Comparison guide
Ten cutlist optimizers, browser and desktop, side by side — features, free tiers, exports and machine files. Competitor cells use each vendor's own published wording, dated, and say 'not published' plainly where a vendor makes no claim. Plenty of other optimizers exist; five of these are verified in full, and the desktop suites are still being verified cell by cell.
Method
A comparison that names competitors has to earn trust. Every cell in the table follows the same accuracy standard as our desktop head-to-head — and every cell is dated. Last verified: July 2026.
This page is the broad feature matrix across all ten tools; smartcut.dev/compare is the in-depth head-to-head against the two industrial desktop suites, Ardis and Magi-Cut, which appear as columns here and get a full argument there.
Prefer a guided read to a reference table? The editorial companion on our sister site — the best cutlist optimizer in 2026 — walks through choosing by use case. This page is the data behind that kind of decision: quoted cells, dates and benchmark runs. If a vendor has updated their site, tell us and we will correct and re-date the cell.
Side by side
22 feature axes across the ten tools compared here. Vendor-published wording only, retrieved July 2026. Columns marked * are still being verified — they update here, not silently. The table scrolls sideways; the feature column stays pinned.
| Cutlist Evolution | SmartCut | CutList Optimizer | OptiCutter | cutlist.pro | cutlistor.com | cutlist.studio | Magi-Cut * | MaxCut * | Ardis * | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How it runs | In the browser — no download, nothing to install | In the cloud — browser and REST API, nothing to install | Browser app, plus a vendor-published Android app † | Cloud — nothing to install | Browser-only; no install; account optional † | Browser-only; free tools need no login | Browser-only; no account; works offline | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Free tier limits | Free: 40 parts per calculation, unlimited stock, 3 saved projects, unlimited calculations | Test environment on request | Free: 5 calculations a day, 5 saved items, ads shown; Pro features excluded † | Free: 5 different stocks, 20 part sizes, 500 parts total; no card required | Free to use without an account; an account saves projects; DXF export is a paid upgrade † | Free: 3 calculations a day, 20-item cut list, CSV/XLSX import up to 5 rows, 3 AI scans and 3 CAD imports a month; no save, no inventory | Free in full, no sign-up, no published caps; projects stored locally in the browser | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Material types (sheet / linear / roll) | Sheet (2D), linear (1D) and roll | Sheet (2D), linear (1D) and roll | Sheet / panel; linear and roll not published † | Sheet, linear and roll — all three | Sheet / panel; linear and roll not published † | Sheet and linear; roll not published | Sheet and dimensional lumber; roll not published | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| True-shape nesting (irregular contours, not rectangles) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Guillotine cuts (edge-to-edge, cuttable on a panel or circular saw) | Yes — layouts for table, beam, panel, circular saw or guillotine | Yes | Not published | Not published | Yes — published as the optimizer's cutting objective † | Partial — "rips and rows" layout methods published as guillotine-friendly, not as an enforced constraint | Yes — two guillotine packers (Tidy, Compact) plus an explicitly non-guillotine CNC strategy | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Parts import (CSV / spreadsheet) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes — CSV and Excel | Partial — OpenCutList CSV; no direct spreadsheet upload published † | Yes — CSV/XLSX, plus AI plan scan and 3D CAD import | Partial — 3D model import and manual entry; CSV/spreadsheet not published | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Kerf / blade width | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Trim / edge margins | Yes — Starter plan and up | Yes | Partial † | Yes — per edge | Not published | Not published | Yes — published as "margins" | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Grain direction control | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes — per part | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Grain / pattern matching (grouped parts) | Yes — part groups placed as one cohesive rectangle; orientation required per part, single line of parts | Yes — user-defined part groups with explicit XY positions, via the API | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Edge banding | Yes — Starter plan and up | Yes | Yes — per edge, with user-defined band types † | Yes — per-edge quantity calculation | Partial — per-edge fields per part; no banding-material claim † | Not published | Not published | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Labels / printing | Yes — QR-coded part labels, Pro plan and up | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published | Partial — part labels on the PDF; no label-printing claim | Not published | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Cutting diagrams & exports | PDF on all plans; CSV on Pro+; SVG, DXF and PTX on Expert+ | PDF, DXF, SVG plus native machine formats | PDF, image, CSV † | PDF, XLS, CSV, DXF | PDF; DXF on the paid tier; CorteCloud † | PDF and DXF | PDF diagram plus a .cutlist project file | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Offcut / leftover reuse | Yes | Yes | Not published | Partial — remnant-length control; no reuse or inventory claim | Not published | Partial — remnants enterable as stock; no automated reuse | Partial — published for dimensional lumber only | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Material / stock library | Yes — material & stock cloud database on Enterprise | Yes | Partial † | Partial | Not published | Yes | Partial — assignable stock materials; no named library | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Multi-sheet & mixed stock sizes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not published | Yes | Yes | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Beam saw / machine files | PTX for beam saws and DXF for CNC, Expert plan and up | PTX, CPOUT, .saw (PTN3), Biesse XML (Str), .may, .900, .nc, .002, .ac, CSV (ZuschnittOpti), CNC XML — 13+ saw models across 8 vendors | Not published | Partial — DXF only; no saw-controller format published | Partial — DXF for CNC routers, lasers and waterjets; no saw-controller format † | Partial — DXF for CNC/CAM; no saw-controller format | Not published | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| API access | Via SmartCut — the same engine as a REST API | Yes | Not published | Yes — documented public REST API | Not published | Not published | Not published | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Cut-to-size e-commerce | Via SmartCut — hosted store, checkout widget, WooCommerce plugin | Yes | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Not published | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Team / multi-user | Yes — organisation accounts; members inherit the organisation's plan, with a shared material & stock cloud database on Enterprise | Yes | Not published | Not published | Not published | Yes — seats with roles and central billing | Not published | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Mobile support | Yes | Browser apps work on phones and tablets; the API is device-independent | Yes | Responsive web; no native app published | Not published | Yes | Not published | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
| Also notable | Decimal & fraction units, quotes & estimates, manual part positioning, true-shape nesting optimizer | MCP server — connect Claude or any MCP-capable client and run optimizations conversationally | Fractional feet & inches; published 5,000-panel ceiling † | 9 languages; roll material; cost-versus-waste optimization modes | Genetic-algorithm optimizer; per-sheet price field; ACM, acrylic and sheet-metal guidance † | AI plan scanning from photos or PDFs; 3D CAD import | Tournament optimizer across three named packers; 3D-model-first intake; runs offline | Being verified | Being verified | Being verified |
Reading the table. The material-types row shows the three stock types as glyphs — sheet, linear and roll — solid where the vendor publishes support, dimmed and dashed where they publish no claim either way. Elsewhere is yes, no, partial, not published — meaning we found no claim, which is not the same as "no" — and a cell we are still verifying. The glyphs only speed up scanning: every cell's full wording stays in the page for screen readers and search engines.
On "nesting". That row means true-shape nesting — packing irregular contours (curves, L-shapes, arbitrary outlines) rather than rectangles. Every tool in this table uses the word "nesting" for rectangular packing, and several say so in their own words: OptiCutter is "specialized for cutting rectangular material", cutlistor handles "Rectangular parts from large sheets", cutlist.studio runs "an n-stage free-rect guillotine packer". A "No" on that row is not a contradiction of their copy — it records that the tool packs rectangles, which is what almost every workshop cutting list needs. It is only a difference if your parts are not rectangular.
† Wording from shipped application text. Two of these tools — CutList Optimizer and cutlist.pro — publish no marketing site at all; each is a single-page app. Cells marked † quote vendor-authored text served from that vendor's own domain (in-app labels and FAQ answers, llms.txt, plan fragments) rather than a marketing page. It is still the vendor's own wording, but if you follow the link you will land on their app, not on a page containing that sentence.
Benchmarks
The table records what each tool publishes; benchmarks record what each tool does. Every job below runs with identical inputs on every tool that can ingest it, with the run date recorded. '—' means not measured, or the tool could not complete the job — it is never a zero.
Benchmarks in progress
We are re-running the head-to-head suite across every web-based optimizer on identical jobs. Results publish here, job by job, with full methodology.
Fair play
We'd rather you pick the right tool than pick ours for the wrong job. Every vendor here gets its published strengths recorded first, in its own words.
The right choice when you want to optimize a cutting list now, in the browser, without installing anything or paying first: the free plan covers 40 parts per calculation with unlimited stock, kerf and grain control included. Paid tiers add trim, edge banding, printable labels and CSV, SVG, DXF and PTX export as your workshop grows.
The right choice when the optimizer is part of a bigger system: a REST API that quotes live inside your website or ERP, native files for beam saws (13+ models across 8 vendors), a hosted cut-to-size store — and performance benchmarked in the open on 2,083 real jobs, published at smartcut.dev/benchmarks.
The right choice if you want a long-established panel optimizer with a broad core and an official Android app: kerf, grain direction with per-axis locking, per-edge banding with user-defined band types, panel labels and CSV in and out. The free tier allows five calculations a day with ads.
On features alone this is the strongest of the browser-based competitors, and the only one publishing sheet, linear and roll material together with per-edge trim, edge-banding quantities, CSV and Excel import and a documented public REST API. Its free plan — 500 parts per calculation across 20 part sizes and 5 stocks, no card required — is more generous than ours on part count.
