Deadline alternative

A Deadline alternative for your own farm

Deadline 10 has been in maintenance mode since November 2025. RenderFlow runs on your network, reaches into your own Azure or AWS account, and keeps moving forward. Deadline users get a 90-day trial.

Deadline 10 has been in maintenance mode since November 2025. RenderFlow runs on your network, extends into your own Azure or AWS account, and keeps moving forward, shaped together with studios and partners. Deadline users get a 90-day trial: talk to us and we set it up.

Get a 90-day trial

See how they compare

Compare

Jobs

#NameStatusPriorityProgressNodes

DESTR_EP04_SC012_CityFall_v014Working73%365 / 500

OCEAN_EP02_SC088_Surge_v007Working56%57 / 100

FX_EP06_SC155_Explosion_v021Completed100%240 / 240

SIM_EP03_SC042_Dust_v008Working89%89 / 100

COMP_EP02_SC045_BGPlate_v018Pending0%0 / 300

ROTO_EP03_SC012_Creature_v005Working42%168 / 400

COMP_EP01_SC207_HeroShot_v022Suspended35%35 / 100

CLEANUP_EP04_SC017_Wire_v004Completed100%1200 / 1200

LIGHT_EP01_SC003_Interior_v014Working68%136 / 200

RENDER_EP05_SC112_Env_v009Working23%46 / 200

BEAUTY_EP03_SC028_Hero_v011Working94%94 / 100

ANIM_EP02_SC074_Hero_v011Working68%272 / 400

MODEL_EP05_SC201_Creature_v008Completed100%500 / 500

RENDER_EP03_SC028_v013Failed41%205 / 500

LOOKDEV_EP01_SC099_Car_v006Completed100%500 / 500

Side by side

Deadline 10 vs RenderFlow 2

Checked against Thinkbox’s Deadline 10.4 documentation in October 2026. Each row links to its source.

Deadline 10

RenderFlow 2

Development

Maintenance mode since 7 November 2025: security updates and critical fixes ¹

Maintenance mode since 7 November 2025: security updates and critical fixes

Active development

Apple silicon Macs

Known Worker crashes and freezes, in its own system requirements ²

Known Worker crashes and freezes, in its own system requirements

Native

Linux on Arm

Not listed ²

Not listed

Native

Cloud machines

Started on AWS only ³

Started on AWS only

Your own Azure or AWS account; your private servers join by address

AI assistants

No MCP server in Deadline 10 ⁴

No MCP server in Deadline 10

Built-in MCP server, on your network

Render to a finished movie

Separate jobs linked by dependencies ⁴

Separate jobs linked by dependencies

The render followed by comp, encode and scripts

DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, ComfyUI

Not on the supported software list ⁵

Not on the supported software list

Supported

Submitting a scene

Submission scripts inside each application ⁴

Submission scripts inside each application

Submitters inside each application, or browse to the scene file: the same settings, without opening the application

Signing in

Its own user list, with an optional Power User password ⁸

Its own user list, with an optional Power User password

Sign-in can be required for everyone: a Pulze account with 2FA, or SSO on Enterprise

Notifications

Email ⁴

Slack, Teams, Discord, email, webhooks or the desktop

When a frame fails

Error reports with the application’s log ⁶

Error reports with the application’s log

The log explains the error and what to do about it

Software on each machine

Render executable paths set per plugin ⁷

Render executable paths set per plugin

Applications, renderers and versions found on every machine

Render preview

Output opened in an external viewer ⁴

Output opened in an external viewer

Frame gallery, and a live preview while rendering

Get your 90-day trial

Made for artists

Artist-friendly from submit to final frame

A farm your artists can use on their own

They send their work, watch every frame take shape and read why one failed, in plain words.

Submit from your app. Right inside 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, Houdini and more, or browse to the scene file without opening it.

Live preview. Watch each frame take shape while it renders.

Every frame, every log. Browse finished frames, follow the log, and see when the job will finish.

Errors in plain words. Each error is explained right in the log, with what to do about it.

Notified when done. A message in Slack, Teams, Discord, by email or on the desktop.

See what artists get →

Hero_CPU_v07

#NodeStatusProgressRender Time

1001RN-101Completed100%00:03:52

1002RN-102Working34%00:01:21

1003RN-103Working62%00:03:10

1004RN-104Working48%00:02:30

1005RN-105Working27%00:01:25

1006RN-106Working71%00:03:35

1007RN-107Working15%00:00:40

1008RN-108Working39%00:02:00

1009RN-109Working55%00:02:50

1010RN-110Working22%00:01:04

1011-Pending0%-

1012-Pending0%-

Why studios switch

A farm that explains itself

Errors explained where they happen, delivery that starts the moment the render finishes, and an AI wrangler that finds why a frame failed and gets it rendering again.

