Alibre Design 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee.

How Software Advice ensures transparency

Software Advice lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Users can talk to our advisors for free to receive software recommendations matching their needs. Software providers pay us for sponsored profiles to reach users interested in their products.

How Software Advice verifies reviews

Software Advice carefully verified over 2 million reviews to bring you authentic software experiences from real users. Our human moderators verify that reviewers are real people and that reviews are authentic. They use leading tech to analyze text quality and to detect plagiarism and generative AI.

Independent research methodology

Researchers at Software Advice use a mix of verified reviews, independent research, and objective methodologies to bring you selection and ranking information you can trust. While we may earn a referral fee when you visit a provider through our links or talk to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology.

Wondering if Alibre Design is right for your organization?

Our 3D CAD Software selection experts can help you in 15 minutes or less.

On this page

Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
User Reviews

Overview

Alibre Design

4.7

(179)

Pricing

Starting at $10.00 per month

About Alibre Design

Alibre Design is a comprehensive 3D CAD solution that empowers engineers, designers, and hobbyists to bring their ideas to life with unparalleled ease and efficiency. Alibre Design simplifies the process of creating intricate 3D models and assemblies. From concept to completion, it streamlines the design workflow, enabling users to iterate, refine, and visualize their designs with exceptional clarity.

Alibre Design offers an extensive range of design capabilities, including parametric modeling, part and assembly design, 2D drafting, and simulation tools. Its intuitive tools allow for precise geometry creation, versatile component placement, and dynamic assembly relationships, ensuring seamless collaboration among team members or across disciplines.

Alibre Design Screenshots

Alibre Design Pricing and Plans

Starting price: $10.00 per month

Free Trial

Free Version

Alibre Atom3D

$10.00

flat rate, per month

Plan includes:

Precise modeling for 3D print / CNC
Easy to learn, simple interface
Export STEP, SAT, STL, OBJ, DWG, DXF, SVG
Models move realistically
Easily move to different computers

Alibre Design Pro

$30.00

flat rate, per month

Plan includes:

Dedicated Account Manager
Core sketching toolset
Core 3D modeling toolset
Core views and detailing in 2D
Scripting language for automation
Direct editing tools
Extended file format support

Alibre Design Expert

$50.00

flat rate, per month

Plan includes:

Every modeling and detailing tool
Global design variables
Sheet metal modeling
Motion for screw, gear, pulley, etc.
Design Configurations
Dynamic Design Library
Photorealistic Rendering

Confused about pricing? We've got you covered.

Get a personalized pricing breakdown tailored to your specific needs—no guesswork, no generic estimates.

Alibre Design Features

Popular features found in 3D CAD
2D Drawing
Animation
Bill of Materials Management
Data Import/Export
For 3D Printing
For Architects
For Manufacturers
More features of Alibre Design
3D Design & Modeling
3D Imaging
Annotations
API
Bills of Material
CAD Tools
Component Library
Configuration Management
Content Library
Customizable Fields
Customizable Templates
Data Synchronization
Data Visualization
Design Analysis
Design Management
Manufacturing Design Data
Mechanical
Modeling & Simulation
Multiple Format Support
Product Data Management
Projections
Real-Time Updates
Reference Management
Reporting/Analytics
Sketching and Annotation Tools
Third-Party Integrations

Alibre Design User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.7

Ratings Breakdown

74%

22%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.6

Value for money

4.8

Customer support

4.8

Functionality

4.6

Adrian F.

Verified reviewer

Mechanical or Industrial Engineering

Self-Employed

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2023

Easy for a CAD noob

Absolutely easy to work with lots good tutorials good forum. Mature software!

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

-easy -software is yours no saas -good tutorials -good forum -nice people

Cons:

-no real hobbyist license -bad cam there are better choices

Reasons for choosing Alibre Design

The ease of use. The affordable price and the clean ui

Reasons for switching to Alibre Design

Unclear license too costly and I don’t like to rent software I like to own it

Dennis H.

Verified reviewer

Industrial Automation

11-50 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Reviewed June 2025

A Fantastic Everyday Tool

Ease of learning, cost, great community response to problems, and interchangeability with other CAD tools. I use it to conceptualize everything from work to personal projects. I love it!

