Free Home Design Software: 10 Tools Compared (2026)

What to Look for in Free Home Design Software

Free is a good price, but only if the tool can finish the job you have in mind. Check these points before you put hours into a project:

• Is it really free? Some tools are open source and completely free. Others offer a free plan with a limited catalog, watermarked images, a limited number of projects or paid exports.
• Rooms or a whole house? Furnishing an apartment needs walls, doors and furniture. Planning a house also needs roofs, stairs, foundations and terrain.
• Which drawings can you get out? A 3D image is nice for ideas, but builders and building departments work with floor plans, sections and elevations to scale.
• Browser or desktop? Browser tools are quick to start, desktop programs keep your files on your own computer.
• File exchange: if an architect, engineer or builder will continue your plan, DWG/DXF export saves them from redrawing it.

What Free Home Design Software Usually Leaves Out

Free home design tools are great for the first step: trying out a room layout, arranging furniture or showing your family an idea in 3D. Most of them are built around rooms, not around the building. These are the parts of a house project that free tools usually do not cover, and how Plan7Architect handles them:

None of this makes free tools bad. It simply means you should know where your project is going. If you only want to furnish rooms, a free tool may be all you need. If you want to build or remodel a house, plan for the moment when you will need more. For a focus on 2D layouts, see also our comparison of the best free floor plan software.

1. Plan7Architect: Best Low-Cost Option When Free Tools Are Not Enough

Price: $259.99 Original price was: $259.99.$169.99Current price is: $169.99. one-time purchase, lifetime license, no subscription (not free)
Platform: Windows desktop software
Best for: homeowners and self-builders who want to plan a complete house, not only furnish rooms

Plan7Architect is not free, and we list it here for one reason: it is what many people move to when a free tool is no longer enough. It is a dedicated house planning program made for beginners without CAD experience. You plan with real walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, stairs and foundations, and placing a window or door creates the opening automatically. The floor plan, the 3D model, the sections and the elevations always stay in sync.

The Whole House in One Program

• Automatic roof construction for gable, hip, shed, flat and mansard roofs, including dormers
• Terrain modeling with contour lines and sloped lots
• Foundations, slabs, stairs, beams and timber construction tools
• Electrical, heating and plumbing planning
• Decks, terraces, balconies, railings and garden objects
• Unlimited floors and buildings in one project, plan variants and layers
• Automatic dimensioning and living area calculation, in imperial or metric units

Drawings You Can Use

Sections, elevations and plan sheets with title blocks are created from your model. You print them to scale, save them as PDF or exchange DWG/DXF files with your architect, engineer or builder. This is the step where most free tools stop.

Furnishing and 3D

Plan7Architect comes with an extensive furniture and object library, and you can import models from the SketchUp 3D Warehouse. You walk through your house in 3D at any time, and for photorealistic images and videos you export the model to Twinmotion with all textures.

Pricing and Trying It on Your Own Project

Plan7Architect Pro costs $259.99 Original price was: $259.99.$169.99Current price is: $169.99. once, with no subscription and activation on up to 3 PCs. Every purchase comes with a 14-day right of withdrawal: you can use the full program on your own house plan, and if it is not what you need, you cancel your purchase by email. That is less than many free plans charge for one year of their paid upgrade, such as Planner 5D Professional at $399.99 per year.

2. Sweet Home 3D: Best Free Home Design Software Overall

Price: free, open source
Platform: Windows, Mac, Linux and a browser version
Best for: furnishing apartments and simple room layouts

Sweet Home 3D is completely free with no paid tiers. You draw walls and rooms in 2D, place furniture from the catalog, walk through the result with the virtual visitor and create photo renderings. It runs on almost any computer.

For a house project, the free tool reaches its limits: there is no built-in roof tool, the ground is flat, and DWG export needs plugins. Read our Sweet Home 3D alternative page for a detailed comparison.

3. Planner 5D: Best Free Plan for Quick Layouts on Any Device

Price: free plan; Premium $59.99 per year; Professional $399.99 per year
Platform: browser, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android
Best for: trying out room layouts and interior ideas on a phone, tablet or computer

Planner 5D is very easy to use. You draw rooms, furnish them and switch to 3D with one click, and the app works on almost every device.

