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A free alternative to BioRender
BioDiorama is a free alternative to BioRender for journal figures, graphical abstracts, conference posters and slides. It runs in a web browser with no installation and no account, it has 27,200 ready-made 3D biology and chemistry models, about 13,000 science icons, about 500 ready-made biology diagrams and about 320 templates, and where BioRender draws with flat icons BioDiorama's models are real 3D objects you can turn to any angle, recolour and cut open. Figures export as editable PowerPoint (.pptx), layered SVG, 3D models (.glb), PDF, and TIFF or PNG up to 600 dpi, so nothing you make is locked in. Your work stays in your own browser — nothing is uploaded.
Open BioDiorama See the 27,200 models
At a glance
| BioDiorama | BioRender | |
|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Free. No account, no plan, no watermark. | A subscription, with a limited free plan — see BioRender’s own pricing page for what each plan allows. |
| Where it runs | Any recent browser with WebGL, on a computer or tablet. | In the browser. |
| The artwork | 27,200 three-dimensional models you turn, light, recolour and cut open, plus about 13,000 flat science icons and about 500 ready-made diagrams. | A large library of flat illustrated icons and templates, drawn by its artists. |
| Real structures | Proteins from the Protein Data Bank and AlphaFold, molecules from PubChem by name, human anatomy from BodyParts3D and the Human Reference Atlas — loaded as real structures, not drawings of them. | Illustrated icons rather than structural data. |
| Export | Editable PowerPoint (.pptx), layered SVG, 3D models (.glb), PDF, and TIFF or PNG up to 600 dpi, plus MP4 and GIF. | Depends on the plan — check BioRender’s export and licence terms. |
| Publishing | Everything BioDiorama draws is free to use in papers, theses, posters and teaching, with no credit required. Items built from open data carry their credit line, listed for you under File › Figure credits. | Set by BioRender’s own licence and plan terms. |
| Working together | No accounts, so no shared team folders or version history — you share the figure file (.biofig), the PowerPoint or the SVG. | Team accounts, shared folders and sharing links. |
| Privacy | Figures are saved in your own browser and never uploaded. Background removal and photo-to-icon run on your computer. | Figures live in its cloud account. |
What you get by switching
- Nothing to pay and nothing to sign up for, so a student, a lab without a budget and a reviewer-deadline figure are all the same case.
- A graphical abstract made of real 3D structures — a receptor at the angle you want, an organ cut open, a culture plate seen from above — rather than the same flat icon everyone else is using.
- Journal-ready output: TIFF or PNG up to 600 dpi, PDF, and layered SVG and PowerPoint where every arrow, label and picture stays a separate object you can still edit.
- Poster templates in the usual conference sizes (A0, 36 × 48 in, 48 × 36 in and more), and 16:9 slide pages.
- Credits are handled for you: File › Figure credits lists the exact lines your legend needs, colour-coded by how strict the licence is.
- Your figures are not held behind a renewal — they are files on your own computer.
Where BioRender is still the better tool
Said plainly, because picking the wrong tool wastes more time than any figure saves.
- No cloud account, so no shared team library, no comments on a figure and no syncing between your laptop and the lab computer. You pass the file around instead.
- No institutional licence, purchase order or support contract — this is an independent project, not a company.
- Large 3D scenes want a reasonably recent computer; a very old laptop will feel it.
- Some specialties are still being filled in. Requests for models, icons and diagrams are welcome and usually get built.
Moving a figure across
- Open biodiorama.com. There is nothing to install and nothing to sign up for.
- In the 3D Studio, type what you need in the Library search — "mitochondrion", "IgG", "mouse", "96-well plate" — and click it to drop it into the scene.
- Turn it to the angle you want, open the settings panel on the right to recolour it or change what it shows, and send the view to the 2D Studio.
- In the 2D Studio, lay out the panels: panel letters, arrows, labels, charts and text, or start from a template.
- Export: TIFF or PNG for the journal, PowerPoint or SVG if you or a co-author want to keep editing, and open File › Figure credits before you submit.
Questions people ask
What is the best free alternative to BioRender?
BioDiorama (biodiorama.com) is a free one built for the same job: journal figures, graphical abstracts, posters and slides, with 27,200 ready-made 3D biology and chemistry models, about 13,000 science icons, about 500 ready-made biology diagrams and about 320 templates and no account. Other free routes are Inkscape with an open icon set such as Servier Medical Art or NIH BioArt, and a general design tool such as Canva, but neither comes with ready-made scientific artwork you can pose in 3D.
Is BioDiorama really free, or is there a paid tier?
It is free. There is no account, no plan, no watermark and no export limit. Everything the library draws itself may be used in papers, theses, posters, slides, grant applications and teaching.
Can I publish a BioDiorama figure in a journal?
Yes. Export a TIFF or PNG at up to 600 dpi, or a PDF. Items BioDiorama draws need no credit; items built from open data (BodyParts3D, AlphaFold, the Human Reference Atlas and CC BY reference images) need the credit line that File › Figure credits gives you, and the same panel flags any share-alike item so you can swap it if your journal cannot take one.
Can I open a BioRender figure in BioDiorama?
Not directly. Export your figure from BioRender as PNG, PDF or PowerPoint; BioDiorama opens PowerPoint files and images, so you can bring the old panel in and rebuild the parts you want in 3D.
Does BioDiorama do 3D, or is it flat icons like most figure tools?
Both. The 3D Studio is a real 3D editor — you pose, light and cut open models, and can go as deep as moving single points — and the 2D Studio is a page editor where flat icons, arrows and text are laid out for the page.
Is BioDiorama affiliated with BioRender?
No. BioDiorama is an independent project. BioRender is a trademark of its owner and is named here only to describe what people are comparing.
Other comparisons
BioRender is a trademark of its owner. BioDiorama is an independent project, is not affiliated with or endorsed by it, and nothing here is a quotation of its terms: plans, prices and features change, so check BioRender’s own site before you decide.