Meshory vs Modelist
Compared with Modelist, Meshory keeps tags and notes through cross-drive moves, groups duplicates by geometry, finds models by meaning and has no file cap.
Modelist is the competitor most like Meshory on paper: a local-first desktop app (macOS, Windows, Linux) by a solo developer in Slovenia that indexes the files you already have, renders thumbnails automatically, handles archives without extracting them, and sells a one-time license after a free tier that stops at 100 files. It adds nested and smart collections, a phone-to-desktop share inbox, and a printers-and-materials library.
Since the philosophies match, the choice comes down to what happens once the library grows: whether your tagging survives reorganizing, whether duplicates are matched by the mesh, whether you can search by meaning, and how fast a model gets to your slicer.
All Modelist facts verified against modelist.app as of September 28, 2026.
The short version.
| Feature | Meshory | Modelist |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | macOS, Windows, Linux | macOS (Intel + Apple Silicon), Windows x64, Linux x64 |
| Scans files in place | Yes: watches your folders; files are never moved or uploaded | Yes: watched folders, synced at launch and during use (no live watchers) |
| Thumbnails | Automatic: a background worker pool renders STL, 3MF, OBJ, FBX, GLB, PLY, STEP, Rhino 3DM and Lychee LYS (experimental); Fusion F3D/F3Z cards show the picture Fusion saved | Automatic, plus embedded 3MF thumbnails |
| 3D viewer | STL, 3MF, OBJ, FBX, GLB, PLY, STEP/STP and Rhino 3DM (saved render meshes) in 3D, including multi-plate Bambu 3MF projects, along with Fusion F3D/F3Z designs and Lychee LYS scenes (experimental); plus 2D previews for DXF (vector), DWG (embedded preview picture) and SVG, xTool and LightBurn laser files | STL, 3MF and OBJ (plus .scad via OpenSCAD); STEP indexed, not listed as rendered |
| ZIP / archive handling | Browse inside ZIP, RAR, 7Z and TAR/TGZ archives and preview models without extracting | ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, TAR.GZ and TAR.BZ2 indexed without extraction |
| Bundled photos & PDFs | Photos viewed inline, PDFs in an embedded viewer, Markdown opened formatted and text files as cards, inside archives too; videos play in the app once you turn on video indexing | Custom thumbnails, source images and 3MF assembly guides; no general photo or document attachments |
| Collections & favorites | Collections, tags & favorites on top of your folders | Nested + smart collections, ratings; no favorites flag |
| Per-model notes | Free-text notes on every model | Yes: searchable freeform notes |
| Duplicate finder | Exact, geometry-aware and whole-folder matching (archives and NAS included), plus a review queue for near-copies | Exact, name+size, a visual hash of the rendered preview, and whole archives; no mesh comparison |
| AI tagging & search | AI tags and descriptions with your own OpenRouter, OpenAI, Anthropic or Google Gemini key, a local Ollama model, or Codex CLI on a ChatGPT plan; semantic search through OpenRouter | None |
| Slicer hand-off | 16+ slicers auto-detected, one click from library to slicer | OS “Open With” + custom commands per file |
| Print & filament tracking | Print queue: lists of what to print, a planning board per printer, prints marked printed or failed with a Made history on every model, slicer time and filament added up per list, PDF and CSV checklists; filament library (brand, material, color) per model; no printer connection needed | A user-defined status flag (“To Print”, “Review”, “In progress”) with Smart Collections as a manual to-print list; printers & materials library you can filter models against, with printer, material and weight read from sliced 3MFs; no print log or printer link |
| NAS / network drives | Indexed and browsable immediately; duplicate analysis is a separate pass you start | Network drives supported, but cross-drive moves lose tags and notes |
| Account required | No account: a license key, nothing else | None |
| Open source | No | No |
| Maturity | Indexes a 118,270-model library over a NAS in about 90 seconds | v1.12.1 (Sep 2026), solo developer |
The differences that matter.
