Home Planner vs Sweet Home 3D (2026): Modern App or Free Classic?
Home Planner and Sweet Home 3D compared honestly: catalog, platforms, prices and ratings, facts checked on 26 October 2026.
Sweet Home 3D is the free, open-source veteran: a Java desktop editor for Windows, Mac and Linux that costs nothing, works offline and asks for no account. Home Planner is the app-store counterpart: a 560,000+ item catalog, native phone apps, AR room scan and AI floor-plan recognition, with a free plan and PRO from €5.99/mo. Both draw floor plans; almost everything around the drawing differs.
Every figure in this comparison was checked on 26 October 2026 on the vendors' own pages and in the US App Store. Sweet Home 3D's genuine strengths — free forever, open source, Linux — are stated plainly below, next to our own.
| Home Planner | Sweet Home 3D | |
|---|---|---|
| Windows + Mac | Yes + Yes (plus iPhone, iPad, Android) | Yes + Yes (plus Linux) |
| Catalog | 560,000+ items | 10,000+ items in the paid store editions; 929 pieces in the free desktop app |
| Plan tools | 2D/3D editor, AR room scan, LiDAR, laser meters, AI floor-plan recognition | Desktop 2D/3D editor (Java, open source, GPL) |
| Prices (annual billing) | Free; PRO €5.99/mo; PRO+ €17.99/mo; PRO++ €41.99/mo (billed annually) | Free desktop program (GPL); paid store and mobile editions |
| App Store rating (US) | 4.60 stars (46,453 ratings) | 4.28 stars (1,748 ratings — official iOS app) |
| Fact check | Vendors' own pages and the US App Store, 26 October 2026 |
The short answer
If “free forever, no account, any desktop OS” wins the argument, Sweet Home 3D is your tool — nothing in Home Planner is free forever. If catalog breadth, phones and AI capture matter more, that is Home Planner's game: 560,000+ items against 929 pieces in the free desktop app, and native iOS and Android apps the veteran doesn't match.
Which one is right for you?
Home Planner fits when the catalog and mobile workflow matter:
- You design on a phone as often as at a desk — one account across iPhone, Android, Windows and Mac.
- Catalog breadth matters: 560,000+ items against 929 pieces in Sweet Home 3D's free desktop app.
- You want AR room scan, AI floor-plan recognition and AI photo redesign.
- You want a touch-first interface and a heavily rated iOS app (4.60 stars, 46,453 ratings).
Sweet Home 3D fits when zero cost and openness matter:
- You want a completely free desktop editor — no account, no subscription, offline.
- You run Linux (Home Planner has no Linux app).
- You value open source: the desktop program is GPL, and your files stay on your machine.
At a glance
| Home Planner | Sweet Home 3D | |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog (560,000+ vs 929 free / 10,000+ paid editions) | Yes | — |
| iPhone and Android apps with one account | Yes | — |
| AR room scan and AI floor-plan recognition | Yes | — |
Where Home Planner is stronger
The catalog, because it decides the furnishing job
929 pieces ship free with the Sweet Home 3D desktop program; the 10,000+ figure belongs to the paid store and mobile editions. Home Planner's 560,000+ items are the vendor's published figure (26 October 2026). For furnishing a real room from a real catalog, the gap is the argument.
Phones and sync
Sweet Home 3D's official iOS app — the listing sweethome3d.com itself links — is a separate store product rated 4.28 (1,748 ratings). Home Planner pairs native iPhone and Android apps with the desktop versions under one account.
Capture and AI
AR room scan, AI floor-plan recognition from a photo, LiDAR and laser-meter support, AI photo redesign — none of these are part of Sweet Home 3D's desktop toolset.
Where Sweet Home 3D is stronger
Free means free
The desktop program is GPL-licensed, offline, account-free and free forever. Home Planner's free plan is real, but the full catalog sits behind PRO (€5.99/mo billed annually). If the budget is exactly zero, forever, the veteran wins.
Open source and your files
GPL code you can inspect, and projects that live on your own disk — no cloud account required.
Linux
Sweet Home 3D runs on Linux; Home Planner does not ship a Linux app (checked 26 October 2026).
What users say
We sampled the official Sweet Home 3D iOS app — the listing sweethome3d.com itself links. Note what the sample is and is not: 28 US reviews in the 12 months to 26 October 2026, covering the mobile edition only. The free desktop program — the product most of its long-term users actually run — has no App Store review thread, so these numbers describe the mobile app, not the desktop editor.
| Theme | Home Planner (60 newest) | Sweet Home 3D iOS (28) |
|---|---|---|
| Positive — does the job, imports work | 30 of 60 | 6 of 28 |
| Free plan limits / upsell pressure | 11 of 60 | — |
| Instability: freezes, crashes, render fails | 3 of 60 | 5 of 28 |
| Subscription confusion on the paid editions | — | 4 of 28 |
| Hard to learn | — | 4 of 28 |
- Desktop satisfaction and mobile frustration sit in the same review: “The website is fine and I use it for all design projects” — followed by “the app glitches all the time” (1 star).
- The paid store editions draw subscription complaints: “4.99 per week” and “tries to automatically subscribe you after a free trial” (4 of 28). The GPL desktop program has no subscription at all.
- Home Planner's own mirror: 11 of 60 recent reviews say the free plan is too tight, and 3 of 60 report freezes.
Limitations of Home Planner
- Nothing in Home Planner is free forever: the free plan designs real projects, but the full 560,000-item catalog and the AI toolkit sit behind PRO, from €5.99/mo billed annually. Sweet Home 3D's desktop program costs nothing, always.
- No Linux app.
- AI floor-plan recognition misread dimensions for 6 of 60 recent reviewers; Sweet Home 3D's manual drawing gives exact control if you have the patience.
How to try Home Planner
- Install Home Planner free on iPhone, iPad, Android, Windows or Mac.
- Draw the room, scan it with AR, or start from a photo of your floor plan.
- Furnish it from the 560,000+ item catalog and render the result in 3D.
- If you need the full catalog, PRO starts at €5.99/mo billed annually — every tier is on one public pricing page.
Home Planner is the home design app behind homeplannerapp.com. Sweet Home 3D is Copyright (C) the Sweet Home 3D authors, distributed under the GNU GPL; this independent comparison was not written with and is not endorsed by Sweet Home 3D. All facts and figures in this article were checked on the vendors' own pages and in the US App Store on 26 October 2026.
Try it on your own project
Free room planner and interior design app
