The Best Home Design Software

Home redesigning is a significant long-term investment, so mistakes such as wrongly chosen paint color or furniture are the last thing you want to do. Home modeling software lets you bring your ideas to life and experiment endlessly until you’re 100% satisfied with the result, helping to avoid issues in practice. If you’re looking for a user-friendly home design app to help you visualize your dream home, we’re here to help.

In this guide, we’ll share the best home design software available on the market. We included an option for most budgets and experience levels, whether you’re a beginner or professional. Read on to find software to create a custom home exterior, interior, and landscape design.

SketchUp Pro features an expansive toolset and is suitable for personal, professional, and educational purposes. Depending on the required functionality, the software offers several pricing plans, starting with a free web version and exceeding $1000 a year for large businesses.

SketchUp Pro provides the best deals for students, so if you’re currently enrolled in an interior design or architectural college, this one may be a good deal. A 30-day free trial is available to let you test out all the features. With SketchUp Pro, you can create 3D models of homes or other building constructions using a simple click-and-drag editor. To start, you can choose one of the pre-uploaded templates or create a house from scratch. Along with the house’s 3D plan, you can create elevations, exterior elements, detailed plans, and more.

Your 3D plan can be automatically optimized and converted into 2D for print to share your ideas later. All pricing plans apart from the free web version include unlimited cloud storage so that you never miss a project. Professional plans include various view types, including using an augmented reality headset and mobile viewer. With a VR headset such as Oculus Rift or Hololens, you can get right into your newly projected house. You can also adjust element color and transparency, create photorealistic rendering, create dynamic components, and more.

Pros

• Several pricing plans for different needs
• Photorealistic rendering and dynamic component rendering
• Great deals for students
• Unlimited cloud storage
• VR headset view

Cons

• Drawing models from scratch is more complicated than in some competitor software
• Tricky 3D view navigation

If you aren’t a professional architect and wish to try your hand at design without investing in professional software, Homestyler may be the perfect option. Homestyler is user-friendly and free, and available on Android and iOS. Start by snapping pictures of your room in the app and converting it into a 3D view, and you’re ready to create something new.

You can try out the different wall and floor colors and textures, find real furniture and décor products from a catalog, and place them in your space. All the products can later be purchased via the app, so you can get them instantly if you fall in love with a specific sofa. Homestyler isn’t just an interior modeling app, though; it’s also a community of enthusiastic stylers from all over the world.

You can share your projects, get inspiration by browsing the works of others or receive feedback. Naturally, you can also share your projects on your Facebook or other social pages, converted into a 2D view. All the works look photorealistic, precisely as they would in real life.

Pros

• Realistic interiors
• International community
• Real catalog
• Create room plans
• Free mobile app

Cons

• You can’t create custom items
• You can’t adjust the room dimensions

There’s no need to install desktop software if you’re only starting your home designer journey or wish to create a quick project of your own home. Space Designer 3D is a simple web-based software that lets you create a detailed floor plan or a 3D model of the house interior and exterior.

The software features an object catalog offering various indoor and outdoor furnishing, lighting, and home décor items. Unlike Homestyler, Space Designer 3D doesn’t provide an option to purchase the selected objects. However, this way, you can get an idea of what to search for in-store. One of the software’s advantages is that you can set custom house and room dimensions. Thus, you can either replicate your existing home or build one you’re only looking forward to buying. The house can have several levels.

Additionally, you can select different natural lighting to visualize how your project will look at night or on a sunny day. Once the project is done, you can convert it into a 2D view to print or save it to your device or share it on social media.

Pros

• Web-based software
• Free
• User-friendly
• Multiple floor plans
• Large object catalog

Cons

• No photorealistic view
• Not enough tools for professionals

Home Designer Pro is software for professionals or house design enthusiasts who wish to create highly detailed projects. The software lets you design exteriors and interiors, create definite floor plans with custom measurements, and view the project in 2D, 3D, or cross-section.

Let’s start by reviewing Home Designer Pro’s architectural capabilities. The software automatically generates customizable framing elements such as rafters, beams, trusses, posts, and others, based on your exact measurements. You can create a custom roof or ceiling from scratch or choose among one of the standard templates. Scaled construction documents can be printed at any size with 3D, CAD, cross-section, or elevation.

As for the interior design tools, Home Designer Pro provides an extensive toolset for you to create realistic projects. You can construct custom stairs, straight or curved, by setting custom starter tread and its width, edit wall construction, add floor structures, platforms, mudsills, and more. Additionally, you can create horizontal or vertical layouts for doors, drawers, and cabinets. With a wide range of color and texture options along with an impressive object catalog, you can easily bring any idea to life.

The software’s professional features include custom watermarks, sun angle calculation and visualization, advanced CAD tools, and more. Apart from the house’s design, you can create terrain and site plans, including lot boundary, setback requirements, and other building requirement information.

Pros

• Advanced, extensive tools
• Terrain plan and building requirement data
• Custom watermarks
• Realistic sun angle calculation and visualization
• Different views

Cons

• It may be too complex for beginners
• Pricey

Turbo Floor Plan Home & Landscape is pro-level software for designing every aspect of your dream home. This software has it all from essentials such as foundation, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC systems to interior décor elements. You can visualize every detail of your dream cabinets and lighting. Don’t forget to add furniture and appliances from an object catalog to get the full effect.

