--- title: PLAXIS 2D Reviews meta_title: 'PLAXIS 2D Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta_description: Filter 12 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how PLAXIS 2D works for a business like yours. aggregate_rating: rating_value: 4.5 review_count: 12 scale: '5' date_modified: '2026-05-05' parent_category: name: Oil and Gas url: https://www.g2.com/categories/oil-and-gas --- # PLAXIS 2D Reviews **Vendor:** Bentley Systems **Category:** [Geology and Seismic Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/geology-and-seismic) **Average Rating:** 4.5/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 12 ## About PLAXIS 2D PLAXIS 2D is a powerful and user-friendly finite-element package intended for 2D analysis of deformation and stability in geotechnical engineering and rock mechanics. PLAXIS is used worldwide by top engineering companies and institutions in the civil and geotechnical engineering industry. Applications range from excavations, embankments, and foundations to tunneling, mining, and reservoir geomechanics. PLAXIS is equipped with a broad range of advanced features to model a diverse range of geotechnical problems, all from within a single integrated software package. Simulate various soil and rock behaviour such as: dynamics for loading modeling, PlaxFlow for time-dependent groundwater analysis, and Thermal for analysis of heat flow on the hydraulic and mechanical behaviour of soil. Efficiently create models with a logical geotechnical workflow. Define everything from complex soil profiles or geological cross-sections to structural elements, such as piles, anchors, geotextiles, and prescribed loads and displacements. Import geometry and automatically mesh to create a finite element mesh almost immediately. Bentley’s geotechnical applications are backed by world-class expertise and used worldwide to support producing safer structures and environments for all. Strengthen your solutions with the digital workflows and trusted computation of PLAXIS. ## PLAXIS 2D Reviews ### 1. its good **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 22, 2023 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** Plaxis 2D is a widely used finite element analysis software designed for geotechnical engineering and soil-structure interaction analyses. It allows engineers and researchers to simulate and analyze various geotechnical problems in two-dimensional space.Geotechnical Applications **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** Updates and Support: The availability of updates and technical support could vary, and some users have expressed concerns about the responsiveness of the software provider to addressing issues or providing timely updatesLicense Cost: Like many specialized software tools, PLAXIS 2D comes with a licensing cost. Depending on the user's budget or project requirements, this could be a point of concern. **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** The capabilities of Plaxis 2D in solving seismic-related problems offer several benefits to geotechnical engineers and researchersImproved Safety: Engineers can assess the safety of structures and geotechnical systems under seismic loading conditions, enabling them to design structures that can withstand earthquakes and ensure public safety.Optimized Design: Seismic analysis helps engineers optimize the design of foundations, retaining walls, and other geotechnical elements by accounting for the dynamic behavior of soils and structures.Risk Mitigation: By identifying potential hazards such as liquefaction and slope instability, engineers can implement appropriate mitigation strategies to reduce the risks associated with seismic events.Accurate Predictions: Plaxis 2D's simulation capabilities provide more accurate predictions of soil and structural behavior during seismic events, leading to more reliable engineering decisions.Innovative Solutions: Engineers can explore innovative ground improvement techniques and design strategies to enhance the seismic performance of structures and mitigate potential damages. ### 2. Highly useful for Geotechnical Analysis **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Aryan G. | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 28, 2023 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** Working with PLAXIS brings me great pleasure! This software is incredibly intuitive and has the capability to replicate a wide range of challenges encountered in Geotechnical Engineering. **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** The software is overall excellent. One thing I am dissatisfied with the material properties determined through test results due to lack of clarity regarding the test procedure, standards and units. **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** PLAXIS 2D has made geotechnical analysis quite easy. It provides a feature to simulate and analyse the stability of slopes, embankments and excavations. This has helped me greatly by reducing slope failures. ### 3. Reliable and powerful software to perform geotechnical analysis **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Shishir P. | Geotechnical Engineer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 03, 2022 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** Plaxis has the most advanced and at the same time easy-to-use interface. The GUI has a lot of respectable features that other software offer. The software technical manual is very detail-oriented and the user can understand what's going on with the software. Many research papers and examples are also available on the internet. **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** Some drafting tools are less compared with other software like midas.Result window is little confusing at times. **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Hardening Soil Model, Tunnel, Soft, and hard rock slope stability, D-wall Design,Liquefaction and earthquake modelling ### 4. Good for analyzing, and simulating various geotechnical problems in 2D **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Manikishore S. | Senior Software Engineer I, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 27, 2023 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** Plaxis 2D provides a user-friendly interface that allows engineers and geotechnical professionals to easily create, modify, and visualize complex 2D geotechnical models. The software offers a range of modeling options, including soil, rock, and structural elements. **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** it's complex for beginners to understand **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** i liked foundation design, retaining wall analysis and earthquake engineering ### 5. Plaxis effectiveness in Geotechnical Analyses **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 11, 2021 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** I really enjoy working with PLAXIS. It is a user-friendly software that could almost simulate any problems involved in Geotechnical Engineering. Furthermore, the inclusion of Python programming is a beneficial ability that can help designers with more