I find SOLIDWORKS for Makers [1] a great middle ground between bait-and-switch "free" Fusion and the real, very expensive, deal. SW is one of industry standards, its interface is much better than FreeCAD's, and it's more powerful than both FreeCAD and Fusion. For example, both FreeCAD and Fusion struggle with G2/G3 smoothness [2] where SW doesn't even blink. Fusion doesn't allow to pattern features on sketch points (it's gated behind an expensive add-on [3]) when it's a built-in feature in SW.
[1]: https://www.solidworks.com/solution/solidworks-makers
[2]: https://www.printables.com/model/1490911-g0-g3-corners-visua...
[3]: https://www.autodesk.com/uk/products/fusion-360/design-exten...
Subscription-based, cloud-based. That's two strikes.
It sounds like Solidworks is better for someone who is always using it—I maybe use a 3D CAD tool two or three weeks out of the year. Rent-anxiety (paying for it but not using it) keeps me from subscription apps.
They have 2 versions.
One is cloud based one is local install. They are pushing cloud based one because, their local installer is really bad (it's also bad for commercial version, people often joked, that the hardest thing about SW is getting it to run)
But yes, you pay yearly subscription. Which I am not a fan of, but it's a decent price, and I understand that such niche programs, can't sustain themselves on volume
Problem is, its not available in many countries including mine.
They are saying "we are expending countries" but i check once in a while and hasn't changed in years.