Autodesk Revit
Ranked 25 of 27 CAD software by recommenders
Architects and builders recommend Revit as the one BIM tool no alternative matches, though its cost and complexity can outweigh the benefit on small jobs.
Architects and builders recommend Revit as the one BIM tool no alternative matches, though its cost and complexity can outweigh the benefit on small jobs.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 55%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 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.
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Monopoly over architecture software
“Competition authorities should not have allowed them to buy Revit, to create a monopoly for Architecture software”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Autodesk burns the village to feed AI and the Cloud – cuts 7% of workforce” “they have a monopoly on architectural, CAD, and BIM software with AutoCAD and Revit”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “Autodesk burns the village to feed AI and the Cloud – cuts 7% of workforce”
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 | — | — |
| Autodesk RevitThis page | 6 | 5 | 55% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
All 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“what this does that Revit doesn't already do better”
“Revit costs are high, and the end results are marginally better”
“It's been amazing for things like our kitchen renovation, but it's a lot for simpler things”
“but not so much around Revit. Architect would destroy them if they could. But no alternative works.”
“The real "sticky wicket" is Revit.”
“The Revit API is a challenge to build against. The documentation isn't great and often API calls will fail for mysterious reasons.”
“It's an old CAD application for Windows which means there's a few additional hurdles”
“The physical world runs on software older than the iPhone.”
“they have a monopoly on architectural, CAD, and BIM software with AutoCAD and Revit”
“Competition authorities should not have allowed them to buy Revit, to create a monopoly for Architecture software”
“I think it can do some basic revit layouts with coaxing”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.