Engineering · paid tool
ANSYS alternatives
Finite element analysis and simulation suite for engineering design.
Free alternatives
Highest score first. The score weighs licence openness, repository activity, traction, feature coverage, and cost; factors without data are left out and the rest are reweighted.
Elmer FEM
Ranking score 86.3/100
Multiphysics finite element simulation for engineering problems.
- Licence
- GPL-2.0
- Platforms
- macos, windows, linux
- Self-hostable
- No
- Repo activity
- Last release April 28, 2026
- GitHub stars
- 1,748
- Last verified
- October 24, 2026
Why this rank
Score breakdown for Elmer FEM Factor Points Weight Licence opennessGPL-2.0 licence (open); not self-hostable 17.5 25% Repository activityLast activity 0 day(s) before 2026-10-26 25 25% Popularity1748 GitHub stars 13.8 20% Feature coverage6 of 6 curated capability tags covered 20 20% Costfree pricing model 10 10% Points add up to the score. Factors without data are left out and the remaining weights are renormalised.
OpenFOAM
Ranking score 76.8/100
Computational fluid dynamics toolbox for simulation and modelling.
- Licence
- GPL-3.0
- Platforms
- macos, windows, linux
- Self-hostable
- No
- Repo activity
- Last commit October 26, 2026
- GitHub stars
- 2,282
- Last verified
- October 24, 2026
Why this rank
Score breakdown for OpenFOAM Factor Points Weight Licence opennessGPL-3.0 licence (open); not self-hostable 17.5 25% Repository activityLast activity 0 day(s) before 2026-10-26 25 25% Popularity2282 GitHub stars 14.3 20% Feature coverage3 of 6 curated capability tags covered 10 20% Costfree pricing model 10 10% Points add up to the score. Factors without data are left out and the remaining weights are renormalised.
CalculiX
Ranking score 75.9/100
Finite element solver for structural and thermal analysis.
- Licence
- GPL-2.0
- Platforms
- macos, windows, linux
- Self-hostable
- No
- Repo activity
- Last commit October 26, 2026
- GitHub stars
- 226
- Last verified
- October 24, 2026
Why this rank
Score breakdown for CalculiX Factor Points Weight Licence opennessGPL-2.0 licence (open); not self-hostable 17.5 25% Repository activityLast activity 0 day(s) before 2026-10-26 25 25% Popularity226 GitHub stars 10 20% Feature coverage4 of 6 curated capability tags covered 13.3 20% Costfree pricing model 10 10% Points add up to the score. Factors without data are left out and the remaining weights are renormalised.