What “free” costs once you are inside
Every list of the best interior design apps gives each one a paragraph and moves on. None of them open the listing to read the subscription menu behind the word Free. On one of these apps it runs to seven separate prices.
Below is what four of the most-installed apps charge, taken off their US App Store listings rather than their marketing. Two of them are worth installing before you read another word; the other two are worth understanding first.
If you want it free and you want it now, install Houzz, which has no paid tier to reach.
If you want to draw and furnish a room, use Planner 5D in a browser, not in the app. Same product, cheaper subscription, and none of the weekly plans.
Checked August 2026
What the listings actually say
Ratings and in-app purchase prices read off the US App Store, checked august 2026. The two price columns are the cheapest and dearest thing each app will sell you from inside itself.
| App | Rating | What free gives you | Cheapest | Dearest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Houzz No subscription tier at all. It earns from the marketplace attached to it, which is why the design side can stay free, and also why every photo has something to buy in it. | 4.8324,000 | The whole app | — | — |
| Homestyler The weekly plan is the trap: at $2.99 a week you pay about $155 across a year for the thing the same listing sells at $69.99. Renders are metered separately in credit packs. | 4.45,600 | Free tier, AI runs on credits | $2.99 / week | $69.99 / year |
| Planner 5D Seven separate in-app purchases on one listing, including $7.99 a week. That is roughly $415 a year for a subscription the website sells at $59.99. | 4.441,000 | Free tier, about half the catalogue | $6.99 / 30 days | $399.99 / year |
| magicplan Priced for trades rather than for decorating a bedroom. The scanning is the best of the group. The free Starter plan is gone from magicplan.app, which now sells per project from $250 a month for ten (checked 23 September 2026); the in-app prices below are the App Store menu as read in August. | 4.741,000 | Free to install, no free plan on their site | $12.99 / month | $899.99 / year |
The same app, a different price depending on where you tap
This is not a rumour about Apple’s commission. Planner 5D publishes it in its own help centre: prices and the plans on offer vary by platform. Android gets weekly and yearly, iOS gets weekly, monthly and yearly, macOS gets no Pro tier at all.
Read together with the listings, that produces a spread most people never see, because you only ever look at one of these numbers: the one on the screen you happen to be holding. Every Planner 5D plan, side by side, is on our Planner 5D pricing page.
Checked August 2026
The best room planner app for each job
These apps are not competing for the same job, which is why “the best interior design app” has no answer and this does.
You want ideas and things to buy
Houzz. It is free with no tier above it, the photo library is the largest of the group, and everything in a photo is shoppable, which is the point of it, not a flaw.
You want to draw the room and see it in 3D
Planner 5D on the web rather than in the app. Same product, and the annual subscription is $59.99 on the website against $69.99 on the App Store, with a weekly option on the phone you do not want.
You want the plan measured, not estimated
magicplan, if your phone has LiDAR. It scans the room into a plan instead of asking you to type wall lengths. The pricing is aimed at contractors and the free Starter plan is gone: their site now sells per project, from $250 a month for ten (checked 23 September 2026). Install it for the scan, decide before you commit.
You want to see furniture in your actual room
The IKEA app, and it costs nothing. The catalogue is one shop, which is the whole limitation, but the AR placement is honest about scale in a way that renders are not.
What people are actually asking these apps to do
The three requests below come up again and again in the questions that rank for this term. None of them is “design my room”. All three are a decision someone is trying not to get wrong.
See it before buying it
The most common phrasing in these threads is some form of "visualise room decor before buying". The apps above are good at this up to a point: they show the room convincingly, and stop short of telling you whether the piece fits.
Place things I already found in a shop
People ask repeatedly for an app to upload a product image they found online and put it in their own room. The apps answer with their own catalogues instead, which is a different job: theirs is browsing, this one is checking a decision already half made.
Walk through it rather than look at a picture
Turning a floor plan image into something you move through comes up constantly. Worth knowing which half is real: the walkthrough is built from the plan you gave it, so it inherits that plan’s measurements and no others.
What none of them do
Every app above ends at a picture. You arrange a room, it looks right, and then you are on your own to find out what that sofa is, whether it is in stock, what it costs and whether it fits through the door.
Decato ends at a list instead: named products with prices, checked against your plan, with anything that does not clear the walkways dropped before you see it.
Two honest caveats. It is a desktop app for Mac and Windows, so if you are reading this on a phone looking for a phone app, it is not the answer today — it runs on Mac and Windows, and there is no mobile version. And the free part is the planning: it runs on your own ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini key, while product matching and renders start at $20 a month.
The end of a Decato project. Every piece in it is a product with a price, sized against the plan it was placed on.
Common questions
Which interior design app is actually free?
Houzz, in the sense that there is no paid tier to reach: it makes its money on the marketplace instead. The IKEA app too. Everything else on this page has a free tier and a subscription menu behind it, which is a different thing from being free (Checked August 2026).
Why do the same apps cost different amounts on the App Store and the web?
Because they are sold as different products in each place. Planner 5D says so in its own help centre: prices and the plans on offer vary by platform. Its site sells an annual Premium at $59.99; its App Store listing carries seven in-app purchases including a $7.99 weekly. If you have decided to pay, check the website before you tap the button in the app (Checked August 2026).
Are the weekly subscriptions worth it?
Almost never. A $2.99 weekly on Homestyler comes to about $155 over a year, against $69.99 for that listing’s own annual plan. Weekly pricing exists to look small next to a monthly one, and it is the most expensive way to keep an app for any length of time.
Do these apps work on Android as well as iPhone?
All four do, but the plans on offer are not the same. Planner 5D publishes the difference: Android gets weekly and yearly Premium, iOS gets weekly, monthly and yearly, and macOS gets no Pro tier at all. Check the tier you want exists on your device before you plan around it (Checked August 2026).
Can a phone app produce a floor plan I can give to someone?
magicplan can, and that is what it is built for: it scans a room with the phone camera and returns a measured plan. The others draw plans you make by hand from your own measurements, which is fine for planning furniture and thin evidence for anything a builder will price.
Where does Decato sit in this?
Outside it, and on a different device: it is a desktop app for Mac and Windows, not a phone one. It is for the step these apps stop before: turning a plan into named products with prices that fit the room. Planning is free on your own ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini key; product matching and renders start at $20 a month.