Onshape's free plan makes every document public. Here are 5 alternatives to share 3D models privately without paying $1,500/user/year.
Onshape is a capable cloud CAD platform, but its free plan carries one constraint that surprises most first-time users: every document you create is public and visible to any Onshape user in the world. According to Onshape's published plans, documents only become private from the Standard tier at $1,500/user/year (Professional is $2,500). If all you need is to share a 3D model privately with a client or supplier, a dedicated viewer does that job for a fraction of the cost.
The friction is not abstract. Engineering teams already lose time to file logistics: McKinsey's research found that interaction workers spend nearly 20% of the workweek just looking for internal information and the colleagues who have it. Pushing a design into a public gallery, or into a $1,500 seat purely to keep it private, adds friction where the whole point is speed. The five options below are ranked by how well they handle private sharing specifically, not by how complete a CAD tool they are.
OmniView 3D is private by default: a model is never public unless you generate a share link yourself, and that link stays revocable at any time. Project shares can also carry an expiry date, and every share URL is signed and time-limited. Recipients open the model in their browser with no account, and can leave annotations and comments without signing up. Free Starter plan (3 models, 100 MB); Pro at $59/month excl. tax adds exploded view, dimensions, hologram mode, iFrame embed and white-label. Hosted in the EU (AWS eu-west-1), GDPR-aligned.
3DViewerOnline allows private models on its paid plans (from $15/month). Much cheaper than an Onshape seat for viewer-only use, though it applies a 100 MB per-file cap and hosts in the US.
Autodesk Viewer generates shareable links that don't require the recipient to hold an Autodesk account. Free, STEP supported, US hosting. Best when your files are already Autodesk-format.
Fusion 360 offers private review links with access control, but you need a paid subscription to create them: Autodesk Fusion runs about $680/year. Reasonable if you already use it as your CAD tool, expensive purely to share links.
If your organization already runs Microsoft 365, SharePoint can host STEP files with a third-party 3D viewer add-on. You keep full permission control internally, but deployment is complex and external sharing is not its strength.
| Tool | Private by default | Recipient needs account | Entry price for private sharing | Hosting | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OmniView 3D | Yes | No | Free (Starter) / $59/mo (Pro) | EU (eu-west-1) | Private B2B model sharing |
| Onshape | No (public on free) | Onshape account | $1,500/user/yr | US / global | Full cloud CAD |
| 3DViewerOnline | Paid plans | No | $15/mo | US | Budget functional viewing |
| Autodesk Viewer | Link-gated | No | Free | US | Autodesk-format files |
| Fusion 360 | Yes (paid) | No | ~$680/yr | US | Existing Fusion users |
Deciding by the file you actually need to send? If it's a neutral CAD export, open a free STEP file straight in the browser. If confidentiality is the whole point, our guide to protecting IP when sharing CAD files covers the practical controls, and sharing a 3D model with a client walks through the workflow end to end. Comparing other viewers too? See our Autodesk Viewer alternatives and Fusion 360 sharing alternatives.
Yes. On the Onshape free plan, every document is public and can be viewed, copied and reused by any Onshape user. Private documents start from the Standard plan at $1,500/user/year. For confidential commercial work, use a paid plan or a private-by-default alternative.
Export the model as a neutral STEP or GLB file from Onshape, then upload it to OmniView 3D's free Starter plan. The model is private by default and you share it through a revocable link, with no per-seat licence.
Yes. An OmniView 3D share link opens the interactive model directly in the recipient's browser, no account or install. They can add annotations and comments without signing up.
Not for confidential work: its documents are public. Either move to a paid Onshape plan, or share the exported model through a private-by-default viewer such as OmniView 3D, which keeps files in the EU (AWS eu-west-1) in line with the GDPR.
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