# FreeCAD Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/freecad/ 114 people recommended FreeCAD in Hacker News comments, 74 had mixed feelings and 75 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. People who said how long they have used it report a median of 2 years, among 13 people. It was recommended in 12 of 12 months, in 52 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** A free, open-source parametric CAD modeler that has improved rapidly and can replace Fusion 360 for many hobby users, though its UI remains complex and hard to learn. Summary written by Claude from the comments below. Claude agents reviewed it against the quotes on 2 Nov 2026. ## Why people recommend it - Rapid recent improvement (9 comments in the sample): "It's better. Way better than it used to be…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47498313)) "I too feel like the latest versions are quite a big improvement and I finally lost that feeling of slowing myself down" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47084727)) "made major strides in recent months to bring it closer to the state of the art (even if it's still not quite there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50149455)) - Free, open-source, community-driven (3 comments in the sample): "There's an entire working group in the project comprised of people who have spent their entire career doing CAD and now take care of making…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47542258)) "FreeCAD is the "state of the art" in CAD, because it is the most generally available, open source, free-to-experiment-on implementation" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48571808)) "FreeCAD is the sort of hard-won, low-governance, pure-open-source-no-corporate-bullshit project HNers should prefer." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46032325)) - Replaces Fusion 360 and Solidworks (2 comments in the sample): "I have been moving from fusion 360/eagle to FreeCAD+Kicad for mixed electronic/mechanical designs and never looked back." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50041604)) "I’d say that for hobby-level creations, 1.1 now has ~80% of the usability of Solidworks, once you figure out how." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47231111)) - Fully parametric constraint-based design (1 comment in the sample): "Freecad is fully parametric, set constraints so it’s 0 degrees of freedom and you shouldn’t have that problem." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46341817)) ## What people warn about - Complex, unfriendly user interface (4 comments in the sample): "Even freecad, a UI-based oss cad, is not quite ergonomic for a beginner-to-intermediate user…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46029205)) "The vast majority of problems are in the UI. The geometry kernel is limited, but it's good enough for an open source project." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47528667)) "Inside an initially off-putting and frustrating UI experience is a really good application trying to get out" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47086819)) - Steep learning curve, odd quirks (4 comments in the sample): "I don't think I would have gotten far without being able to ask ChatGPT for help understanding some of the quirks of FreeCAD." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47589171)) "It’s a fantastic feature and works really well, my problem is I can never invest the required time to learn the interface." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46339433)) "Overall FreeCAD is pretty good, but I have yet to do a FreeCAD project where I don't run into something weird" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46034025)) - Still behind proprietary CAD (1 comment in the sample): "FreeCAD's is improving over time but it's a game of catch-up and the math and algorithms involved are complex." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47160566)) ## Other CAD software people recommend - [OpenSCAD](https://hackerapproved.com/p/openscad/): 105 recommend, 51 mixed, 70 criticize - [Onshape](https://hackerapproved.com/p/onshape/): 53 recommend, 10 mixed, 21 criticize - [Autodesk Fusion 360](https://hackerapproved.com/p/fusion-360/): 32 recommend, 21 mixed, 34 criticize - [SolveSpace](https://hackerapproved.com/p/solvespace/): 27 recommend, 8 mixed, 8 criticize ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "FreeCAD", https://hackerapproved.com/p/freecad/ (114 recommend, 74 mixed, 75 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.