Maxwell Alternatives

Maxwell is described as '3D rendering software for architects and designers. Maxwell is legendary for its quality and realism, and delivers great results via a simple set-up, which lets you focus on lighting' and is an app. There are more than 50 alternatives to Maxwell for a variety of platforms, including Windows, Mac, Linux, Sketchup and Autodesk 3ds Max apps. The best Maxwell alternative is MoonRay, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Maxwell are Adobe Dimension, LuxCoreRender, Cycles Renderer and Malt.

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Maxwell alternatives are mainly 3D Modelers but may also be 3D Animators or Animation Makers.  Filter by these or use the filter bar below if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Maxwell.
Maxwell iconMaxwell
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3D rendering software for architects and designers. Maxwell is legendary for its quality and realism, and delivers great results via a simple set-up, which lets you focus on lighting.

More about Maxwell
Maxwell alternatives page was last updated Jan 4, 2025
  1. MoonRay icon
     2 likes

    MoonRay is DreamWorks Animation’s in-house 3D renderer, used to render all DreamWorks movies since How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.

    46 MoonRay alternatives
    Render Profile Viewer

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux

    MoonRay Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  3D Renderer
    MoonRay iconMaxwell Icon

    MoonRay VS Maxwell

    Is MoonRay a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
    • MoonRay is the most popular Windows & Linux alternative to Maxwell.

    • MoonRay is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to Maxwell.

    • MoonRay is Free and Open SourceMaxwell is Paid and Proprietary
  2. Adobe Dimension icon
     13 likes

    Adobe Dimension (formerly Project Felix and then Adobe Dimension CC) is the 3D design tool made for graphic designers. With extensive integration with Adobe Stock, you can easily composite 2D and 3D assets to build product shots, scene visualizations, and abstract art.

    64 Adobe Dimension alternatives
    Adobe Dimension screenshot 1

    License model

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Adobe Creative Cloud

    Adobe Dimension Features

    1.  Grid layout
    2.  HD-Rendering
    Adobe Dimension iconMaxwell Icon

    Adobe Dimension VS Maxwell

    Is Adobe Dimension a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
    • Adobe Dimension is the most popular Mac alternative to Maxwell.

    • Adobe Dimension is the most popular commercial alternative to Maxwell.

    • Adobe Dimension is Paid and ProprietaryMaxwell is also Paid and Proprietary
  3. LuxCoreRender icon
     29 likes

    LuxCoreRender is a physically based and unbiased rendering engine. Based on state of the art algorithms, LuxCoreRender simulates the flow of light according to physical equations, thus producing realistic images of photographic quality.

    50 LuxCoreRender alternatives
    LuxCoreRender screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    LuxCoreRender Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  Ray Tracing
    LuxCoreRender iconMaxwell Icon

    LuxCoreRender VS Maxwell

    Is LuxCoreRender a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
  4.  13 likes

    Cycles is Blender’s ray-trace based production render engine and in development since 2011. It was originally developed by Brecht van Lommel, and is maintained by an active team of developers today. Since its release as Apache 2.

    22 Cycles Renderer alternatives
    Cycles Renderer screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Cycles Renderer Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Rendering
    3.  3D Renderer
    Maxwell Icon

    Cycles Renderer VS Maxwell

    Is Cycles Renderer a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
  5. Malt icon
     2 likes

    Malt is a fully customizable real-time rendering framework for animation and illustration. Designed as a community effort to expand the possibility space of 3d rendering, it provides graphics programmers and technical artist an enjoyable “shadertoy-like” workflow inside Blender...

    46 Malt alternatives
    Sample files

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux

    Malt Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  3D Renderer
    Malt iconMaxwell Icon

    Malt VS Maxwell

    Is Malt a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
  6. Radeon ProRender icon
     4 likes

    AMD Radeon™ ProRender is a powerful physically-based path traced rendering engine that enables creative professionals to produce stunningly photorealistic images.

    21 Radeon ProRender alternatives
    Radeon ProRender screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Radeon ProRender Features

    1.  Physically-Based Rendering
    2.  3D Renderer
    3.  Rendering
    4.  GPU Acceleration
    Radeon ProRender iconMaxwell Icon

    Radeon ProRender VS Maxwell

    Is Radeon ProRender a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
  7. appleseed icon
     10 likes

    appleseed is a modern, open source, physically-based rendering engine designed to produce photorealistic images, animations and visual effects.

    52 appleseed alternatives
    appleseed screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    appleseed Features

    1.  Portable
    2.  Rendering
    3.  Ray Tracing
    appleseed iconMaxwell Icon

    appleseed VS Maxwell

    Is appleseed a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
  8. MyArchitectAI icon
     1 like

    Create photorealistic renders in under 10 seconds with AI. Upload your Sketchup or Archicad designs and let our AI rendering software do the rest. No installs or 3D modeling experience needed.

    15 MyArchitectAI alternatives
    MyArchitectAI screenshot 1

    License model

    Platforms

    • Online
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  AI-Powered
    2.  3D Renderer
    3.  Rendering
    MyArchitectAI iconMaxwell Icon

    MyArchitectAI VS Maxwell

    Is MyArchitectAI a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
    • MyArchitectAI is the most popular Web-based & SaaS alternative to Maxwell.

    • MyArchitectAI is Paid and ProprietaryMaxwell is also Paid and Proprietary
    • MyArchitectAI is LightweightMaxwell is not according to our users
  9. Sunflow Rendering System icon
     9 likes

    Sunflow is an open source rendering system for photo-realistic image synthesis. It is written in Java and built around a flexible ray tracing core and an extensible object-oriented design. It was created as a framework for experimenting with global illumination algorithms and...

    50 Sunflow Rendering System alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Sunflow Rendering System Features

    1.  Rendering
    2.  Ray Tracing
    Sunflow Rendering System iconMaxwell Icon

    Sunflow Rendering System VS Maxwell

    Is this a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
  10. Keyshot icon
     16 likes

    KeyShot is an interactive raytracing and global illumination program developed by Luxion for both PC and Mac that breaks down the complexity of creating photographic images from 3D models.

    51 Keyshot alternatives
    Depth of Field

    License model

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows

    Keyshot Features

    1.  HDR Support
    2.  Rendering
    Keyshot iconMaxwell Icon

    Keyshot VS Maxwell

    Is Keyshot a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
  11. Pixie Renderer icon
     6 likes

    Pixie is an open source RenderMan renderer for generating photorealistic images. You can compile Pixie on Windows (using Visual Studio 2005), Linux and on OSX (using XCode or unix style configure script).

    49 Pixie Renderer alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Pixie Renderer Features

    1.  Ray Tracing
    2.  Rendering
    Pixie Renderer iconMaxwell Icon

    Pixie Renderer VS Maxwell

    Is Pixie Renderer a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
  12. YafaRay icon
     13 likes

    YafaRay is a free open-source montecarlo raytracing engine released under the LGPL 2.1 license. Raytracing is a rendering technique for generating realistic images by tracing the path of light through a 3D scene.

    53 YafaRay alternatives
    YafaRay screenshot 1

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Blender

    YafaRay Features

    1.  Ray Tracing
    2.  Rendering
    Discontinued

    The GitHub repository was archived in July 2020.

    YafaRay iconMaxwell Icon

    YafaRay VS Maxwell

    Is YafaRay a good alternative to Maxwell?
     
12 of 50 Maxwell alternatives