D5 Render vs Terragen
D5 Render
d5render.comTerragen
planetside.co.ukSide by side
| Figure | D5 Render | Terragen |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $30/mo | $8/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 6 | 26 |
| Spec score · 3D Rendering Software | 8.9 (#1) | 8.6 (#3) |
| Documentation | The Help Center covers installation, getting started, modeling, workflows, materials, rendering, hardware, account management, teams and AI. | The official wiki is the primary Terragen 4 documentation repository and mixes clearly marked official and community-written material. |
| Founded | 2020 | 1999 |
| License model | D5 Render and its plugins are proprietary products; the plugin agreement reserves intellectual-property rights to D5 and its licensors. | Terragen uses commercial licenses with a restricted freeware edition; it is not open-source software. |
| Notable news | D5 Render 3.0 was released January 7, 2026 with ocean, displacement-material beta, volumetric clouds and XR-tour improvements; hotfix 3.0.1 followed January 29, 2026. | Terragen 4.8.62 was released on November 12, 2025 as a bug-fix update addressing cloud-rendering problems. |
| Purpose | D5 Render provides real-time photorealistic architectural visualization using path tracing, AI features, and AEC assets. | Terragen builds, renders, and animates realistic natural environments for landscape visualization, visual effects, and artistic work. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.8 out of 5 from 425 reviews. | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews. |
| Rating on GetApp | 4.8 out of 5 from 416 reviews. | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews; GetApp displays no user reviews. |
| Rendering | Its real-time path tracing calculates light bounces, global illumination, and caustics as scene conditions change. | The renderer combines micropolygon and ray tracing methods, is multithreaded, supports command-line execution and network rendering managers. |
| Support | D5 provides a Help Center, tutorials, webinars, a community forum, and a contact-support option. | Support is provided through licensed-user contact, forums, Discord and the documentation wiki. |
| What it does | D5 Render is a real-time 3D renderer for architectural, landscape, interior, engineering and other professional visualization work. | Terragen builds, renders and animates realistic natural environments, including whole planets and imported real-world terrain. |
Plans
D5 Render
- CommunityFree
- D5 Pro Monthly$38 a month
- D5 Pro Annual$360 a year
- D5 for Teams$708 a year
- ProPrice not published
- TeamsPrice not published
Terragen
- Terragen 4 Professional — Indie 50$10 a month
- Terragen 4 Professional — Indie 50$96 a year
- Terragen 4 Professional — Indie 100$16 a month
- Terragen 4 Professional — Indie 100$150 a year
- Terragen 4 Professional — Small Co$27 a month
- Terragen 4 Professional — Small Co$240 a year
- Terragen 4 Professional — Mid Co$42 a month
- Terragen 4 FreeFree
- Professional INDIE 50 monthly$10 a month
- Terragen 4 Professional — INDIE 50$10 a month
In their own words
D5 Render
D5 Render is a Windows desktop application for real-time architectural visualization. It uses path tracing to recalculate light bounces, global illumination, and caustics as scene conditions change. AI tools provide PBR material generation, atmosphere matching, and SmartPlanting; free accounts receive limited AI credits. The product page lists more than 16,000 models, materials, and particles. Outputs include 4K still images, 60fps videos, interactive panoramas, virtual tours, and VR/XR experiences. Integrations are listed for SketchUp, 3ds Max, Rhino, Revit, Archicad, Cinema 4D, Blender, and Vectorworks. The Community plan costs nothing and is for non-commercial use, with 2,100+ official assets and 50 AI trial credits. Pro is billed yearly for solo professionals, while Teams is billed yearly per seat. Commercial, revenue-generating, or professional work requires D5 Pro. Windows 10 version 1809 or later and a ray-tracing-ready GPU are required. Mobile viewing is supported, and D5 provides help resources, tutorials, webinars, forums, and contact support.
Terragen
Terragen builds, renders, and animates natural environments for landscape visualization, visual effects, and artistic work. It creates procedural and heightfield terrain, can use real-world terrain data, and adds details such as cliffs and overhangs. Its spherical planetary atmosphere model includes volumetric clouds and fog, multiple scattering, and global illumination. The hybrid renderer combines micropolygon rendering and ray tracing, with support for anti-aliasing, motion blur, depth of field, and render elements. Nearly every project parameter can be animated, and image sequences can be rendered through the interface or command line. Terragen imports 3D objects and camera data, exports terrain as heightfields or geometry in formats including TER, EXR, LWO, OBJ, and FBX, and handles camera data in FBX, Nuke CHAN, and Maya MOV formats. It can also generate HDR environments for lighting in other renderers. Windows and macOS are supported, with Linux render-node support. The free edition is for non-commercial use or 30 days of commercial evaluation, with still renders limited to 1280 × 900. Professional subscriptions start at $10 a month.