AutoCAD vs. Revit

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AutoCAD
Score 7.9 out of 10
N/A
AutoCAD is a CAD product from Autodesk. It allows designers to work in 2D and 3D, and is available on Windows and Mac, but with extensive online collaboration tools.
$245
per month per user
Revit
Score 9.4 out of 10
N/A
Autodesk’s Revit is a Building Information Modelling (BIM) tool. It enables architectural, MEP, structural, and engineering design, and provides analysis to support iterative workflows
$350
per month
Pricing
AutoCADRevit
Editions & Modules
Monthly Subscription
$245
per month per user
Yearly Subscription
$1975
per year per user
3-Year Subscription
$5925
3 years per user
Monthly
$350
per month
1-Year
$2805
per year
3-Year
$8415
per 3 years
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AutoCADRevit
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsPricing available for monthly, annual, or 3-year subscriptions. Longer subscriptions offer greater discounts.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AutoCADRevit
Features
AutoCADRevit
Computer-Aided Design Software
Comparison of Computer-Aided Design Software features of Product A and Product B
AutoCAD
6.1
Ratings
15% below category average
Revit
-
Ratings
3D Modeling6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
2D Drafting9.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Rendering and Visualization5.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Parametric Design4.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Collaboration and Sharing5.70 Ratings00 Ratings
Compatibility with other software and formats8.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Assembly Design5.30 Ratings00 Ratings
Simulation and Analysis1.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Documentation and Annotation7.80 Ratings00 Ratings
Customization and Extensions8.20 Ratings00 Ratings
Human Resource Management
Comparison of Human Resource Management features of Product A and Product B
AutoCAD
-
Ratings
Revit
6.7
Ratings
13% below category average
Employee demographic data00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Employment history00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Job profiles and administration00 Ratings6.30 Ratings
Workflow for transfers, promotions, pay raises, etc.00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Organizational charting00 Ratings6.50 Ratings
Organization and location management00 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Compliance data (COBRA, OSHA, etc.)00 Ratings6.10 Ratings
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
AutoCAD
-
Ratings
Revit
7.2
Ratings
6% below category average
Pay calculation00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Support for external payroll vendors00 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Off-cycle/On-Demand payment00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Benefit plan administration00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Direct deposit files00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management00 Ratings7.40 Ratings
Reimbursement management00 Ratings7.60 Ratings
Asset Management
Comparison of Asset Management features of Product A and Product B
AutoCAD
-
Ratings
Revit
6.6
Ratings
8% below category average
Tracking of all physical assets00 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
AutoCAD
-
Ratings
Revit
8.6
Ratings
12% above category average
Dashboards00 Ratings4.40 Ratings
Standard reports00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Custom reports00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Data exportability00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Construction Project & Field Management
Comparison of Construction Project & Field Management features of Product A and Product B
AutoCAD
-
Ratings
Revit
7.3
Ratings
3% below category average
Plan distribution & viewing00 Ratings8.30 Ratings
Plan markups & sharing00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Issue tracking & punchlists00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Photo documentation00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Jobsite reports00 Ratings6.00 Ratings
Document sharing00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
RFI tools00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Collaboration & approvals00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
As-built drawings00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Mobile app00 Ratings3.80 Ratings
Submittal design and management00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Checklists00 Ratings7.20 Ratings
Meeting Minutes00 Ratings6.70 Ratings
Specifications00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Change orders00 Ratings7.50 Ratings
Estimating
Comparison of Estimating features of Product A and Product B
AutoCAD
-
Ratings
Revit
8.2
Ratings
2% above category average
Takeoff tools00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Job costing00 Ratings5.50 Ratings
Cost databases00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Cost calculator00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Bid creation00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
AutoCADRevit
Small Businesses
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 10.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
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User Ratings
AutoCADRevit
Likelihood to Recommend
7.4
(0 ratings)
8.7
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.5
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.9
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
AutoCADRevit
Likelihood to Recommend
It is well suited for drafting in plan view. If you are looking for exact drafting that is the best for you to use. If you are looking to sketch and design, I would recommend you do not use AutoCAD first and instead use another app before transferring your work into AutoCAD.
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Revit is well suited for creating collaborative projects that are fully integrated into the design and construction document process. We work a lot with engineering firms who also use Revit and the program allows us to fully integrate and coordinate our models together to make sure that everything is correct. I can see where my electrical engineer has placed lighting into the model and same with my mechanical engineer and their HVAC equipment
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Pros
  • The tools are easy to use and the learning curve is fairly minimal to be able to create blueprints.
  • The 3D application is very fun to use and it is nice to be able to see your product instead of having to imagine what it will look like.
  • The speed and accuracy in which students can create plans is a huge bonus. Students can plan their industrial art projects out and use their own set of plans to build them.
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  • Revit has the capability to design a wide range of unique details, which allows us to model exactly what is going to be built.
  • This program is compatible with several BIM programs, allowing coordination with trades that may not be using the program.
  • The sheets are easy to set up, and finding contract drawings in a list of sheets is simple.
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Cons
  • User Interface Customisation: AutoCAD's user interface could benefit from more robust customisation options. Allowing users to rearrange toolbars, menus, and panels according to their specific workflows and preferences would enhance productivity.
  • Enhanced 3D Modeling Tools: While AutoCAD is capable of 3D modeling, it's not as intuitive or feature-rich as dedicated 3D modeling software. Streamlining the process and adding more advanced modeling tools would be a welcome improvement.