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The learning curve was very easy. Cost for Design Expert is very reasonable. Creating concepts and generating realistic renderings in Keyshot is awesome.

Cons:

Lack of NURBS and surfacing tools. I got creative using 3D sketching, lofts and sweeps. The new fillet functions gives me more flexibility.

Reasons for choosing Alibre Design

Cost and ease of use during the trial period. I looked at FreeCad which was not as easy to get up to speed. I did not like any of the online (cloud) optiones either.

Reasons for switching to Alibre Design

I needed a 3D option. I tried to create 3d concepts which was very difficult.

Lee A.

Verified reviewer

Renewables & Environment

Self-Employed

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Reviewed May 2025

Happy reviewer. Keep up the good fight.

Good generally apart from threads that can be printed. Most other tools offer this out of the box for high end tool. Limited training, but will give you it’s getting better. Thanks

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Simple for basic engineers and high end honest. Love that it a continuous license.

Cons:

Lack of structural threads is a massive issues to be able to print on a printer directly. Lack of support for 5 axis cnc generation. I have the top end tool which is great but all offers are for other versions to move up to top level. I paid full price now I feel left out of offers when you give them. Do not offer options for disabled in terms of keeping in support maintenance when harder to earn money to support keeping it supported.

Reasons for choosing Alibre Design

Used at previous company so knew it well

Vendor Response

Thank you for the review. We've been working on adding structural threads and it is now available as of June 1st! Many customers have asked for this and we listened. We also offer 5th axis cnc support with EZCAM as of a few weeks ago. We've rolled out a ton of new training videos in the past 2 years as well as an extensive user guide. Training options are indeed getting better.

Replied June 2025

Mike R.

Verified reviewer

Consumer Goods

Self-Employed

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Reviewed November 2025

Best Bang-for-Buck 3D CAD software

Overall, I like using Alibre Design Pro. I can pretty much design anything I that can imagine at this point, and the workflow progression feels very natural and efficient. I'm using Alibre Design Pro for both machining and 3D printing projects, and really enjoy being able to iterate and improve my designs quickly, from concept through to finished product; Alibre is a good tool to have in my toolbox, at an affordable price.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Alibre Design was easy to learn, coming from SolidWorks, which I use at my day job. Alibre's pricing and licensing policy are very fair, and offer the best bang-for-buck, of all of the 3D CAD programs that I looked into, for my hobby and small business use. I started with Alibre Atom, and after a year of use, liked it well enough to upgrade to Alibre Design Pro; I only had to pay the difference in price between Atom and Design Pro, to get the upgrade package, again very fair, essentially getting credit for the Atom package I had bought a year before. I like that the license is perpetual, and the fact that the service update subscription is optional, which helps control the cost. Overall, I find Alibre Design Pro to be very usable and capable 3D design software.

Cons:

Like any software, there are occasional minor quirks, and there have been rare crashes to the desktop. I will say Alibre support was very responsive about one repeatable bug in the Loft dialog that I reported, but it took a while for them to reproduce it on their end, even after a number of emails back and forth. A fix should be coming in the next service release. I would really like to see Alibre offer a "Finder's Fee" for reporting reproducible bugs; this would help make Alibre a better product, by soliciting and utilizing very specific user feedback. A suitable "Finder's Fee" incentive could be a free year's worth of service updates, for each bug reported.

Jason S.

Verified reviewer

Education Management

11-50 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Reviewed March 2025

When you can't afford SW, get Alibre!

Awesome! I have MeshCam also which I use with my Carbide 3D Nomad cnc machine. Even though I teach SolidWorks to students, I pitch this software to them when they graduate because it is affordable, effective, the support is top notch with same day(sometimes hour) response.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The support is excellent. Always available within moments of asking for support help. That alone is priceless.

Cons:

I haven't checked the latest version, but it would be very convenient to add bolt circle patterns at the blueprint creation stage instead of modifying the part model. I use Alibre for making blueprints quite often and this is a constant headache.

Reasons for switching to Alibre Design

Cost, features and ease of use. Later found out how great the support was and that was an inmeasureable plus.

