Opinion: Fusion 360 Licensing & Extensions

I think of it like this: Autodesk will keep Fusion 360 a pretty low barrier to entry with a free hobbyist license, startup, education, and then the cost at $495/year is like a few order of magnitudes under the big CAD/CAM competition.

When professionals need more advanced features, they are offering those things at an added fee with the extensions.

Personally, I think this is smart and serves the range of users well so that the entry-level user doesn't have to "pay" for the advanced features without needing them.

If you can imagine the added cost per month added to the Fusion 360 license of $41 + MNF Extension and now Advanced Nesting you'd be somewhere near $200-300 per month for a "license of Fusion" without keeping them separate.

That cost is very worth it to a production CNC shop but not for a user that needs a basic paid Fusion license.