VRay has been at the top of the rendering software mountain since 3D visualization became a thing. It is powerful, ubiquitous, and comes with a massive support community that will help new users get their feet wet without too steep a learning curve. VRay makes a plugin for SketchUp that integrates seamlessly, ensuring you never have to leave the program to set your scenes, apply materials, and tweak lighting conditions on the fly. Podium is a favorite among architects and architectural designers because it has a user interface that reflects the streamlined and efficient inputs of SketchUp itself. It might not have the most well-known brand name attached to it, but make no mistake: SU Podium is capable of producing renderings and visualizations that are just as impressive as some of the giants in the industry.
Podium has a great support community, and easy-to-find tutorials that help new users get quickly up to speed with how to best utilize the program’s potential. Another household name, and another reason why SketchUp has become such a capable presentation tool.
Maxwell has been around for almost as long as vRay, and has managed to keep up with the best rendering software available because of the dedication to excellence demonstrated by its developers. They knew they had something special when SketchUp gained popularity, so they jumped on-board with a plugin that was geared specifically towards making it a better renderer. The result is a power couple that is hard to best in the design and visualization world. While Indigo Renderer is a bit of a lesser known quantity among some of the more popular engines on this list, it certainly shouldn’t be disregarded as inferior.