Quick answer
Layoutr is a Sweet Home 3D alternative that removes the drawing step. Both are free to start, and the difference is what you do first: Sweet Home 3D has you draw walls, even over an imported background image, before you can furnish anything. Layoutr uses your plan image directly. Set the scale by clicking two points, then drag real-sized furniture on top. Sweet Home 3D is the better pick if you want a full 3D model of your home.
Sweet Home 3D is one of the genuinely good free tools in this space, open source and well maintained for years. But it is an interior design application, which means you build your home in it first. Even when you import the floor plan you already have, that image is only a tracing guide: you still draw every wall on top of it. If all you want to know is whether the sofa fits, that is a real amount of work before you learn anything. Here is an honest comparison.
Is Sweet Home 3D free?
Yes, and properly so. Sweet Home 3D is a free application and an open source project distributed under the GNU General Public License, which means the source is public and there is no paid tier waiting behind a feature you need. You can download it to a computer, phone or tablet, or use it online in a browser.
Layoutr's core tool is also free and needs no account. Its limits sit elsewhere: the free tier places up to 3 furniture pieces and exports your plan as an image, while saving a project to reopen later and placing more pieces are Pro features, at €4.99 per month or €19.99 once. So on price this is not the deciding comparison. The workflow is.
Layoutr vs Sweet Home 3D at a glance
| Layoutr | Sweet Home 3D | |
|---|---|---|
| Price to start | Free, full core tool | Free, open source (GPL) |
| Account required | No | No |
| Install | None, desktop browser | Download, or use in a browser |
| Use your own floor plan | Yes, upload and set scale | Yes, import as a background image |
| Need to draw walls | No, use the image directly | Yes, draw walls over the background |
| Furniture at real-world scale | Yes, drag and drop | Yes |
| 2D / 3D | 2D fit-checking + 3D walkthrough | 2D plan and 3D view |
| Free tier limits | Up to 3 furniture pieces, saving is Pro | None, it is open source |
| Paid plans | €4.99/mo or €19.99 lifetime | None |
Tools change. Sweet Home 3D's license, its download and browser options, and its background-image and wall-drawing workflow were checked against sweethome3d.com and its user guide on 12 September 2026. Confirm the current behavior on their site before deciding.
What Sweet Home 3D is good at
Sweet Home 3D earns its reputation. It is free in the way that matters, with no account, no upsell and no project cap, and what the drawing work buys you is a real model of your home rather than a view of a plan. The furniture catalog is large and extensible, it runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and because it is open source it will not quietly change its terms. If you want to model your home properly, furnish it and light it, it is a better tool than anything narrower, including Layoutr.
Where Layoutr is simpler
Layoutr removes the wall-drawing step. You do not trace your plan into geometry. You upload the floor plan you already have, set the scale by clicking two points a known distance apart, and immediately drag real-sized furniture onto the plan. Every piece is sized to real-world dimensions, so clearances and walkways are obvious at a glance. There is no account and nothing to install. The free tier places up to 3 furniture pieces and exports your plan as an image; saving a project and placing more pieces are Pro features, from €4.99 per month. You can work in meters, feet, or inches, and the planner runs in a desktop browser.
A worked example. A 3-seater sofa runs 175 to 230 cm (69 to 91 in) wide and 85 to 95 cm (33 to 37 in) deep, and a main traffic route needs 900 mm (36 in) of clear floor. On a plan set to real scale those are numbers you see rather than numbers you calculate, because every piece is drawn at its real dimensions.
Which should you choose?
- Choose Sweet Home 3D if you want a full, free, open source model of your home that you can furnish, light and render, and drawing the walls is time you are happy to spend.
- Choose Layoutr if you want to skip the drawing and just check what fits on the plan you already have, in a couple of minutes and with no sign-up.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sweet Home 3D free?
Yes. Sweet Home 3D is a free application and an open source project distributed under the GNU General Public License. You can download it to a computer, phone or tablet, or use it online in a browser. Layoutr's core tool is also free and needs no account, placing up to 3 furniture pieces, with Pro at €4.99 per month or €19.99 once.
Do I have to draw walls in Sweet Home 3D?
Yes. You can import your existing floor plan as a background image first, which its own user guide calls optional but says it speeds up the drawing of the walls of an existing home. You then draw walls on top of that background image. The tracing step is still there. Layoutr has no wall-drawing step at all: you set the scale on your plan image and place furniture directly.
How is Layoutr different from Sweet Home 3D?
Sweet Home 3D is an interior design application: you build the home, then furnish it and view it in 3D. Layoutr answers a narrower question. You upload the plan you already have, set its real scale by clicking two points a known distance apart, and drag real-sized furniture on top to see what fits, then walk around that layout in 3D at true size. None of it needs an account, and there are no walls to draw.
Is there an online version of Sweet Home 3D?
Yes. Its own site says you can either download Sweet Home 3D to install it on your computer, smartphone or tablet, or use it online within your browser. Layoutr runs only in a desktop browser and installs nothing.
Which is better for checking whether furniture fits?
For a fit check specifically, the difference is the setup cost. Sweet Home 3D gives you a full 3D model once you have drawn the walls. Layoutr uses your plan image as it is, so within a couple of minutes you have a scaled plan with real-sized furniture on it, and a 3D walkthrough of that plan with no drawing at all. If you want a modeled home with materials and lighting, and do not mind drawing the walls, Sweet Home 3D is the richer tool.
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