CFD software worldwide

A quick look at software adoption, licence costs and the size of the global market.

US$3.58bn global · US$165m UK 2025 software revenue estimate

Leading names in the survey

International industry sample · 624 responses · Published 2021

Siemens26%Quote required
Ansys20%Commercial price on request
OpenFOAM12%No licence fee

Percentages are as published in the survey chart. Its denominator is unspecified, and respondents could use multiple tools. Current worldwide vendor revenue shares are unavailable in the public sources reviewed.Source and scope

What licences cost

Examples by billing model

No licence fee: £0 · OpenFOAM, SU2
Free tiers: £0 with limits · SimScale Community, SimFlow Free
Published prices: €8,000–€10,000/year · SimFlow paid plans
€990 excl. VAT / 25 credits · AirShaper Discovery
Quote or usage based: $20k–$65k · Ansys CFD Enterprise, 4 cores
$63k / $150k · STAR-CCM+, 1 core / unlimited; Supplied quotes and maintenance · Flow360 bills in credits.

Licence and credit examples only. Compute, support and add-ons can cost extra. The directory also covers research codes with restricted access.

Enterprise quote examples

These six individual quotes were supplied for comparison. Quote dates, licence terms and maintenance billing periods are unverified.

Software and core count	Quoted price	Maintenance
Ansys CFD Enterprise, 4 cores	$65k	$13k
Ansys CFD Enterprise, 4 cores	$58k	$12k
Ansys CFD Enterprise, 4 cores	$20k	$4k
Ansys HPC, 1 core	$5k	$1k
STAR-CCM+, 1 core	$63k	$16k
STAR-CCM+, unlimited cores	$150k	$36k

How the market breaks down

Early design: Section polars, lifting-surface methods and surface solvers make it possible to screen shapes and estimate loading before building a volume mesh.
General CFD and optimization: Open-source tools suit scripted runs and reproducible case files. Integrated suites bundle meshing, solvers and automation. Adjoint tools are especially relevant when a design sweep has many variables.
Unsteady wakes and acoustics: Compare dedicated LES solvers, hybrid RANS–LES in general-purpose suites and transient lattice Boltzmann products. Check validation at comparable flow conditions and the compute budget for a useful sample.
Access and cost: Open-source licence cost can be zero while meshing, compute and support still take budget. Commercial pricing can depend on modules, cores, GPUs, or credits. Public figures retain the vendor’s currency and plan terms. Agency codes may have release restrictions.

Software directory

Filter by the tool’s main role or by documented applications. Sector tags describe representative uses. Adoption rates and available models vary by sector, release and configuration.

46 entries

Scroll sideways to compare all columns.

