Factory IO is a great 3D factory visualisation tool — if you have Windows and already own a PLC IDE licence. If you do not, here is an honest look at what to use instead.
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Opening honesty
We have tried to be fair to Factory IO. Read the Factory IO side below before you form an opinion. In one sentence: Factory IO is the better tool if you want beautiful 3D factory commissioning and already own TIA Portal or Studio 5000. Ours is the better tool if you want to practise writing PLC code right now, on any device, without buying a vendor licence first.
Background
Factory IO is a 3D factory simulator from Real Games, a Portuguese studio that has been building industrial training software since the early 2010s. You drag factory components — conveyors, pushers, pneumatic cylinders, sensors, stackers, arms — into a 3D scene, then connect that scene to a real PLC program running elsewhere (TIA Portal, Studio 5000, Codesys SoftPLC, Do-more Designer) via OPC UA or Modbus TCP.
Pricing is a one-off purchase: roughly $29 for a Student licence, $190 for an Individual licence, and contact-for-quote for company site licences. It runs on Windows only. Factory IO does not include a PLC IDE — you bring your own, which means the sticker price is only a small part of the true cost.
Strengths
The 3D rendering is genuinely impressive — boxes fall, pushers nudge, arms stack. Watching your code drive a photoreal line is a different kind of feedback than any 2D simulator gives.
Hundreds of pre-built industrial parts: belts, gates, weighing scales, pick-and-place arms, label printers. You can build a realistic line in an hour.
The OPC UA / Modbus TCP bridge lets you run your real TIA Portal or Studio 5000 program against the 3D scene. If your day job uses one of those IDEs, Factory IO feels continuous with it.
Learner pain points
If you are on a Mac, Linux box, Chromebook, or any locked-down work device, Factory IO is a non-starter without a Windows VM and another Windows licence.
Factory IO is the scene, not the program editor. You pair it with TIA Portal, Studio 5000, Codesys, or similar — each of which is its own install, its own cost, and its own learning curve.
$190 for Factory IO plus roughly €1,200/yr for a TIA Portal Basic licence or $2,500/yr for Studio 5000 Standard is a lot of money to get to your first rung of ladder.
You get a box of 3D parts, not a scored syllabus. There is no auto-grader telling you whether your program actually solves the scenario — you decide by watching the line run.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Factory IO | Ours |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Windows only | Any modern browser (Mac, Linux, Chromebook, Windows) |
| Price | $29 Student / $190 Individual + vendor IDE licence | Free tier + Pro monthly subscription |
| Includes PLC IDE | No — bring your own | Yes — ladder, ST, FBD editor built in |
| Scored scenarios | No — you judge visually | Yes — 40 auto-graded scenarios |
| Dialects | Depends on the IDE you connect | IEC 61131-3, Allen-Bradley, Siemens |
| Install footprint | ~2 GB + vendor IDE 10–20 GB | Zero — runs in the browser |
| Visualisation | 3D photoreal | 2D machine diagram with animation |
| Interview-timer mode | No | Yes (Pro) |
| Portfolio PDF export | No | Yes (Pro) |
| Works on school-issued Chromebook | No | Yes |
Try it
Pushers, sensors, and a diverter — the classic Factory IO "Sorting by Height" feel.
View scenario →Fill, cap, and label with station-to-station interlocks and fault handling.
View scenario →Third options
Complementary use
Drill fundamentals with us — scored feedback, any OS, no install — and graduate to Factory IO on a Windows machine when you want the 3D commissioning feel and are already working in TIA Portal or Studio 5000. The two tools answer different questions and do not compete head-on for a serious learner's time.
No install. No credit card. Start a conveyor or palletizer scenario right now.
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