If you want to get realistic visualizations of what your home will look like, a home design app is the way to go. It is handy in planning rooms, furniture placements, and renovations. This guide will help you understand how these apps work and also answer the question, What is the best free home design app?
What Makes a Good Home Design App?
Recent research indicates that the DIY home improvement market is set to reach $1,400.9 billion by 2032. That shows that more people are opting to fix most things in their homes rather than engage professional services. One such is interior decoration, and you could meet that need with a 3D home design app.
Before we rate a home design app as good, it must have the following:
- Ease of use: The home design app should be simple to use, from when we take a photo of the room to moving the furniture around and when it generates the final renders.
- 2D/3D planning: 3D models are best when we start placing items in the home or room. But when it comes to dividing the room or generating a floor plan, 2D models work best. For that reason, the design app should be good at rendering 2D plans as well as 3D models.
- Real furniture objects: With real furniture, it’s easier to generate room layouts that are as realistic as possible.
- AR + visualization: Augmented reality makes it easier to work on an existing space. With it, you can remove and add items to your room. Even better, the 3D rendering of the added items will be at a true-to-life scale.
- Room templates: If you don’t want to draw windows or rooms from scratch, you have to consider a home design app with templates. These will also provide industry-standard dimensions to work with, which is why they are among the best app features we look for on these platforms.
- Platform availability: For this criterion, we will consider apps that are available for both iOS and Android devices. Having a browser version will also be an advantage, as it is also one of the top home design tool criteria we consider.
The Best Free Home Design Apps Compared
Here are the top five free home design apps:
Planner 5D
This free home design app offers 3D modeling and AI-automated floor plans. You also get a drag-and-drop system that is simple enough, even if you are a beginner. But the most notable advantage you’ll get with this home design app is the freemium features like the 2D/3D floor plans, item catalogs, and adjustable walls.
Planner 5D has AI and AR plan recognition. All you have to do is upload a photo of your 2D blueprint or drawing, and the home design app will convert it into a 3D model. You can even walk through your design, thanks to augmented reality.
Pros
- The app has over 8,000 items, including furniture and textures
- It offers cross-platform sync across devices
- The platform has a strong user community
Cons
- You can’t save high-definition renders with the free version
- The web version might cause PCs to slow down
- It lacks the engineering precision needed to produce actual construction documents, as you’ll get with AutoCAD
Room Planner by IKEA
For renovation projects, the Room Planner by IKEA might be the ideal fit. It offers real furniture for your home design, and you can take things one room at a time. There are dedicated sections to plan your bedroom, kitchen, hallway, dining room, children’s room, etc.
The IKEA room planner app is ideal for building modular designs, but it gets even better. You can build your custom chair, dining table, storage solution, bookcase, shelf, and other items.
Another advantage this free interior design software has is its augmented reality. With that, you can scan your room and import real IKEA furniture, all in true-to-life scales.
Pros
- There is augmented reality to provide realistic 3D models of your space
- The AR room planner is free to use
- The platform will adjust the shadows and lighting of the added furniture to match your room
Cons
- Some of the room planners are not available as mobile apps
- You can’t make structural changes like removing the walls and adding windows
Roomstyler 3D
This home design platform allows you to use templates for your rooms or create a foundation from scratch. You can also input the exact room measurements for a more accurate home design.
Roomstyler 3D is easy to use, and you can add windows, doors, flooring, decor, and furniture. You can also tailor your design based on the room type, like the Room Planner by IKEA.
The drag-and-drop feature makes it easy to add elements like lighting and fixtures to your virtual room. You can also drag the elements around the room to rearrange them to your taste.
Another notable feature of this 3D house design web app is that you can add color schemes to the walls and materials. You can also change floor textures and even get a lifelike walk-through of your virtual design.
Pros
- Roomstyler offers a free home design tool online
- There is a strong user community
- You can customize windows and walls
Cons
- It is browser-based
- You cannot scan your existing room
Homestyler Free Plan
Homestyler offers cloud rendering and an even more robust cloud library of over 10 million high-quality 3D models. These models include furniture, lamps, materials, and home accessories.
With this home design app, you can upload a floor plan or sketch it in 2D. The Homestyler room planner app AI will convert your file into an editable 3D model. Then, you can decorate your house using the cloud library and the simple drag-and-drop feature.
The Homestyler 3D home design app free version gives you free renders, but if you want to step up to 4K renders, you’ll have to pay. With the paid version, you will get access to advanced features like custom lighting, plumbing, electricity, and other accessories.
Pros
- The app offers cloud-based rendering
- You can upload room plans or sketch yours
- The material library has over 10 million elements
Cons
- High-quality renders are paid for
- You only get 3 roof styles with the free version
Sweet Home 3D (Open Source)
If you want numeric precision as an interior designer, Sweet Home 3D is the best home designer app for that. You can specify the exact thickness of your walls, the exact height of your window, and other numeric details for your room. This feature also makes it one of our top recommendations for renovations.
Sweet Home 3D is a free open-source home design app that is available on Android, iOS, macOS, Windows, and Linux. And you can work with the downloadable version offline, unlike the others we’ve listed on this page.
This home design app supports imported 3D models from the web. Even better, you can import the real photo or PDF of your home’s blueprints and trace over it on the app. This approach allows for accurate 3D models of your home.
Pros
- There is a dual-view mode that shows your 3D model as you sketch in 2D
- You can get more precise measurements
Cons
- The home design app has a steep learning curve for beginners
Which Is the Best Free Home Design App for You?