When a frame fails, the log tells you why

No scrolling through thousands of lines. RenderFlow knows the errors each application throws, marks them in the log and explains what to do, right where they happen. Your TDs add their own.

Logs for Spot_30s_shot04

.exr.exr

MayaRender

NukeComp

Video EncoderEncodeDoneDoneDone

From render to delivery

Nuke, DaVinci Resolve or a video encode start the moment the render finishes, with the frames it made.

Your AI render wrangler

Connect Claude or any MCP client to your farm through the built-in MCP server and manage it from the chat. Ask why a frame failed, retry it, or schedule the night machines.

Claude

Which jobs failed tonight, and why?

renderflowfind_jobs{"status":"failed"}

total: 1 · Spot_30s_shot04 · status: failed · progress: 73

renderflowfind_tasks{"job_id":"671f…c204","status":"failed"}

total: 1 · index: 4 · status: failed

renderflowget_task_log{"id":"6720…9e1b"}

known_failures: cinema-0004 · "Cinema 4D could not write the output"

One job failed: Spot_30s_shot04. Its task for frames 41 to 50 stopped on RN-07

with "GeOutString: Files cannot be written - please check output paths!"

Your error catalog says: check the output folder exists and this machine can

write to it. The output is on N:, a mapped drive the RenderFlow service may

not see. Add N: under Settings → Mapped Drives and I can rerun the frames.

Done, N: is mapped. Rerun the failed frames.

renderflowcontrol_tasks{"ids":["6720…9e1b"],"status":"pending"}

message: "1 task(s) reset to pending"

Frames 41 to 50 of Spot_30s_shot04 are back in the queue.

Now put all the workstations to work.

renderflowfind_nodes{"type":"workstation","status":"suspended"}

total: 8 · WS-ANNA, WS-BEN, WS-CARL … · status: suspended

renderflowcontrol_nodes{"ids":["66f1…a3c0", …],"action":"resume"}

ids: 8 · applied: { status: "idle" }

All 8 workstations are back in the farm and available for work.

They pick up the queued frames of Spot_30s_shot04 right away.

Did any frames of Hero_CPU_v07 come out black?

renderflowfind_tasks{"job_id":"6721…3a07","status":"completed"}

total: 34 · index: 12, 21, 29 … · status: completed

renderflowget_task_preview{"id":"6721…4c12"}

image/jpeg

renderflowget_task_preview{"id":"6721…4c1b"}

image/jpeg

renderflowget_task_preview{"id":"6721…4c23"}

image/jpeg

I looked at three finished frames. Task 29 came out black; the other two

look right. Want me to put task 29 back in the queue?

Reply to Claude…

Try it out on your farm

Machines

NameStatusJobCPU activityRAM usage

aws-cloud-01Loading-0%0%

aws-cloud-02Loading-0%0%

aws-cloud-03Loading-0%0%

aws-cloud-04Loading-0%0%

aws-cloud-05Loading-0%0%

aws-cloud-06Loading-0%0%

aws-cloud-07Loading-0%0%

aws-cloud-08Loading-0%0%

aws-cloud-09Loading-0%0%

aws-cloud-10Loading-0%0%

RN-101Busy

Spot_30s_shot0595%52%

RN-102Busy

Spot_30s_shot0597%51%

RN-103Busy

Spot_30s_shot0599%56%

RN-104Busy

Spot_30s_shot0596%55%

RN-105Busy

Spot_30s_shot0598%54%

RN-106Busy

Spot_30s_shot0595%44%

RN-107Busy

Spot_30s_shot0597%58%

RN-108Busy

Spot_30s_shot0599%57%

RN-109Busy

NOVA_sq110_sh0020_comp_v00396%47%

RN-110Busy

NOVA_sq110_sh0020_comp_v00398%61%

RN-111Busy

NOVA_sq110_sh0020_comp_v00395%60%

RN-112Busy

NOVA_sq110_sh0020_comp_v00397%50%

LNX-01Busy

NOVA_sq110_sh0020_comp_v00399%49%

LNX-02Busy

NOVA_sq110_sh0020_comp_v00396%63%

MAC-01Idle-2%12%

WS-ANNASuspended-2%15%

WS-BENSuspended-2%18%

WS-CARLSuspended-2%13%

Add cloud machines

AWSAzure

Max machines

Create

Hybrid Cloud

Looked at Deadline Cloud?

