The category went subscription. Not all of it.
With its 2026 version, Chief Architect folded Home Designer Suite, Architectural and Professional into one product and stopped selling a licence. Entry to the best-known DIY tool in this category is now $495 a year.
The one-time purchase did not die with it. It just moved somewhere nobody looks. Below is what seven options actually cost, every figure read off the vendor’s own page, and which class of tool the job you have in mind really needs.
One is built for structural work and the other is not, so this is not a like-for-like. It is still a factor of ten, and worth knowing before the first payment.
Checked August 2026
What it costs, from the vendors
Prices read off each vendor’s own pricing page rather than from a round-up. Every name links to the page the figure came from, so you can check it went stale before you trust it.
| Tool | Price | Billing | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweet Home 3D | Freeopen source | Free | No paid tier at all. Dated interface, exports plans and 3D, and nothing is withheld from you. |
| Live Home 3D Standard | $49.99once, lifetime | One-time | The cheapest real one-time licence left in the category. Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, with subscription options alongside it if you would rather rent. |
| Live Home 3D Pro | $99.99once, lifetime | One-time | The same product with the professional tools switched on. Still a single payment, which is now unusual enough to be the reason to look at it. |
| Planner 5D Premium | $59.99per year | Subscription | Browser-based and the easiest start of the group, but aimed at rooms rather than at structure. Buy it on the website, not in the app. |
| SketchUp Go | $129per year | Subscription | General 3D modelling rather than home design specifically. Steeper than everything above it and more capable once you are through that. |
| SketchUp Pro | $399per year | Subscription | The version with drawing sets and imports. Studio runs to $819 a year above it. |
| Home Designer | $495per year | Subscription | Chief Architect’s DIY line, and the one built properly for a whole house. $79 a month if you pay monthly. There is a free trial and no longer a licence to buy. |
Checked August 2026
Three jobs, and the expensive way to get it wrong
These tools market themselves almost identically, which is why people routinely buy the structural one to arrange a sofa. Decide which of these you are doing first; the price follows from it.
You are moving walls
A remodel, an extension, a loft conversion: anything where the structure changes. This is what Home Designer and Chief Architect are built for, and the reason they cost what they cost. Furniture tools will let you draw a wall but will not help you think about one.
Home Designer, or Live Home 3D Pro at a tenth of the price if the project is modest.
You are laying out rooms in a house you are not changing
The walls stay where they are and the question is what goes between them. Almost nothing in the expensive tier helps here, and the free and cheap options are genuinely sufficient.
Sweet Home 3D free, or Live Home 3D Standard at $49.99.
You are furnishing, and someone has to buy the result
The plan is settled and the work is choosing pieces, checking they fit, and producing something orderable. Every tool above stops at the picture, and the list is your problem.
This is the part we build.
Where we come in, and where we do not
Decato is not home design software. It does not move a wall, model a roof or produce a drawing set, and if your project is structural then every option in the table above is a better use of your money than we are.
What it does is the part all of them stop before: turning a settled plan into named furniture you can order , matched to the room, refused if it does not clear the walkways, and handed back as a priced list with a render built from those exact products.
Mac only for now, Windows planned. Planning runs free on your own ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini key; product matching and renders start at $20 a month.
Common questions
Is there still home design software you can buy once?
Yes, but not where most people look for it. Live Home 3D sells a lifetime Standard licence at $49.99 and Pro at $99.99 across Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. Chief Architect’s Home Designer, the better-known DIY product, consolidated its Suite, Architectural and Professional editions into one product with the 2026 version and no longer sells a licence at all (Checked August 2026).
What is the cheapest home design software that is actually good?
Sweet Home 3D if free is the constraint: it is open source, has no paid tier, and will draw a plan and furnish it in 3D. It looks its age, and that is the whole compromise. If you want something modern for the price of a takeaway, Live Home 3D Standard at $49.99 once is the answer.
What is the difference between home design and interior design software?
Structure. Home design tools model the building (walls, roofs, floors, stairs) because their user is changing it. Interior tools assume the building is fixed and work on what goes inside. Buying the first when you needed the second is the expensive mistake in this category, and it is easy to make because the marketing overlaps almost completely.
Do I need 3D, or is a floor plan enough?
For your own decisions a plan is usually enough: you are checking whether things fit, which is a two-dimensional question. 3D earns its keep when you have to show the room to somebody who cannot read a plan, which for most people means a partner, a client or a planning committee.
Is Decato home design software?
No, and it is worth saying plainly on this page. It does not move walls, model a roof or draw a construction set. It reads a floor plan you already have and turns it into furniture you can buy, matched to real products, checked against the walls, priced. If your project is structural, everything in the table above is a better use of your money than we are.