LightWave 3D vs Meshy
LightWave 3D
lightwave3d.com
Meshy
meshy.aiSide by side
| Figure | LightWave 3D | Meshy |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | £450/mo | $20/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 14 |
| Spec score · 3D modeling software | 8.6 (#29) | 9.3 (#3) |
| Spec score · Game 3D Modeling Software | 8.7 (#8) | 9.0 (#2) |
| Free plan | No | Yes |
| Headquarters | England, UK | Sunnyvale, California, USA |
| Integrations | The Unreal Engine Bridge transfers objects, instances, textures, animations, camera moves, and lights in real time. | Official integrations include Blender, Unity, Unreal, Godot, Roblox, 3ds Max, Maya, ZBrush, ComfyUI and multiple slicers. |
| Intended users | The maker describes LightWave as intended for professionals in television production, film visual effects, video game development, print graphics, and visualization. | Meshy says it is built for 3D artists, game developers, and 3D printing hobbyists, and describes use cases including product design, education, film, and VR/AR. |
| Praise: ease and speed | G2 reviewers repeatedly describe LightWave as easy to learn, flexible and fast to render without high-end hardware. | G2 and Trustpilot reviewers repeatedly praise the intuitive interface, fast generation and ability to create useful models without advanced 3D skills. |
| Rating on G2 | 3.9 out of 5 from 29 reviews | 4.7 out of 5 from 3,976 reviews |
| Rating on GetApp | 3.8 out of 5 from 4 reviews | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 ratings |
| Support | The documentation directs users to support, bug-report and feature-request email addresses and community forums. | Meshy directs users to its Discord community for product questions, help, issue reports, and feedback. |
| What it does | LightWave 3D is desktop graphics software for 3D modelling, animation and visual effects used in film, television, games, print and visualisation. | Meshy turns text, images and conversational prompts into production-ready 3D assets. |
Plans
LightWave 3D
- New LightWave 2025 Licence£795 a month
- LightWave 2025 Upgrade - LightWave 2024 users£450 a month
- LightWave 2025 Upgrade - LightWave 2023 or earlier users£550 a month
- 30-day trialFree
- LightWave 2025 Upgrade — LightWave 2024 users£450, paid once
- LightWave 2026 upgrade from 2025£450, paid once
- LightWave 2025 Upgrade — LightWave 2023 or earlier users£550, paid once
- LightWave 2026 upgrade from 2024 or earlier£550, paid once
- LightWave 2025 licence£795, paid once
- New LightWave 2026 licence£795, paid once
Meshy
- FreeFree
- Pro$20 a month
- Premium$40 a month
- Ultra$100 a month
- Studio 1×$70 a month
- Studio 3×Price not published
- Studio 5×Price not published
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Pro$20 a month
In their own words
LightWave 3D
LightWave 3D has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Meshy
Meshy creates 3D assets from text, images, or creative concepts for users to preview, edit, and export. Text-to-3D generates textured models from written descriptions, while Image-to-3D works from photos, sketches, or concept art. It can auto-rig humanoid and quadruped characters and offers more than 600 motion presets. For 3D printing, Meshy says its models are watertight and manifold; its printability check scans exports and can repair some edge cases. Integrations include Blender, Unity, Unreal Engine, Godot, Roblox Studio, Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer, and Creality Print, along with a REST API and MCP server. The Android and iOS app syncs with the web app and exports formats including STL, GLB, FBX, OBJ, USDZ, and 3MF. The web app has a 100 MB upload limit for AI texturing and accepts one model at a time. Meshy has a free plan; Pro starts at $20 a month. Free-plan assets use CC BY 4.0 and require attribution for commercial use.