The color combinations can be saved to color boards and changed in a single click. Outdoor designing options include decking, fencing, landscape design, and outdoor lighting. Although it’s a professional-grade app, no experience is required to start modeling, as the interface is highly beginner-friendly. A QuickStart mode lets you choose a house template and start creating straight away, without the need to set accurate measurements.

Floor Plan Trace function is engineered to scan real house spaces and transform them into a 3D or 2D plan. Furthermore, every tool features a “Tips and Tricks” section to help you understand its purpose and get the most out of its functionality. A built-in cost estimator helps to ensure you’re staying within budget when implementing new ideas. Finally, the training center provides over 100 videos to improve your skills and boost inspiration. The software isn’t free and may seem costly at first, though it’s a one-time purchase rather than a subscription. This may not be a great value offer for those who will only use the software once. However, it’s a wise investment for beginners and experienced designers.

Pros

• One-time purchase
• Built-in cost estimator
• Beginner-friendly
• Space scanner
• Create custom plumbing, electric, and HVAC systems

Cons

• The projects don’t look as photorealistic as in other pro-level software
• Pricey if you aren’t using it often

HomeStyler is an advanced and versatile software suitable for professionals and beginners, thanks to two versions – free and paid. You can either use the software in the browser or install a desktop app. While the monthly subscription doesn’t seem pricey, the annual cost of the software dents a few people’s budgets.

HomeStyler’s Pro version has some ambitious tools unavailable in most competitor software. For instance, you can render projects in 4K, create 10K panoramas, render videos and create integrative lighting mixes. You can also pay for specific features per number of projects. Costs may vary depending on the feature and number of projects. The software lets you create custom 2D and 3D floor plans based on your measurements and design the space in detail.

An object library contains thousands of genuine furnishing products, artworks, flooring and wallpaper options, and small décor elements with purchase links. Finally, you can create photorealistic renders to bring your ideas to life. The panoramic 3D view can be later converted into 2D to share your project with clients or friends.

Pros

• Photorealistic projects
• A broad library with purchase links
• Free version and option to pay per feature
• 4K and video rendering
• Integrative lighting mixes

Cons

• Pricey subscription
• Some features reportedly don’t work smoothly

Room Sketcher features an intuitive, beginner-friendly interface along with some impressive functionality available in professional software. The app is compatible with Mac and Windows PCs and is free to install. However, you’ll have to purchase one of the paid plans to get access to all the tools.

Thankfully, there are a variety of plans to choose from, and custom plans are also available. Like most home design apps, Room Sketcher allows you to draw a floor plan according to your measurements or upload a blueprint.

Once you add your floor plan, you can edit your space in 2D or 3D renderings. Choose among different color, texture, and material options for floor, walls, and other surfaces. A catalog of actual products offers thousands of items to fill your project house, including furnishings and décor elements from popular brands such as IKEA. The click-and-drag editor doesn’t require any previous experience in home modeling, so even beginners can pick it up with ease. You can review the results in 360-degree views and make beautiful 3D pictures to get the full effect. However, unlike some competitor apps, Room Sketcher doesn’t offer photorealistic 3D plans.

Pros

• Adequate pricing
• Intuitive interface
• Compatible with Mac and Windows
• Extensive catalog with real products
• Draw floor plans or upload a blueprint

Cons

• No exterior design capabilities
• The result doesn’t look photorealistic

Virtual Architect Ultimate Home Design is a professional software focused on creating exterior and landscape design. However, the software doesn’t lack some impressive interior design options, too. Virtual Architect lets you create custom 2D or 3D floor plans, choose the materials, textures, colors, etc. In other words, it has all the essential features of a proper home modeling app.

What makes it different is that you can place your house into a setting, select plants for your garden, stones for pathways, or outdoor lighting. Photorealistic backdrops and natural lighting options make your project appear very real. Additionally, the software features advanced tools for door and window design. The software offers an extensive product catalog containing furnishing, décor items, and artworks. Furthermore, you can add your own photos to the design to better visualize the result. For instance, you can have your own family sit on a couch – a great way to persuade your partner to purchase it. Of course, your project can then be converted to 2D or rendered in 3D.

Pros

• Advanced landscaping options
• Realistic natural lighting and backdrops
• Upload own photos to design
• Great tools for door and window design

Cons

• Some lag with low-powered hardware
• Projects don’t look as realistic as in some competitor software

Sweet Home 3D is one of the simplest apps in our guide. It’s completely free and available both online and as desktop software. The web version lets you create custom 2D floor plans and choose furnishing, lighting, and décor items from the catalog. While the catalog doesn’t feature actual items with purchase links, it can give you the gist of which furniture style to choose in the future.

The desktop version has more advanced features, including 3D modeling and animation. With the help of a click-and-drag editor, you can freely move around your project house to visualize it in every detail. Apart from interior design, you can also create the house’s exterior and landscape models.

Pros

• Very simple
• Web and desktop versions
• Free
• Interior, exterior, landscape design
• No experience required

Cons

• Products in the catalog are a bit scarce
• Not photorealistic