Is AutoCAD Free? Free AutoCAD Options and Alternatives (2026)

Why People Look for an AutoCAD Alternative

AutoCAD is the industry standard for technical drawings, and for engineers and drafting offices it is an excellent tool. For people who want to plan a house, these are the most common reasons to look elsewhere:

• Subscription costs: AutoCAD costs $2,095 per year, AutoCAD LT $540 per year. After three years, that is $6,285 or $1,620, and the software stops working when you stop paying.
• Drawing lines instead of planning walls: in AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, a floor plan is a collection of lines, arcs and blocks. Every change means editing lines by hand.
• AutoCAD LT is 2D only: the cheaper version has no 3D, so you cannot see or walk through your house.
• Long learning curve: commands, layers, blocks and layouts take a lot of practice before you can draw a complete set of house plans.

Drawing Lines vs. Planning Walls: The Key Difference

The most important difference is how you work. AutoCAD, AutoCAD LT, LibreCAD and QCAD are drawing programs: you create lines, and the software does not know whether they form a wall, a window or a roof. Plan7Architect works with real building elements. A wall has a thickness, layers and a height, a window creates its own opening, and the program knows how walls, floors and roofs connect. This is what saves you hours on every house plan:

For a detailed look at this question, read our article AutoCAD vs. House Planning Software.

1. Plan7Architect: Best Low-Cost AutoCAD Alternative for House Plans

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, activation on up to 3 PCs
Best for: homeowners, self-builders, contractors and designers who want to plan a complete house, from the first floor plan to permit drawings

Plan7Architect is not free, but it costs less than a single month of AutoCAD at the monthly rate, and you buy it only once. It is a dedicated house planning program made for beginners without CAD experience. Instead of drawing lines, you plan with walls, floors, ceilings, roofs, stairs and foundations, and every change in the floor plan updates the 3D model, the sections and the elevations at the same time.

Exact Plans Without Line-by-Line Drafting

You enter exact lengths, angles and distances, use guide lines and virtual walls to lay out the plan, and the dimensions are created automatically. You can work in feet and inches or in meters and switch at any time. Room areas, living area and usable area are calculated for you.

Building Tools Included

Everything you need for a house project is built in:

• Automatic roof construction for gable, hip, shed, flat and mansard roofs, including dormers
• Stairs, slabs, foundations and beams
• Terrain modeling with contour lines and sloped lots
• Timber construction tools and custom beam structures
• Electrical, heating and plumbing planning
• Custom windows and doors, saved to the catalog and reused
• Unlimited floors and buildings in one project, plan variants and detailed layer management

Permit Drawings and DWG Exchange

Sections, elevations and plan sheets with title blocks come directly from your model, which makes creating building permit drawings much simpler. You can print to scale, save as PDF and export DWG/DXF, so an architect or engineer who works in AutoCAD can continue with your files. You can also import DWG/DXF plans you received.

3D Walkthrough and Renderings

You can walk through your house in 3D at any time and furnish it from an extensive object library, including imports from the SketchUp 3D Warehouse. For photorealistic images and videos, you export the model to Twinmotion with all textures.

Pricing

Plan7Architect Pro costs $259.99 Original price was: $259.99.$169.99Current price is: $169.99. once. For comparison: three years of AutoCAD cost $6,285 and three years of AutoCAD LT $1,620. See more options on our page with the best AutoCAD alternatives.

2. FreeCAD: Best Free 3D CAD Program with BIM Tools

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

FreeCAD is a parametric 3D CAD program, and its BIM workbench adds walls, windows, slabs, stairs and sections. Plan sheets are created in the TechDraw workbench, and DXF files can be exchanged directly. For a completely free program, it goes surprisingly far.

The price for free is time. FreeCAD is technical, many steps are manual, and it takes a long time to learn before you can draw a complete house. DWG files need an external converter. Read more on our FreeCAD alternative page.