The free plan has a limited catalog, and many items and features are reserved for paid plans. CAD export is only included in the Professional plan, and the tool is focused on interiors rather than on the building. See our Planner 5D alternative page.

4. SketchUp Free: Best Free Tool for 3D Modeling in the Browser

Price: free web version for personal use; Go $129 per year; Pro $399 per year
Platform: browser
Best for: 3D concepts, furniture and woodworking projects

SketchUp Free runs in the browser and is one of the easiest 3D modeling tools to learn. The 3D Warehouse gives you access to millions of free models.

It is a general modeling program, so walls, openings and roofs are geometry that you build yourself. The free version may only be used for personal projects, and the desktop program and LayOut for plan sheets require the Pro plan.

5. RoomSketcher: Best Free Plan for Simple Floor Plans

Price: free plan; Pro about $144 per year
Platform: browser, Windows, Mac and tablets
Best for: clean 2D and 3D floor plans for presentations

RoomSketcher makes it easy to draw a floor plan and present it in 2D and 3D. The free plan lets you create projects with a limited furniture library and take 3D snapshots.

Many features, such as the full library and higher-quality output, are reserved for paid plans. Roofs, terrain and construction drawings are not its focus.

6. Floorplanner: Best Free Browser Tool for Quick Room Plans

Price: free basic account; paid upgrades with credits or a subscription
Platform: browser
Best for: quick room and apartment layouts without installing anything

Floorplanner runs in the browser and lets you draw rooms and furnish them quickly. A free account includes up to 5 projects, each with up to 3 floors and 3 designs.

Free exports are watermarked images in SD quality (960 by 540 pixels). Higher resolutions and removing the watermark cost credits, and the tool is made for layouts, not for planning the building.

7. Homestyler: Best Free Tool for Interior Design Renderings

Price: free plan; paid memberships without a clear public price
Platform: browser, iOS and Android
Best for: interior design ideas and attractive renderings

Homestyler focuses on interiors. You draw rooms, choose from a large catalog of furniture and materials and create renderings that look good on social media or in a presentation.

The free tier is meant for smaller projects, and more rendering options are part of paid memberships. Structural parts of a house, such as roofs, foundations and sections, are outside its focus.

8. Live Home 3D: Best Free Edition for Windows

Price: free edition on Windows; Standard $59.99 and Pro $129.99 as lifetime licenses
Platform: Windows, Mac and iOS
Best for: home and interior design with a desktop program

Live Home 3D offers a free edition for Windows through the Microsoft Store. You draw rooms in 2D, see them in 3D and furnish them from the library.

The free edition is limited to 2 stories, and exported images and videos are watermarked and limited in resolution. For more, you need the Standard or Pro edition.

9. FreeCAD: Best Free Program for Technical CAD Users

Price: free, open source
Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux
Best for: technical users who want free CAD with BIM tools

FreeCAD is a parametric CAD program. Its BIM workbench adds walls, windows, structures and sections, and plan sheets are created in the TechDraw workbench. It is the most technical free option in this list.

It is powerful but not easy. Many steps are manual, and you need a lot of time before you can draw a complete house with it.

10. Blender: Best Free Tool for 3D Visualization

Price: free, open source
Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux
Best for: 3D artists who want free modeling, rendering and animation

Blender is the most powerful free 3D program available. Its modeling and rendering tools create impressive images of any design.

It is not a home design program. Floor plans, dimensions and drawings need add-ons, and the learning curve is steep.

How to Choose the Right Free Home Design Software

• You want to furnish rooms for free: Sweet Home 3D, or Planner 5D if you want to work on a phone or tablet.
• You want a quick floor plan in the browser: Floorplanner or RoomSketcher.
• You want free 3D modeling or renderings: SketchUp Free or Blender.
• You are a technical user with plenty of time: FreeCAD.
• You want to plan a complete house with roof, terrain and permit drawings: Plan7Architect is the best low-cost choice.

Plan Your Whole House with Plan7Architect

When your project grows beyond furnishing rooms, Plan7Architect gives you floor plans, 3D, roofs, terrain, sections, elevations and permit drawings in one program for a one-time price, with video tutorials that help beginners get started. Every purchase comes with a 14-day right of withdrawal, so you can try it on your own project and simply cancel your purchase by email if it is not right for you.