Softwr

CAD · head to head

Altium 365 vs Substance 3D Designer

Altium 365 logo

Altium 365

CAD

Cloud workspace for Altium Designer PCB projects, now inside Renesas

From
$1990/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Substance 3D Designer logo

Substance 3D Designer

CAD

Node-based material authoring

From
$29/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Altium 365 the 1,990 US dollar Altium Develop entry price is capped at five authors in total, so a growing team hits a forced migration to Agile Teams with unpublished pricing exactly when headcount is rising.; Substance 3D Designer as of a 1 January 2023 archived capture, Adobe Substance 3D Designer is not sold standalone; it requires the Substance 3D Collection subscription plan at US$49.99 per month
  • They diverge on capability: Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, Substance 3D Designer covers Node-based workflow.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Altium 365 and Substance 3D Designer actually diverge.

Attributes where Altium 365 and Substance 3D Designer differ
AttributeAltium 365Substance 3D Designer
Starting price$1990/year$29/month
Pricing modelPer user per yearsubscription
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Cloud, On-premiseWindows, MacOS, Linux
FoundedUnknown1982

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (CAD).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Altium 365

  • Shared workspace
  • Managed components
  • Browser review
  • Unlimited workspace users
  • MCAD CoDesigner
  • Manufacturing portal
  • Requirements Portal
  • BOM Portal

Only in Substance 3D Designer

  • Node-based workflow
  • Procedural generation
  • PBR materials
  • Patterns
  • Filters
  • Custom nodes
  • MDL export
  • Painter

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Altium 365

  • A hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight CAD seatsnot Substance 3D Designer
  • A team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of Gerbersnot Substance 3D Designer
  • A company running board and enclosure design in parallel and needing bidirectional geometry exchange with mechanical CADnot Substance 3D Designer
  • A buyer checking component lifecycle and availability against the live BOM before a design is frozennot Substance 3D Designer

Substance 3D Designer

  • Material creationnot Altium 365
  • Procedural texturesnot Altium 365

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Altium 365

  • The 1,990 US dollar Altium Develop entry price is capped at five authors in total, so a growing team hits a forced migration to Agile Teams with unpublished pricing exactly when headcount is rising.
  • Add-on portals are expensive per seat; BOM Portal has been quoted at around 1,999 US dollars per user per year and MCAD CoDesigner at around 499, so the real cost of a working configuration is well above the headline.
  • It is tied to Altium Designer; there is no meaningful use of the platform for teams designing in KiCad, OrCAD or Allegro, which makes it a lock-in decision rather than a tooling one.
  • Renesas acquired Altium in 2024, and a semiconductor manufacturer owning the design tool used to select competing semiconductors is a conflict some buyers will want addressed in writing before uploading a library.
  • Repeated repackaging, from Altium 365 Standard and Pro tiers to Altium Develop and Agile Teams, has made renewal comparisons difficult and customers have found their previous tier no longer maps to anything on the price list.

Substance 3D Designer

  • As of a 1 January 2023 archived capture, Adobe Substance 3D Designer is not sold standalone; it requires the Substance 3D Collection subscription plan at US$49.99 per month

Pricing, plan by plan

Altium 365

$1990/year
  • Altium Develop$1990/year
    • One Altium Designer author licence
    • One workspace for shared projects and libraries
    • Unlimited workspace users for review, comment, tasks and BOM access
  • Altium Agile Teams$undefined/year
    • For teams beyond five ECAD authors
    • Extended workspace governance and administration
    • Quoted, no published price
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • On-premise or private cloud workspace server
    • Formal ECO and lifecycle governance
    • Quoted, no published price

Substance 3D Designer

$29/month
  • Substance 3D Collection$49.99/month
    • All Substance apps

Which should you pick?

Choose Altium 365 if

  • You need shared workspace.
  • You work on Web, Windows, Cloud, On-premise.
  • You also want managed components.
Altium 365 review

Choose Substance 3D Designer if

  • You need node-based workflow.
  • You work on Windows, MacOS, Linux.
  • You also want procedural generation.
Substance 3D Designer review

Questions people ask

Is Altium 365 or Substance 3D Designer better?
Neither clearly leads. Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and Substance 3D Designer at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Altium 365 or Substance 3D Designer?
Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and Substance 3D Designer at $29/month.
Does Altium 365 or Substance 3D Designer run on more platforms?
Altium 365 runs on Web, Windows, Cloud, On-premise. Substance 3D Designer runs on Windows, MacOS, Linux.
What is Altium 365 best used for?
Altium 365 is most often used for a hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight cad seats, a team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of gerbers, a company running board and enclosure design in parallel and needing bidirectional geometry exchange with mechanical cad, a buyer checking component lifecycle and availability against the live bom before a design is frozen. Of those, a hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight cad seats and a team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of gerbers are not what Substance 3D Designer is typically brought in for.
What can Altium 365 do that Substance 3D Designer cannot?
Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, Managed components, Browser review, Unlimited workspace users. Substance 3D Designer covers Node-based workflow, Procedural generation, PBR materials, Patterns.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Altium 365: Is Altium 365 free with Altium Designer?

A workspace is included with a current subscription, but the higher tiers, extra authors and the add-on portals are chargeable. The unlimited non-author users are genuinely included.

Altium 365: What does it cost?

Altium Develop starts at about 1,990 US dollars a year for one author plus a workspace, with extra authors at 995 US dollars each up to four more. Larger teams are quoted.

Altium 365: Who owns Altium now?

Renesas Electronics completed its acquisition of Altium in 2024. Altium 365 is therefore a Renesas-owned platform.

Altium 365: Can I keep design data on my own servers?

Yes, through the Enterprise on-premise workspace server, but that is a quoted product and most of the newer portal features assume the hosted platform.

Share

Related pages

More on Altium 365

More on Substance 3D Designer

Keep looking

Other head to heads