The 23 best exterior home design software for free and paid use in 2025
Visualization of exteriors helps to evaluate in the smallest detail the advantages and disadvantages of the future building, be it a residential building, a beach house, or any other premises. It provides the extraordinary ability to explore designs before construction and delve into landscapes, as you can’t do with just a sketch. Now, designers stick to modern apps for exterior home design, which help create several options for a future exterior with minimal effort and a stunning result.
TOP 23 best software and apps for exterior home design
Designers and architects widely use modern design exterior software to create the most realistic projects that suit all the client’s requirements in minutes. Let’s talk about what the contemporary market offers.
1. 3ds Max
A versatile 3D exterior home design software used in architecture, game development, and engineering. It features advanced tools for animation, modeling, and lighting, as well as extensive plugin support. V-Ray and Arnold integrate seamlessly for rendering at the highest level. Best suited for collaborative workflows and detailed visualizations.
Pricing: Free 30 days; $1,700/year.
2. SketchUp
An intuitive 3D design software ideal for home and garden designs. Features include 3D drag-and-drop, cloud sharing for teamwork, and access to a vast library called the 3D Warehouse. Suitable for experts and beginners alike.
Pricing: Free training; from $100/year.
3. V-Ray
The leading exterior design software for creating highly detailed images with sophisticated lighting and materials. Works alongside most 3D software and supports CPU/GPU rendering along with real-time previews.
Pricing: Free 30 days; from $75/month.
4. Lumion
A real-time 3D visualization exterior home design app that excels at rendering stunningly lit and dynamic outdoor scenes. It also allows for rapid city modeling through OpenStreetMap integration. Best for lighting exteriors than interiors.
Pricing: Free 14 days; from $55/month.
5. Foyr Neo
An AI-powered cloud platform that offers sophisticated interior and exterior renderings in record time. Features like real-time collaboration and easy switching between 2D and 3D make it easy to drag-and-drop furniture. This exterior house design app is good for meeting tight deadlines.
Pricing: Free 14 days.
Sign up for Foyr Neo right now
6. Planner 5D
An intuitive free exterior home design app for 5D modeling constructs a home or a particular piece of architecture with multi-level building and landscaping alongside AR and VR integration. Many organizational tools that come with Planner 5D augment 3D perspectives and landscapes providing users with gorgeous panoramic views.
Pricing: Free basic; paid upgrades available.
Sign up for Planner 5D right now
7. Cedreo
For architects and builders with less time or ongoing tasks, Cedreo exterior design app specializes in efficient yet modernized home design workflow solutions. Floorplans and furnishings are completed in a breeze along with 3D renders and templates that come ready for exports. Room and item templates meant for speedy creation further speed up projects and client presentation tasks.
Pricing: Free basic; $199/project.
8. Floorplanner
Web-based exterior home remodel app stripable to a user’s computer serves as a solution for quick and clean 2D and 3D floorplan creation.Users are provided with an organized drag and drop interface and an extended library of objects that specifically caters to early design stages and real-estate planning works. Ease of use is provided as no installation is required.
Pricing: Free basic.
Sign up for Floorplanner right now
9. Roomstyler
Should you wish to polish off your home design in record time, Roomstyler is the all-in-one designer for you. This comprehensive program polishes off-deck model designs in no time at all without the steep learning curve. Its friendliest feature, the drag-and-drop function, gives you the ability to seamlessly turn sketches into detailed home exteriors at lightning speed.
Pricing: Completely free, with no hidden fees or trial limits.
Sign up for Roomstyler right now
10. Homestyler
The program is simplistic in nature, meaning it can be used to create rough outlines and sketches of designs, however, if you require a detailed plan this is not the program for you.
Pricing: Free basic version; full feature access is paid.
Sign up for Homestyler right now
11. SmartDraw
A 2D diagram and blueprint creator for architects and contractors that require precise, scaled plans. Comes with browser based software alongside a large template library and office integrations.
Pricing: $9.95/month (team).
Sign up for SmartDraw right now
12. Live Home 3D
Cross platform software that allows users to create realtime lighting and design terrains and elevation models. Good for smaller 3d rendering studios who need advanced technicals alongside visuals.
Pricing: $49.99 Pro; free basic.
Sign up for Live Home 3D right now
13. Sweet Home 3D
This home exterior design app features an open-source design tool for homes and gardens featuring 2D floor plans alongside 3D views. Excellent for budget users who want more flexibility.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Sweet Home 3D right now
14. Chief Architect Home Designer Suite
Multi level buildings, landscaping, custom roofing alongside detailed visualization can be designed using this all-encompassing exterior and interior design tool.
