Alternatives
Home Designer Alternative
Plan the house, raise the roof, fit the kitchen and the stairs, furnish the rooms and walk through it in 3D. Then print the drawings or send them out as DWG.
Home Designer: Pro $595 one time. Home 3D Plan (home3dplan.com): Free.
What Home Designer does, and where it is here
Kitchens and baths
Fitted kitchens sized to the wall, and bathrooms furnished from the catalogue. See the tool
Roofs
Roofs over the walls with pitch and overhangs, and skylights and dormers that cut them. See the tool
Furniture
769 catalogue models in 24 categories, and 64 tables, chairs, beds and wardrobes you size yourself. See the tool
Stairs
23 stairs from straight flights to spirals and garden steps. See the tool
Deck and landscape
Pergolas, fences, terraces, paving and planting around the house. See the tool
Home 3D Plan and Home Designer, side by side
| Feature | Home 3D Plan | Home Designer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Pro $595 one time, or $59 a month |
| Free option | Start in the browser with no account | See vendor |
| Runs on | Any modern browser: Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, iPad and phone | Windows and Mac |
| Install | None. Can be installed as a web app | Desktop install |
| IFC | IFC4 export of architecture, structure and services | See vendor |
| DWG and DXF | DWG and DXF in and out | DWG and DXF in Home Designer Pro |
| Structure | Columns, beams, braces, footings and gridlines, with a reinforcement bar schedule | Framing in Home Designer Pro |
| Services (MEP) | Electrical, plumbing and heating, drainage, ventilation, gas and solar PV | Electrical plans |
| Site and terrain | Survey levels, terraces, retaining walls, roads, paving and planting | Terrain tools |
| Quantities | Takeoff by storey, element, function and material, as CSV or a workbook | Materials list |
| Drawings and sheets | Sections, elevations, 1:5 details and sheet sets to PDF, DWG, DXF and SVG | Layout sheets in Home Designer Pro |
| Rendering | Four render tiers, the top one a GPU path tracer on desktop | Ray traced rendering |
| Team work | Organisation projects with discipline roles and live presence | See vendor |
| AI and agents | MCP server with 38 tools for Claude, ChatGPT and other agents | See vendor |
Home Designer prices as published on 10 October 2026 (https://www.capterra.com/p/152727/Home-Designer/pricing/). "See vendor" means the vendor does not publish the fact or we could not confirm it. Home Designer is a trademark of Chief Architect, Inc.. Home 3D Plan is not affiliated with Chief Architect, Inc..
What Home Designer does that Home 3D Plan does not
- A one time purchase for the Pro version, with no subscription needed.
- Shares its file format with Chief Architect, so a professional can take the plan on.
- A long running DIY product with many tutorials.
Moving from Home Designer
Export the Home Designer plan as DWG or DXF from the Pro version and open it here, or put a PDF or image of the plan under the drawing and trace it to scale.
Your work goes out as DWG, DXF, PDF and SVG drawings, and as an IFC4 model.
Which one fits your work
Pick Home Designer when
- You want a desktop program you buy once.
- Your designer or builder works in Chief Architect.
- You prefer working offline on one computer.
Pick Home 3D Plan when
- You want to start in the browser without installing anything.
- You want to design on a tablet or switch computers.
- You want structure, services and IFC4 as well as the house.
How to start
Open the editor
Go to home3dplan.com and open the editor. Nothing to install and no account needed to start.
Bring your drawing
Open a DWG or DXF and turn its lines into walls, or trace over a PDF or a scan set to scale.
Build the model
Draw walls and the storeys, rooms, slabs and 3D model follow. Add roofs, structure, services and the site.
Send it out
Print sections, elevations and sheets to PDF or DWG, and send the building out as IFC4.
Home Designer and Home 3D Plan, answered
Is Home 3D Plan easier than Home Designer?
It runs in a browser with nothing to install: draw walls, and the rooms, floors and 3D model follow. Roofs, kitchens and stairs are each a pick and a click.
Can I import my Home Designer plans?
Export them as DWG or DXF from Home Designer Pro and open those, or trace a PDF or picture of the plan set to scale.
How much does Home Designer cost compared with Home 3D Plan?
Home Designer: Pro $595 one time, or $59 a month, as published on 10 October 2026. Home 3D Plan is free to use in the browser today.
Does Home 3D Plan export IFC and DWG?
Yes. The building goes out as IFC4, with its architecture, structure and services, and the drawings go out as DWG, DXF, PDF and SVG. DWG and DXF also come in. The editor does not open IFC files.
Do I need to install anything?
No. Home 3D Plan runs in any modern browser on Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, iPad and phones, and can be installed as a web app if you want an icon.
Read on
- Kitchen: Eight fitted layouts sized to your wall, with worktops, corners, islands and NKBA checks.
- Home design software: Plan, build and furnish a house in the browser.
- Chief Architect alternative: Houses, roofs, kitchens and services, in the browser.
- SoftPlan alternative: Residential plans, services and drawings, in the browser.
- All alternatives: Every product we compare against, with its price.