Updated: August 2026
AutoCAD costs about $2,095 / year and you cannot buy it outright at any price. Ten alternatives are reviewed below, with the real numbers and the catch on each one. Two of them cost less than a single month of AutoCAD. One costs $48, once, and it is the right answer more often than the price suggests.
Replacing AutoCAD in a business, drawings must survive the round trip? BricsCAD. It is the only one that is genuinely AutoCAD-shaped — native .dwg, LISP that ports, and a perpetual licence if you ask for one.
Working in 2D and want to stop paying rent? QCAD Professional at $48, once. One year of AutoCAD buys roughly 43 copies. It is 2D only and its DWG path goes through DXF — if you can live with both, nothing else here comes close on value.
Budget of zero? FreeCAD if you are modelling, nanoCAD Free if you need to open DWG and your use is non-commercial. Both are real software, not crippleware.
SketchUp or Rhino instead? Neither replaces AutoCAD — they are 3D design tools, not drafting packages. Pair them with a drafter; do not substitute.
Ranked on what a working drafter actually cares about: does it open the file, does the licence expire, and what does it cost over five years rather than one.
| Product | Price | Licence | Scope | DWG native | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AutoCAD baseline | ≈ $2,095 / year | subscription | 2D + 3D | yes | — |
| BricsCAD | €330–€1,176 / year | both | 2D + 3D | yes | 9/10 |
| progeCAD | Perpetual, no subscription | perpetual | 2D + 3D | yes | 8/10 |
| QCAD | $48 perpetual — or free | both | 2D | via DXF | 8/10 |
| FreeCAD | Free — open source | foss | 2D + 3D | via DXF | 8/10 |
| SketchUp | $10.75–$68.25 / month | subscription | 3D | via DXF | 8/10 |
| Rhino | $995 perpetual | perpetual | 3D | via DXF | 8/10 |
| ZWCAD | From $899 perpetual | both | 2D + 3D | yes | 7/10 |
| DraftSight | $299–$599 / year | subscription | 2D + 3D | yes | 7/10 |
| nanoCAD | $289 / year — plus a free tier | both | 2D + 3D | yes | 7/10 |
| LibreCAD | Free — GPLv2 | foss | 2D | via DXF | 6/10 |
Full detail, including what each vendor gets wrong, on the comparison page.
Octave (formerly Bricsys)
€330–€1,176 / year
The closest thing to a true AutoCAD replacement rather than an imitation. It is the only alternative here that credibly covers 2D drafting, 3D modelling, BIM and mechanical in one licence family, and the only one whose LISP and .dwg fidelity survive contact with real consultant drawings.
ProgeSOFT
Perpetual, no subscription
The anti-subscription choice. progeCAD sells one thing and sells it clearly: an AutoCAD-shaped 2D/3D drafter you buy once.
RibbonSoft
$48 perpetual — or free
The best value on this page by a wide margin, and it is not close. Forty-eight dollars, once, for a properly maintained 2D drafter that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux.
FreeCAD community
Free — open source
Not an AutoCAD replacement, and pretending otherwise does nobody a favour. FreeCAD is a parametric 3D modeller with a drafting workbench attached, where AutoCAD is a drafting tool with 3D attached.
Trimble
$10.75–$68.25 / month
Dan named this one, and it belongs here — but as a different animal. SketchUp is a direct-modelling tool for spatial design: massing, concept, interiors, anything you want to think through in three dimensions quickly.
Robert McNeel & Associates
$995 perpetual
The best-value perpetual licence in professional 3D, and the natural companion to SketchUp on this page rather than a competitor to it. Rhino does NURBS surfacing that nothing else at this price approaches, and Grasshopper makes it the default choice for computational and parametric design.
The market has moved, and most comparison articles still have these wrong:
bricsys.com now redirects to bricscad.octave.com.
The software is unchanged; the company behind it is not.