Software	Equation family	Models / methods	Industry and typical use	Licence / indicative cost	Sources
Simcenter STAR-CCM+General-purpose CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS/URANS, LES and DES	Aerospace & UAVs Automotive & motorsport Propulsion & turbomachinery Marine Integrated meshing, external aero, overset motion and repeatable design sweeps.	CommercialContact Siemens for a configuration and quote.	[1][2]
Ansys FluentGeneral-purpose CFD	Navier–Stokes, Euler	RANS/URANS, LES, DES/DDES and other scale-resolving options	Aerospace & UAVs Automotive & motorsport Propulsion & turbomachinery Process & thermal engineering General-purpose CFD, Fluent Aero workflows, rotating machinery and aeroacoustics.	CommercialCommercial price not listed on product page. Free Student edition has use and model-size limits.	[1][2][3]
OpenFOAM (Foundation)General-purpose CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS/URANS, LES and hybrid models by module	General engineering Process & thermal engineering Research & teaching Scriptable finite-volume CFD. Separate release and documentation from OpenCFD’s distribution.	Open sourceNo licence fee. Compute and support are separate.	[1][2]
OpenFOAM (OpenCFD)General-purpose CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS/URANS, LES, DES/DDES/IDDES options	Aerospace & UAVs General engineering Process & thermal engineering Research & teaching Finite-volume toolkit with snappyHexMesh, scripted case files and overset options.	Open sourceNo licence fee. Compute and support are separate.	[1][2]
Ansys CFXTurbomachinery CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS/URANS, SST-SAS and LES	Propulsion & turbomachinery Energy Rotating machinery and blade-row interfaces.	CommercialCommercial price not listed in modeling guide.	[1]
Cadence Fidelity Fine TurboTurbomachinery CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS and unsteady turbomachinery workflows	Aerospace & UAVs Propulsion & turbomachinery Energy Structured-grid turbomachinery CFD for blade rows, fans and compressors.	CommercialCommercial price not listed in datasheet.	[1]
Cadence Fidelity CharLESScale-resolving CFD	Filtered Navier–Stokes	LES, including wall-modeled applications	Aerospace & UAVs Automotive & motorsport Propulsion & turbomachinery Research & teaching GPU-accelerated scale-resolving CFD, Voronoi meshing and aeroacoustics.	CommercialCommercial price not listed on product page.	[1]
SIMULIA PowerFLOWScale-resolving CFD	Lattice Boltzmann	Transient kinetic method with turbulence modeling	Aerospace & UAVs Automotive & motorsport External aerodynamics and aeroacoustics, with a Cartesian lattice workflow.	CommercialCommercial price not listed on product page.	[1][2]
SIMULIA XFlowScale-resolving CFD	Lattice Boltzmann	WMLES	Aerospace & UAVs Automotive & motorsport Marine Transient flow with moving parts or complex geometries. Vendor documentation lists SIMUNIT tokens and credits.	CommercialCommercial price not listed on product page.	[1][2]
SOLIDWORKS Flow SimulationCAD-integrated CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS	General engineering Process & thermal engineering CAD-integrated flow and thermal analysis for rapid design iteration.	CommercialCommercial price not listed on product page.	[1]
Altair AcuSolveMultiphysics CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS, LES and DES-family models	General engineering Process & thermal engineering Finite-element CFD, with general-purpose flow and coupled multiphysics workflows.	CommercialAltair Units licensing. Check current entitlement and unit draw.	[1][2]
Altair ultraFluidXScale-resolving CFD	Lattice Boltzmann	LES with wall modeling	Automotive & motorsport Propulsion & turbomachinery GPU solver for transient external aero and fan noise workflows.	CommercialAltair Units licensing. GPU count affects unit draw.	[1][2][3]
COMSOL CFD ModuleMultiphysics CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS, LES and DES	General engineering Process & thermal engineering Research & teaching Finite-element CFD coupled with other COMSOL physics. Useful when aero is one part of a multiphysics model.	CommercialCommercial module. Request a licence quote.	[1]
Autodesk CFDCAD-integrated CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS, SST-SAS and SST-DES in Autodesk documentation	Buildings & HVAC General engineering Process & thermal engineering General engineering flow and thermal studies with CAD workflows.	CommercialSubscription. Check local Autodesk storefront for the current total.	[1][2][3]
CONVERGEGeneral-purpose CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS and LES	Automotive & motorsport Propulsion & turbomachinery Energy Process & thermal engineering Automatic Cartesian cut-cell meshing, AMR and complex moving boundaries. Strong propulsion and reacting-flow focus.	CommercialCommercial price not listed in technical overview.	[1]
CFD SUPPORT TCAE / TCFDTurbomachinery CFD	Navier–Stokes via OpenFOAM	Case-dependent turbulence options	Propulsion & turbomachinery Energy Integrated turbomachinery workflow for fans and other rotating machinery, with companion meshing and structural modules.	CommercialPublished 2025 standard price list shows TCFD at €9,900/year. Ask for a current quote.	[1][2]
ENGYS HELYXGeneral-purpose CFD	Navier–Stokes via HELYX-Core	OpenFOAM-derived framework; check release-specific models	Aerospace & UAVs Automotive & motorsport Buildings & HVAC Marine Process & thermal engineering General-purpose CFD with integrated meshing and a commercial interface over a GPL core.	CommercialPaid GUI package. Check licence options with ENGYS.	[1][2]
SimFlowGeneral-purpose CFD	Navier–Stokes via OpenFOAM	OpenFOAM-based; specific models vary by solver and release	General engineering Process & thermal engineering Research & teaching Desktop GUI for meshing, case setup and execution.	Free tier / commercialFree up to 200,000 mesh nodes and 1 CPU. Professional €8,000/year; Enterprise €10,000/year.	[1][2]
Zenotech zCFDGeneral-purpose CFD	Compressible Euler and Navier–Stokes	SA, SST, transition SST, WALE LES, DES/DDES/IDDES and SAS	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching GPU-capable CFD with documented compressible aero and hybrid turbulence options.	Free tier / commercialLimited free licence. Industrial and academic terms differ.	[1][2]
SimScaleGeneral-purpose CFD · Cloud CFD	Navier–Stokes or lattice Boltzmann	Analysis-dependent; RANS options and a separate LBM workflow	Aerospace & UAVs Buildings & HVAC General engineering Process & thermal engineering Browser-based meshing, runs and collaboration. Model and compute limits depend on plan.	Free tier / commercialCommunity free (10 simulations listed). Paid plan pricing is custom.	[1][2][3]
Flexcompute Flow360General-purpose CFD · Cloud CFD	Compressible Navier–Stokes	RANS and hybrid RANS–LES options	Aerospace & UAVs Propulsion & turbomachinery Aircraft-focused GPU CFD, including rotor models, rotating meshes and adjoint design workflows.	CommercialFlex Credits for simulations, storage and support. Check account rates.	[1][2]