3. LibreCAD: Best Free 2D CAD Program

Price: free, open source
Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux
Best for: users who want free 2D drafting similar to the classic AutoCAD workflow

LibreCAD is a lightweight 2D CAD program with layers, blocks, snaps and dimension tools. It works natively with DXF, can open DWG files and feels familiar to anyone who has used 2D AutoCAD. For simple 2D drawings, it is the closest free replacement for AutoCAD LT.

Like AutoCAD LT, it is only 2D and works with lines. Walls, openings, sections and elevations are all drawn by hand, and there is no 3D view of your house.

4. QCAD: Free 2D CAD with a Low-Cost Professional Edition

Price: free open source Community Edition; QCAD Professional $48 one-time, including one year of updates
Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux
Best for: 2D drafting on a very small budget

QCAD is an easy-to-use 2D CAD program with a clean interface and a good part library. The free Community Edition works with DXF, and the Professional edition adds DWG support and more tools for a one-time price.

For house plans, it has the same limits as every 2D CAD program: everything is drawn line by line, and there is no 3D model, no roof tool and no automatic sections.

5. BricsCAD: Best AutoCAD-Like Program with a Perpetual License

Price: BricsCAD Lite from about $345 per year as a subscription; perpetual licenses available; BIM edition from about $1,166 per year (US reseller prices)
Platform: Windows, Mac and Linux
Best for: professionals who want a DWG-based program that works like AutoCAD

BricsCAD reads and writes DWG natively, uses familiar commands and is available as a permanent license as well as a subscription. Lite covers 2D, Pro adds 3D, and the BIM edition adds building elements such as walls, slabs and openings. For CAD users who want to leave Autodesk, it is the smoothest switch.

It is still a professional CAD program with a CAD learning curve, and the BIM edition costs several times the price of a dedicated house planning program. See our BricsCAD alternative page.

6. AutoCAD LT: The Cheaper Official Option

Price: $540 per year or $70 per month; 15-day trial
Platform: Windows and Mac, plus AutoCAD Web and mobile
Best for: drafters who need genuine AutoCAD DWG compatibility for 2D drawings

If you must use the original, AutoCAD LT is the most affordable way. It offers the full 2D drafting and documentation tools of AutoCAD and includes the web and mobile apps. For exchanging drawings with offices that use AutoCAD, nothing is more compatible.

It is 2D only, so you get no 3D model, no walkthrough and no automatic sections. For a house project, every view is drafted by hand, and you pay every year.

7. SketchUp Free: Best Free Tool for Quick 3D Concepts

Price: free web version for personal use; SketchUp Go $129 per year; SketchUp Pro $399 per year
Platform: web browser (desktop versions in the paid plans)
Best for: quick 3D massing models and ideas for personal projects

SketchUp Free runs in the browser and is much easier to start with than AutoCAD. Push and pull makes 3D modeling intuitive, and the 3D Warehouse offers a huge library of models.

It is a modeling tool, not a CAD or house planning program. Exact floor plans with dimensions take a lot of manual work, and drawings and DWG export are only available in the paid plans.

How to Choose the Right AutoCAD Alternative

• You want to plan a house, with floor plans, roof, 3D and permit drawings: Plan7Architect is the best low-cost choice.
• You need free 2D drafting like AutoCAD LT: LibreCAD, or QCAD if you want DWG support for a small one-time fee.
• You want free 3D CAD and have time to learn: FreeCAD with the BIM workbench.
• You are a CAD professional who wants to leave the Autodesk subscription: BricsCAD.
• You are a student or teacher: use the free AutoCAD education license for your courses.

Plan Your House with Plan7Architect

With Plan7Architect you create floor plans, 3D models, sections, elevations and permit drawings in one program, without CAD experience and without a subscription, and you can still exchange DWG/DXF files with anyone who uses AutoCAD. Our video tutorials take you from the first wall to the finished plan. Every purchase comes with a 14-day right of withdrawal: if the software is not what you expected, you can simply cancel your purchase by email.