# DesignSpark Mechanical Software Pricing, Alternatives & More 2026 | Capterra > With the help of Capterra, learn about DesignSpark Mechanical Software - reviews, pricing plans, popular comparisons to other 3D CAD products and more. Source: https://www.capterra.com/p/172985/DesignSpark-Mechanical --- # DesignSpark Mechanical Software Review 2026: Features, Integrations, Pros & Cons Last updated on November 14, 2025 Provider data verified by our Software Research team, and reviews moderated by our Reviews Verification team. Independent research methodology Capterra’s researchers 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 speak to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology. 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[Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-we-ensure-transparency/) [Description](#description)[Use cases](#use-cases)[Alternatives](#alternatives)[Features](#features)[Pricing](#pricing)[Support](#support)[Reviews](#reviews) DesignSpark Mechanical ## What is DesignSpark Mechanical ? DesignSpark Mechanical is a 3D CAD solution designed to help engineers and educational institutions use inbuilt 3D models to create and export technical drawings in STEP & IGES file formats. It offers measurement tools, which enable designers to analyze the size and shape of designs created. Businesses can use its 3D sketch module to create intricate and realistic designs. It also lets administrators use price and stock information to generate online quotes and bill of materials. ## What is DesignSpark Mechanical used for? [3D CAD](https://www.capterra.com/3d-cad-software/)[Architectural CAD](https://www.capterra.com/architectural-cad-software/) Overall rating Based on 17 user reviews Reviews sentiment Positive \- Neutral \- Negative \- Contact vendor for pricing Free trial available Capterra Shortlist charts the highest-rated and most popular products... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Our "Best of" badge program showcases products with the highest ratings... Do you work for DesignSpark Mechanical ?[Manage this product listing](https://digitalmarkets.gartner.com/get-listed/claim-bx?url=https://www.rs-online.com&name=DesignSpark Mechanical ) ## Compare with a popular alternative Capterra selects software alternatives based on relevant features, verified user reviews and user interactions. Placement may be influenced by client status. ### DesignSpark Mechanical 4.4 (17) VS. [### AutoCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/265024/AutoCAD/) [4.7 (3,205)](https://www.capterra.com/p/265024/AutoCAD/reviews/) Starting Price Contact vendor Starting Price $250 Per User, Per Month Free Trial Free Version Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version Ease Of Use 4.4 (17) Ease Of Use 4.1 (3,201) Value For Money 4.6 (14) Value For Money 4.2 (2,481) Customer Service 4.2 (12) Customer Service 4.2 (2,360) ## DesignSpark Mechanical alternatives [SolidWorks Premium](https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/) [4.6 (756)](https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/reviews/) Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 97% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/93121/SolidWorks-Premium/) [SketchUp](https://www.capterra.com/p/211798/SketchUp/) [4.5 (1,046)](https://www.capterra.com/p/211798/SketchUp/reviews/) Starting price $19.99 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 92% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/211798/SketchUp/) [Alibre Design](https://www.capterra.com/p/172312/Alibre-Design/) [4.7 (182)](https://www.capterra.com/p/172312/Alibre-Design/reviews/) Starting price $10.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 96% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/172312/Alibre-Design/) [Revit](https://www.capterra.com/p/265023/Revit/) [4.6 (480)](https://www.capterra.com/p/265023/Revit/reviews/) Starting price $365.00 Per User, Per Month Pricing Options Free Trial Free Version User Rating 96% of reviewers rated it above 4 stars [Learn More](https://www.capterra.com/p/265023/Revit/) [View all alternatives](https://www.capterra.com/p/172985/DesignSpark-Mechanical/alternatives/) ## Features Features with the highest number of reviews are displayed first. Those that have no reviews appear next, sorted alphabetically. 2D Drawing 4.5 (2) 50.00% of 2 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Drawing and modeling designs within 2D flat dimensions 3D Design & Modeling 2.5 (2) 50.00% of 2 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Design products in 3D Data Import/Export 3.0 (2) 100.00% of 2 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Import and export data to and from software applications Annotations 4.0 (1) 0.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Highlight content and/or make notations about parts of content Design Management 4.0 (1) 100.