If your work ends at a solid model — an enclosure, a bracket, a part you will print or hand to a shop — SolidCraft is the better tool today, and it is free in a way Fusion is not. If your work ends at a machined part on a CNC machine, or needs simulation, a PCB, drawings, or someone else's support contract, Fusion is not really being compared; SolidCraft does not attempt those. The honest summary: different products, sold as substitutes.
Side by side
| SolidCraft | Autodesk Fusion | |
|---|---|---|
| Licence | Apache-2.0, free forever, no account, no telemetry | Subscription. A free Personal Use tier exists for non-commercial hobbyists |
| Cost in practice | £0 | Personal Use: free for 3 years, requalification, 10 editable documents. Commercial: paid subscription (US list $85/month, $680/year). Startup programme: $150/user for one 3-year term, approved companies, max 10 users |
| Where it runs | Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, browser — fully local | Windows, macOS, web; an Autodesk account and a cloud connection sit in the loop |
| Modelling | Parametric solids: sketch with a constraint solver → features → parametric timeline | Parametric solids, assemblies, sheet metal, plus generative design |
| Manufacturing | None | CAM built in: 2-axis and 3-axis routing; multi-axis needs an extension |
| Simulation / PCB | None | Built in: structural and thermal simulation, PCB design, drawings |
| How it proves itself | A generated reference report: 83 of 83 cases match analytic or FreeCAD-computed values | Vendor QA; no published third-party geometric oracle |
| Agent control | MCP server and CLI — it has driven a 3,323-step rover model end to end | No MCP server |
| File formats | STEP, IGES and STL in and out; DXF export of the current view | STEP, IGES, STL and 3MF in and out, plus native .f3d / .f3z |
| Installers | Not code-signed yet: SmartScreen "Run anyway", or right-click → Open | Signed and delivered through an Autodesk account |
| Stage | v0.20 — "early but usable for simple parts" | Mature commercial product with paid support and an extension ecosystem |
| Community | 9,379 stars, 2,726 open issues | A vendor, a partner network and a price list |
What "free" actually means in both cases
The word does different work in each column, and most comparisons on this subject blur it.
SolidCraft is free in the strict sense: Apache-2.0, no account, no telemetry, no cloud service in the loop, and the model file is a file on your disk. If you stop paying anyone — nobody — nothing stops. The catch is not money, it is scope: the project describes itself as "early but usable for simple parts", and there is no manufacturing, simulation or electronics in it.
Fusion's free tier is free for a specific person: home-based, non-commercial work, under $1,000 of annual revenue, for three years, with a limit of ten editable documents and reduced manufacturing, drawings, export and collaboration. It is a generous hobby licence and a commercial trap: the moment you bill for the thing you designed, you are outside it. Autodesk's published terms are explicit that commercial projects need a paid subscription, and that freelancers, consultants and agencies are excluded from the cheaper Startup programme even when they have incorporated.
So the honest version of "Fusion 360 is free" is: Fusion is free for the version of you that is not yet professional. SolidCraft is free for whoever you become.
Where SolidCraft wins
It publishes its own geometric evidence. This is the real differentiator, and it is not a feature. SolidCraft's reference test report is generated by cargo xtask oracle and checked in CI: 83 of 83 cases pass, 62 against analytic values and 21 against FreeCAD 1.1.4 run as an independent kernel, with zero known failures and no case missing expected values. Worst observed surface distance across the FreeCAD-compared cases is 0.013 mm. No commercial CAD vendor publishes an equivalent oracle. (In fairness, the project's own README still says "75 of 76" — the generated report is newer than the summary, and we are quoting the report.)
It is local. No login, no account, no cloud rendering, no extension store, no telemetry. A parametric model you can keep on a laptop that is offline is a different object from one that lives in a vendor's tenant.
It can be driven by an agent. The MCP server is not a bolt-on: the SELENE rover in the project's own repository — 3,323 editable timeline steps rebuilt with no errors — was modelled through it. That is a CAD kernel being used as a tool by software, which is the direction the rest of this site is about.