AirShaperManaged aero analysis · Cloud CFD	Navier–Stokes via OpenFOAM for documented steady workflow	Steady RANS with k–ω SST; transient workflow listed separately	Aerospace & UAVs Automotive & motorsport Upload geometry and get external aero reports through a browser.	CommercialDiscovery €990 excl. VAT for 25 credits. Basic, Regular and Advanced analyses use 1, 10 and 50 credits.	[1][2]
Luminary CloudGeneral-purpose CFD · Cloud CFD	Continuum CFD	SST and DDES in vendor documentation and benchmarks	Aerospace & UAVs Automotive & motorsport GPU CFD, automated mesh adaptation and cloud design sweeps. Also offers separate surrogate products.	CommercialMetered credits for compute and separate storage billing.	[1][2][3]
SU2Adjoint design and optimization	Euler and Navier–Stokes	RANS/URANS, SA, SST and DES-family options by configuration	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching Aircraft external flow and adjoint shape optimization.	Open sourceNo licence fee. Budget for meshing and compute.	[1][2]
ADflowAdjoint design and optimization	Euler and compressible RANS	Steady RANS and time-spectral/physical-time options in the documentation	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching Overset structured finite-volume solver with adjoints for aerodynamic optimization.	Open sourceNo licence fee.	[1][2]
DAFoamAdjoint design and optimization	Navier–Stokes via OpenFOAM	RANS in documented aerodynamic optimization workflows	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching Discrete adjoint design framework. Compare available primal solver and derivative support for your case.	Open sourceNo licence fee.	[1]
code_saturneGeneral-purpose CFD	Navier–Stokes	RANS and LES	Energy Process & thermal engineering Research & teaching EDF general-purpose finite-volume CFD with turbulence and thermal-flow models.	Open sourceNo licence fee.	[1]
PyFRScale-resolving CFD	Compressible Navier–Stokes	Scale-resolving simulation using high-order flux reconstruction	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching GPU-capable high-order CFD for unsteady wakes and research.	Open sourceNo licence fee.	[1][2]
Nektar++Research framework / library	Navier–Stokes	Solver-dependent high-order flow simulation	Research & teaching Spectral/hp elements, with documented incompressible and compressible flow solvers.	Open sourceNo licence fee.	[1][2]
nekRSResearch framework / library	Incompressible Navier–Stokes	Scale-resolving spectral-element workflows	Energy Research & teaching GPU-oriented high-order flow simulation, especially for research and HPC.	Open sourceNo licence fee.	[1][2]
BasiliskResearch framework / library	Navier–Stokes and other PDEs	Depends on solver and user-specified model	Research & teaching Adaptive Cartesian research framework. Useful for studying method and mesh behavior.	Open sourceNo licence fee for published source.	[1][2]
OpenLBResearch framework / library	Lattice Boltzmann	Official examples include LES and DNS.	Automotive & motorsport Process & thermal engineering Research & teaching C++ lattice Boltzmann library for developing and testing CFD methods.	Open sourceNo licence fee for open-source code.	[1]
PalabosResearch framework / library	Lattice Boltzmann	Model depends on selected collision dynamics and example	Research & teaching General-purpose lattice Boltzmann library. Requires building a workflow around the case.	Open sourceNo licence fee for open-source code.	[1]
NASA FUN3DAerospace research solver	Euler and Navier–Stokes	RANS and scale-resolving options by release	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching Node-based finite volume on mixed-element unstructured grids, with adjoints for design.	Restricted / requestRequest through NASA. Check release eligibility.	[1][2]
NASA OVERFLOWAerospace research solver	Compressible Navier–Stokes	RANS, DDES and hybrid RANS–LES by release	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching Structured overset CFD for moving components and high-speed aero.	Restricted / requestNASA lists U.S. access under a usage agreement.	[1][2]
NASA LAVAAerospace research solver	Euler and Navier–Stokes	RANS, WMLES and hybrid RANS–LES by solver	Aerospace & UAVs Propulsion & turbomachinery Research & teaching Cartesian immersed-boundary, curvilinear overset and other variants for aero and propulsion.	Restricted / requestRequest through NASA. Check eligibility and agreement.	[1][2]
NASA Cart3DAerospace research solver	Compressible Euler	Inviscid	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching Cartesian cut-cell CFD with adaptive grids for pressure loads and early aero design.	Restricted / requestNASA lists access for eligible federal employees and contractors.	[1][2]
NASA CFL3DAerospace research solver	Compressible Navier–Stokes	RANS turbulence closures	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching Legacy structured-grid reference code for comparison and validation cases.	Open sourcePublic source under Apache 2.0.	[1][2]
OpenVSP / VSPAEROPreliminary aerodynamic analysis	Potential flow	Vortex-lattice or panel analysis; no RANS or LES	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching Aircraft geometry and early estimates of loading, stability and induced effects.	Open sourceNo licence fee for public release.	[1][2]
XFOILPreliminary aerodynamic analysis	Potential flow + integral boundary layer	Viscous–inviscid interaction and transition prediction	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching 2D subsonic airfoil polars. Check reliability near stall and strong separation.	Open sourceNo licence fee for public distribution.	[1]
AVLPreliminary aerodynamic analysis	Potential flow	Extended vortex-lattice method	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching Aircraft stability derivatives, trim and attached-flow lifting-surface loading.	Open sourceNo licence fee for public distribution.	[1]
flow5 / XFLR5Preliminary aerodynamic analysis	Potential flow and airfoil polar data	Lifting-surface and panel methods; viscous corrections from section data	Aerospace & UAVs Research & teaching Low-speed wings and aircraft, especially early model-aircraft and glider design. flow5 is the open-source successor to XFLR5.	Open sourceNo licence fee. flow5 is distributed under GPLv3.	[1][2][3]
Simcenter FlightStreamPreliminary aerodynamic analysis	Surface-vorticity method	Reduced-order flow with viscous modeling; check method assumptions	Aerospace & UAVs Aircraft loads and early airframe design trade studies.	CommercialCommercial price not listed on product page.	[1]
GmshMesh generation	Mesh generation	Transfinite, Delaunay and frontal algorithms; high-order elements	General engineering Research & teaching Scriptable geometry and mesh generation for external solvers.	Open sourceOpen-source distribution. Check licence terms for integration and redistribution.	[1][2]
Cadence Fidelity PointwiseMesh generation	Mesh generation	Structured and unstructured meshing, near-wall layers and high-order meshes	Aerospace & UAVs General engineering Production grid generation for complex aircraft and components.	CommercialCommercial price not listed on product page.	[1]
snappyHexMeshMesh generation	Mesh generation	Castellation, snapping and prism layers	General engineering Research & teaching Scriptable hex-dominant mesh generation within OpenFOAM.	Open sourceIncluded in OpenFOAM. No separate licence fee.	[1]

