Gridsnap vs Planner 5D: Drafting Tool or Home Design App?
Planner 5D is a consumer home design app: drag-and-drop rooms, a 10,000+ item furniture catalog, photorealistic renders, and AI features like recognising a photographed floor plan. Gridsnap is a drafting tool: exact walls and dimensions, automatic elevations, a plan checker, and scaled vector exports. They overlap at “draw my home in 2D and see it in 3D”, then diverge — Planner 5D toward decorated renders of the result, Gridsnap toward accurate drawings you can build from.
Gridsnap vs Planner 5D
| Gridsnap | Planner 5D | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free; $19 once for one project (90 days), or $9/mo · $90/yr ongoing | Free; Premium $19.99/mo or $59.99/yr; Professional $49.99/mo or $399.99/yr |
| Free tier limits | Full drafting, exports and core plan check free; 1 synced cloud project | Unlimited projects; about half the furniture catalog (~5,000 items); no renders or AI features |
| Platform | Browser (nothing to install); works on any OS | Browser, plus desktop and mobile apps |
| Drafting precision | Millimetre-exact drafting with typed dimensions and snapping | Drag-and-drop room drawing and furnishing |
| CAD (DXF) export | Layered R12 DXF of the full drawing, included | CAD export on Professional ($399.99/yr) |
| Elevations | All four elevations generated automatically from the plan | Not a feature; output is plans, renders and walkthroughs |
| 3D | Instant 3D with first-person walkthrough | Strong: 10,000+ item catalog, unlimited 4K renders and 360° walkthroughs on Professional |
| Plan checking | Built-in plan check: overlaps and in-wall errors free; blocked doors/windows, circulation, room sizes, daylight on Pro | None |
| AI features | AI assistant (Pro): explain findings, auto-fix, furnish rooms, draft a plan from a text brief | AI floor plan recognition, AI Studio credits and photo-to-3D on paid plans |
Compared as of 2026-08-19. Planner 5D details from its own published pricing and documentation; corrections welcome via the editor's feedback form.
Where Planner 5D is strong
- Photorealistic renders — up to unlimited 4K on Professional — and 360° walkthroughs
- A 10,000+ item furniture catalog and an active consumer community (Design Battles)
- AI floor plan recognition: photograph a paper plan and get an editable model
- Free tier allows unlimited projects
When Gridsnap is the better choice
Choose Gridsnap when accuracy is the point: walls typed in millimetres, dimensions that stay anchored as you edit, automatic elevations, a plan checker that catches blocked doors and rooms without daylight, and free vector PDF/DXF output at real scale. Planner 5D’s CAD export sits on its $399.99/yr Professional tier; in Gridsnap the DXF is free.
When Planner 5D is the better choice
Choose Planner 5D when you’re designing the look of your home rather than its construction: furnishing, materials, lighting and photorealistic renders to share. Its catalog, render quality and consumer polish are ahead of Gridsnap’s 3D, and its mobile apps make casual editing easy.
Common questions
Weighing more options? See the best free floor plan creators roundup, the full feature list, or browse ready-made templates to judge the output directly.
Is Gridsnap or Planner 5D better for a renovation plan?
Gridsnap. A renovation conversation with a builder needs real dimensions, and Gridsnap is built around them — millimetre walls, anchored dimensions, automatic elevations and scaled PDF sheets. Planner 5D is better at showing what the renovated room will look like once furnished.
Which has the better free tier?
They’re free in different ways. Planner 5D allows unlimited projects free but holds back half its catalog, renders and AI. Gridsnap gives you the whole drafting workflow free — drawing, elevations, PDF/DXF export, core plan checks — and limits cloud sync to one project.
Can Planner 5D or Gridsnap export to CAD?
Both, differently. Gridsnap exports a layered R12 DXF of the full drawing on the free tier. Planner 5D lists CAD export as a Professional feature at $399.99/yr or $49.99/mo.
Try it on your own plan
Gridsnap runs in the browser and the drafting core is free — draw a room to real dimensions and run the plan check on it in a couple of minutes.