Same hotkeys. Same .ma files. Same scripts. Same pipeline. Running on the Blender engine — at ≤30% of Autodesk's price. Switch in 0–2 days. Year 1 is free.
You didn't search "Maya alternative" because Maya is bad. You searched it because the math has stopped working. Here's the math.
No marketing colours. No hidden footnotes. The actual decision matrix every studio runs in private — published.
| MayaAutodesk · commercial | BlenderFree · open source | KimiyaaMaya UX · Blender engine | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per-seat licence cost | $1,785 / year | Free | ≤ 30% of Maya |
| Year 1 of adoption | Full price | Free | FREE · full access |
| Maya hotkeys & UX | ✓ Native | ✗ Different | ✓ Identical |
| Opens .ma / .mb files | ✓ Native | Import only, lossy | ✓ Native, round-trips |
| MEL / Python scripts | ✓ Native | ✗ Rewrite required | ✓ Python preserved · MEL most patterns |
| Onboarding per artist | Existing | 2–3 months retraining | 0–2 days |
| Pipeline rebuild | N/A | Often required | None |
| Blender-deliverable output | Export only | ✓ Native | ✓ Native by architecture |
| AI features | Cloud (Flow Studio) | Plugin ecosystem | Optional · local / on-prem |
| Client IP stays in studio | Cloud AI = no | Yes (no AI default) | ✓ Yes · air-gappable |
| Annual price hike risk | ~15% regional, no notice | Free | Locked at signing |
| Pilot support | Paid | Community | High-touch · free Year 1 |
| Long-term commitment | Renew or churn | N/A | 3–5 year partnership |
Drag the slider to your studio's seat count. The numbers are based on Maya commercial at $1,785/seat/year and Kimiyaa's published ≤30% post-Year-1 ceiling. Year 1 is free, so the first-year savings = your full Maya bill.
The reason most "Maya replacement" pitches fail is they ask you to give up everything that worked. We don't.
Because Kimiyaa is Maya's UX on top of Blender's engine, "switching" is closer to installing software than learning it. Here's what an actual switch week looks like.
We don't think you should pay to find out whether this works. Run a real project on Kimiyaa for a year, with our team beside yours. If it doesn't earn the seat, you walk away — Maya licences still running, no invoice from us.
Blender is excellent, free, and improving fast. But your artists aren't trained in it. Your scripts aren't in it. Your clients haven't migrated to it. The switching cost — 2–3 months per artist — is the actual reason most studios stay on Maya. Kimiyaa is the bridge: Maya's UX so artists are productive day one, Blender's engine underneath so output is Blender-native by architecture.
It won't, because it doesn't have to change. Standard exchange formats (USD, FBX, Alembic) are first-class. .ma/.mb read natively. Your Houdini, Nuke, Substance, and render farm chain doesn't notice anything different upstream. If something specific to your pipeline doesn't translate, the pilot is structured to surface it in week 1, not month 12 — and Maya licences keep running in parallel as insurance.
Python — yes, your existing tools and pipeline scripts run with minimal to no changes. MEL — the most-used patterns are supported; we publish a compatibility matrix to your team during the pilot so there are no surprises. If you have a specific MEL-heavy tool, send it on the application; we'll tell you honestly before you start.
We've prioritised the rigging and grooming plugins our pilot studios use most. On the application, list your top 5 most-used plugins. We'll respond with which are supported today and which are on the next quarter's roadmap — before you commit to anything.
An individual Maya artist is productive in 0–2 days — often within hours of installing. A studio rolling Kimiyaa across the team typically does so over 2–4 weeks, project-by-project, with Maya running in parallel until the rollout is complete. No "big-bang" cutover required.
Capped at 30% of equivalent Autodesk Maya pricing — committed contractually at signing, not a launch discount. We don't surprise-hike like Autodesk does. Studios that sign a multi-year pilot extension lock that ceiling for the full term.
Yes. The optional AI tools deploy on your own hardware, behind your firewall. Client IP never leaves your network. There's a cloud option if you prefer it; the choice is yours per project. This is one of the two reasons NDA-bound studios start pilots.
You walk away. You haven't paid us. Your Maya licences kept running the whole time. The pilot is structured so the worst-case is "no change." That's the whole point of Year 1 being free.
Flow Studio is an AI motion-and-character tool inside the Autodesk ecosystem — you're still paying Autodesk's tax to use it. Kimiyaa is a full DCC alternative. Different category, different problem.
We're a young company. We don't have 30 years of edge cases in our QA. That's why Year 1 is free, support is high-touch, and your feedback shapes the product weekly. If a workflow doesn't translate cleanly, we want to know in week 1, not month 12.
A free year of full production access. Real shots, real artists, real deadlines. If it doesn't earn the seat, you walk away. Maya runs in parallel the whole time.