--- description: Review of Alibre Design Software: system overview, features, price and cost information. Get free demos and compare to similar programs. image: https://gdm-localsites-assets-gfprod.imgix.net/images/software_advice/og_logo-55146305bbe7b450bea05c18e9be9c9a.png title: Alibre Design | Reviews, Pricing & Demos - SoftwareAdvice GB --- Breadcrumb: [Home](/) > [3D CAD Software](/directory/4384/3d-cad/software) > [Alibre Design](/software/309859/alibre-design) # Alibre Design Canonical: https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/software/309859/alibre-design Page: 1 / 9\ Next: [Next page](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/software/309859/alibre-design?page=2) > 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. > > Verdict: Rated **4.7/5** by 182 users. Top-rated for **Likelihood to recommend**. ----- ## Quick Stats & Ratings | Metric | Rating | Detail | | **Overall** | **4.7/5** | 182 Reviews | | Ease of Use | 4.6/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Customer Support | 4.8/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Value for Money | 4.8/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Features | 4.6/5 | Based on overall reviews | | Recommendation percentage | 90% | (9/10 Likelihood to recommend) | ## About the vendor - **Company**: Alibre - **Founded**: 1997 ## Commercial Context - **Starting Price**: US$10.00 - **Pricing model**: Flat Rate (Free Trial) - **Target Audience**: Self Employed, 2–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500, 501–1,000, 1,001–5,000, 5,001–10,000, 10,000+ - **Deployment & Platforms**: Windows (Desktop), Windows (On-Premise) - **Supported Languages**: Czech, Danish, English, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish - **Available Countries**: Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium and 208 more ## Features - 2D Drawing - 3D Design & Modeling - 3D Imaging - API - Animation - Annotations - Bill of Materials Management - Bills of Material - CAD Tools - Component Library - Configuration Management - Content Library - Customisable Templates - Customizable Fields - Data Import/Export - Data Synchronisation - Data Visualisation - Design Analysis - Design Management - For 3D Printing ## Integrations (4 total) - KeyShot - SimLab - SimWise 4D - SprutCAM ## Support Options - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - Chat ## Category - [3D CAD Software](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/directory/4384/3d-cad/software) ## Related Categories - [3D CAD Software](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/directory/4384/3d-cad/software) - [Engineering CAD Software](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/directory/4321/engineering-cad/software) ## Alternatives 1. [AutoCAD](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/software/390127/autocad) — 4.7/5 (3205 reviews) 2. [SolidWorks Premium](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/software/206302/solidworks-premium) — 4.6/5 (756 reviews) 3. [SketchUp](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/software/371821/sketchup) — 4.5/5 (1046 reviews) 4. [Inventor](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/software/414123/inventor) — 4.5/5 (277 reviews) 5. [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/software/420072/fusion-360) — 4.5/5 (268 reviews) ## Reviews ### "Exceptional value for money" — 5.0/5 > **Rick** | *28 November 2023* | Design | Recommendation rating: 10.0/10 > > **Pros**: Having used SolidWorks at work since 2000, I have found Alibre to be capable of virtually the same performance at home at a small fraction of the cost. - In addition, it runs well on my basic home desktop PC, and it can import SW native files (though without retaining the feature tree). For someone who is comfortable working in SolidWorks, ProE, etc, Alibre is very much the same at lower cost. - The Alibre license is permanent, unlike other CAD systems. You can subscribe to maintenance support, but if you decide to let that lapse your system license is still good - you lose the maintenance but still can continue to use the software. - Alibre's customer service has also been consistently very good, every question receives careful attention and an immediate helpful response. > > **Cons**: This is not really Alibre's fault, but the discontinuation of a CAM add-in called AlibreCAM 2020 (as I understand, this was not actually an Alibre product but made by MecSoft) around 2021 was unfortunate - it was excellent and seamless in Alibre and critical to my work. In order to retain this discontinued product, I have not updated my system to the most recent version of Alibre. > > As a user of SolidWorks at work, I wanted a system that I could use at home with similar capabilities; SolidWorks did not offer a suitable license for this purpose. I discovered Alibre around 2013 and was surprised to find that it closely matched the performance of SolidWorks at an affordable