Its files leave. STEP, IGES and STL in and out, DXF for the current view. Nothing you model is trapped in a proprietary container you cannot read.
Where Fusion wins
Everything downstream of the solid. This is not a small gap. Fusion ships CAM, so a part that leaves the model arrives with toolpaths; multi-axis and advanced probing need extensions on top. It ships simulation, so you can answer "will this survive the load" before cutting metal. It ships PCB design and drawing generation, which is how a product actually gets made. SolidCraft has none of it, and pretending otherwise would be the kind of dishonesty this site exists to correct.
Assemblies and the wider parametric surface. Fusion's parametric model covers assemblies, sheet metal and a generated-design workflow, and its extension ecosystem fills in the rest. SolidCraft's feature breadth is measured by the count of registered commands, which its own documentation carefully says does not establish workflow or geometric depth.
Signed installers, paid support, and a vendor behind it. The unglamorous advantage, and for an engineer with a deadline it is the decisive one. SolidCraft's installers are unsigned, which means SmartScreen and Gatekeeper both complain, and versions 0.11 to 0.14 cannot auto-update past 0.15 — you download a newer build by hand, once.
Linux users have no native option here. Fusion has no native Linux desktop build. SolidCraft ships Linux and FreeBSD binaries and a browser build.
What neither replaces
For production engineering — a machined part, a mould, a drawing set, a PCB, a company that needs someone to call when the post-processor misbehaves — Fusion is a tool and SolidCraft is a kernel. Neither is a PLM system, and neither turns a hobby into a product on its own.
How to decide in one minute
- Does the model need to become a machined part, a simulation or a board? → Fusion, or a CAD/CAM suite like it.
- Do you need a printable part, an enclosure, a bracket, or a teaching model? → SolidCraft.
- Is a per-seat subscription or a company account a problem? → SolidCraft.
- Do you need to run on Linux, or on a machine with no Autodesk account? → SolidCraft.
- Do you want an agent to build the model? → SolidCraft, and it is not close.
- Do you need someone to support you when the toolchain breaks? → Fusion.
Frequently asked
Is Fusion 360 free?
Partly, and the boundary is specific. The free tier — officially Autodesk Fusion for Personal Use — covers individuals doing home-based, non-commercial design and fabrication, under $1,000 of annual revenue, for three years with requalification near expiry, with ten editable documents and reduced manufacturing, drawings, export and collaboration. Commercial and professional use requires a paid subscription, which Autodesk lists in the United States at $85 per month or $680 per year, with a three-year option at $2,040. An approved physical-product startup can get $150 per user for one non-renewable three-year term, capped at ten users; consultants, service providers, agencies, contract manufacturers and nonprofits are excluded from that programme.
Is SolidCraft a free alternative to Fusion 360?
For parametric solid modelling, yes — it is Apache-2.0, needs no account, runs locally, and publishes a generated report showing 83 of 83 reference cases matching analytic or FreeCAD-computed values. For manufacturing it is not, and no one should pretend otherwise: SolidCraft has no CAM, no simulation and no PCB design, and calls itself early but usable for simple parts.
Does SolidCraft need an internet connection?
No. The desktop build is local, with no account and no cloud service involved. There is also a browser build if you want to try it without installing.
Is SolidCraft safe to install?
The code is Apache-2.0 and open, and it can be built from source — but the installers are not code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen needs "More info → Run anyway" and macOS needs right-click → Open the first time. Versions 0.11 to 0.14 cannot auto-update, so fetch a newer build manually once.
Sources: SolidCraft repository (README.md, ROADMAP.md, docs/oracle.md, docs/features.md), read 23 October 2026; Autodesk Fusion licensing and pricing terms, published pricing checked August 2026 — prices and eligibility vary by region and change; confirm before relying on them. We read the repositories; we did not run the binaries.