3DCoat vs TextureLab

3DCoat is a desktop application for sculpting, retopology, UV editing, PBR texture painting, and rendering, available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Its painting workflows include microvertex, per-pixel, and Ptex, alongside Smart Materials and textures up to 16K. Sculpting tools include voxel work without topological constraints, Boolean operations, and adaptive dynamic tessellation. Retopology can be automatic with user-defined edge loops or manual. AppLinks support model exchange with other 3D applications, and the product describes Photoshop layer exchange through keyboard shortcuts. A 30-day trial is followed by Free Learning mode, which has export restrictions and bars commercial use of exported work. That mode limits.3b projects to 20 sculpt objects and 10 layers, caps OBJ exports by workspace triangle counts, and watermarks textures above 512×512. The listed 3DCoat 2026 Individual Node-locked plan is €379 a month and includes 12 months of free updates. A license can be installed on two machines, but only one copy can run at a time.

TextureLab is a free, open-source tool for creating tileable, physically based textures. Its node-based workflow previews each stage, and shapes, noises, and filters are seamless by default. Procedural textures can be designed once and used at any resolution. Almost all nodes are built for GPU operation. Materials default to a metallic Physically Based Rendering workflow, and textures can be exported directly to Unity materials. TextureLab runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. The download page lists version 0.4.0 beta, released August 23, 2026, alongside source builds and itch.io downloads. The project remains under heavy development, with contributions invited through GitHub and communities on Discord and itch.io. The listed plan is free at free, and there is no separate free trial.