Top 5 Best Render Farms For GPU & CPU

The benefit of using CPU vs GPU render farm is that it makes rendering faster and easier. In this article, VFX Rendering will help you find the top 5 best render farms you need for your work.

Rendering is a must-have step for any artists, motion designers, architects to get the final artwork. Yet, it is a very stressful process. Who wants to sit there doing nothing for hours, days even weeks to wait for the render to finish, you couldn’t do anything on that computer because it is being taken. Even if the render is going, you can’t relax and take a rest yet. An unexpected system or software issue may occur when we don’t pay attention, sometimes we have to do everything from the scratch. That’s awful!

Luckily, the game has been changed. Lots of new advanced technology, and powerful hardware come out to help us solve the rendering problem. However, building your own workstation will cost a huge amount of money, not to mention the maintenance fee, software license, and electricity bills. The best solution for all of these is using Render Farms.

Why use Render Farm?

Render Farms are rendering services where you offload your project into the cloud and render faster with their computing power of thousands of CPU and GPU. A work that would take your personal computer days to complete could be completed in hours with the help of a render farm. You not only save time but also free up processing power on your own computer to work on other projects in the meantime.

With render farms, you can focus on your creativity and do what you love. Instead of waiting, you are able to spend more time on modeling, texturing, baking, and many more to bring the best out of your work.

What to consider when choosing a Render Farm?

There are a lot of aspects that you have to consider when finding the best render farm. They can vary according to our project and needs. But three important factors are hardware, compatible software, and price.

• Hardware

What type of processors and graphics cards do they use? How many cores, VRAM do they have? The more powerful hardware, the less time it will take to render your project.

• Compatible software

Some render farms only support a few certain programs, while other farms can support various. Most of them support leading software like 3ds Max, Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya, Corona Render, V-Ray, Octane or Redshift. But not all the versions and plugins. So we have to make sure that our software, plugins, especially the version we want to render in are supported. 

• Price

If you are a hobbyist or on a low budget, you might want to find a render farm or online render farm that offers a lower cost. If you just need a service that works for your project and don’t care about the price, other factors should be taken into consideration.

Besides, we should also keep in mind other considerations:

• Easy of use
• IaaS vs SaaS
• Customer support
• Reputation, etc.

Top 5 Best Render Farms For GPU & CPU

There are literally thousands of render farms out there, then which one is the best suited to your projects and your needs. You must be confused. So we, Vfxrendering, have been testing and finally choose our Top 5 Best GPU & CPU Render Farms of all. We list and give an overview evaluation of those farms in the next section, make sure to check it out to see which farm is for you. In the next articles, we will go into detail and review each farm one by one, so stay tuned. 

The Top 5 render farms are of both models of service currently: IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service). Because these farms are the best of the best so we will not rank them anymore. We think that there is no best farm, only the most suitable farm for your projects and your needs. You can even use one or many render farms at the same time if that benefits you most. The Top 5 will be listed in alphabetical order (in this article and any articles after). Let’s go!

Fox Renderfarm

Fox RenderFarm is one of the best render farms for CPU & GPU, based on the SaaS platform. This render farm was trusted by many studios and freelancers all over the world. It’s known for flexible prices and is easy to use. Let’s check the pros and cons of Fox Renderfarm below to get more details about this render farm.

Supported Applications

Pros

1. Web-based and Desktop Client submission. So you can send the files to be rendered from any device with access to a browser or inside the 3D software.
2. Offers both CPU and GPU cloud services.
3. Offers both IaaS and SaaS functionality.
4. Supports most popular 3D software, render engines.
5. Detailed documentation and tutorials.
6. Free $25 render credit to try their service out after you register.
7. Reasonable prices.
8. Various discount programs.

Cons

1. Complicated UI/UX and scene upload system.
2. Hardware details missing.

Visit the website Fox Renderfarm in here.

GarageFarm

GrageFarm is the next render farm that we want to review. Like Fox RenderFarm, GarageFarm based on SaaS platform. This render farm allows you to send files via RenderBeamer – a standalone uploader/downloader application that works in conjunction with GarageFarm plugins.

Supported Applications

Pros

1. Web manager and app with plugins that integrate into various 3D software packages so you can easily send the project right from the 3d program’s interface.
2. Offers both CPU and GPU cloud services.
3. Offers both IaaS and SaaS functionality (IaaS available via Xesktop – its separate brand).
4. Supports a broad range of 3D software, render engines and plugins.
5. Very detailed documentation, FAQ and tutorials.
6. Free $25 render credit to try their service out after you register.
7. Reasonable prices.
8. Attractive bulk purchase discounts.
9. 24/7 support.

