BricsCAD
Octave (formerly Bricsys)
EUR 330–1,176 / year (approx. $385–$1,375)
LibreCAD community
LibreCAD
Free — GPLv2 · 2D · DWG via DXF interchange
Verdict
Free, honest and 2D-only. LibreCAD descends from the same QCad codebase as QCAD and shows it. For learning, for occasional DXF work, for anyone who needs a drafting board and has no budget, it does the job and costs nothing. But the last stable release is from May 2024, and a project that quiet is a real consideration for production work. Use it knowing that.
What it costs
Free and open source under GPLv2, on Windows, macOS and Linux, in over 30 languages. No tiers, no upsell, no account. The current stable release is 2.2.1.5, dated 2 May 2024 — worth knowing before you build a business on it.
Vendor pricing page: https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/releases
For scale: AutoCAD is subscription only, with no perpetual option at any price since 2016. Autodesk publishes its current rates at autodesk.com.
What it gets right
- Genuinely free, GPLv2, no account and no telemetry
- Cross-platform and light on hardware — runs on almost anything
- 30+ languages
What to watch out for
- ⚠ Last stable release 2.2.1.5 is dated May 2024 — development cadence is slow
- 2D only
- DWG is not its native format; expect DXF as the interchange path
Pricing and specifications: https://github.com/LibreCAD/LibreCAD/releases