AutoCAD
Ranked 14 of 27 CAD software by recommenders
Long-running professional CAD program, praised for its AutoLISP scripting and as a budget-friendly option. Main caveat: no permanent license and vendor lock-in.
Long-running professional CAD program, praised for its AutoLISP scripting and as a budget-friendly option. Main caveat: no permanent license and vendor lock-in.
36 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 15
- criticize it
- 21
- approval share
- 42%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 15 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
AutoLISP scripting and automation
“The metadata allowed AutoLISP to do some really cool and intelligent things.”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AutoLISP interpreter in Rust/WASM – a CAD workflow invented 33 yrs ago” “AutoCAD was amazing, because with AutoLISP you could draw with words.”
Comment from 26 Mar 2026 in “Do Architects Still Need to Draw? (2020)” “Switching to ACAD with AutoLISP-based automation was a game changer.”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AutoLISP interpreter in Rust/WASM – a CAD workflow invented 33 yrs ago” - Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “Show HN: FluidCAD – Parametric CAD with JavaScript”
Historic, influential desktop CAD
“64K RAM, 8086 with math coprocessor, ACAD 1.0. Memory was such a pain back then.”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AutoLISP interpreter in Rust/WASM – a CAD workflow invented 33 yrs ago” “the best desktop version of AutoCAD available at the time”
Comment from 28 Dec 2025 in “Windows 2 for the Apricot PC/Xi” “It would become AutoCAD. That is pretty awesome.”
Comment from 10 Jul 2026 in “In Emacs, Everything Looks Like a Service”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Vendor lock-in and subscription pricing
“People who refused the conversion to a subscription, and maintained their "lifetime" licenses, where shut down after a couple of years.”
Comment from 15 May 2026 in “California bill would require patches or refunds when online games shut down” “You're completely locked in with no choice, everyone uses it so you must also use it.”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Autodesk burns the village to feed AI and the Cloud – cuts 7% of workforce” “It's expensive, there is no permanent license, there is basically no real alternative”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “Adobe modifies hosts file to detect whether Creative Cloud is installed” - Comment from 19 Apr 2026 in “The creative software industry has declared war on Adobe”
- Comment from 10 Apr 2026 in “France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech”
Neglected; poor Mac and AMD support
“the user's of AutoCAD that I know, weren't; asking for any "support", they just wanted the software to keep working”
Comment from 16 May 2026 in “California bill would require patches or refunds when online games shut down” “AutoCAD has severely neglected it, despite some large businesses built exclusively upon it.”
Comment from 26 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: AutoLISP interpreter in Rust/WASM – a CAD workflow invented 33 yrs ago” “Autodesk for example can barely get Autocad working on the Mac”
Comment from 14 Sep 2026 in “Apple's Dimensional Drawings” - Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “AMD continues to chip away at Intel's x86 market share”
Steep learning curve, unfamiliar interface
“I have no doubt that AutoCAD is difficult to grasp, but it is not a good representative of what is possible”
Comment from 20 Dec 2025 in “OpenSCAD is kinda neat” “In the top ribbon menu there are icons only. And not any familiar ones at all.”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Icons in Menus Everywhere – Send Help” “after 2 days of tutorials I still felt overwhelmed”
Comment from 20 Dec 2025 in “OpenSCAD is kinda neat”
Other CAD software people recommend
The four most recommended other CAD software, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FreeCAD | 199 | 95 | 68% | 12 | 2 yrs13 owners | Approved |
| OpenSCAD | 173 | 87 | 66% | 12 | 9 yrs4 owners | — |
| Onshape | 65 | 21 | 76% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Autodesk Fusion 360 | 60 | 37 | 62% | 12 | — | — |
| AutoCADThis page | 15 | 21 | 42% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
30 of the 38 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“He sat down to use it once and went straight back to graph paper.”
“AutoCAD intersperses application parameters and tool configurations alongside actual data operations in it's undo history”
“Autodesk for example can barely get Autocad working on the Mac”
“AutoCAD and Fusion 360 aren't much better”
“It would become AutoCAD. That is pretty awesome.”
“still the budget-friendly CAD program it has always been”
“the user's of AutoCAD that I know, weren't; asking for any "support", they just wanted the software to keep working”
“People who refused the conversion to a subscription, and maintained their "lifetime" licenses, where shut down after a couple of years.”
“Autodesk that has maintained its moat (vendor lock-in) around AutoCAD through patents”
“AutoLISP ... Arguably it is what made it the powerhouse CAD tool.”
“I can probably kick AutoCad/Fusion360 to the curb.”
“the death grip that AutoDesk has over that industry needs to be broken”
“I could for the first time use AutoCAD”
“It's expensive, there is no permanent license, there is basically no real alternative”
“AutoCAD was amazing, because with AutoLISP you could draw with words.”
“The physical world runs on software older than the iPhone.”
“They're as bad as they can be”
“You're completely locked in with no choice, everyone uses it so you must also use it.”
“several pixels of its window will overlap the edge of the window on the adjacent screen”
“the best desktop version of AutoCAD available at the time”
“AutoCAD has severely neglected it, despite some large businesses built exclusively upon it.”
“The metadata allowed AutoLISP to do some really cool and intelligent things.”
“64K RAM, 8086 with math coprocessor, ACAD 1.0. Memory was such a pain back then.”
“Switching to ACAD with AutoLISP-based automation was a game changer.”
“I have no doubt that AutoCAD is difficult to grasp, but it is not a good representative of what is possible”
“after 2 days of tutorials I still felt overwhelmed”
“In the top ribbon menu there are icons only. And not any familiar ones at all.”
“make things like AVEVA and AutoCAD not so painful to use”
“their software have garbage level optimization on amd cpu”
“Once you memorized the keystrokes, you could fly through your line drawing.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.