--- title: GNU Octave Reviews meta\_title: 'GNU Octave Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta\_description: Filter 55 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how GNU Octave works for a business like yours. aggregate\_rating: rating\_value: 4.2 review\_count: 55 scale: '5' date\_modified: '2026-08-07' parent\_category: name: CAD & PLM url: https://www.g2.com/categories/cad-plm --- # GNU Octave Reviews & Product Details GNU Octave is an open-source mathematical modeling and simulation software very similar to using the same language as Matlab and Freemat. * * * Seller [FreeCAD](https://www.g2.com/sellers/freecad) Discussions [GNU Octave Community](https://www.g2.com/products/gnu-octave/discuss) Solution Type Best-of-Breed Show More ## Value at a Glance Averages based on real user reviews. ### Perceived Cost $$$$$ [ View More Pricing Information ](https://www.g2.com/products/gnu-octave/pricing) ## Top-Rated Alternatives [ ![Scilab](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Scilab") Scilab 4.5/5(64) ](https://www.g2.com/products/scilab/reviews) [ ![MATLAB](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "MATLAB") MATLAB 4.5/5(771) ](https://www.g2.com/products/matlab/reviews) [ ![Posit Team](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Posit Team") Posit Team 4.5/5(575) ](https://www.g2.com/products/posit-team/reviews) [ View All Alternatives ](https://www.g2.com/products/gnu-octave/competitors/alternatives) ## User Insights Average based on 55 real user reviews. Perceived Cost $$$$$ [Log in to unlock pricing and user insights](/login) ![Chummi C.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Chummi C.") CC Chummi C. Google Analytics Consultant Contractor Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 3/21/2021 "The most intuitive mathematically optimized language just doesnt quite hit it" 3/5 What do you like best about GNU Octave? Linear algebra is a complete breeze with the language's vanilla syntax. Compared to more modernly popular languages used for Data Science such as Python , GNU Octave allows you to run tensor algebra operations using only built-in functions without having to import any 3rd party packages or modules. Despite Numpy being the standard and most commonly used library for linear algebra, I would honestly say that I still believe that even Numpy could learn a thing or two about the ease of use of Octave's mathematical syntaxes. The fact that one could implement complex matrix-vector operations in GNU Octave with mostly only built-in operators and rarely having to call functions proves just how well-optimized the language is for mathematical purposes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about GNU Octave? Despite the language's well-optimized math functions, everything else just feels a bit too clunky and complicated for a high-level language. For instance, building functions and calling those functions Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave: Use it primarily for practicing building machine learning models from scratch to test your knowledge of the underlying algorithms and mathematical concepts but stick to Python along with frameworks such as Tensorflow 2.0, Pytorch, or Sci-kit learn when it comes to building bigger and more complex models. If you've been using Python or R for most of your previous projects, I'd say stick with those even for practicing and prototyping as learning GNU Octave syntax, though relatively easy to pick-up, might lead to unwanted syntax mixing when switching between the languages. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you? Coding machine learning programs from scratch. Octave's inclination towards linear algebra allows you to create the building block functions of machine learning applications in only few lines of code. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Raghuvar P.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Raghuvar P.") RP Raghuvar P. Big Data Developer & AWS Certified Solution Architect Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 6/1/2019 "Free, simple and fast language for Numerical Computation and Visualisation" 3/5 What do you like best about GNU Octave? One thing I like about the Octave is it is free and very fast. To learn GNU Octave is really easy, the learning curve is small. The graphs and visualisations they provide are really clean and looks beautiful. The Numerical calculations such as Matrix multiplication, Eigen values calculations, SVD etc etc are very much faster. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about GNU Octave? Although this is free, there are some things which are not available in Octave. Also, in the market there are many good open source libraries available who does the same thing. I have given 6 ratings because of the same reason. It is good language but not the best. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering GNU Octave: As I told you there are better libraries than GNU. One of them is Numpy which is also faster and easy to learn. By no doubt Octave is a good language to learn but there are use cases also. If you want to use Machine leaning models then I will suggest Numpy but if you are planning for the pure research base area where graphs and performance and numerical computation matter go with Octave. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you? I use GNU octave in Computer graphics. Because of the fact that it is very good at visualisation. I used to work on GNU Octave extensively in my college days. GNU Octave also faster in Numerical computation, which makes it efficient also. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Accounting](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Accounting") AA Verified User in Accounting Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 7/13/2018 "Me" 3/5 What do you like best about GNU Octave? Efficiency Of the product makes it super Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about GNU Octave? Nothing that I dislike about that Product Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is GNU Octave solving and how is that benefiting you? Mostly adminstrative Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ##### Pricing Pricing details for this product isn’t currently available. Visit the vendor’s website to learn more. [ View More Pricing Information ](https://www.g2.com/products/gnu-octave/pricing) GNU Octave Comparisons ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_6e50bdab7bc21f5fa01a7bd2ca7f33da/scilab.jpg "Product Avatar Image") Scilab 4.5/5(64) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/gnu-octave-vs-scilab) ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_d5738f5e7922b4552c3ba543a2b9dee6/simulink.jpeg "Product Avatar Image") Simulink 4.2/5(99) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/gnu-octave-vs-simulink) ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_93069aaa0117df1dedfd067464584e06/mathematica.png "Product Avatar Image") Mathematica 4.1/5(86) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/gnu-octave-vs-mathematica) ##### ##### GNU Octave Features Administration Quality Control Data Sampling Collaboration Capabilities Data Visualization Survival Analysis Risk Data Attributes Methodology ANOVA Support Regression Time Series Analysis Design Drawing Tools [ View More Features ](https://www.g2.com/products/gnu-octave/features) ## Work at FreeCAD? 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