BricsCAD
Octave (formerly Bricsys)
€330–€1,176 / year
Dassault Systèmes
DraftSight
$299–$599 / year · 2D + 3D · native DWG
Verdict
The cautionary tale on this page. DraftSight built its audience as the free AutoCAD-alike, then withdrew the free edition and moved to tiers — the "Standard" light version has been replaced outright. What is left is solid, well-supported Dassault software at a fair price. But if you are choosing it because you remember it being free, that reason is gone. Choose it on the merits or not at all.
What it costs, honestly
Professional $299/yr, Premium $599/yr, Enterprise (network) from $399/yr — all annual subscriptions. Perpetual licences exist but only through resellers, and are not priced publicly. There is no permanently free edition any more; what remains is a 30-day full-featured trial of Premium.
For scale: AutoCAD is ≈ $2,095 / year, subscription only, with no perpetual option at any price.
What it gets right
- Dassault engineering and support behind it — same house as SOLIDWORKS and CATIA
- Clean DWG handling and a genuinely familiar 2D drafting environment
- Professional at $299/yr undercuts AutoCAD by roughly 85%
What to watch out for
- The free edition is gone. Do not pick this on a memory of 2015.
- Perpetual is reseller-only and unpriced — expect a sales conversation
- Tier names have churned (Standard replaced); older comparison articles are stale
Pricing and specifications: https://www.draftsight.com/how-to-buy