The right choice if getting the cutting list in is your bottleneck: it is the only tool here publishing AI plan scanning from a photo or PDF and 3D CAD import, and the only browser-based one with real team seats carrying owner, admin and member roles. Of the browser tiers, its free tier is the most restrictive.
A young tool aimed at Latin American workshops, free to use without an account and pitched at carpentry, signage and ephemeral architecture. Kerf and grain control are published; DXF export is a paid upgrade.
The only browser-based tool here that publishes fully offline, no-server, no-account operation, with projects stored in your own browser — a real privacy and portability advantage we do not match. Its intake is a 3D model first (GLTF, GLB or Collada), with manual part entry as the fallback, so it suits a CAD-led workflow more than a paste-a-parts-list one.
Installed Windows software, and a real alternative rather than a footnote: Magi-Cut publishes optimisation of "regular and shaped components", grain-matched patterns and a saw interface that sends patterns straight to a CNC-controlled saw; MaxCut publishes per-material kerf and trim settings, grain alignment across panels and a free Community Edition with unlimited parts per project. If you already run one of these and it fits your shop, that is a perfectly good answer.
Their columns are marked as still being verified. We have transcribed the cells above from each vendor's own published wording, but not yet every axis — and where we have not checked, the table says so rather than printing "not published" as though the vendor were silent. For the two industrial suites, Ardis and Magi-Cut, there is a fuller head-to-head at smartcut.dev/compare, held to the same accuracy rules.
FAQ
It depends on the job. For a free, browser-based optimizer for workshop cutting lists, Cutlist Evolution's free plan covers 40 parts per calculation with unlimited stock. If the optimizer needs to feed a business — an API, beam saw machine files or cut-to-size e-commerce — SmartCut is built for exactly that. The table on this page records what each of the compared tools publishes, so you can decide against your own requirements rather than a ranking. It is not a survey of every optimizer on the market — other tools exist, browser and desktop, and some publish capabilities these eight do not.
Yes. Cutlist Evolution's free plan is free permanently: 40 parts per calculation, unlimited stock and unlimited calculations, in the browser with no download. Several competitors publish genuinely generous free tiers too, and the table shows them plainly: cutlist.studio is free in full with no sign-up and no published caps, OptiCutter's free plan allows 500 parts per calculation with no card required, and CutList Optimizer allows five calculations a day. Compare them against your own job size rather than taking ours on trust.
Competitor cells quote only the vendor's own published wording, recorded with the source URL and a retrieval date. Where a vendor publishes no claim — on speed, efficiency or anything else — the cell says "not published" rather than guessing. Our own performance figures cite the published benchmarks at smartcut.dev/benchmarks. Cells were last verified in July 2026.
Each cell quotes the vendor's own published wording, recorded with its URL and retrieval date. Two of the compared tools — CutList Optimizer and cutlist.pro — publish no marketing site at all; each is a single-page app. For those, the wording is vendor-authored text shipped inside the application itself (in-app labels and FAQ answers, llms.txt, plan fragments) served from the vendor's own domain, and those cells are marked with a dagger in the table so you can see the difference. A tool's column is published only once every cell has passed that check; anything unverified shows a pending state rather than an estimate.
Among the browser-based tools compared here, no — they all pack rectangles. This is worth stating carefully, because every one of them uses the word "nesting" for rectangular packing, and they are right to: rectangular packing is what almost every workshop cutting list needs. True-shape nesting means packing irregular contours — curves, L-shapes, arbitrary outlines — and it only matters if your parts are not rectangles. Cutlist Evolution ships a separate true-shape nesting optimizer for that case. The desktop suites are a different story: Magi-Cut publishes optimisation of "regular and shaped components", so we make no claim to be alone on true-shape nesting across the whole set — only among the browser-based tools here.
They share the same optimization engine. Cutlist Evolution is the web app for workshops: enter a cutting list in the browser, optimize, print diagrams and labels. SmartCut is the platform: a REST API, native beam saw machine files, a hosted cut-to-size store and openly published benchmarks.
Yes — all three are columns in the table above, alongside the browser-based tools, because the honest question is "which optimizer", not "which browser optimizer". Their columns are still being verified cell by cell against each vendor's own published wording, and are marked as such rather than filled in with guesses. SmartCut vs Ardis and Magi-Cut also gets a dedicated head-to-head at smartcut.dev/compare, held to the same accuracy rules. OpenCutList is not included here: it is a SketchUp extension rather than a standalone optimizer.
CutList Optimizer, OptiCutter, cutlist.pro, cutlistor.com, cutlist.studio, Magi-Cut, MaxCut, Ardis are trademarks or trade names of their respective owners. SmartCut and Cutlist Evolution are our own products; SmartCut is not affiliated with or endorsed by any other vendor named on this page. Competitor cells quote each vendor's own published wording. Comparison based on publicly available information, July 2026.