Open Source UCSF Chimera Alternatives

The best open source alternative to UCSF Chimera is PyMOL. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try Avogadro or Rasmol. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked nine alternatives to UCSF Chimera and seven of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to UCSF Chimera are Jmol, VMD - Visual Molecular Dynamics, Vipster and RasTop.

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Alternatives list

  1. PyMOL icon

    PyMOL

     1 like

    PyMOL is a powerful and comprehensive molecular visualization product for rendering and animating 3D molecular structures.

    11 PyMOL alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    PyMOL screenshot 1
     
  2. Avogadro icon

    Avogadro

     15 likes

    Avogadro is an advanced molecule editor and visualizer designed for cross-platform use in computational chemistry, molecular modeling, bioinformatics, materials science, and related areas.

    22 Avogadro alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    A simple molecule in a small Avogadro window.
     
  4. Rasmol icon

    Rasmol

     2 likes

    RasMol is a computer program written for molecular graphics visualization intended and used primarily for the depiction and exploration of biological macromolecule structures, such as those found in the Protein Data Bank.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Image export options
     
  5. Jmol icon

    Jmol

     3 likes

    Jmol is a free, open source molecule viewer for students, educators, and researchers in chemistry and biochemistry. It is cross-platform, running on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux/Unix systems.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    Acetic acid using CPK colors and spacefilled atoms.
     
  7. Vipster icon

    Vipster

     Like

    Vipster is a powerful and versatile tool for pre- and post-processing of periodic chemical structures. It's designed from the ground up with periodic simulations in mind.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Flathub
    • Flatpak
    • Windows
    • Mac
    • Self-Hosted
    Vipster screenshot 1
     
  9. RasTop icon

    RasTop

     Like

    RasTop is a molecular visualization software adapted from the program RasMol, which was initially developed by Roger Sayle. RasTop is particularly adapted for educational purposes and for the rapid analysis of macromolecules at the bench.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Wine
    RasTop screenshot 1
     
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