is a free software which makes it accessible by all.It also provides various features which is in the paid software also .
Chose Blender
We selected Blender for most of use cases because it's availability and ease of use. Having no commitment in terms of plans or pricing also gives us more freedom to try it out, and we ended up staying with Blender.
Chose Blender
Well, in fact, I haven't used any of that software, but there is one thing I know: Blender is free. That's huge for small business owners like me; it is the difference between having the tool and not having it. I have heard other people saying that the Autodesk offerings have …
Chose Blender
It fulfills my expectation to make 3D animation and cartoons to show my concept of research results to the audiance ranging from low-level to excellent in the field. It saves a lot of time to explain and makes attraction to the audiance. It exceptionally helps my class room …
Chose Blender
Again, Blender wins over its competition in the number of users and its large community because it is free software. Whether you like it or not, that's a kickstart that makes a noticeable difference.
But, indeed, its competition is usually much more powerful and professional, …
Chose Blender
Blender is first of all free and open source software. It has very easy to use tools which can help one in navigating and modifying easily and efficiently. It is also very less in size, on my system it is of 355 MB. The rendering engine Cycle works simultaneously in the …
Chose Blender
We've only used the consumer (non-pro) version of Sketchup, which we love, but is very limited in features and output capabilities compared to Blender. While Blender's learning curve is MUCH steeper than Sketchup, it feels like truly complete, professional design software.
Chose Blender
As already mention , a Wide range of features and complete set of tools without paying anything .
Suitable with any operating system.
Getting started with Blender is also easy.
Chose Blender
I have to start off but stating the obvious. Blender is full-featured and free. Yes, I repeat, "free." Adobe makes outstanding products but at a high initial cost. Blender does a similarly fantastic job, but for free. Adobe Substance is able to perform all the tasks I need to …
Chose Blender
Ease of use and free, Zbrush has a very steep learning curve and Blender seems to be better at realistic image rendering. Plus free upgrades and amazing support made it a no-brainer. Lots of online tutorials and add-ons Blender comes out on top.

Chose Blender
Blender is a more user-friendly version of these programs; not only that, but the community behind blender is great; posting everything you need on youtube or offering courses has made it so much easier to learn new ways to make renders or assets, also there are plenty of free …
Chose Blender
Did not look at any others. This was recommended by an industry friend and has served our needs well.
Chose Blender
Again, Blender has a great advantage compared to other software which is being “ open source “ & free which can let anybody uses it without any worries. Compared to Ansys, Blender is ok since it doesn’t have all the features that Ansys got which is fine since Ansys is quite an …
Chose Blender
DaVinci resolve is also free to a point. They are [compatible]. However, you can mostly use it for video editing and graphic editing.
Chose Blender
The biggest advantage of Blender over these alternatives was how easy it was to learn, even for team members with no previous experience in 3D modeling, design, or any artistic field. The fact that it allows you to import or export files in most of the existing 3D model …
Chose Blender
Every software has its own use. Despite being similar software, we use every software for different purposes. Personally, I use Blender for modeling and sculpting, Maya for animation, substance painter for texturing, and so on. So, my advice for you is that you should explore …
Chose Blender

To date, Maya has been and is the undisputed leader in the sector. Despite being at such a high price, there is really no substitute for Maya's quality. Therefore, the use of