Here are the best ways to use our recommended apps:
- For beginners: Planner 5D is our best home design app for beginners. It is easy to use with AI and AR plan recognition to aid your 3D modeling. You also get floor plans and item catalogs in the free plan.
- For small rooms: The IKEA Room Planner is the best home planner app for small spaces. It offers dedicated sections for different rooms. Even better, you can design your wardrobe and other small sections of your home.
- For advanced users: Sweet Home 3D offers numeric precision and the ability to import 3D models from the web.
- For real furniture shopping: IKEA offers the best home design app integrations when it comes to generating furniture shopping lists from your designs.
- Browser-based: If you want a home design app that you can run from your browser, consider Roomstyler.
How Home Design Apps Work
The home design online free apps we’ve listed on this page all share the same basic working principle. And that principle involves the following steps:
- Upload a floor plan to the app or site. Note that some allow you to sketch your custom floor plans or enter measurements to generate one.
- The next step is to draw the walls. Some apps, like Sweet Home 3D, allow you to enter the thickness of your walls.
- With the walls added, you can furnish your room with different elements. These include chairs, tables, cabinets, shelves, and even electrical accessories like lamps.
- The next step is to paint your walls and add texture to your flooring.
- Once you are done, you can render your model and view it in 3D. Some apps, like Planner 5D, allow 3D AR walkthroughs of your models.
A home design app offers advanced room planning technology. However, keep in mind that they typically lack the engineering precision needed for construction. For the latter, you’ll have to use other professional platforms like AutoCAD.
Free vs. Paid Versions: What to Expect
The table below shows some of the major free home design app limitations to expect and the paid features:
| Feature | Free Home Design App | Paid Version |
| Object library | Limited selection of generic items | Full access to real-world furniture and items |
| Rendering | Typically limited to 1k rendering | Includes 4K and high-end rendering |
| Watermarks | Free renders typically have watermarks | No watermarks in your renders |
| Project scale | Usually limited to a few floors or rooms | Allows unlimited floor and room designs |
| Exports | Low-res JPEGs | CAD, 3D files, PDFs, etc. |
Can Free Apps Create Realistic Designs?
First off, yes, you can get a realistic home design with free apps. The Homestyler home design app offers high-quality cloud rendering. These renders have high accuracy when it comes to measurements. However, you will experience some major limitations.
One of the primary limitations of your renders will be the furniture available. Most interior design tools offer a limited library of furniture. Also, you will be unable to pick models from real brands like IKEA to use in your photorealistic render. As such, you will be stuck with generic items most of the time, and these models aren’t that realistic.
Another limitation you’ll get will be in augmented reality. This advanced feature allows you to add items to your existing space and render them, creating even better, realistic models. Unfortunately, it isn’t typically available with the free home design app.
Best Use Cases for Free Home Design Apps
At a basic level, you can decorate your home with free apps. That includes furniture placements and space design. Most importantly, the apps are perfect tools if you are already on a loan for your renovation or construction. That is because they come with no extra cost.
A few other notable things you can do with the free home design app include:
- Planning the floors and rooms in your apartment
- Redesigning your kitchen, including the sink placement, cabinets, and other accessories
- Designing the layout for bedrooms, with apps like the IKEA room planner offering real IKEA wardrobe and bedroom furniture
- Home office design
- Furniture arrangement in the home
Mistakes to Avoid When Using Free Home Design Apps
When starting, we recommend you set up a mood board. A recent interior design industry statistic indicates that nearly 55% of designers incorporate digital mood boards. The reason for that sizeable number is that mood boards help with colors, texture, materials, layout, and the general aesthetic direction.
Other crucial mistakes you have to avoid when using a free home design app include the following:
- Picking the wrong scale for your room
- Using unrealistic furniture sizes that are either too large for your room size or too small for adults
- Ignoring lighting and electrical fixtures in your designs or renovations
- Overdecorating with items that may be unavailable in the real market
- Making wrong pixel estimates in your rendering
FAQ Section
Which free home design app is the easiest to use?
The Planner 5D app is our top choice when it comes to ease of use. Its drag-and-drop feature is suitable for beginners. Also, you can easily scan the room to generate a floor plan.
Can I design an entire house for free?
Most free apps limit the designs to a few rooms. You will also get a limited selection of 3D models and roof designs, and that will restrict how much design you can do and render.
What is the best free app for 3D home design?
Our best recommendations include Planner 5D, Room Planner by IKEA, Roomstyler 3D, Homestyler, and Sweet Home 3D. Note that these platforms have advanced paid versions as well.
Do free apps work on phones?
Yes, free apps work on phones via their dedicated mobile apps or their web pages. Some, like Sweet Home 3D, offer offline versions as well.
Can I print plans from free home design apps?
Yes, you can print plans from the free home design app by using the JPEG file type or PDF. However, note that the renders may be low quality in the free versions.
Useful Resources
Other helpful design and home renovation resources you can consider include:
- Free interior design courses
- Free floor plan libraries like those on Sweet Home 3D
- YouTube tutorials
- Online room templates
Final Verdict: What Is the Best Free Home Design App?
To answer your question, what is the best free home design app? We have five recommendations. Pick Planner 5D if you are starting with home design, but if you are an expert who wants a free platform, the Sweet Home 3D app is your best fit. The IKEA home design app is our top recommendation if you want to buy real furniture from your designs. And if you want cloud rendering, the Homestyler app is worth considering.
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