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Collaborate on creating a product by sharing and adjusting designs through a shared portal Drag & Drop 4.0 (1) 0.00% of 1 reviewers that rated this feature as important or highly important Assemble applications and processes by dragging over and arranging pre-built components DesignSpark Mechanical 23 features Drawing and modeling designs within 2D flat dimensions Design products in 3D Highlight content and/or make notations about parts of content Application programming interface that allows for integration with other systems/databases Material list of manufacturing parts and associated costs Database of components and materials used in design templates Configure existing workflows to meet your organization's needs Centralized repository to store content and assets Pre-designed layouts that can be customized to match preferences and requirements Import and export data to and from software applications Collaborate on creating a product by sharing and adjusting designs through a shared portal Prepare preliminary versions of digital documents, technical drawings, or design mock-ups for review Assemble applications and processes by dragging over and arranging pre-built components Create, save, and store files Designed for 3D printing purposes Intended to be used by architects Intended to be used by manufacturers Edit, touch up, and convert images for publishing Includes a variety of messaging formats including industry-specific (EDIFACT, HL7, X12) Ability to handle several projects simultaneously Estimate or forecast of a future scenario based on the study of present trends Create, draw, and annotate graphical content directly within the software application Track revisions and updates made to files and navigate between different versions Get Advice We can help you find the software with the features you need. Features 3.8 (17) 3.8 Based on 17 reviews ## Pricing Value for money 4.6 (14) ### Starting price Contact vendor for pricing Free trial available Value for money 4.6 (14) 4.6 Based on 14 reviews Connect with a Capterra advisor for a free 15-minute consultation Get a personalized software list aligned to your business needs with guidance from our expert advisors. Our team has helped 1 million+ businesses like yours find options that fit their needs. ## Support, customer service and training options Customer Service 4.2 (12) Support - Email/Help Desk - FAQs/Forum - Knowledge Base - Phone Support - 24/7 (Live rep) - Chat Training - In Person - Live Online - Webinars - Documentation - Videos Deployment - Web - Android - iPhone/iPad Typical users - Freelancers - Small businesses - Mid size businesses - Enterprises Customer Service 4.2 (12) 4.2 Based on 12 reviews ## User reviews Overall rating 4.4 Based on 17 reviews Filter by rating 5(7) 4(9) 3(1) 2(0) 1(0) Mentioned topic Sorted by most recent HR Heinz R. Dipl.Ing. Machinery ### "Kein Fortschritt vorhanden. CAD System wurde unbrauchbar in der Anwendung" 3.0 Overall Rating 3.0 3.0 Ease of Use 1.0 1.0 Features 1.0 1.0 Customer Service 1.0 1.0 Likelihood to Recommend 0/10 September 15, 2023 Was soll das???? Pros Kann keine mehr finden. War in der vorherigen Version sehr gut. Cons Inzwischen umständliche Benutzung. Dauernd muss man von Skizze in 3D umschalten. Nicht mehr logisch aufgebaut. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Response from Vendor November 2, 2023 Hello, Can you please elaborate as to what is unusable? Please make sure to contact support to report specific issues you have found. Our team is always happy to help and get you on track with using our software. The latest version 6 of DS Mechanical makes improvements and adds new features. Please read the release notes to find out what's new: https://www.rs-online.com/designspark/designspark-mechanical-version-6-0-release-notes If your prefer the classic interface with all sketch and 3D tools in Design tab, turn off (remove check mark) for constraint-based sketching in File -> DesignSpark options -> Advanced. Best regards, The DesignSpark team AU Anonymous User Maker Information Technology and Services ### "Früher gut, wird immer schlechter" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 1.0 1.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 1/10 August 16, 2023 Ich kann verstehen, dass man von Businesskunden mehr Geld verlangen will und kann. Aber warum gleichzeitig die Hobbyisten abwürgen die kostenlose Werbung und Youtube-Tutorials machen? Pros Super einfach und intuitiv zu benutzen. Cons Seit ein paar Versionen werden Funktionen die vorher verfügbar werden in die hochpreisigen Abomodelle verschoben. Für Hobbyisten wird die Software damit zusehends unbrauchbarer. Ich werde sie leider nicht mehr weiterempfehlen. Switched from [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.capterra.com/p/178416/Fusion-360/) Einfachere Bedienung Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. RM Rick M. Co-owner Sporting Goods ### "Easy to learn. Easy to use. Powerful features. Our go-to CAD program for designing new products." 