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Modo

Creative 3D modeling and rendering

As of 30 August 2026, Modo starts at $29/month. Modo is a 3D modeling, texturing, and rendering software known for its artist-friendly tools and advanced polygon and subdivision surface modeling. Softwr lists it under CAD. Modo is made by Foundry, launched in 1996, available on Windows, macOS, Linux.

Overview

What Modo does

Modo is a 3D modeling, texturing, and rendering software known for its artist-friendly tools and advanced polygon and subdivision surface modeling.

What people use it for

  • Polygon and subdivision surface modelling for media and entertainment assets
  • Look development and rendering of product and character models

The honest half

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 Modo.

  • Foundry announced on November 7, 2024 that it is winding down development of Modo after the Modo 17.1 release, with no further feature or maintenance releases anticipated
  • Support continues only until each customer's current contract term expires
  • Foundry does not guarantee that Modo will keep working on future operating system updates because no patches will be issued, and recommends customers migrate to alternative 3D workflows
  • Perpetual licences keep working but receive no further updates, bug fixes or support
  • The Modo forums closed in December 2024 and downloads, docs and the support knowledgebase were committed only until November 2025

Cross-shopped

What people choose instead of Modo

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.

Pricing

What Modo costs

Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.

Indie

$599 /mo

  • Full Modo
  • Revenue limit $100K

Modo

$1,898 /mo

  • Full commercial license

Capabilities

Features

  • Polygon modeling

  • Subdivision surfaces

  • Sculpting

  • UV tools

  • Procedural modeling

  • Rendering

  • Animation

  • MeshFusion

  • Unity

    Integration with Unity

  • Unreal

    Integration with Unreal

  • V-Ray

    Integration with V-Ray

  • Arnold

    Integration with Arnold

Behind it

Who makes Modo

Company
Foundry
Based in
London, UK
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Where to go from Modo

Best CAD software for

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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Modo, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.

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