6 powerful render farms for Redshift

In this article, VFXRendering will reviews and introduces you to 6 powerful render farms for Redshift. We will see if the render farms support Redshift fully with the latest version, and with all 3D software that Redshift supports like Cinema 4D, Houdini, Maya, 3ds max, Blender, Katana, Vectorworks and Archicad.

Redshift was first created by Redshift Rendering Technologies by 3 authors Nicolas Burtnyk, Panagiotis Zompolas, Rob Slater in 2014.  In 2019, Maxon – the developer of Cinema 4D, acquired Redshift. During these years, it has proven to be one of the best GPU-accelerated renderers on the market and continues to become a choice for many creative individuals and studios of every size. You can use Redshift on Windows, macOS or Linux operating systems.

Why use render farms for Redshift?

Render farm is a group of networked computers, used for rendering images, and animations. There are two types of render farms – SaaS and IaaS. We have introduced them to you in our series of overviews of render farms.

Redshift is a 3D renderer with GPU acceleration, so the more GPU you have or the stronger GPU you have, the faster you can render. However, it’s not easy and very costly now to own a rig like that. Moreover, extra fees to run a rig could be expensive with costs for electricity, cooling, maintenance, etc. Therefore, render farms exist to help you access high-performance computer systems and render your jobs at a much faster speed.

6 powerful render farms for Redshift in 2024

This list is not a ranking. We only introduce them in alphabet order. We will try to list the version of Redshift they support, the 3D software and other plugins you can use, and some advantages and disadvantages.

iRender

iRender is a render farm from Vietnam, established in 2019. It’s kind of new and still needs some more time for recognition of big names in the industry. However, its approach and development are really impressive. 

The platform of iRender is IaaS, which means you can control and use their remote servers as your computer. Therefore, you can install any version of Redshift (which runs on Windows 10 or Linux …) and any 3D software. 

• Hardware: RTX3090/RTX 4090 GPU and AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 3955WX CPU
• Pricing: pricing starts at $5.76/hour/node to $42/hour/node. 50% bonus for students and educational purposes.
• Redshift support: 

Redshift version	3D software
2.6 3.0 3.5	Cinema 4D Houdini Maya 3ds max Blender Katana Vectorworks  Archicad

Note: 

• Support all 3D software for Redshift
• Support Linux remote server
• No macOS remote server. You will need to use your macOS to connect to their Windows or Linux OS remote server for using
• Need to install your app and transfer your license to their servers. However, they provide their Redshift license for free to prime users.

See more: What is SaaS & IaaS render farm?

Fox Renderfarm

Fox Renderfarm is from China, established in 2009. It’s a well-known render farm which is the choice of many 3D artists and is the service for many hits and blockbusters. The approach is still SaaS, but you will proceed with the render on their website. 

• Hardware: 16 cores (hyperthreading available), 64-128 GB RAM
• Pricing: free trial $25 credits, with discount for students. Price starts at $0.06 per core per hour.
• Redshift support: Because of its approach as SaaS, you will need to check if their Redshift version and 3D software match yours. Below is the list we have collected:

Redshift version	3D software
2.0.42 2.5 2.6 3.0 3.5	3ds Max Cinema 4D Maya Houdini Katana 4.0v5

Note:

• Have Fox Renderfarm Cloud Rendering Client app for Redshift, which you can use on your own PC and don’t need to go on their website. However, they only have Windows and Linux versions, no macOS.
• Low cost
• Support many versions of Redshift
• No Blender, Vectorworks and Archicad supported.

Garage Farm

Garage is a rendering farm from the United Kingdom, which has a history of 12 years in this industry.  It’s also a SaaS render farm with their own app to help you work with their farm directly from your own desk. You can download their app renderBeamer to upload and render your jobs.

• Hardware: Tesla K80 12GB vRAM and Tesla P100 16GB vRAM for Garage’s GPU, Intel Xeon E5-4669 v4 for CPU.
• Pricing: free trial $25 credits, with discount for students. Price starts at $0.015 per GHz per hour and $0.0025 per OB hour
• Redshift support: Below is the list we have collected:

Redshift version	3D software
2.0 2.5 2.6 3.0 3.5	3ds Max Blender Cinema 4D Maya

Note:

• Support many versions of Redshift
• Windows, MAC and Linux supported
• Limited software supported (no Houdini, Katana, Vectorworks and Archicad). 