  • Enhanced Collaboration and Version Control: AutoCAD could improve its collaboration tools, such as real-time editing and version tracking, to facilitate smoother teamwork, especially in multi-disciplinary projects.
  • Intelligent Object Libraries: AutoCAD could benefit from an expanded and more intelligent library of standard objects and components. This would save time for designers who often have to create custom components from scratch.
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  • Revit is a very complex application with lots features. Autodesk the makers of Revit should simplify these tools to make it easier for the end user to learn & apply.
  • Revit is missing some key functionality in the area of being able to duplicate drawings on the sheet level. Though there are macros offered by third parties, this should be really built-in to the product.
  • Revit does not support the very popular PDF format. So currently there is no option to attach or link a PDF file into Revit.
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Likelihood to Renew
Because rarely we [would] rather wait for a whole year to update, sometimes the new updates don't bring many new features and we are still ok with the current version. Also the change of interface is always something that takes time for every partner in the company to get comfortable with. So those are the main reasons we may want to keep the same version.
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We will almost certainly be renewing all of our current seats of Revit and will likely be adding seats as we look to get more and more of our staff trained and using Revit. The software is starting to become the standard for our projects as we move forward as more and more of our clients are requesting or accepting use of it
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Usability
The use case of AutoCAD as a CAD software is highly relevant today as it focuses or targets to tasks types which involve creating 2D drawings of a number of types like electrical drawings, hydraulic drawings, layout diagrams, floor plans, etc. thereby addressing a large number of industries like Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering and in most case Architectural Engineering as well
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It is a professional environment, but far from easy and overly complex in many places. The system is often too deep in settings and overrides (see Visibility/Graphics in combination with linked files, filters, color overrides and view templates). I don't really like the dialog-in-dialog interface and its spartan looks. But it works well overall if you know what you are doing.
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Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
Revit seems to always be available when I need it. I have not experiences an outage. There are occasions where we need our internal IT department to trouble shoot a file on our Revit dedicated server and that sometimes causes a delay however that is not a software access issue
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Performance
No answers on this topic
Revit is a fairly graphics heavy piece of software. It is powerful in its capabilities but as a result it takes a lot of the graphics card, the memory, etc. For all that it can do and the specs of my computer I find it pretty good from a performance standpoint
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Support Rating
AutoCAD has the issue of crashing or slowing down the design procedure once a heavy design that includes several disciplines or multiple families/blocks is involved. Customer services gets the feedback from the crash reports but this issue seems like it has never been addressed in the software updates past several years.
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Autodesk has always had a good support system in place. There is a massive user base for Revit, and there are thousands of forum threads and other discussions online about any and every problem that you could ever run into. For being such a large program with so many different options, there aren't many roadblocks or pitfalls that users can fall into.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
The training was Revit Essentials and it was very beneficial. I would say that it is best to get the training right before you know you will be using Revit as learning the basis then applying what you learned immediately is the most effective and best value for your money.
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Online Training
No answers on this topic
The online training is hit or miss. I feel that its better to be live to be able to pace and ask questions to a live person as you are learning hwo to do things. Its not natural to learn Revit especially if you know AutoCAD so my suggestion is the live training
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Implementation Rating
the implementation was realy easy , to set up our workstation we pay for the licenses we are about to use , there was a little bit of delay to get the payment processed to receive the serial but after that the install runs without any problem , so you can fell secure there will be not issue with the implementation.
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Implementing Revit as your main drafting software (i.e. moving to BIM from CAD) may be a tough decision if you have learned drafting. It is a different way to approach and think about developing a project. However, if you are able to adapt to a new way of thinking and get used to it by working through a few projects than it is as efficient as CAD in most areas in general and will also be both better/worse in some areas
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Alternatives Considered
AutoCAD is the industry best and is well integrated with regular updates and fixes if required. Being very developer friendly and having a huge community of enthusiasts behind takes it miles ahead of the competition. Some might get an edge over price but due to this being an High performance software it is miles ahead.
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Revit is specifically for the design and documentation of buildings. As Revit's predecessor, AutoCAD has similar functionality for creating construction documents but Revit has the advantage of speed and simultaneously creating a 3D model when drawing walls, rooms, and floors which allows for the creation of 3D views and sections later with less effort. SketchUp can also be used for designing buildings but Revit allows for more specificity earlier in the process as opposed to SketchUp's general massing
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Scalability
No answers on this topic
While I am not directly involved with the deployment of Revit, it seems that our internal IT department has appreciated the ability to increase or decrease the number of seats. I have never had an issue with the deployment if and when needed, especially regarding the availability of a set
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Return on Investment
  • AutoCAD is cost effective when you get the Autodesk suite, so it makes sense to have it for many of our workflows.
  • AutoCAD is like a hammer. It's simple and is very good at certain things. No matter how advanced tools get, you will not soon get rid of hammers.
  • AutoCAD is really useful when models do not line up correctly in Revit.
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  • Revit is included in our AEC Collection. I find the cost of my suite affordable for what I am getting. The true cost of Revit is not found in the license cost, but in the training, SOPs and content management. We get our ROI from flushing out design errors/omissions which can add up to a large number. One issue can easily cost the project 10-100k depending on the issue. I see no reason anyone would find it challenging to get ROI from integrating 3d modeling in your business development.
  • Revit really is the foundation of content creation. If we didnt use Revit, it would be hard to claim we have a functioning BIM/VDC department. I would question any AEC professional that claims they can perform VDC and does not know how to use Revit.
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