Speckle vs Rhino.Inside.Revit

Speckle and Rhino.Inside.Revit both bring powerful interoperability between Rhino and Revit, each tailored to boost different aspects of the design workflow in the AEC industry. While they bridge the gap between Rhino and Revit, they cater to different aspects of the design process.

What is Rhino.Inside.Revit?

Rhino.Inside.Revit is a technology developed by McNeel that allows Rhino and Grasshopper to run inside Autodesk Revit.

Loading Rhino directly into Revit’s memory provides access to both software APIs through Grasshopper’s scripting components.

It enables users to leverage the powerful Rhino 3D software capabilities and Grasshopper’s parametric design tool within Revit's BIM environment.

Since its beta launch in 2019, RIR has gained traction among professionals who bridge detailed geometric modeling with building information modeling (BIM).

What is Speckle?

Speckle is a one-of-a-kind design collaboration platform that allows you to easily connect, collaborate and automate repetitive tasks in the AEC industry.

Unlike traditional file-based workflows, Speckle enables near-real-time data exchange across multiple applications, leveraging secure cloud infrastructure for enhanced scalability and accessibility.

Its easy-to-use interfaces and online viewer make it easy for team members with different technical backgrounds to access project data and leverage Speckle as their computational design solution.

What Are We Comparing?

Let’s start by being clear: this isn’t a contest between alternatives that solve the same problem. It’s a contrast between two tools that address very different needs in AEC workflows.

• Rhino.Inside.Revit enables Rhino and Grasshopper to run within Revit, effectively transforming it into a hybrid parametric authoring tool. You stay inside the Revit ecosystem while scripting and generating native elements. Using McNeel's excellent modelling kernel hardwired into Revit’s native object database, it is a powerful addition to the Revit modeller's toolkit.
• Speckle enables multi-tool data exchange, versioning, querying, and automation across the project lifecycle. It doesn’t try to make Revit smarter; it helps you work beyond Revit.

The choice isn’t about which one is more powerful; it’s about what kind of work you need to do.

Technical Comparison Speckle vs Rhino.Inside Revit

Data Hosting and Version Management

Rhino.Inside.Revit workflows often remain local and file-bound. Outputs, no matter how elegant, tend to end up as .3dm or .rvt files on a shared drive, versioned manually (or not at all). Familiar issues like Model_FINAL_FINAL_StevesVersion_v2.3dm persist.

Speckle, by contrast, is inherently cloud-native. Every change is versioned. Every model is shareable as a link. You can branch, merge, automate, and collaborate—all without duplicating files or relying on a naming convention.

Speckle vs Rhino.Inside.Revit: Feature Breakdown

Revit Geometry Extracted as

Speckle: Extracts Revit geometry as meshes, maintaining materials intact. Brep is also soon to be supported.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Extracts geometries as Breps. Breps are much easier to work with in Rhino.

System Family Support

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Supports the creation of system family elements, Such as Floors, Ceilings, and walls.

Speckle: Since the first iteration of this comparison article, Speckle has rebuilt all our connectors from the ground up. As of today, system families are no longer authored natively. Incoming data will be received as categorised DirectShape geometry, with support for system family mapping currently under development.

Component Family Support

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Supports placing and creating component families.

Speckle: Native component family authoring is no longer supported. All elements are received as categorised DirectShape objects, regardless of original authoring context. Supports placing and creating component families. Blocks are converted into Component Families, and mapping blocks to existing families is under development.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Supports placing and creating component families.

FreeForm Element

People often use FreeForm elements within the family environment. You can create them as Solids or Voids and assign materials or parameters to them.

Speckle: Generates geometry as DirectShape by default.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Converts any Brep geometry into a Freeform, which can be added to a family document.

Creating Family Types

Speckle: No longer creates new types when converting a block from another application into Revit families.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: New family types can be created by duplicating existing types and modifying parameter values.

Creating Parameters

Speckle: Does not currently support the creation of new parameters.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Users can create various parameters, including Project and Shared parameters.

2D Elements

Speckle: Only deals with 3D elements, grids and some text elements.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Supports all sorts of annotations, such as dimensions, tags, and detail lines.

Tightly Integrated

Speckle: Uses the Revit API to interact with Revit elements but lacks the scripting capabilities RIR provides. This is a compromise to make the Speckle solution more user-friendly.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Direct access to Revit API, and customisable according to user needs with scripting components.

Price

Speckle: Speckle is free to use; you can try it out right now! The application from which data is published or loaded requires licenses.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: RIR is also free and can be downloaded from here. Requires active licenses for both Rhino and Revit on the same machine.

Connectivity with Other AEC Apps

Speckle: Speckle integrates with apps like Revit, ArchiCAD, SketchUp, Tekla and many more.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Even though sample implementations are available for AutoCAD and Unity, Rhino.Inside.Revit is the only one developed and maintained by McNeel.

