Blender

Free and Open Source 3D Creation Suite

As of 30 August 2026, Blender is free to use. Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, motion graphic. Softwr lists it under Video Production. Blender is made by Blender Foundation, launched in 1995, available on Web, Windows, macOS, Linux.

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Overview

What Blender does

Blender is a free and open-source 3D computer graphics software toolset used for creating animated films, visual effects, art, 3D printed models, motion graphics, interactive 3D applications, virtual reality, and computer games.

What people use it for

3D modeling and animation
Visual effects
Game development
Architectural visualization
Video editing

Where it falls short

Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Blender.

Rendering performance lags behind dedicated render engines
Limited real-time viewport performance for very large scenes

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Blender

Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.

Blendervs
Maya
Maya: Professional 3D modeling and animation software, though requires licensing
Blendervs
LightWave 3D
LightWave 3D: Full 3D modeling and animation suite with similar feature set

Capabilities

Features

3D modeling
Sculpting
Animation
Rigging
Rendering
Compositing
Video editing
2D animation
Python scripting
Integration with Python scripting
Alembic
Integration with Alembic
USD
Integration with USD
OpenVDB
Integration with OpenVDB

Answered, with sources

Questions people ask

Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.

Can I use Blender commercially for free?

Yes. Blender is distributed under the GNU GPL license, meaning it is completely free to use for any purpose, including commercially or for education, with no licensing fees or restrictions.

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What operating systems does Blender support?

Blender is cross-platform and runs equally well on Linux, Windows, and Macintosh computers.

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Can I extend Blender's functionality?

Yes. Blender has a flexible Python-controlled interface and you can use hundreds of add-ons by the community or create your own using Blender's accessible Python API.

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Behind it

Who makes Blender

Company: Blender Foundation
Based in: Amsterdam, Netherlands

Timeline

Blender over time

Licence change2002-10-13
Blender released under GNU General Public License after Free Blender campaign raised 100,000 EUR
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Founded2002-03-01
Blender Foundation founded by Ton Roosendaal
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Milestone1995-01-01
Blender development begins at NeoGeo animation studio
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