Gravity Sketch Alternatives for VR and 3D Concept Design

Gravity Sketch is alive and still free to start. The 3D design tool runs on Meta Quest and SteamVR headsets and in a web app, and lets designers draw curves and surfaces in space, review models together in shared Rooms and export them to other 3D tools. The Gravity Sketch pricing page lists Free, Plus, Team and Enterprise, with Team and Enterprise priced by sales.

The free plan is narrow. A help centre article on Plus says Free has core tools only, watermarks, OBJ and STL import, OBJ and USDZ export and 150MB of storage, while Plus at £15.99 a month removes the watermarks and limits but is meant for individuals. The picks below cover precise modelling, VR sculpting, iPad sketching and free headset apps.

Prices below are as of November 6, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Shapr3D

Shapr3D is the pick for product designers whose Gravity Sketch concepts end up in CAD anyway. You sketch with an Apple Pencil or mouse, but the result is a precise solid with real dimensions, and Pro exports STEP for engineering. It also runs on Apple Vision Pro, which gives a spatial review step without a separate VR tool.

The Shapr3D pricing page lists Basic as free for up to 2 projects with basic-resolution STL and 3MF export, and Pro at $299 per editor seat billed annually, excluding VAT, with a 14-day trial. Students and educators get Pro free for a renewable year.

Best for: Industrial designers who want concept sketches to become manufacturable solids.

Pricing:

• Basic: free, 2 projects, basic-resolution STL and 3MF
• Pro: $299 per editor seat, billed annually, excl. VAT
• Enterprise: contact sales
• Free for students and educators

Watch out for:

• It models solids, not loose strokes, so the fast gestural sketching that Gravity Sketch is known for feels slower here.

Official site: Shapr3D.

Adobe Substance 3D Modeler

Modeler is the nearest thing to Gravity Sketch from a big vendor. You sculpt with clay-like tools in a headset, then switch to desktop mode in the same project for precise work. It fits concept artists and toy or character designers more than car designers, because it builds volumes rather than curves.

The Modeler product page lists Meta Quest 2 and Quest Pro support and includes the app in the Substance 3D Collection at $59.99 a month. The teams version is $119.99 per licence a month, billed annually.

Best for: Concept artists who want VR sculpting tied into Adobe's texturing tools.

Pricing:

• Substance 3D Collection: $59.99/month
• Collection for teams: $119.99 per licence per month, billed annually

Watch out for:

• It is Windows only, with no macOS version, and the student plan does not include Modeler.

Official site: Adobe Substance 3D Modeler.

Feather

Feather is 3D sketching without a headset. You draw strokes in space on an iPad, push them around with 3D Liquify, light the scene and set up camera shots. It carries an Apple Design Awards 2025 badge on its site.

The Feather site sells it for $14.99 with no subscription, and work can be exported to 3D formats, shared through a viewer link or placed in AR.

Best for: Designers and illustrators who want quick 3D ideation on an iPad.

Pricing:

• $14.99 one-time on the App Store

Watch out for:

• It is iPad only, and there is no shared Room for live design reviews like Gravity Sketch's.

Official site: Feather.

Plasticity

Plasticity covers the step after the VR sketch: clean surfaces. It is a desktop NURBS modeller built on Parasolid, with xNURBS surfacing in Studio, and it reads like a concept tool rather than an engineering suite. A bridge add-on links it to Blender.

The Plasticity site lists Indie at $175 and Studio at $299, both one-time with 12 months of updates, for Windows 10 or later, macOS 12 or later and Ubuntu 22 or later. A free Starter tier covers non-commercial use with STEP import and low-resolution OBJ and STL export, and a separate 30-day trial covers the paid tiers.

Best for: Product and hard-surface designers who want surfaces they can send to CAD.

Pricing:

• Indie: $175 one-time, 2 machines
• Studio: $299 one-time, 4 machines
• Starter: free, non-commercial, STEP import, low-res OBJ and STL export
• 30-day trial of the paid tiers

Watch out for:

• There is no VR mode, and companies with more than 10 employees must buy Studio.

Official site: Plasticity.

ShapesXR

ShapesXR solves a different problem: designing spatial apps and XR experiences, not physical products. Teams lay out scenes, user flows and frames in a headset, then review them together in the headset or on the web.

The ShapesXR pricing page lists a free Starter plan with one editable Space, 10 frames per Space, a 100-square-metre canvas, 20MB imports and 150MB of storage. Business has a 14-day trial with no card; Professional and Enterprise are priced on request.

Best for: XR and game teams prototyping spatial interfaces together.

Pricing:

• Starter: free, 1 editable Space, 150MB storage
• Business: 14-day free trial, price on request
• Professional and Enterprise: price on request

Watch out for:

• No paid plan has a public price, so budgeting means asking sales for a quote.

Official site: ShapesXR.

Open Brush

Open Brush is the community-led continuation of Google's Tilt Brush. It is for painting in VR with light, fire and star brushes, not for modelling products, so it suits artists who used Gravity Sketch for expressive strokes.

The Open Brush site says it is free and open source, with downloads on Steam, the Meta Quest store, SideQuest, Viveport, itch.io and GitHub. The project posts frequent test builds in the 2.32 series on GitHub.

Best for: Artists who want free, expressive 3D painting in a headset.

Pricing:

• Free and open source

Watch out for:

• There are no precise curves, surfaces or CAD export, so it cannot replace Gravity Sketch for product design.

Official site: Open Brush.

Arkio

Architects who used Gravity Sketch for massing studies should look at Arkio. It is a spatial sketching tool for buildings and interiors, and version 3.0 adds an AI design agent that runs in the browser on a computer, iPad or phone.

The Arkio pricing page lists a free Starter plan, Plus at $18 a month billed yearly ($216 a year), Pro at $35 a month billed yearly ($420) with Revit, Rhino, SketchUp and Archicad support, and Team at $55 per seat a month billed yearly ($660 per seat). Plus and Pro include a licence for the older 2.3 apps on Meta Quest, PC VR, PC, Mac, iOS and Android.

Best for: Architects who want quick spatial sketches that connect to BIM tools.

Pricing:

• Starter: free
• Plus: $18/month billed yearly ($216/year)
• Pro: $35/month billed yearly ($420/year)
• Team: $55/seat/month billed yearly ($660/seat/year), from 2 seats

Watch out for:

• VR is not in Arkio 3.0 yet; the pricing page lists it as coming soon, so headset users stay on the 2.3 apps without the AI agent.

Official site: Arkio.

Blender

Blender is the free all-rounder: modelling, sculpting, Grease Pencil drawing in 3D space, rendering and animation in one GPL app. Gravity Sketch users often send OBJ files here to clean up meshes and render, and the 5.2.3 LTS release came out on October 22, 2026.

Its VR support is limited. The VR Scene Inspection manual page says the add-on covers viewing a scene in a headset through OpenXR, with navigation and landmarks, not modelling. Our Blender alternatives list covers the paid suites if you outgrow it.

Best for: Designers who want free modelling, rendering and animation on a desktop.

Pricing:

• Free and open source (GNU GPL)

Watch out for:

• You cannot model in VR, so it replaces Gravity Sketch's export and render steps, not the sketching.

Official site: Blender. Our listing: Blender.

How to choose

When to stay with Gravity Sketch

Stay with Gravity Sketch if you design physical products as a team. Nothing else here combines curve-based sketching in VR with shared review Rooms, and Enterprise adds SSO, data localisation and headset setup that design studios ask for. Its blog also shows steady work, such as a screen redlining beta in September 2026.

Frequently asked questions