User Proficiency and Interface

Speckle: Speckle does not require Grasshopper knowledge, making it accessible to a much broader range of users. If you want to utilise its functionality, you can leverage knowledge only through Speckle’s Grasshopper connector.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Proficiency in Rhino, Grasshopper, and Revit is necessary. The Grasshopper-based interface can be complex for users with less experience.

Requires multiple apps to be installed

Speckle: Users only need the app relevant to their task, facilitating asynchronous collaboration across different devices.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Rhino and Revit must be installed on the same device.

Multiplayer

Speckle: Supports multiplayer collaboration, enabling team members to work together across various applications.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Designed for single-user workflows, limiting collaborative potential.

Version History

Speckle: Tracks data versions, enabling users to revert to previous states as needed.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Does not keep a history of data versions or actions.

Real-Time Collaboration

Speckle: Facilitates real-time collaboration across teams and disciplines.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Collaboration is confined to the same application environment.

Installation Requirements

Speckle: Does not require admin rights for installation.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Requires admin rights for installation.

Community Support

Speckle: Users benefit from a vibrant and knowledgeable Speckle community, extensive documentation, and active support from the development team.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Supported by Rhino’s active forums, which provide attentive support and ensure you’ll be well-assisted.

Open-Source

Speckle: Open-source and licensed under Apache 2.0.

Rhino.Inside.Revit: Also open-source, licensed under the MIT license.

Complementary, Not Competing

Some teams use both. Rhino.Inside.Revit can be the best way to author native Revit elements once coordination decisions are made. Speckle is how those decisions are shared, reviewed, and tracked across teams and tools.

Previously, you might have hesitated between the two, trying to decide which to commit to. But the distinction is now more apparent:

• If you're looking for quick, everyday coordination, async collaboration, and side-by-side workflows across tools, Speckle is built for that.
• If your focus is precise authoring inside Revit using Grasshopper logic, Rhino.Inside.Revit is the natural choice.

For many teams, the best setup is to use both, each where it makes sense.

Speckle doesn’t aim for total interoperability; it prioritizes practical cooperation. It’s about enabling different disciplines to work in parallel, share what matters, and move quickly, without forcing everything into a single-authoring environment. Authoring is just one step in a broader choreography of models, data, decisions, and reviews. Rhino.Inside.Revit helps you script. Speckle helps you coordinate at scale.

How Next-Gen Speckle Changes the Picture

The latest generation of Speckle further cements this distinction. With native support for structured models, real-time filtering, advanced querying, and a fully extensible automation layer, Speckle has evolved beyond being just a conduit for data. It’s now a platform for building workflows, not just exchanging information.

Teams can define their structured models online, view filtered or derived views instantly in the browser, and build logic around model changes without needing to access the authoring tools. This isn't just “Rhino-outside-Revit”, it’s AEC collaboration outside the constraints of traditional file-based software altogether.

It changes the picture from "sending geometry" to authoring shared understanding, and from versioning files to operating live across coordinated sources of truth.

Use Rhino.Inside When You Need Tight Authoring Control

Rhino.Inside is best when:

• You need to generate native Revit elements directly from parametric rules
• Your work stays inside Revit’s design and documentation flow
• The team is tightly coupled, working synchronously within the same model

It brings Grasshopper’s flexibility into Revit’s otherwise rigid environment. If you’re authoring wall types, façade elements, or system families procedurally and need the result to be Revit-native, this is your tool.

But you’re still at the mercy of the Revit API. Performance, element ID quirks, and scripting around Revit limitations are par for the course.

Use Speckle When You Need to Coordinate Across Disciplines

Speckle is built for a different job: collaboration, coordination, and decoupling.

Choose Speckle when:

• You need to share design data across tools (Revit, Rhino, Archicad, Navisworks, Excel, etc.)
• You want structured data exchange that isn’t bound by native authoring logic
• You care about version control, transparency, and asynchronous workflows

Today, Speckle users aren’t looking to author inside Revit from Rhino, they’re:

• Pushing early-stage geometry from Rhino to Revit for downstream use
• Reviewing design iterations in a web viewer before baking anything
• Extracting structured data for cost, carbon, or quantity tracking
• Joining data across models to validate compliance or detect scope gaps

This is collaboration infrastructure, not a plug-in. Speckle removes bottlenecks by removing dependency on any one authoring tool.

Final Word

Rhino.Inside.Revit is excellent for what it does: embedding Grasshopper logic directly into Revit, opening up Rhino<>Revit workflows. However, if your concern is how to get work done across multiple tools by numerous people asynchronously, then Speckle is the clear choice.

While earlier comparisons may have invited ambiguity, the decision is now more straightforward: these tools serve different purposes. And using both, intentionally and in concert, is often the best answer.

That’s what we see more and more in industry: authoring is important, but coordination is essential.

That’s what Speckle is built for.