Pricing: From $129.
Sign up for Chief Architect Home Designer right now
15. DreamPlan
An all-in-one solution for those looking to design homes, interiors, and landscapes. Beginners alongside professionals can benefit. Comes with photo and blueprint imports alongside freeform 3D modeling features of the outdoors.
Pricing: Non-commercial free and commercial from $35.
Sign up for DreamPlan right now
16. HomeByMe
HomeByMe is an intuitive, user-focused home exterior design software that brings a social, collaborative feel to 3D modeling. Designed for homeowners, designers, and small studios, this platform lets users create detailed interiors and exteriors with real brand-name furniture and decor elements – great for client previews or personal planning.
Pricing: Free basic version; $19 per project or $39/month for unlimited.
17. Realtime Landscaping Pro
Software for landscaping that has an enormous library of plants and decor, design by drag-and-drop, as well as offers 3D walkthroughs.
Pricing: One-time $129+.
Sign up for Realtime Landscaping Pro right now
18. Revit
An extremely powerful BIM and architectural modeler with parametric design and multidisciplinary coordination. This house exterior design app is best suited for detailed complex building projects.
Pricing: From $20/month.
19. Provia Visualizer
A simple tool for exterior design and remodeling that allows modification of colors, siding, roofing, and other features. Excellent for professionals and homeowners requiring straightforward client presentations.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Provia Visualizer right now
20. Lumion LiveSync
A plugin for real-time rendering that allows SketchUp, Revit, ArchiCAD, and Rhino models to be instantly synced to Lumion for live visualization and editing.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Lumion LiveSync right now
21. Menards Design-It-Center
An easy to use free home exterior design app for homeowners and DIY enthusiasts that allows them to visually plan for renovations using specific colors and materials. Upload your home photo or use theirs.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Menards Design-It-Center right now
22. Alside Visualizer
A modern exterior house design software that lets you view the entire building, landscape, and individual design elements in detail. Designers favor it for its simplicity and convenient project reporting. All projects are saved in a personal gallery for easy access and review at any time.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Alside Visualizer right now
23. Hover
This is one of the simplest and most innovative free exterior house design apps. Simply take smartphone photographs of a house, and within minutes Hover generates an accurate 3D model of it. Ideal for quick estimates and professional presentations, as well as observing real-time design changes without any complicated setup.
Pricing: Free to download on Google Play and App Store; paid features available.
For architects
When it comes to designing exteriors, utmost precision and advanced features are prerequisites for architects. These house exterior design software options are completely free and offer professional-grade features at no cost:
- Autodesk FormIt – For architectural modeling, it features cloud collaboration and BIM integration.
- Sweet Home 3D – Interior design applications tend to dominate its usage, but it is potent for exterior landscaping and structural arrangement as well.
- Tinkercad – Straightforward for quick 3D modeling which makes it perfect for early-stage architectural models.
For DIY enthusiasts
As for DIYers, tools should be simple and let creativity shine simultaneously. These selections embody straightforward elegance:
- Garden Planner – Spotlights on the landscaping and garden layout which can boost the client’s curb appeal.
- SketchUp Free – 3D modeling for custom exteriors and lessons in simple-accessible interface makes it great for newbies.
- Cedreo – Home design software that’s easy to use which emphasizes exterior and roofing design.
You can choose any of these: the result will be worthy.
FAQ
Some crucial features to be sought after when selecting an exterior home design software are a strong 3D model engine, a wide array of materials and textures, realistic lighting and rendering options as well as landscaping tools, driveways, among other outdoor components. These programs should also be user-friendly and work seamlessly with other architectural designing softwares.
For lifelike exterior renders, popular software options include Autodesk 3ds Max with V-Ray, Chaos Group V-Ray, Corona Renderer, Lumion, Enscape, Unity with HDRP, and Unreal Engine.
Lumion is an application that stands out for its extremely realistic and detailed outdoor architectural visualizations. It offers lots of material libraries, performs detailed calculations related to lighting schemes using Lumion’s state-of-the-art graphic interface; all these things make it one of the leading choices among professionals worldwide.
Considerations such as ease of use vary from one external house layout tool to another but some such as SketchUp Pro and Lumion are particularly designed with an easy-to-use interface. Oftentimes they come with tutorials showing how to perform certain tasks or templates which can be used instead of starting designs from scratch or other useful tools making them suitable for both newbies and seasoned users.
Yes, some programs specifically made for doing landscape plans include Realtime Landscaping Pro besides Vectorworks Landmark. They provide numerous functionalities needed for creating ultra-realistic backyard sceneries situated within bigger house layouts.
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