Cons

1. Animation-only cost calculator.
2. Currently doesn’t support Octane Render through SaaS.

Visit website GarageFarm in here.

iRender

Although it is a relatively young render farm, iRender has won over a large number of users who love the convenience and ability to control the entire rendering process. Established in Vietnam in 2019, iRender provides cloud computing solutions globally, with a particular focus on render farm services for 3D renderings/AI/Deep Learning.

This render farm based on IaaS platform and allows you completed control rendering process and set up your working enviroment like your own computer. This render farm always a pioneer in updating new, powerful hardware to help users quickly enjoy the power of technology.

Supported Applications
You can install any software, plugins and versions on the remote servers.

Pros

1. Easy to use web-based node creation system, friendly UI/UX.
2. Offers both CPU and GPU cloud services.
3. Supports all software and render engines including special software, plugins or scripts.
4. Users take full control of the servers to do render tasks.
5. Very powerful, cutting-edge hardware.
6. Very transparent hardware specifications.
7. Supports NVLINK.
8. A wide range of servers for all needs, from low-budget to high-end options. 
9. Various discounts.
10. 24/7 support.

Cons

1. IaaS functionality only.
2. Users need to install the software for the 1st time.

Visit website iRender Render Farm in here.

See more: iRender: A Complete Overview

Ranch Computing

Ranch Computing is a professional render farm that provides rendering services to a variety of industries including VFX, animation, architecture, design, video games, and more. Ranch was founded in 2006 in Paris, France. This render farm is one of the oldest render farms and is trusted by many studios around the world. Ranch Computing delivers quality rendering for pretty results.

Supported Applications

Pros

1. Web-based scene upload system with easy-to-use addons that integrate into various software packages.
2. Offers both CPU and GPU cloud services.
3. Supports most popular 3D software, render engines.
4. Detailed documentation and tutorials.
5. Free 30€ render credit to try their service out after you register.
6. Reasonable prices.
7. Bulk purchase discounts.

Cons

1. Hardware details missing.
2. SaaS functionality only.
3. No 24/7 support.

RebusFarm

RebusFarm is one of the market leaders in terms of speed and customer service and offers high-performing rendering services to a wide range of industries. Rebus Farm was founded in 2006 in Germany. This render farm is based on a SaaS platform, so users need to check the software support of Rebus before using it.

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Supported Applications

Pros

1. Easy-to-use software that integrates into various software packages.
2. Offers both CPU and GPU cloud services.
3. Supports a large number of 3D software, render engines.
4. Detailed documentation, FAQ, and tutorials.
5. Free 25€ render credit to try their service out after you register.
6. Reasonable prices.
7. Bulk purchase discounts.
8. Easy to use online price calculator.
9. 24/7 support.

Cons

1. Hardware details missing.
2. SaaS functionality only.

Render Farms For Specific Use Cases

Above are the 5 best render farms for most cases, but not all. There are some other render farms focusing on particular workloads. One render farm might be better than others for a specific use-case or software, render engine. This kind of render farm may support very few applications and plugins but are very optimized for them.

Best Redshift Render Farms

• iRender farm
• Rebusfarm
• Fox Renderfarm

Best Octane Render Farms

• iRender farm
• ORC (OctaneRender Cloud)
• RNDR Network

Best Blender Render Farms

• Blendergrid
• RenderStreet
• GarageFarm

Best V-Ray Render Farms

• Chaos Cloud
• Fox Renderfarm
• Rebusfarm
• GarageFarm

Best Free Render Farm

• SheepIt

Wrap up

Above is the overview of the Top 5 Best GPU & CPU Render Farms in terms of their supported 3D packages, pros and cons. No matter what software, plugin, or project you work on, you can always find a solution in one of these farms.

We notice that there are quite a few blogs and magazines that write about the best render farms overall or for certain software, while there have not been specific reviews about them. Vfxrendering will do this task. However reviewing all farms seems impossible so we decided to focus on the Top 5 best render farms, which are Fox Renderfarm, GarageFarm, iRender, Ranch Computing and RebusFarm (all in alphabetical order).

In the next articles, we will go through each farm in detail so that you guys can compare and choose the most suitable service for yourself. Stay tuned and see you in the next post! What farms have you used? Let us know your experience in the comments section below.

See more: Our ranking render farm