Tree generators compared
Part of How to make low poly trees for games
Search for a tree generator and you'll find a professional modeler, a few free programs, Blender add-ons and a handful of browser demos, some of which can't save anything. This article puts them side by side for one purpose: getting trees into a game. It's part of how to make low poly trees, and the SpeedTree article goes further into the one most studios use.
Facts were checked against each tool's own site in October 2026.
The table
| tool | runs in | price | exports | look | LODs | wind |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SpeedTree | Windows, macOS, Linux | from $19 a month | engine files, FBX, OBJ, USD, Alembic | realistic, stylized possible | yes | yes |
| PolyMason | browser | free | OBJ, STL, 3MF | low poly | yes, and billboards | no |
| Tree It | Windows | free | OBJ, FBX, X | low poly | yes | in the FBX |
| Sapling Tree Gen | Blender | free | anything Blender writes | realistic, can be reduced | no | in Blender |
| EZ-Tree | browser | free, MIT | GLB, PNG | realistic-ish, textured leaves | yes | in three.js |
| The Grove | Blender, Houdini | from €99 | anything the host writes | realistic | no | yes |
| QuickMesh tree generator | browser | free | GLTF, GLB, OBJ | low poly | no | no |
| Tree3D | browser | not stated | OBJ, STL, PLY | low polygon, for architecture | no | no |
| SnappyTree | browser | free, GPL | OBJ, DAE | realistic-ish | no | no |
| Yakudoo's CodePen | browser | free | nothing | low poly | no | no |
"Wind" means the tool authors wind that reaches the engine. Every low poly tree can be given a vertex shader sway afterward.
The ones built for games
SpeedTree is the standard for realistic game vegetation. Unity imports its .st9 files with wind and an LOD Group, and Unreal imports them with Nanite support from 5.1. It's a subscription: $19 a month for Indie under $100,000 of revenue, $899 a year for Pro under $1 million, and a custom price above that. There's no Godot importer. The SpeedTree article has the details.
PolyMason is this site's tree builder. It makes faceted, flat-shaded trees from 24 species in five steps, with every control limited to what the species allows. The export is one mesh and one material on a shared palette, with levels of detail, billboards and the tree's younger, dead, stump and felled versions. It has no wind export and no GLB yet.
Tree It is a free Windows program from evolved-software that describes itself as a low poly tree generator. It was last updated in May 2026. It writes OBJ and FBX, sets the level of detail, and stores wind as vertex colors in the FBX for a shader to read. It needs DirectX 9, so it won't run on macOS or Linux without help.
The Blender add-ons
Sapling Tree Gen was bundled with Blender until 4.1 and is now a free extension. It's based on the Weber and Penn paper on realistic trees and makes curves you convert to a mesh. Lowering the bevel resolution and curve resolution, setting the handles to Vector and cutting the leaf count gets it close to low poly, and then it's a Blender model you can finish by hand.
The Grove grows trees by simulating light and gravity. It's beautiful and realistic, costs from €99 for a lifetime license, and its terms don't allow selling the trees you grow with it.
The browser tools
EZ-Tree by Dan Greenheck is an open-source three.js library with a web app. It exports GLB with every level of detail in one file, which suits a web game. Its leaves are textured cards, so making it look faceted means turning those down and switching on flat shading.
QuickMesh's tree generator makes low poly deciduous and pine trees in the browser and exports GLTF, GLB and OBJ. Its page says the trees are free for commercial use. It has fewer controls than the tools above and no species.
Tree3D by Andrew Marsh is a parametric tree generator for building and shading analysis in architecture, not for games. It exports OBJ, STL and PLY. It was last changed in 2020.
SnappyTree is a 2012 WebGL demo of proctree.js that exports OBJ and Collada meshes without textures.
Yakudoo's Low Poly Tree Generator on CodePen is a lovely demo of a faceted tree with sliders, made around 2016 for a greeting card. It has no export, so it's a reference for the look rather than a tool.
Which to use
- A realistic game in Unity or Unreal: SpeedTree.
- A low poly game in any engine: the tree builder for faceted trees on a palette with levels of detail, or Tree It if you're on Windows and want wind data in an FBX.
- A web game in three.js: EZ-Tree for GLB, or the builder's OBJ.
- A Blender workflow: Sapling for the skeleton, then foliage by hand, following how to make low poly trees.
More in this guide
- How to make low poly trees for gamesThe method behind a low poly tree that looks like its species: the silhouette that identifies it, the trunk, where the boughs leave and how the trunk divides, foliage as a few closed meshes, two greens, triangle budgets, and the export a game engine wants. The same steps work in the builder and by hand in Blender.
- SpeedTree alternatives for low poly treesWhat SpeedTree is, what it costs since Unity bought it, how Unity and Unreal import its trees, and when a low poly game doesn't need it. Then the free and cheaper tools that make low poly trees, what each exports, and what each is missing.
Or build a tree and see what comes out.