Creo vs Inventor

Fishbowl

SolidWorks Premium

Autodesk Fusion

CATIA

Designcenter Solid Edge

SAP Enterprise Product Development

Compare Creo and Inventor based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2026.

SolidWorks Premium is the leading 3D design solution in the industry. It seamlessly integrates powerful design tools-including industry-leading part, assembly, and drawing capabilities with built-in simulation, rendering, animation, product data management, and cost estimation. 

SolidWorks will help you get work done faster and easier than before, using innovative phases of product creation to achieve a more productive 3D design experience.

CATIA is a cloud-based and on-premise product modeling software, which helps businesses in various industries, such as architecture, aviation, transportation & construction, design, build, and visualize 3D models. Features include team collaboration, simulation, and real-time concurrent designing.

Autodesk Fusion is a 3D CAD, CAM, and CAE tool that combines industrial and mechanical design, simulation, collaboration, and machining to connect the entire product development process in an integrated, concept-to-production toolset

Creo is an engineering CAD software that helps businesses optimize the entire product lifecycle using augmented reality, real-time simulation, additive manufacturing, and generative designing methodologies from within a unified platform.

2D Drawing

3D Design & Modeling

3D Imaging

Animation

Annotations

Bill of Materials Management

CAD Tools

Collaboration Tools

Compliance Management

Component Library

Cost Tracking

Data Import/Export

Design Analysis

Design Management

Document Management

For 3D Printing

For Architects

For Manufacturers

Manufacturing Design Data

Mechanical

Mechatronics

Modeling & Simulation

Presentation Tools

Reference Management

Reporting/Analytics

Requirements Management

Sketching and Annotation Tools

Supplier Management

Third-Party Integrations

Version Control

Creo

Web-based

Windows

Controls Engineer

Creo and Windchill allow us to design products with a great level of detail and sophistication with good revision control and change notice processes. It is very powerful once you get used to it.

Manager Technical Design

You have to do trainings to know what great functions this software has. Also, if you know all config options and mapkeys, you can work very quick and comfortable.

Photographer

I love to design parts seamlessly and its really clean. The STL export feature is also very handy.

Sr Engineer

It is a great program and they are ready to help when necessary.

Graduate Engineer

CREO is easy to use, friendly for beginners and the scalability of the software is very high and definitely worth for money.

Design Engineer

It helps me a lot as it has a lot of integrated features like EZ Tolerance Analysis, Creepage and Clearance Analysis, etc.

Graduate Research Assistant

It has some features, which help you to model some parts easier than the others. The drawing module looks good as well.

Sr. Engineer / Business Administrator for CAD/PLM

I also used Standard Rendering and I was able to produce a very effective images for product catalogs. I also used Mechanism and Simulation modules and they are quite capable.

Student

Sometimes the options would get you confused as you work on because there's that much options present.

planning engg

Software user interface is old styled , its confusing to connect with the database , file size of generated model is high.

The best thing I found in this 3D Modeling software as compared to others is; the drawing options and interface is just amazing with respect to other but at the same time not much user friendly.

student

It is little bit difficult to learn because of its advancement.

I wish this software was better about telling you what's wrong in your design. Sometimes overlapping lines may not be something easily identifiable and will cause error when extruding.

Very robust mid-priced package let down by unintuitive quirks.

Director - Partner & Projects

Automation has limitation as it follows less programing /API integartions.

Mechanical Engineer

Plenty functions and easy to work with others, but hard to learn the software interface and hard to use it for curvature surfaces.

Creo screenshot

Freelancers

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Small Business

Designcenter Solid Edge provides businesses with a range of modeling and simulation tools to address all aspects of the product development process. The software portfolio covers electrical design, 3D design, computer aided manufacturing (CAM), 3D printing, simulation, data management, and more.

SAP Enterprise Product Development helps enterprises accelerate the development of new products in industries ranging from automotive to petrochemical, from consumer electronics to pharmaceuticals. It provides actionable information so you can make decisions based on real-world data and see the connected results across your network. SAP Enterprise Product Development enables architects, engineers and business users to work together quickly, enabling a dynamic digital thread that is customized fo

Designed with simplicity and efficiency in mind, Fishbowl’s complete manufacturing and inventory management solution transforms the inventory process and uses automation to help growing businesses make strategic and precise decisions based on real-time data and cut costs.

Inventor is a Windows-based 3D CAD software that assists in 3D modelling through mechanical design, documentation, and product simulation tools. Professionals can create custom design configurations and automate repetitive tasks.

Bills of Material

BOM Creation

Civil

Configuration Management

Content Library

Drag & Drop

Electrical

Item Management

Multiple Projects

Rules-Based Workflow

Secure Data Storage

Inventor

Instructor

The price, for education, is great. Also, I am very impressed with the user interface and the ease of use.

Electrical Engineer

Only downside is it does crash sometimes for no reason when opening step files.

Inventor is a perfect tool for mechanical drawings as well as 3D mechanical models. Document production is  a very important ability of Invetor.

We used it mainly for R&D, in which we find it usable with some features earning a 'good' and even a 'very good.

Engineering Sales and Marketing Member

Really great as the designers have the great experience using this and create the ideas into 3D models and drawings.

The visualization and rendering options offered in a well-built user environment was appreciable. This was quite advantageous for exporting visually good outputs.

Project engineer

Has a great deal of value in using all inventor products. The PLM system integrated with engineer works great.

Research Assistant

The platform is very memory demanding, so running the application on multiple computers caused it to crash or slow down.

Virtual Design Construction Estimator

It creates cleaner lightmaps for objects than many other programs and the built-in render engine is actually surprisingly good, negating the need to export and render elsewhere, saving time.

Corrosion and Materials Engineer

Overall the experience has been great and Inventor is almost a necessity for anyone who works with cad drawings. All drafters and engineers will want to learn this.

It has a good subscription program which makes it easy to scale as you need licenses.

In other words, it helps take the complex and break it down to where a manufacturer can get on board easily and quickly.

Engineer

Ease of use and Vault integration. Makes file management easy.

Additive Manufacturing Engineer

The fact that Inventor is easy to use is a huge plus.

I did not like the fact that the program crashes a lot, i would like an autosave function so if if does crash you dont loose your work.

Privacy and Data Protection Consultant

It takes some time to get the look and feel of Inventor and to be able to exploit all differents functionalities.

Creo vs Inventor Comparison (2026)

Creo

Inventor

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

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