3D & CAD · head to head
Mari vs V-Ray
The short version
- Each has a real cost: Mari the full annual licence is $1,289 paid annually, and a short term quarterly rental is $949 per quarter; V-Ray licences are subscription only with no perpetual option listed for any product
- They diverge on capability: Mari covers High-resolution painting, V-Ray covers Ray tracing.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Mari and V-Ray 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 Mari
- High-resolution painting
- UDIM support
- Procedural layers
- Baking
- Node graph
- Color management
- Nuke
- Katana
Only in V-Ray
- Ray tracing
- Global illumination
- GPU rendering
- CPU rendering
- Materials
- Lighting
- VR output
- Scene intelligence
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.
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
V-Ray
- Photorealistic rendering for architecture and product visualisationnot Mari
- Real time and ray traced rendering inside CAD and 3D applicationsnot Mari
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
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
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
Pricing, plan by plan
Mari
$29/month- Mari$1906/month
- Full features
V-Ray
$29/month- V-Ray Solo$60/month
- 1 workstation
- 5 render nodes
- V-Ray Premium$80/month
- Multiple apps
- Cloud credits
Which should you pick?
Choose Mari if
- You need high-resolution painting.
- You work on Windows, MacOS, Linux.
- You also want udim support.
Choose V-Ray if
- You need ray tracing.
- You work on Windows, MacOS, Linux.
- You also want global illumination.
Questions people ask
- Is Mari or V-Ray better?
- Neither clearly leads. Mari starts at $29/month and V-Ray at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Mari or V-Ray?
- Mari starts at $29/month and V-Ray at $29/month.
- Does Mari or V-Ray run on more platforms?
- Both run on Windows, MacOS, Linux, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
- What is Mari best used for?
- Mari is most often used for painting textures directly onto high complexity 3d assets for film and games, handling very large multi-udim texture sets in a look development pipeline. Of those, painting textures directly onto high complexity 3d assets for film and games and handling very large multi-udim texture sets in a look development pipeline are not what V-Ray is typically brought in for.
- What can Mari do that V-Ray cannot?
- Mari covers High-resolution painting, UDIM support, Procedural layers, Baking. V-Ray covers Ray tracing, Global illumination, GPU rendering, CPU rendering. Both handle Maya, Windows support, MacOS support, Linux support.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- 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
- 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