Planaira is not the best tool for everyone. Here is where it wins — and the two places where another one is the better answer.
Criteria you can check by opening each vendor’s own site — no scores out of ten, and no prices: a competitor’s price changes without notice, and a stale comparison is worth nothing.
| Criterion | Planaira | HomeByMe | ArchiFacile | Sweet Home 3D | Cedreo | SketchUp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs in the browser, nothing to install | Yes | Yes | Limited | Limited | Yes | Limited |
| Start drawing without creating an account | Yes | No | Limited | Yes | No | No |
| A free plan with no end date | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Limited |
| The 3D rises as the plan is drawn | Yes | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dimensioned PDF with per-room areas | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| 3D model export (glTF, USDZ, OBJ) | Yes | Limited | No | Yes | Limited | Yes |
| Project file you can export and reimport | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Limited | Yes |
| Plans stay on your own device | Yes | No | Limited | Yes | No | Limited |
| AI render guided by the plan’s own depth | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Catalogue of real, buyable furniture brands | No | Yes | No | Limited | Limited | Yes |
| Several people on the same project | No | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
None of these tools is bad. They simply answer a different question.
Published by Dassault Systèmes and aimed at interior decoration: a large catalogue of branded furniture, photo renders on demand, projects in the cloud.
Prefer it if: you want to furnish with real products and note down the references to buy.
A deliberately simple French tool built around the dimensioned plan: draw, dimension, print. 3D exists but stays in the background.
Prefer it if: you only want a dimensioned 2D plan as fast as possible, and 3D is beside the point.
Free software installed on your machine, with no account and no server, and twenty years of community libraries behind it.
Prefer it if: you work offline, or you want free software that nobody can shut down.
Built for home builders and design-and-build firms: client-ready preliminary designs, teamwork, sales follow-up.
Prefer it if: you sell houses and need a team tool, with a professional budget behind it.
A general-purpose modeller: it is not limited to buildings and will draw almost any shape, at the cost of genuine learning time.
Prefer it if: you need to model freely — a roof frame, a bespoke cabinet, a shape no catalogue holds.
Because a competitor’s price changes without notice, and a page published in eight languages goes stale faster than it gets updated. Our prices are on the Pricing page; theirs are on their own pages, up to date.