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Best Free Alternatives to Foundry Mari

Stop paying $86/mo or $689/yr. Discover professional-grade tools that won't break your budget.

Category: 3D Texturing / PaintingVerified for 2025

Top Recommended Replacements

Blender (Texture Paint + Geonodes)

FREE

Best Overall Alternative

Why we like it

Completely free; 2025 updates to the Layered Texturing system and Geometry Nodes have narrowed the gap with professional tools; handles standard PBR workflows natively; no licensing fees for commercial use.

Keep in mind

Struggles with very high UDIM counts (100+) compared to Mari; viewport performance can lag on extremely complex hero assets.

ArmorPaint

FREE

Best Lightweight Swap

Why we like it

A standalone, GPU-based 3D painting tool; incredibly fast because it runs entirely on the GPU; supports 16K texturing; one-time small fee (or free if you compile the code yourself) replaces a monthly subscription.

Keep in mind

Smaller feature set; less robust node graph than Mari.

InstaMAT

FREE

Best Professional Freemium

Why we like it

The 2025 'Dark Horse'; a massive suite that handles texturing, material creation, and baking; completely free for users/companies earning under $100k/year; features a state-of-the-art node-based workflow.

Keep in mind

Newer software with a steeper learning curve to master the full 'Studio' suite.

Quixel Mixer

FREE

Best for Environment Assets

Why we like it

Excellent for mixing scanned materials (Megascans) to create realistic terrains and props; very intuitive layer-based system; software itself is free.

Keep in mind

Epic Games' transition to the Fab Marketplace in 2025 means many Megascans assets now require a paid subscription, making the 'Mixer' workflow more expensive for new users.

3DCoat Textura

Best for Stylized/Hand-painted

Why we like it

A specialized version of 3DCoat just for texturing; industry-leading brush feel; significantly cheaper than Mari; offers 'Rent-to-Own' licensing models.

Keep in mind

UI is idiosyncratic and can be confusing for artists coming from Adobe or Foundry products.

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