1. design in FreeCAD (I only ever use the "Part" menu -- NOT "Part Design")
2. export to "STL" format
3. import to Ultimaker Cura
4. export to gcode
5. load into printer and print
If your computer is directly connected to the 3D printer you can skip steps 4 and 5 and print directly from within Cura.
FreeCAD can export to gcode but Cura does a much better job of setting printer options such as infill, etc.
I'm really no expert, I only print small items for prototyping, on a sub-$100 printer, but I don't find it hard. It may be way more difficult if you're trying to print "perfect" pieces for end use though.
What's hard is #1 compared to other tools, the rest of the steps you mentioned are the same everywhere. FreeCAD makes #1 hard, but it's a very very important tool to exist. I'm looking forward to the day where I switch to it.
But you can design in FreeCAD with the same approach / workflow as in OpenSCAD: make elementary shapes, extrude them then join or cut them.
This can be done in the "Part" menu. Just click on the yellow shapes on the left of the toolbar to create them, then go to their properties to rotate/extrude them, and select two or more to join or cut.
Solidworks is the standard, but the price is crazy (from $5k to $10k per user per year).
The online tools I tried I found to be much less usable than FreeCAD. But I only design simple pieces, so my needs are easy to meet. It's possible that for complex parts FreeCAD is too limited.