Scott K.

Verified reviewer

Education Management

Self-Employed

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Reviewed September 2025

Awesome 3D CAD program for beginner to expert, licensing the way you want it.

I'm really glad I found and use Alibre for my 3d modeling for general CAD and lots of 3d printing stuff.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Can install it on my machine, easy to setup and they have great getting started tutorials for the beginner 3D modeler! I really like their pricing structure, subscription based or one time based with option to pay for upgrades as needed. Plus, I was able to write my own plugin to tightly integrate it to Orca Slicer for 3d printer. Customer support has been awesome and very responsive when I've reached out to them.

Cons:

Not much! Sometimes it crashes when I'm applying fillets on lots of edges and faces but always back up and running quickly. Do wish the community was bigger or just more well known, as it's a hidden gem it seems. Also wish they had a 2d parametric only version... though I can use just a simple sketch for simplistic scenarios.

Reasons for choosing Alibre Design

Better licensing model for my use case and can easily upgrade and grow into the more advanced products as needed.

Jeff H.

Verified reviewer

Education Management

Self-Employed

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Reviewed August 2025

My experience with Alibre Atom

I've been an Alibre user for about three years now and my overall experience with Alibre Atom has been excellent.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Functionality

Pros:

There are a number of things which make Alibre a great choice. First is that one purchases a license and does not have to subscribe to a service with a monthly or annual fee. Second, having Alibre transferable among computers means that I can have it at home and then transfer the license to my laptop for travel, and then back to my home computer again upon my return. Third, and most important, is Alibre was very easy to learn. In a very short period of time I was making models which I could then 3D print. The tutorials are excellent with examples.

Cons:

I'm sure there are some cons to Alibre which could be identified by a more sophisticated user but for my applications I have not found anything which I was not able to do.

Reasons for switching to Alibre Design

Recommendation from a friend and the ability to try the software before purchase. Also, the price was reasonable for such a powerful product.

Jeff E.

Verified reviewer

Music

Self-Employed

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Reviewed March 2025

Two thumbs up

Excellent product. Great value. I used this to design parts for fabrication via 3D printer to woodworking and metalworking. I've even made venue models for the charity I support.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Ease of use. Excellent customer support. I used Pro Engineer in my professional career and Alibre has a better user interface, very intuitive and works great.

Cons:

No complaints. Other than a few bugs I found four years back that were promptly fixed I haven't found anything to critique.

Reasons for choosing Alibre Design

Superior 3D modelling capability. I've used Autocad since the 80's for 2D work and it just never worked well for 3D work. Solid works and Pro Engineer were out of my price range and Alibre's user interface was superior.

Reasons for switching to Alibre Design

I found Alibre when I left industry and deployed it for use in my small business. Haven't looked back as it meets all of my needs.

Paul T.

Verified reviewer

Electrical/ Electronic Manufacturing

Self-Employed

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Reviewed April 2025

Alibre is the biz

It was recommended to me by a ex mechanical engineer colleague who used it after using SolidWorks - it's a great tool, very powerful for the price.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Alibre is intuitive to use & very capable making it easy to get started on your projects & you'll be up & running in no time.

Cons:

I have Atom for home projects & I used to have Expert in a previous job - I miss the additional features.

Reasons for switching to Alibre Design

I was recommended Alibre by a trusted ex colleague

Duane B.

Verified reviewer

Mechanical or Industrial Engineering

Self-Employed

Used monthly for less than 2 years

Reviewed May 2025

Alibre Expert User Summary

I feel that Alibre Expert performs as promised. I'm very pleased with the pricing and the support has been very prompt. I'm not a daily user but when I need the support the suggestions generally work.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I've been a user of 3D programs in the past and have found that the features Alibre offers are very comparable. The updates come often and each one seems to offer very good features.

Cons:

I would like to be able to import files from Solidworks and Cero directly with going through the Step process. Step files are not always transferred cleanly.

Reasons for switching to Alibre Design

I used Solidworks and Cero under a corporate license. I left the company and needed a platform that I could fill the gap.

Showing 1 - 10 of 179 Reviews

See All Reviews