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 April 17, 2023 Overall experience has been fantastic. We have been able to create a wide variety of products for our customer base using DSM. With the ability to use STP files we can import files from customers or other designers and modify them to suit our needs. Pros Initially the most important feature was how easy to learn the program is for non CAD experts. With direct modeling we were up and creating items within a few minutes. As we gained experience we found more and more ways to create complex items, both mechanical and cosmetic in nature. Cons There are not a ton of resources for solving issues, but there is a community that often has an answer to point in the right direction. The tutorials available are good, but more of them would be better. Reasons for choosing DesignSpark Mechanical Price was a consideration, but also the ease of learning. Direct modeling vs parametric modeling. Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. MS Mike S. Technical Director Maritime ### "Fast learning curve, excellent price" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 3.0 3.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 June 17, 2021 To be honest a significant amount of use for me is quicly sketching things up (ie subsea equipment layout) to email to clients, either screen captures or 3D PDF. I do use it for real mechanical drawings however, for 3D printing as well as sending good quality 2D drawings to our engineering shop (though I did purchase the 'Drawing' Add-on for that) Pros Apart from the fact it's free, well the basic package anyway (there are Add-Ons), I don't think you could call any engineering software truly intuitive, but I really was up and designing things the first day. That was in 2015. I wouldn't call myself an expert user, sometimes I won't touch it for weeks or more, but each time I do it always does what I want it to do. Cons DSM does lack a few features, for instance object colours and decent rendering, and back grounds, though v5 has made significant improvement on those. I was disappointed to find there's almost nothing in the way of built in or online libraries. Communicating with companies who use other packages is becoming more of a problem as dsm can only export a handfull of formats. There is another Add-On which improves that situation though. Reasons for choosing DesignSpark Mechanical Naturally I did investigate several other 3D packages first. Some it was obvious, and reviews agreed, that the learning curve was going to be a difficult one, but primarily the issue was cost, some of them just enormous, and with those annoying ongoing subscriptions. I realise the complexities of those high end packages probably warrants the high cost, but they were at the time, way out of my reach. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. Response from Vendor June 23, 2021 Hi Mike, Thank you for the review. We just wanted to clarify that there is an extensive online library available in the DesignSpark Mechanical software and it has several ready-to-insert 3D parts ranging from screws and bolts to entire electronic development boards. This library is accessible to software users from the 3D button in the Design tab of the ribbon bar. Hope this helps you. Kind regards, DesignSpark JH Jack H. Senior Engineer Mechanical or Industrial Engineering ### "Great for Quick and Non-Professional Use" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 3.0 3.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 January 6, 2021 I wouldn't use DesignSpark as a main CAD software in industry as it is missing some features and to be honest I don't think that was ever it's intention. It is great for school kids and older students who want to submit a drawing for manufacture or just want to get the hang of using CAD software. Pros It has many of the important / necessary features required to create a part or drawing, so somebody with little CAD experience can quickly produce something that can be submitted to a workshop. It also runs well as it isn't a cloud based solution. Cons Whilst being off the cloud makes it run well, it also means it can't be used without administrator rights to install, which can make it prohibitive for use on a large organisations network. But for less formal use on personal computers, it's great! Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. RP Rahul P. QC Oil & Energy ### "Excellent hope i found this before" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 January 6, 2021 I just use CAD for personal use. I have been using FreeCAD and QCAD for my most works and used Solid Edge for some projects then a buddy from reddit suggested me DesignSparks. I had a pretty good experience with it. It was soo easy to learn and can do the things in less time compared to other softwares Pros Pretty easy to use. Easy learning curve Best of SpaceClaim for Free Stable performance soo far Great Tutorials with well explanation Good support from the community Cons STEP files can't be exported without the paid plugin, well i found thats reasonable to support the development of this free software. Switched from [FreeCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/167527/FreeCAD/) Easy to use Not crowded with tools all over Review source Non-incentivized review: any software user can leave a review for any product listed on our site. All submitted reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. RR Ryan R. Mr Food Production ### "Fantastic Software for Free!" 4.0 Overall Rating 4.0 4.0 Ease of Use 4.0 4.0 Features 4.0 4.