SolidWorks vs Onshape: The Origins of Onshape
SolidWorks vs Onshape: should you choose pure cloud or a more realistic hybrid solution for the industry?
Onshape is a solution founded by Jon Hirschtick, who is none other than the founder of SolidWorks. Jon is a CAD visionary, much like John Walker who founded Autodesk. His mission with Onshape is to offer a product that (he hopes) will redefine the future of 3D design and dethrone SolidWorks.
The promise of Onshape is the ability to model directly in the cloud without installation. No more constantly postponed updates, no more incompatibilities between clients and suppliers, no more being unable to use your software on a Mac, and so on…
Onshape positions itself like many other SaaS software programs such as HubSpot, the Microsoft 365 suite, or QuickBooks.
A solution that is always up to date, accessible on a tablet, and does not require NASA-grade workstations to launch an assembly.
Onshape: The Promise of 100% Cloud Software
The use of the cloud has become omnipresent in our daily lives: email, accounting software, mobile apps on our smartphones… almost all software has had to adapt to this change in how we consume our daily tools. Onshape positioned itself in this niche and launched one of the first 100% cloud solutions on the market.
While the cloud has many advantages, some major issues remain critical:
1) How do you work in offline mode without an internet connection?
2) How do you work if your internet connection is unstable?
3) How do you meet the requirements of certain regulated industries (defense, aerospace, medical)?
This is where the 3DEXPERIENCE SolidWorks offer clearly distinguishes itself from Onshape.
The various SolidWorks Design Standard/Pro/Premium packages include:
- A CAD solution installed locally to adapt to all eventualities
- A cloud platform to securely back up this data
SolidWorks launches as a local application with 3DEXPERIENCE (on the right) directly integrated.
This can be called a “hybrid mode” or “semi-cloud.”
The majority of companies I know have Microsoft Excel/Outlook/Teams installed locally with cloud backups on SharePoint/OneDrive. They are therefore on a hybrid system…
The best of On-Premise and the best of the Cloud.
100% cloud is not the alpha and omega, even in 2026.
Partner Software: A Limitation to Your Growth
Many of our SolidWorks clients tell me, “I just want the basics, just CAD without anything fancy.”
A few months later, I receive a call:
- “Does SolidWorks allow for simulation on an assembly?”
- “Can we simulate airflow around my propeller?”
Recently, an Onshape client contacted us to perform simulations with SolidWorks, as they were limited by the tool they currently had.
SolidWorks solutions go beyond simple 3D design. They allow you to create:
- Photorealistic renderings of a model before it is manufactured
- Simulations of the mechanical behavior of a product under critical conditions
- Electrical schematics to accompany mechanical components
The SolidWorks ecosystem also includes hundreds of partners worldwide, such as:
–> https://www.driveworks.co.uk/ to create a CPQ product configurator
–> https://swood.eficad.com/ for wood furniture manufacturers
–> https://solidcam.com/ for controlling your CNC machines
Today, SolidWorks has an extremely broad ecosystem built over more than 25 years, with several hundred partner solutions specialized by industry.
The Onshape ecosystem is still very young and does not yet offer such integrated solutions. It is difficult for an Onshape client to plan for a product configurator project given that no solution exists on the market.
Standard Export Formats for Your Daily Operations
Today, manufacturers talk a lot about:
• STEP
• Parasolid
• JT
• DXF
• DWG
These formats allow for the exchange of geometry, but they do not preserve design history, assembly constraints, or parameters.
When a company uses a cloud system like Onshape, it often has to use intermediate exports to communicate with its partners.
This can lead to information loss, importation errors, and unnecessary extra steps in the workflow.
SolidWorks remains the most widely used tool by manufacturing companies.
This has various concrete consequences in their daily operations:
- Ease of recruiting drafter/designer profiles since SolidWorks is used by the majority of universities
- Fewer document sharing issues between multiple suppliers
- Lower costs related to training new hires on the solution
And above all:
- What happens if I want to extract Onshape data from the cloud?
- What happens if I want to “physically retrieve” my history from the last 5 years?
- Many clients are concerned about their intellectual property and access to their data.
3DEXPERIENCE SolidWorks remains a solution that allows you to save your documents in a format that is:
- Cloud-based if you wish to have your documents in a SaaS environment
- AND/OR local if you wish to work outside the cloud (and thus keep a tangible history of your work)
Conclusion: SolidWorks or Onshape for my company?
To be 100% honest, Onshape is a very promising solution for the segment it addresses.
It allows companies that do not wish to invest in heavy IT infrastructure (workstations, servers, maintenance) to have a 3D design solution entirely based in the cloud.
On our end, we often compare the 3DEXPERIENCE SolidWorks offer to the Microsoft 365 suite.
Yes, Microsoft 365 exists today in a 100% cloud version. However, the majority of companies continue to use the desktop versions of Word, Excel, or Outlook.
Why?
Because these versions remain more complete, more powerful, and above all, better suited for intensive professional use.
The same logic applies to 3D design.
Companies often invest in powerful workstations that cost several thousand dollars. You might as well leverage all that power to handle complex assemblies and perform calculations locally.
With 3DEXPERIENCE SolidWorks, companies get the best of both worlds:
• the power of locally installed software
• the flexibility of the cloud for collaboration and data management
It is this hybrid approach that explains why SolidWorks remains one of the most widely used design tools in the industry today.
But we continue to follow Onshape closely, because in industry as elsewhere, a serious competitor is often the best thing that can happen to a market.