Deadline Cloud’s scheduling runs as an AWS service, and every worker connects to it, including the ones in your office. With RenderFlow, scheduling stays on your own server. Machines in your own Azure or AWS account join the same farm, and only the server goes online.

RenderFlow uses one licence per machine that renders, and submitting and monitoring are free.

See what your farm costs

There’s more to RenderFlow

Everything your studio renders, on one farm

3D, compositing, editing, AI workflows and scripts, each with its own job type, on Windows, Linux and macOS.

Submit anything. See everything.

Start in the application you work in and end with finished frames.

Submit and monitor →

Your whole farm in one view

Ten machines or thousands, every job and machine in one place, with statistics and a scheduler.

Farm management →

Built for the whole team

Artists, developers, IT admins and supervisors each get the view they need.

For every role →

Explore RenderFlow

Same ideas, new names

What your Deadline setup becomes

Most of what you built in Deadline has a place in RenderFlow. Here is where each part goes.

In Deadline

In RenderFlow

Repository and MongoDB

The RenderFlow server. Its database sets itself up, or it uses your own MongoDB.

Workers

Machines: render nodes, and workstations that render when their artist is away.

Pools and groups

Pools: the sets of machines a job can render on.

Limits

Requirements (RAM, VRAM, benchmark score, software version) and licence seats. A job waits for a free licence instead of failing.

Job dependencies

Job dependencies too, and steps inside a job: each one starts when the one before it finishes.

Users and the Power User password

Sign-in can be required for everyone, with a Pulze account and 2FA, or SSO on Enterprise. An audit log records who did what, and can be copied off the server as it is written.

User groups

Groups with a permission for every feature, so artists submit and follow their jobs while IT keeps machines and settings to itself.

Email notifications

Notifications by email, Slack, Teams, Discord, webhooks or on the desktop.

Deadline Monitor

The RenderFlow app on Windows, Linux and macOS.

Submitters

Submitters inside your applications, or browse to a scene file: RenderFlow reads the same settings as the in-app submitter, without opening the application.

Event plugins and scripts

Webhooks, the REST API, the Python and TypeScript SDKs, and custom job plugins.

Power Management

The scheduler: wake machines, power them off, and put workstations to work at night.

AWS Portal and Spot Event Plugin

Hybrid cloud in your own Azure or AWS account.

Not sure we have a feature you need? Ask us →

Moving your farm

Four steps to RenderFlow

Talk to us

We go through your applications, plugins and machines together, plan the move and set up your 90-day trial.

Supported applications

Start with a few machines

Install the server and RenderFlow on a handful of render nodes, and render a real project.

Quick start

Port your scripts

Port your custom submitters and scripts to Python job plugins, a REST API with 100+ operations, Python and TypeScript SDKs, a command line and webhooks.

Developer docs

Move the rest

Install RenderFlow silently on the rest of your machines with the deployment tools your IT already uses. On Enterprise, licensing also works offline.

Silent deployment

Plan your move

Deadline users get a 90-day trial. Tell us about your farm, and we’ll show you RenderFlow on the applications you use.

Get a 90-day trial

Questions about moving

Is RenderFlow a Deadline alternative?

Yes. RenderFlow covers the same core workflow of queuing, distributing and monitoring render jobs, runs entirely on your own infrastructure, and is in active development. Deadline 10 has been in maintenance mode since November 2025.

Does Deadline 10 stop working?

No. AWS says existing Deadline 10 farms keep working and receive security updates and critical fixes. New features go to Deadline Cloud.

Do I need to set up MongoDB?

No. The RenderFlow server sets up its own database. If your IT prefers, it can use your own MongoDB instead.

What happens to our custom Deadline submitters?

They don't run as they are, but they can be ported. RenderFlow has its own submitters inside each application, and custom tools move to Python job plugins, the REST API, the Python and TypeScript SDKs, the command line and webhooks.

Which platforms does RenderFlow support?

Windows, Linux and macOS, all in the same farm. It runs natively on Apple silicon Macs and on Linux on both x64 and Arm.

Which cloud providers can I use for hybrid cloud?

RenderFlow has presets for AWS and Azure: machines start in your own account when the farm is full. More providers are planned.

Explore all FAQs

Still have a question? Talk to us →