Do you remember Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for software? Just a few years ago, Gartner was still running it for PLM and CAD vendors. Gartner doesn’t do it anymore. My hunch, in the current state of vendors development, it is hard very hard to pull a clean comparison in 4 distinct quadrants. Vendors are too big and the portfolio is very diversified.

But, it looks like Onshape is filling the gap now. Yesterday, I attended the webinar by Onshape – Comparing CAD systems. The webinar is available online, you can listen and draw your opinion.

Here are few slides I captured. Tell me what you think.

Few interesting comments. Autodesk Fusion360 and Siemens Solid Edge are absent from the comparison list. I asked about Fusion360 during the webinar. According to Onshape, they don’t see Fusion360 users coming to migrate to Onshape. I can see that point.

I found a comparison of Onshape and Fusion 360 on G2 Crowd website. Check it our here.

What is my conclusion? Onshape CAD in the cloud (browser) and embedded data managements are two clear and unique differentiators among many other features. People might have a different opinion about CAD running in the browser. But, Onshape data management is very much unique and can give a lot of advantages for the long run. Onshape calls the cost as one of the reasons companies are looking for a new CAD. Onshape subscription model is probably not very much different from other CAD vendors today. Can unique Onshape technology bring more value for the same price? This is an interesting question I’d like to find the answer. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing cloud-based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups, and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.

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