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 8/10 December 7, 2020 Overall, I'd say that this software works great for me. I've used a number of other 3D modeling packages, and I keep coming back to this one when I need to model up a small part for 3D printing. They seem to be continuing the development of this software and they've kept it free, so what is there to complain about! Pros Designspark Mechanical is easy to get started with. The user interface and tools are much more intuitive than some of the other options that I've tried in the past. It is refreshing to see an interface that doesn't have icons and options littered all over the screen. Even though the software is simpler to use, I'm still able to easily model things that are dimensionally accurate. Some of the other "simple" 3D modeling programs are not so great at that. Cons Although it can do most of what the other software packages can do, sometimes the path to get there can be a bit different. One thing that I struggled with was mirroring of objects. You actually have to make the mirror line before you start drawing, or you just can't mirror things. That takes a little more thought ahead of time to remember that. Switched from [Autodesk Fusion](https://www.capterra.com/p/178416/Fusion-360/) This software is just simpler to use. I'm not using it every day, so the added complexity of Fusion 360 is just a bit overwhelming for me. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. DM David M. CEO Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing ### "Model Based Design can be Simple and Inexpensive" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 4.0 4.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 August 8, 2020 We needed a fast and easy to use model based design system for the early development of an energy storage system. We evaluated a number of products and DesignSpark was the best for our needs. Pros We use DesignSpark for initial conceptual engineering and simulation. It is by far the easiest and most intuitive model based design platform available. Cons Would like to see additional export formats that can be input into Computation Fluid Dynamic packages such as Simscale. Switched from [FreeCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/167527/FreeCAD/) FreeCAD is great as a parametric design tool but lacks the ease of use for model based design. Alternatives considered [FreeCAD](https://www.capterra.com/p/167527/FreeCAD/) Reasons for choosing DesignSpark Mechanical Intuitive and easy to use. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. EN Erica n. Ceo busygates Marketing and Advertising ### "DesignSpark Mechanical makes 3D easier" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 0.0 0.0 Likelihood to Recommend 9/10 March 28, 2020 Pros It's the ease of use. You don't need to be an expert in 3D to use this great software and it made it very easy for me to a lot without limiting me. I was totally blown off by how easier it was to use Cons It's been great so far and I hope It stays that way Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. AU Anonymous User Project Manager Environmental Services ### "Great for Sketching" 5.0 Overall Rating 5.0 5.0 Ease of Use 5.0 5.0 Features 5.0 5.0 Customer Service 5.0 5.0 Likelihood to Recommend 10/10 February 25, 2020 Great software for what it's worth. Don't expect the world. Pros This software is excellent for rough sketches. It doesn't have all the functionality of some of it's competitors, but the price is right. Cons Wish there were more features available. I learned how to use a different program and there's been quite the learning curve. Review source Incentivized review: software users are invited to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive for their time and effort. All incentivized reviews are subject to our verification process prior to publication. [View all Reviews](https://www.capterra.com/p/172985/DesignSpark-Mechanical/reviews/) Popular comparisons [Autodesk Fusion vs DesignSpark Mechanical](https://www.capterra.com/compare/172985-178416/DesignSpark-Mechanical-vs-Fusion-360)  Independent research methodology Capterra's researchers 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 speak to an advisor, this has no influence on our research or methodology. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/proprietary-data-research/) How Capterra verifies reviews Capterra carefully verified over 2.5 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. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-we-verify-reviews/) How Capterra ensures transparency Capterra lists all providers across its website—not just those that pay us—so that users can make informed purchase decisions. Capterra is free for users. Software providers pay us for sponsored profiles to receive web traffic and sales opportunities. Sponsored profiles include a link-out icon that takes users to the provider's website. [Learn more](https://www.capterra.com/resources/how-we-ensure-transparency/)