Best Thiings.co Alternative in 2026: AI 3D Icons with Figma Plugin and Custom Generation

Thiings.co has built an impressive free library of 9,000+ AI-generated 3D icons. It's a solid resource for designers who need generic 3D icons in a consistent style. But there's a catch: every icon in the Thiings library shares the same visual DNA. Same style, same lighting, same aesthetic.

That works until your project needs something specific. A set of medical icons with appropriate clinical materials. Finance icons that convey trust and professionalism. Food illustrations that actually look appetizing. Or city-specific icons that capture the character of New York, San Francisco, or London.

If you've hit the ceiling of what a one-style library can offer, SkeuDesign is worth a look.

What Makes SkeuDesign Different from Thiings?

The core difference comes down to specialization vs. breadth.

Thiings offers a large library of stylistically uniform 3D icons. They're well-made, free for personal and commercial use, and you can buy the entire collection at once. For generic use cases, that's plenty.

SkeuDesign takes a different approach. Instead of one AI model producing one style, SkeuDesign uses 25+ category-specific AI prompt templates. Each category — from Technology and Electronics to Animals and Wildlife to Health and Medicine — has its own engineered prompt that specifies the right materials, textures, color palettes, and lighting for that subject matter.

A technology icon gets brushed metal, glass elements, and contemporary cool tones. A food icon gets appetizing surface textures, warm lighting, and glossy highlights where realistic. A government icon gets polished wood, stone, and formal institutional colors.

This means your icons don't just look 3D — they look right for their context.

SkeuDesign vs Thiings: Feature Comparison

Library Size and Approach

Thiings leads on raw library size with 9,000+ icons to SkeuDesign's 2,000+. But SkeuDesign combines that curated library with on-demand AI generation. You can browse existing icons for common needs and generate custom ones for anything specific. Thiings is adding a custom generation feature (My:Thiings), but it's still in beta and limited to the single Thiings visual style.

Category-Specific Generation

This is where the approaches diverge most. Thiings generates everything in one visual style. SkeuDesign generates across 25+ specialized categories, each with its own AI tuning.

Here's what that looks like in practice:

• People and Demographics: SkeuDesign uses friendly stylized proportions with clear facial features, soft pastel skin tones, and dimensional qualities. A generic 3D generator won't optimize for human facial expressions.
• Finance and Commerce: SkeuDesign applies professional design with premium materials like brushed metal and leather, conservative colors with gold and navy accents, and security-focused details.
• Health and Medicine: SkeuDesign uses sterile medical-grade plastics and stainless steel, calming color palettes with medical whites and blues, and clean professional lighting.
• Buildings and Architecture: SkeuDesign includes brick, stone, and siding textures with appropriate structural details, minimal landscaping, and optimal isometric viewing angles.

With a single-style generator, all of these would look the same. With SkeuDesign, each one is contextually appropriate.

Figma Integration

SkeuDesign has a published Figma Community plugin. This lets you search the entire icon library, generate custom icons with AI, and insert them directly into your Figma designs without switching tabs, downloading files, or managing assets manually.

Thiings does not offer a Figma plugin. Icons must be downloaded from the website and imported manually. For designers working on multi-icon projects in Figma, this workflow difference compounds with every icon.

Community Features

SkeuDesign focuses on individual and team workflows, with user-generated icons organized by category and attributed to the creator. The platform stores original category selections and user attribution in the filename metadata for future approval workflows.

When to Choose SkeuDesign Over Thiings

Choose SkeuDesign if you:

• Need icons that are visually appropriate for specific contexts (medical, financial, tech, food, etc.)
• Work primarily in Figma and want native integration
• Need a combination of browsable library and custom AI generation
• Want production-ready icons at 1024x1024 with category-optimized materials and lighting
• Are building a product or brand that requires consistent but contextually varied iconography
• Need city-specific or thematic icon packs (NYC, San Francisco, London, Halloween, etc.)

Thiings might still work if you:

• Need a large volume of generic 3D icons in a single consistent style
• Prefer a one-time purchase over a subscription
• Want the lowest possible cost (the base library is completely free)
• Don't need Figma integration

How to Switch from Thiings to SkeuDesign

The transition is straightforward:

1. Sign up at skeudesign.com
2. Install the Figma plugin from the Figma Community page if you use Figma
3. Browse by category — SkeuDesign's library is organized by the 25+ icon categories, making it easy to find contextually appropriate icons
4. Generate custom icons — pick a category, describe what you need, and the category-specific AI handles the rest

Frequently Asked Questions

Is SkeuDesign free?

SkeuDesign offers free generations to get started. Paid plans provide full library access and additional generation capacity. No credit card is required to try it.

Can SkeuDesign match the Thiings visual style?

SkeuDesign generates isometric 3D icons with similar dimensional quality but applies category-specific materials and textures. The result is icons that look equally polished but more contextually appropriate for each use case.

Does SkeuDesign have as many icons as Thiings?

SkeuDesign's curated library has 2,000+ icons compared to Thiings' 9,000+. However, SkeuDesign compensates with on-demand AI generation across 25+ categories — you can create exactly what you need rather than searching through a larger but generic library.

Can I use SkeuDesign icons in commercial projects?

Yes. Icons from paid plans are fully licensed for commercial use.

What about the Figma plugin?

SkeuDesign's Figma plugin is published on the Figma Community. It integrates browsing, searching, generating, and inserting icons directly into your Figma workflow — no downloads or file management needed.