# Autodesk Maya

18 Hacker News commenters recommended Autodesk Maya and 8 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Industry-standard 3D animation and modeling software, praised for rigging, scripting API and NURBS tools. Main caveats: high license cost and vendor lock-in.

## Why people recommend it

- Industry standard for film and VFX (2 comments): "3d is fine with Maya and all the real VFX running on Linux" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46796560)) "Maya is still very much the industry standard." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45974306))
- Strong rigging and scripting API (3 comments): "Maya stays clean because any UI feature needs to buildable from scripts." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48971989)) "Maya's API is so much better than Blender's." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45976669)) "mayas rigging support is second to none" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48972474))
- Ranked ahead of most rivals (2 comments): "back then Maya and Lightwave were miles ahead of Blender." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45974326)) "they're still inferior to Photoshop and Maya" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46339530))

## What people warn about

- Expensive licenses (2 comments): "Maya and 3dStudioMax are eye watering expensive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48199136)) "a lot less than the equivalent Maya licenses" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46825298))
- Vendor lock-in (2 comments): "Autodesk basically has them locked in and can milk them until all eternity" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45978270)) "forcing vendor lock-in despite Blender now being on par" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45976050))
- Weak Wayland support on Linux (2 comments): "used to run great on Linux/X11, now sucks on wayland" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47449459)) "it still doesn't have full Wayland support" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47763137))
- Company treats customers poorly (2 comments): "The way that these companies treat their clients is appalling" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47869232)) "it's honestly a sick joke the way the M&E division is run" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45988163))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Blender](https://hackerapproved.com/p/blender.md): 298 recommend
- [SketchUp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sketchup.md): 16 recommend
- [Akse3D](https://hackerapproved.com/p/akse3d.md): 6 recommend
- [Cartesian AI 3D Modeling](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cartesian-ai-3d-modeling.md): 6 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya/overview)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Autodesk Maya", https://hackerapproved.com/p/maya/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).