GridMarkets

GridMarkets is a render farm from America, established in 2011. It keeps a low profile with more than 5.000 users from more than 110 countries around the world. However, the support for big 3D software and render engines is superb. It’s a SaaS platform, where you need to download their plugin and integrate it into your software, then send your files through their plugin and get back the rendered images. 

• Hardware: The minimum machine configuration is 12 cores (24 threads) at 3+ GHz with 64 GB RAM. GPUs are Tesla P100 and Tesla V100.
• Pricing: free trial $20 for new users. Pricing starts at $1.05 for On Demand, $707 for Daily Plan, and $500/month for Subscription.
• Redshift support: 

Redshift version	3D software
2.6 3.0 3.5	Cinema 4D Maya Houdini 3ds Max

Note:

• Support the latest version of Redshift
• Windows, MAC and Linux supported
• Limited software supported (no Blender, Katana, Vectorworks and Archicad)

Pixel Plow

Pixel Plow is a render farm from America, established in 2012. In June 2017, it began to support GPU rendering. Pixel Plow keeps a low profile like GridMarkets, and has a SaaS approach. You will need to install a plugin called Agent to integrate into your 3D software, and then submit your job through it. They will analyze then render your jobs, and deliver your frames to the output path you have set up.

• Hardware: Nvidia GTX 1060, GTX 1070, or RTX 2060 Super GPU
• Pricing: pricing starts at $0.005 to $0.06 per GHz-hr for CPU rendering, and $0.0015 to $0.018 per Octbnchpts-hr for GPU rendering.
• Redshift support: unlike many other render farms that support many versions of Redshift, Pixel Plow only supports one version of it.

Redshift version	3D software
3.0.59	Cinema 4D Maya Houdini 3ds Max

Note:

• Low cost
• Only support Windows and macOS, no Linux
• Support limited version of Redshift
• Limited 3D software supported (no Blender, Katana, Vectorworks and Archicad)
• GPU is kind of old

Rebus render farm

Rebus is a company in Germany that provide high-performance 3d rendering service. It has more than 15 years of experience in the field of 3D rendering and gets the trust of many big studios and companies. They provide SaaS platform They develop tools called Rebusdrop which can be added to your own software and you can just render from your software. 

• Hardware: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X (32Core) and Intel i9-7980XE CPU; NVIDIA’s Quadro RTX 6000 GPU
• Pricing: pricing starts at 1.28 cent/GHzh for CPU and 0.48 cent/OBh for GPU rendering. Free trial $26.66, student discount 50%.
• Redshift support: Ranch supports many versions of Redshift, along with 3 popular software

Redshift version	Software
2.0 2.5 2.6 3.0 3.5	3ds max Cinema 4D Maya

Note:

• Support many versions of Redshift
• High cost
• Limited software supported (No Houdini,  Blender, Katana, Vectorworks and Archicad)

Final words

We see that Redshift is a very well-known renderer that is supported by many render farms, with many versions. However, those render farms only support common 3D software like 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Houdini, and Maya. The other not-so-common software like Blender, Katana, Vectorworks and Archicad are not supported (only iRender which provides IaaS can support them). It could be the fact that they are not mainstream software, or their support for Redshift is not like that of 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Houdini or Maya. That’s why most render farms don’t pay attention to them.

Hope that this article can help you choose a powerful render farm for your Redshift project. If you use Redshift in large projects with unpopular software, and plugins and want to fully control the rendering process, you should go with an IaaS farm like iRender Farm. If you use Redshift in normal projects with popular software, and plugins you can select SaaS render farms like Fox Render Farm, Rebus Farm, GridMarkets, or Pixel Plow.

See more:

Top 5 Best Render Farms For GPU & CPU

Overview of the best render farms in 2023 and expanding the rankings