Blender

Blender is a free and open source 3D creation suite that has been under continuous, active development for many years. The record shows five major version releases in just over 18 months: Blender 4.3 (November 19, 2024), Blender 4.4 (March 18, 2025), Blender 4.5 LTS (July 15, 2025), Blender 5.0 (November 18, 2025), and Blender 5.1 (March 17, 2026). This establishes a consistent major release cadence of roughly every 4–8 months. Each release brings substantial new features across the entire 3D pipeline — rendering, animation, compositing, geometry nodes, sculpting, and more — alongside hundreds of bug fixes. Following each major release, the team also ships corrective patch releases (e.g., 5.1.1 on April 14, 2026 and 5.1.2 on May 19, 2026), and the LTS branch (4.5 LTS) continues receiving maintenance updates, with the most recent being Blender 4.5.11 LTS on June 23, 2026. The Blender Development Fund, supported by over 7,800 individuals and 44 organizations as of the 5.1 release, funds ongoing development. Given that the last major release was on March 17, 2026, and the established pattern puts the next major version due around mid-to-late 2026, development is firmly ongoing and well within the historical release window.