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Webots Review

Webots is an open-source, cross-platform robot simulator that provides a complete development environment for modeling, programming, and simulating robots.

shipped Jul 8, 2026freemium
Domain rating59Monthly visits2.6K/mo
Webots — product screenshot

Why it matters

1Webots R2025a, released on January 31, 2025, introduced the new W3D format and the Clearpath Heron USV robot model.
2The platform supports multiple programming languages including C, C++, Python, Java, and MATLAB, alongside ROS/ROS 2 integration.
3Webots is open-source under the Apache 2 license since December 2018, offering a freemium model with Premier Service tiers at CHF 500/year and CHF 2,500/year.
4It provides physically accurate and photo-realistic virtual environments, supporting various robot types from industrial arms to autonomous underwater vehicles.

Specs

GitHub

View Repository →

API Available

Yes, public API

overview

What is Webots?

Webots is an open-source, cross-platform robot simulator developed by Cyberbotics Ltd. that enables users to model, program, and simulate robots. It provides a comprehensive development environment used across industry, education, and research for various robotics applications. The simulator allows users to create virtual worlds with realistic physics properties such as mass, friction, and joints, supporting a wide array of robot types including wheeled, legged, flying, industrial arms, and autonomous underwater vehicles. These robots can be equipped with numerous sensors like lidars, cameras, GPS, and IMUs, and actuators such as servo motors and grippers. Webots continually evolves, with its latest stable release being Webots R2025a on January 31, 2025, which introduced the W3D format and enhanced Supervisor API improvements.

features

Key Features of Webots

Webots offers a robust set of features designed for comprehensive robot simulation and development, catering to both novice and professional users.

  • Open-source and cross-platform compatibility (Windows, Linux, macOS).
  • Complete development environment for modeling, programming, and simulating robots.
  • Vast asset library including pre-built robot models, sensors, actuators, objects, and materials.
  • Multi-language APIs supporting C, C++, Python, Java, MATLAB, and ROS.
  • Export simulations as movies, interactive HTML scenes, animations, or stream to web browsers.
  • Import capabilities for CAD models (Blender, URDF) and OpenStreetMap maps.
  • Modern GUI (Qt) for intuitive editing of simulations and robot controllers.
  • Support for simulating diverse robot types, including industrial arms, automobiles, drones, and legged robots.
  • Integration with ROS/ROS 2, with strong encouragement for transition to ROS 2 Jazzy Jalisco.
  • Multiple physics engines, including an ODE fork, for realistic physical interactions.

use cases

Who Should Use Webots?

Webots is utilized across various sectors due to its versatility and comprehensive simulation capabilities, making it suitable for a range of users and applications.

  • Educators and Students: For teaching robotics, programming contests, and introductory robotics courses due to its user-friendly interface and extensive documentation.
  • Researchers: For developing, testing, and validating AI and control algorithms, including machine learning, neural networks, swarm intelligence, and multi-agent systems.
  • Industry Professionals: For rapid prototyping, testing, and validation of robot prototypes and behaviors in a virtual environment before physical deployment, including simulating production plants and assembly lines.
  • Developers: For creating diverse simulations for automobiles, drones, and human-robot interaction studies, leveraging its broad API support and asset library.

how to use

How to Use Webots

Getting started with Webots involves downloading the software, setting up a simulation environment, and programming robot controllers. The platform is designed for ease of use, facilitating quicker setup and initial development.

  • 1Download and install the Webots software for Windows, Linux, or macOS from the official Cyberbotics website.
  • 2Launch the Webots GUI and create a new simulation world or load an existing example from the asset library.
  • 3Add robot models, sensors (e.g., cameras, lidars), and actuators (e.g., motors, grippers) to the virtual environment.
  • 4Develop robot controllers using supported programming languages (C, C++, Python, Java, MATLAB) or integrate with ROS/ROS 2.
  • 5Run the simulation to observe robot behavior, test algorithms, and collect data in a physically accurate virtual setting.
  • 6Utilize the Supervisor API for advanced introspection and manipulation of simulation parameters and robot states.

pricing

Webots Pricing & Plans

Webots operates on a freemium model, offering its core software as open-source under the Apache 2 license. For users requiring dedicated support and additional services, Cyberbotics Ltd. provides Premier Service plans.

  • Free Tier: The core Webots software is open-source and free to download and use, providing full simulation capabilities without licensing costs.
  • Webots Premier Service Standard: CHF 500 per year, which includes user support via e-mail or Discord.
  • Webots Premier Service Deluxe: CHF 2,500 per year, offering user support via e-mail or Discord, plus 12 hours of dedicated services to optimize Webots usage.

Pros

  • +Open-source under Apache 2 license since December 2018, allowing free usage without licensing costs.
  • +User-friendly interface and comprehensive documentation, making it accessible for beginners and educational environments.
  • +Good performance with fewer computational resources compared to some other physics simulators.
  • +Multi-language support for robot controllers in C, C++, Python, Java, MATLAB, and ROS, offering development flexibility.
  • +Provides physically accurate and photo-realistic virtual environments for diverse robot types.
  • +Guaranteed backward compatibility between major versions, ensuring project longevity.

Cons

  • −Documentation can be less detailed for complex topics beyond simple examples.
  • −Community support might not be as robust as desired for highly specific or complex issues.
  • −Absence of an integrated debugger can complicate development for compiled languages.
  • −ROS 1 Noetic support is being deprecated, requiring users to transition to ROS 2 for continued support.

Similar Tools

Webots vs Competitors

Webots holds a distinct position in the robot simulation market, often compared to other prominent platforms like Gazebo, CoppeliaSim, NVIDIA Isaac Sim, and MuJoCo, each with unique strengths.

1
GazeboOn Stork

Gazebo is the most popular open-source robot simulation platform, widely used in research and education, known for its tight integration with ROS/ROS 2.

Like Webots, Gazebo is open-source and cross-platform, offering robust physics simulation and sensor models. While Webots is often praised for its user-friendliness and educational focus, Gazebo is considered the standard for ROS-integrated applications and large-scale simulations, especially for complex systems.

2
CoppeliaSimOn Stork

CoppeliaSim is a versatile and scalable robot simulation platform known for its distributed control architecture and extensive API support across multiple programming languages.

CoppeliaSim, like Webots, is cross-platform and offers a comprehensive environment for modeling and simulating robots. It provides more physics engines than Webots and a unique approach with integrated scripting capabilities, making it highly flexible for various research and industrial applications. It offers a free educational license, similar to Webots' freemium model.

3
NVIDIA Isaac Sim↗

NVIDIA Isaac Sim is a high-fidelity simulation tool built on NVIDIA Omniverse, specifically designed for AI-powered robotics with photorealistic rendering, GPU acceleration, and synthetic data generation.

Isaac Sim offers superior visual quality and advanced physics simulation using NVIDIA's PhysX engine, making it ideal for training AI perception systems and creating digital twins, which generally requires more GPU resources than Webots. While Webots is open-source and freemium, Isaac Sim is free for individuals and educational use, with enterprise licensing available.

4
MuJoCoOn Stork

MuJoCo is a high-performance physics engine specifically designed for accurate robotic dynamics, particularly influential in robotics research and reinforcement learning.

MuJoCo, now open-sourced by Google DeepMind, focuses primarily on physics simulation for complex robotic interactions, offering superior accuracy for contact dynamics and joint modeling compared to the general-purpose physics engines in Webots. While Webots provides a complete development environment with a GUI, MuJoCo is more of a physics engine and library, often integrated with other frameworks for visualization and control, making it less of a direct 'all-in-one' environment like Webots.

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