CFD market and adoption reports

These sources measure software revenue, reported use and research activity. Public evidence reviewed here does not give a representative solver-by-solver split for companies and universities in the UK or worldwide.

Computational Fluid Dynamic CFD Software Market Analysis

2026 edition · UK and global · Software revenue

The report’s 2025 country table puts the global market at US$3.58 billion and the UK market at US$165 million. The UK accounts for about 4.6% of the global total in this estimate.

The public figures are a commercial market estimate. Detailed vendor shares are behind a paywall, and the stated end-user segmentation does not separate universities.

Read the public market summary

CFD Software User Survey

2021 publication · International industry sample · Reported use

The survey collected 624 responses verified with company email addresses. Its software chart shows Siemens at 26%, Ansys at 20% and OpenFOAM at 12%. More than half of respondents reported using multiple tools.

The chart reflects this historical sample. The infographic does not specify the denominator for the software percentages or publish a UK or university breakdown.

Read the survey results (PDF)

Our Fluid Nation

2021 report · UK industry and academia · Economic and research activity

The study estimates £13.9 billion in UK fluid-dynamics output in 2019 across more than 2,200 firms. It also examines university research and estimates more than £2.3 billion in relevant UKRI investment over the decade it studied.

The scope includes experimental and other fluid-dynamics work as well as CFD. The figures describe the wider field and cannot be used to estimate solver adoption or CFD software spend.

Read the UK industry and research report