cost, and even more surprised to find that it ran well on my home computer. I used it for parallel work to my day job, for exporting Alibre models into SolidWorks, and for other work on my own account. When I retired in 2019 and set up a small home business, I added a CAM add-in and used Alibre to model products and generate toolpaths for their production on a small CNC machine in my garage; it has paid for itself many times over. ----- ### "The Alibre Design Advantage" — 5.0/5 > **Thomas** | *23 July 2025* | Machinery | Recommendation rating: 10.0/10 > > **Pros**: Great tool, compatibility with step files, has handled everything I needed to do, and is very close to the package I use at work. Enjoying the new tools added with this update and look forward to new innovations from the development team. So far, lacks nothing, still experimenting with the pdm (vault) feature, seems like a good setup for alike parts and assemblies, and it gives a form of parametrics to deal with similar part profiles. The value to me for a complete 3d design solution, is very attractive and , like I said, export capabilities to other design platforms allows me to create E-drawing models for customers to view. Never had a support issue, basically, hit the ground running. Assemblies are easy to create, and I can import parts from virtually any source. I would like to explore more of the toolbox capabilities, see what that is capable of doing. What a great package\!\! > > **Cons**: The rendering is very limited, would like to manipulate color palette, light sources, and have realistic texturing capabilities. > > Alibre Design Professional is a great, affordable replacement for Inventor and Solidworks. Like myself, most retired individuals can't afford thousands of dollars yearly to maintain a subscription and this package delivers the best for anyone who is retired but still does some development and contract work. ----- ### "Happy reviewer. Keep up the good fight." — 3.0/5 > **Lee** | *8 May 2025* | Renewables & Environment | Recommendation rating: 2.0/10 > > **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. > > 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 ----- ### ""Old man" continues to enjoy working with Alibre Design" — 5.0/5 > **Joseph** | *6 June 2025* | Automotive | Recommendation rating: 10.0/10 > > **Pros**: I've used Alibre Design Professional for many years (20+) and have seen continuous improvements. One in particular is just better images, I seldom feel the need to go into photo-rendering software to get a great screenshot that conveys my ideas to others. > > **Cons**: It's not so much what I like least, but more of a wish list item, in an area where your obvious competitor, Solidworks, apparently also offers nothing in the following area: It would be great if I could control a sequence of views from a .csv file, so that I could more readily generate animations of sequences of images, for instance coming out of flight simulation software that I've developed. Processes like that are currently just under mouse control, where one cannot generate a smooth sequence of viewing angles with smoothly varying zoom, by hand. I do appreciate that challenges and plain old work that this would place on your software engineers, but I nevertheless point out how valuable it would be if you started moving into this kind of territory. > > Though I am officially "retired" from my engineering work, I continue to do projects and make increasing use of FDM printing of mechanical parts. My Alibre tools get me quickly and efficiently from model concept through to generation of a .stl file that I can move into slicer software and on to my printer. That is a very rewarding experience. ----- ### "Best for small woodworking shop" — 4.0/5 > **Gregory** | *3 June 2025* | Design | Recommendation rating: 8.0/10 > > **Pros**: The combination of price and capabilities, Alibre Design is the best tool to facilitate the flow from rough pencil-sketch, to 3d model to 2d shop drawings. I appreciate that Alibre Design is not bogged down with "featureitis". The Alibre Design developers focus on making the tools great without the burden of marketing fluff. I also appreciate the "buy once to own" sales model as opposed to the ubiquitous software-as-subscription subscription model. > > **Cons**: The UI seems dated and a bit disjointed. Some of the tools (ESC to de-select) are not as responsive as I would like. > > Excellent. Meets all my 3D design needs. Use case: One-off furniture design and build. Use Alibre to design and iterate ideas then create 2-d shop drawings for construction. ----- Page: 1 / 9\ Next: [Next page](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/software/309859/alibre-design?page=2) ## Links - [View on SoftwareAdvice](https://www.softwareadvice.co.uk/software/309859/alibre-design) ## This page is available in the following languages | Locale | URL | | en | | | en-AU | | | en-GB | | | en-IE | | | en-NZ | | ----- ## Structured Data