What happens when you reorganize your drives
Modelist's own help notes that moving files between drives looks like a delete plus re-add, so tags, notes and metadata are lost (same-drive moves are safe). Moving or renaming a watched folder means removing and re-adding it, and keeping metadata through that is still listed as work in progress. It also avoids live filesystem watchers, syncing at launch and during use instead. Meshory tracks models by content fingerprint, so tags, notes and thumbnails follow the file through renames, reorganizing and drive moves, and local folders are watched live.
Duplicates: the mesh itself, not its preview
Modelist compares bytes, names and sizes, and a visual hash of each rendered preview, and flags whole archives downloaded twice; on very large libraries its help says results are capped per category. None of its methods compares the mesh. Meshory runs a tiered pipeline: exact content matching (archive interiors and NAS included), geometry matching that groups the same mesh saved as different files, and a review-only “likely duplicates” queue for moved, rotated, rescaled or re-tessellated copies. Bulk cleanup only ever operates on the certain tiers, so a group you clean up really is the same model.
Search: text fields versus meaning
Modelist has solid full-text search with filters, fuzzy matching and smart collections, but no AI. Meshory adds AI tagging, on your own key or a local Ollama model, and semantic search through OpenRouter: every model gets generated tags and a description, so you can find “low-poly planter” even if the file is called output_v3_final.stl.
Slicer workflow
Modelist is slicer-agnostic through the OS “Open With” menu, with remembered choices and custom commands. Meshory auto-detects 16+ installed slicers (Bambu Studio, Flash Studio, Orca, Prusa, Cura, Lychee and more, resin included) and hands off in one click without configuration.
Printers: a filter versus a plan
Modelist lists your printers and materials, filters the library by them, reads printer, material and weight from sliced 3MFs, and lets you flag files with a status such as To Print. Meshory turns that into a plan: its Print queue keeps a list for each market or gift run and a board with a lane per printer, where each plate is planned and flagged if it won't fit the bed. It adds up time and filament for what is left, from the slicer or an OrcaSlicer estimate, exports a PDF or CSV checklist, and builds a Made history on every model as prints are marked printed or failed.
Meshory's side of these claims is documented, not asserted: how duplicate detection works, and which formats get thumbnails, a viewer and duplicate matching.
Choose Meshory if…
- You reorganize drives and need metadata to survive cross-drive moves
- You want AI tagging and semantic search on top of filename search
- You want auto-detected one-click slicer hand-off
- You want a print plan with a board per printer and time and filament totals, not only a To Print flag
- Your library is heading past 100,000 models, across drives and a NAS
Choose Modelist if…
- You want to catalogue your printers and materials and filter the library down to what you can actually print today
- You send models from your phone to your desktop often; the share inbox is neat
- Your archives include TAR.BZ2 specifically: Modelist indexes that too, where Meshory covers ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR and TAR.GZ/TGZ
Meshory vs Modelist: common questions
What does Meshory add over Modelist?
Tags, notes and thumbnails that follow a file through cross-drive moves, a tiered duplicate pipeline that matches the mesh itself and reaches inside archives and NAS mounts, AI tagging on your own key or a local Ollama model with semantic search through OpenRouter, a Print queue that plans each plate on a board per printer, 16+ auto-detected slicers, and no file cap. Meshory is a $34.99 one-time license with every update through version 1 included, and one key activates up to 5 computers at a time.
Which finds duplicates better?
Meshory, because it compares the model rather than the file: exact content hashes (inside archives too), geometry hashes that catch the same mesh saved as a different file, and a review-only likely-duplicates tier for moved, rotated, rescaled or re-tessellated copies. Modelist matches bytes, name and size, and a visual hash of the rendered preview. Bulk actions in Meshory only ever touch the certain tiers, so every group you clean up is a true duplicate.
Do both handle ZIP archives?
Yes. Meshory treats ZIP, RAR, 7Z and TAR/TGZ archives as browsable folders: preview each model inside and open one straight in the viewer or your slicer without unpacking the bundle. Modelist indexes ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, TAR.GZ and TAR.BZ2 archives without extraction, within configurable size caps.
Is either one open source?
No, both are proprietary desktop apps with one-time licenses. Modelist publishes releases through GitHub but keeps its source private. Meshory is closed source, and its macOS build is signed and notarized.
Or skip the reading and scan your own library.
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