InstaMAT
Focus: 3d texturing and pbr. Shares procedural materials and substance alternative with Material Maker. Freemium (Material Maker: Free). Rated 4.4 (Material Maker: 4.3).
Desktop AppFree planWindows, macOS
4.4Visit
Desktop App
Material Maker
A free, open-source node-based tool for procedural PBR materials.
Rating
4.3 / 5
Pricing
Free
Difficulty
Advanced
Works on
Windows, macOS, Linux
Built with love by Shushant Lakhyani. Building bestproductivityresources.com
What is Material Maker?
Material Maker creates PBR materials from node graphs, where each node generates or transforms textures, and exports them for game engines such as Godot, Unity and Unreal or for film assets. It also has an experimental tool for painting procedural brushes onto 3D models. It is open source under the MIT licence; the latest release is Material Maker 1.7 (July 2026) for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Pros: what Material Maker does well
- Free and open source (MIT)
- Node-based procedural materials like Substance Designer
- Exports for Godot, Unity and Unreal
Cons: where it falls short
- Texture painting is still experimental
- Smaller node library than Substance
Who Material Maker is for
Game developers and 3D artists who want free procedural materials.
Who can skip it
People who just need ready-made textures.
Material Maker alternatives
Not sold on Material Maker? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.
Theatre.js
Focus: animation, motion and web. Shares 3d and open source with Material Maker. A framework, not a desktop app. Adds Web. Rated 4.6 (Material Maker: 4.3).
FrameworkFreeWeb
4.6Visit
Build World
Focus: worlds, ai agents and game dev. Shares 3d and open source with Material Maker. A framework, not a desktop app. Adds Web. Same 4.3 rating.
FrameworkFreeWeb
4.3Visit
Ghostty
Focus: terminal, emulator and gpu. Shares open source with Material Maker. Rated 4.9 (Material Maker: 4.3).
Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.9Visit
fzf
Focus: fuzzy finder, command line and shell. Shares open source with Material Maker. Adds Offline. Rated 4.8 (Material Maker: 4.3).
Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.8Visit
lazygit
Focus: git client, terminal ui and developer tool. Shares open source with Material Maker. Adds Offline. Rated 4.8 (Material Maker: 4.3).
Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.8Visit
Free alternatives to Material Maker
Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.
navi
Focus: terminal, cli and cheatsheet. Shares open source with Material Maker. Rated 4.8 (Material Maker: 4.3).
Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.8Visit
Upscayl
Focus: image upscaling, ai and electron. Shares open source with Material Maker. Rated 4.8 (Material Maker: 4.3).
Desktop AppFreeLinux, macOS
4.8Visit
Atuin
Focus: shell history, terminal and command line. Shares open source with Material Maker. Rated 4.7 (Material Maker: 4.3).
Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.7Visit
AutoHotkey
Focus: hotkeys, macros and scripting. Shares open source with Material Maker. Adds Offline. Rated 4.7 (Material Maker: 4.3).
Desktop AppFreeWindows, Offline
4.7Visit
bat
Focus: file viewer, command line and developer tool. Shares open source with Material Maker. Adds Offline. Rated 4.7 (Material Maker: 4.3).
Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.7Visit
btop
Focus: system monitor, terminal and processes. Shares open source with Material Maker. Adds Offline. Rated 4.7 (Material Maker: 4.3).
Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.7Visit
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