Chose Blender
Adobe Animate doesn't do half of the things that Blender can. Blender is an all-around better program in the fact that it can 3D model, sculpt, and animate in real-time. Blender is also completely free and has tons of free resources available to everyone. I highly recommend …
Chose Blender
Blender is just as good as Cinema 4D. One huge advantage Blender has is that its free and you don't have to worry about upgrades or license upgrades when wanting to download or purchase the latest version
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User Ratings
Autodesk 3ds MaxBlender
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.5
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Autodesk 3ds MaxBlender
Likelihood to Recommend
Scenarios where Autodesk 3ds Max is well suited: 1. Modeling less complex geometries. 2. For beginners it is good, meshes, poly's, vertexes etc can be easily understood. 3. Easy UI and interoperability. Scenarios where it is less appropriate: 1. Inbuild Rendering (Scanline) can be made better. 2. Performance over low end/Old Pc's need refinement. 3. Bulky Size on disk. 4. Animation is the area which can be made better also.
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Blender is an excellent tool for everything from simple to complex 3D animations, the creation of 3D images, etc. It performs excellently in all of these areas. In the realm of 3D modelling, animation and rendering, there is very little that Blender is not suited for.
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Pros
  • V-Ray 3ds Max is an awesome third-party plugin for architecture renders in 3ds Max.
  • Complicated models can be made in a simple way in 3ds Max also P-particles, M flow works better then before.
  • Interface is very easy to use. Very open, attractive, and very much ease of use for new users.
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  • 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.
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Cons
  • working in 2d is very frustrating and unreliable. It just lacks the precision
  • How scaling affects units (or doesn't) There needs to be a way for modifiers to address a change of scale in the object.
  • Booleans are not intuitive. Especially for architecture, creating an opening and putting a door or a window is an incredibly cumbersome process.
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  • It would be great to see a render queue added. This would increase my productivity significantly. Currently I don't have budget for a render farm. Meaning I have to do my renders overnight, however some renders only take a few hours. A render queue would allow me to make the most of the 12+ hours I'm out of the office.
  • UV editing, in particular unwrapping or projecting can produce varied results.
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Likelihood to Renew
It satisfies 95% of my 3d visualization need. The left over 5% is handled by a few other programs. If Max just can't perform a specific task I can do that elsewhere and then bring it back to Max to finish up. But, it's rare that this occurs in my work
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No answers on this topic
Usability
It is a very difficult program to learn to use and even harder to use well. But once you get to using it it is a great software package to know how to use. Getting to be good at using it takes lots of use.
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Because while it's a pretty good piece of software, the default built-in commands, the interface layout, and certain functions aren't as logical in their way of being arranged and executed. This, of course, doesn't diminish its use or effectiveness in your field of work, but it is quite awkward at first. A big advantage is that Blender lets you customize the interface however you want as well as keyboard shortcuts and several general program parameters.
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Support Rating
I have contacted support many times and have had a good experience. They have always been helpful
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
I use Blender, Maya is expensive learned it once but about the same as 3ds Max, just more expensive. Blender is great, open source and hard to learn, but work it. But since I have so much experience in 3ds Max it is my go to software.
Read full review
Well, in fact, I haven't used any of that software, but there is one thing I know: Blender is free. That's huge for small business owners like me; it is the difference between having the tool and not having it. I have heard other people saying that the Autodesk offerings have some other tools Blender doesn't have and are better for animation, especially Maya, but no small-engineering business owner cares for that. Now, from the animation and artistic point of view, even if my business was making animated movies indie, I'd used Blender simply by its cost.
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Return on Investment
  • Having to take comments on and re-render a set of single multi-camera shots wastes a lot of time, as there is also an error "batch render." Slows down my completion of a job, even for the most minor image updates.
  • Not being able to offer my freelance/contractor services period in-house on studios that are exclusively Mac. They don't even offer Autodesk 3ds Max as an option because they have never been able to see it in action. Huge loss of potential hires, with my 33year 3DStudio/Autodesk 3ds Max experience
  • When most current version is needed I jump onto the subscription temporarily and this eats severely into my profits. As clients want lower and lower prices with international and AI competition. Especially when I know many International houses for a fact use pirated 3D software.
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  • As it is a beginner-friendly software with increasing demand in the animation sector again, it positively impacts the business.
  • Except in some specific cases, no one will use Blender on their own at a professional level.
  • When I was a beginner, it took me a lot of time to learn, consequently designing the creation. But if we want to learn to master Blender, we can do it. As long as we have time and a lot of willpower, since, we repeat, it is not a simple program and hides thousands of tools and possibilities.
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