The 23 Best Exterior Home Design Apps and Software for Free and Paid Use in 2023
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
Meet one of the oldest 3D editors with ample capabilities. It is universal, compatible with various plugins, and has multiple model libraries. Often, this program is taken as a basis and used in conjunction with other programs or downloaded updated software and plugins for optimization.
Pricing: Free for 30 days; $1,700 annually.
2. SketchUp
The top exterior home design is excellent for both laptops and phones. Not all software offers such convenient work opportunities for exteriors. In this case, you will find a sound library of references, modern tools for changing model parameters, working with shapes, textures, styles, changing the viewing angle, and all this with a reasonably intuitive interface.
Pricing: Free training version or from $100 annually.
3. V-Ray
This home exterior design software allows you to experiment with graphics and create unique textures and materials if those in the library do not suit you. Objects turn out to be as realistic as possible. All house details can be easily changed if the client requires it.
Pricing: Free for 30 days; from $75 monthly.
4. Lumion
Exterior visualizations work best with this software: landscapes, architectural objects, and plants. Interiors may have problems with artificial lighting sources. The OpenStreetMap function allows you to build an entire district or city in one click.
Pricing: Free for 14 days; from $55 monthly.
5. Foyr Neo
Super simple to learn home exterior design app has an AI-driven interface. Send a render to your clients in 30 minutes, switch between 2D and 3D with a click, drag and drop products with ease.
Pricing: Free for 14 days.
Sign up for Foyr Neo right now
6. Planner 5D
In Planner 5D, you can build any premises of any shape, create multi-story buildings, and decorate and arrange furniture and the area around the house.
Pricing: Free basic version; paid for full feature access.
Sign up for Planner 5D right now
7. Cedreo
Meet an interior design program that is intended for professionals. It has a wide range of tools and capabilities that allow it to create projects of any complexity and export them to various formats.
Pricing: Free basic version; $199 per project.
8. Floorplanner
The program offers a rich library and tools for the highest-quality images. It’s not difficult to teach and train it; the result will please you with a realistic picture. In addition to the interior, you can model the exterior elements of the house, but there are not many opportunities for working with the landscape.
Pricing: Free basic version.
Sign up for Floorplanner right now
9. Roomstyler
This exterior home designer is ideal for those who need to make a quick and high-quality sketch. Hundreds of designers from all over the world are looking for inspiration in Roomstyler, so it is also a kind of social network.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Roomstyler right now
10. Homestyler
The program is ideal and extremely easy to use for creating a quick sketch of a design in a minimalist style, so it is unsuitable if you need a detailed plan.
Pricing: Free basic version; paid for full feature access.
Sign up for Homestyler right now
11. RoomSketcher
You are offered to create high-quality floor images, including floor plans and designs of houses and neighborhoods, directly on your mobile phone or tablet. To simplify designers’ work, you can upload a sketch into the program and let it work for you.
Pricing: Free subscription; from $38 per level.
Sign up for RoomSketcher right now
12. Live Home 3D
You can easily create models of interiors and exteriors in 2D and 3D. Designed plans and models can be rotated, and size, background, and textures changed. Give your client a virtual tour to understand and see your idea in real-time. This helps a lot in my work.
Pricing: Free for Windows and iOS; about $30 for macOS.
Sign up for Live Home 3D right now
13. Virtual Architect
There are two versions of the program, for professionals and amateurs. A simple interface lets you quickly create a model of a kitchen, living room, bathroom, garden, and home exterior and share the sketch with the client. Don’t make customers wait long.
Pricing: About $100.
Sign up for Virtual Architect right now
14. Floorplan 3D
The functionality of this edit house exterior program is intended exclusively for professional users. There are tools for designing multi-level rooms, designing cottages, automatically creating stairs and complex roofs, and a rich library of interior elements and garden plot objects.
Pricing: Free for 14 days.
Sign up for Floorplan 3D right now
15. DreamPlan
Design from scratch! You can create design projects for residential buildings, office premises, bars, and restaurants and improve landscape design. You have various tools to modify images from your library or create your unique designs.
Pricing: Free for non-commercial use; from $35.
Sign up for DreamPlan right now
16. GAF Virtual Remodeler
The main focus of the software is the exterior of the house. You can choose any object, roof, window, or stair and work it out to the smallest detail. Just upload an image that’s as close to what you want as possible and start working with it.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for GAF Virtual Remodeler right now
17. Dream Designer
This innovative app is excellent for beginners. Just upload a photo of your project and start customizing. A vast selection of exterior elements includes windows, doors, walls, tiles, colors, and textures. Plus, it can be operated on a mobile phone.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Dream Designer right now
18. Revit
A software package designed for exterior home rendering, perfect for complex construction design. Ideal for quick 3D visualization of the created object.
Pricing: From $20 monthly.
19. Provia Visualizer
Select a house or plot from the library to start work with the software. Various customization options include doors, windows, wall color and texture, roof, fence, and other details. You can easily change design options and share them with the customer.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Provia Visualizer right now
20. Lumion LiveSync
A great free plugin that works well in collaboration between Lumion and other software makes your work easier, faster, and more enjoyable.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Lumion LiveSync right now
21. Menards Design-It-Center
Working with the application starts as standard: upload a photo, and you can change shapes, colors, and textures according to the client’s requirements. Setting up the program will not take much time. Missing images can be easily uploaded to the library and used in the future.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Menards Design-It-Center right now
22. Alside Visualizer
Modern software makes it possible to visualize the entire building, its landscape, and each detail separately. Designers choose the program for ease of reporting. All created projects are saved in the gallery and available for viewing anytime.
Pricing: Free.
Sign up for Alside Visualizer right now
23. Hover
The application is as easy to use as possible. You must photograph the room and upload it to the program to get started. Furthermore, the program will help you reconstruct the details of the house in 3D according to your requirements.
Pricing: Free to download from Google Play and App Store.
Why Is It Important to Turn to Professionals for Exterior Creation?
It would seem that everything is simple, and you can make the best house design exterior project on your own — install the necessary innovative programs and learn their interface. However, there is no need to rush. Even the most straightforward drawing made by a non-professional can distort the overall picture of the project. The selection and combination of all finishing materials, furniture, and decor is not simple.
Here are some benefits of professional rendering:
- Experience and skills.
- Quality and realism.
- Efficient use of resources.
- Meeting deadlines and budget.
- Individual approach.
- Professional equipment and software.
- Creative input and expertise.
How to Bring My Project to Perfection?
It’s great when a designer has such a wide selection of tools. All that remains is to choose a program for your level and figure out what’s what. If you don’t have time to check apps for exterior home design and don’t want to lose a client, you can always seek professional help. Genense Studio designers work with programs of different proficiency and will do everything to ensure your client is satisfied with the result.
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