complex modeling. **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** I think the visualization module (output module) can be more improved to ease the use. **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** So far I solve these problems in my works by Plaxis: _ Embankment analyses in steady state and transient state flow condition _ retaining wall design including nailed walls, secant pile walls , .... the most striking feature that I can mention about PLAXIS is its use of application and wide variety of constitutive models and also structural elements, especially the embedded row beams that i benefited from in my models ### 6. It is helpful in most of Geotech problems, but not all of them **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** February 22, 2022 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** For me, negative pore water pressure is very helpful. I like the template soil parameters, but you should be really careful about the numbers and units. In the design part, I like the engineering way of thinking in providing stress and strain curves. **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** I don't like the material properties by test results since it is not very clear about the test procedure and standards and units. I don't like the graphical interface. especially when you want to zoom into a specific region. **Recommendations to others considering PLAXIS 2D:** Use the app very wisely. Read the documentation and consider the assumptions. Be careful with the units. **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Slope stability, sheet pile design anchor design tunnel design soil and rock excavation design piles and foundation design in unsaturated soils dam stability design and evaluation ### 7. PLAXIS CONNECT EDITION review **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** GONZALO G. | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 12, 2021 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** Plaxis is a powerful tool for assessing and calculating geotechnical problems. With this tool you can modelize step-by-step calculations considering all phases of construction. The soil models included are capable enough to represent the soil behaviour, specially the soil model Hardening-soil (H-S) and Cam-Clay. **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** With the last version (Connect Edition) some features (specially Python scripts, macros, etc) have moved from standard license to premium ones, known as GSE (Geothechnical Select Entitlement). These features are not new and have been on standard license for years. This has happened once Plaxis company was bought by Bentley. **Recommendations to others considering PLAXIS 2D:** Plaxis is a must regarding 2D geotechnical solving problems. It's a tool for assessing any geotechnical problem, maybe not the best for designing the solution but for checking tha everything works. **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** All kind of problems related to geotechnical problems. The benefits from using Plaxis is a deep knowledge of the behaviour of the soil regarding all the involved factors. ### 8. Plaxis 2D user review **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** FUNG H. | Senior Engineer, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** January 15, 2021 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** comprehensive and in depth uses for this program **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** take a prolonged learning curve to master **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** consolidation, ground movement, seepage flow related ### 9. Drawbacks in drain modeling **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 27, 2021 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** The software is very user-friendly. It has multiple options to assign the same command which is quite impressive **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** It has limited options in vertical drain modeling as there is no such option to take into account the physical and hydraulic properties of the drain in the calculation **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Stability Analysis, Settlement Analysis, Pile Design, Site Response, and Liquefaction Analysis ### 10. Fast, reliable and easy to use **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Enterprise (> 1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** July 19, 2021 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** The graphic user interface is really good and practical **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** Importing models from cad software might be challenging sometimes **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Deep excavations support system, ground improvements and dynamic analysis ### 11. Amazing FEM tool **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Civil Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 18, 2020 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** the software is presented with very easy access windows and is very intuitive **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** results windows sometimes can make you fell a bit confused **Recommendations to others considering PLAXIS 2D:** it seems a complex program but once you use it is easy **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** geotechnical problems like piles, embankments settlement, slope stability ### 12. Plaxis 2D is a great tool for geotechnical modelling. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Oil & Energy | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 28, 2020 **What do you like best about PLAXIS 2D?** easiness to use the software and the range of solutions it offers **What do you dislike about PLAXIS 2D?** the product price is a litte bit high compared to other similar software. **What problems is PLAXIS 2D solving and how is that benefiting you?** Modelling jackup spudcan penetration. the benefit is the visualization. ## PLAXIS 2D Discussions - [What is PLAXIS 2D and 3D?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-plaxis-2d-and-3d) - [What is the function of PLAXIS?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-the-function-of-plaxis) - [How does PLAXIS 2D work?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/how-does-plaxis-2d-work) - [View PLAXIS 2D pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/plaxis-2d/reviews?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-06-24+15%3A43%3A25+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=3551ca2f-0ee9-42dc-9f99-e3aaad012ae6&secure%5Btoken%5D=5c96704a227c5aba7ff32ea9f91923cc4f657f42a95c09a76ba13a63da48cd8b&format=llm_user) ## PLAXIS 2D Features **Agentic AI - Geology and Seismic** - Multi-step Planning - Cross-system Integration - Adaptive Learning - Decision Making ## Top PLAXIS 2D Alternatives - [Surfer](https://www.g2.com/products/surfer/reviews) - 4.6/5.0 (124 reviews) - [Leapfrog Geo](https://www.g2.com/products/leapfrog-geo/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (54 reviews) - [GEOVIA Surpac](https://www.g2.com/products/geovia-surpac/reviews) - 4.5/5.0 (22 reviews)