3D & CAD · head to head
V-Ray vs Mari
The short version
- Each has a real cost: V-Ray licences are subscription only with no perpetual option listed for any product; Mari the full annual licence is $1,289 paid annually, and a short term quarterly rental is $949 per quarter
- They diverge on capability: V-Ray covers Ray tracing, Mari covers High-resolution painting.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which V-Ray and Mari actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price ($29/month), pricing model (subscription), free tier (No), platforms (Windows, MacOS, Linux), user rating (Not yet rated), category (3D & 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 V-Ray
- Ray tracing
- Global illumination
- GPU rendering
- CPU rendering
- Materials
- Lighting
- VR output
- Scene intelligence
Only in Mari
- High-resolution painting
- UDIM support
- Procedural layers
- Baking
- Node graph
- Color management
- Nuke
- Katana
Both cover
- Maya
- Windows support
- MacOS support
- Linux support
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
V-Ray
- Photorealistic rendering for architecture and product visualisationnot Mari
- Real time and ray traced rendering inside CAD and 3D applicationsnot Mari
Mari
- Painting textures directly onto high complexity 3D assets for film and gamesnot V-Ray
- Handling very large multi-UDIM texture sets in a look development pipelinenot V-Ray
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
V-Ray
- Licences are subscription only with no perpetual option listed for any product
- Subscription terms renew automatically
- Cloud rendering runs on separately purchased credits, with the Pro tier at $25.30 a month for 1,000
- Enterprise pricing requires contacting sales
Mari
- The full annual licence is $1,289 paid annually, and a short term quarterly rental is $949 per quarter
- The cheap $299 per year or $35 per month subscription is restricted to a single licence for people working alone or in small companies
- Node-locked and floating are separate licence types you must choose between
- All listed prices are before applicable taxes
- A separate non-commercial licence exists, so commercial use requires a paid tier
Pricing, plan by plan
V-Ray
$29/month- V-Ray Solo$60/month
- 1 workstation
- 5 render nodes
- V-Ray Premium$80/month
- Multiple apps
- Cloud credits
Mari
$29/month- Mari$1906/month
- Full features
Which should you pick?
Choose V-Ray if
- You need ray tracing.
- You work on Windows, MacOS, Linux.
- You also want global illumination.
Choose Mari if
- You need high-resolution painting.
- You work on Windows, MacOS, Linux.
- You also want udim support.
Questions people ask
- Is V-Ray or Mari better?
- Neither clearly leads. V-Ray starts at $29/month and Mari at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, V-Ray or Mari?
- V-Ray starts at $29/month and Mari at $29/month.
- Does V-Ray or Mari run on more platforms?
- Both run on Windows, MacOS, Linux, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- What is V-Ray best used for?
- V-Ray is most often used for photorealistic rendering for architecture and product visualisation, real time and ray traced rendering inside cad and 3d applications. Of those, photorealistic rendering for architecture and product visualisation and real time and ray traced rendering inside cad and 3d applications are not what Mari is typically brought in for.
- What can V-Ray do that Mari cannot?
- V-Ray covers Ray tracing, Global illumination, GPU rendering, CPU rendering. Mari covers High-resolution painting, UDIM support, Procedural layers, Baking. Both handle Maya, Windows support, MacOS support, Linux support.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- V-Ray vs Enscape
- V-Ray vs FreeCAD
- V-Ray vs KeyShot
- V-Ray vs Lumion
- V-Ray vs Houdini
- V-Ray vs Arnold
- V-Ray vs Inventor
- V-Ray vs Mudbox
- V-Ray vs Corona Renderer
- V-Ray vs D5 Render
- V-Ray vs Twinmotion
- V-Ray vs LightWave 3D
- V-Ray vs OpenSCAD
- V-Ray vs PrusaSlicer
- V-Ray vs Siemens NX
- V-Ray vs ZBrush
- V-Ray vs 3D-Coat
- V-Ray vs Alibre Design
- Mari vs Enscape
- Mari vs FreeCAD
- Mari vs KeyShot
- Mari vs Lumion
- Mari vs Houdini
- Mari vs Arnold
- Mari vs Inventor
- Mari vs Mudbox
- Mari vs Corona Renderer
- Mari vs D5 Render
- Mari vs Twinmotion
- Mari vs LightWave 3D
- Mari vs OpenSCAD
- Mari vs PrusaSlicer
- Mari vs Siemens NX
- Mari vs ZBrush
- Mari vs 3D-Coat
- Mari vs Alibre Design