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Chief Architect vs Sweet Home 3D: catalog facts
Chief Architect	Sweet Home 3D
Best for: Builders, remodelers and designers producing residential home plans	Best for: Planning a room layout before you move the furniture
Paid Subscription at $1,995 per year or $229 per month, with a downloadable trial.	Free The desktop application is free and open source under the GPL.
Windows, macOS	Windows, macOS, Linux, Web
Automatic generation of roofs, foundations and framing Produces dimensions, schedules and materials lists from the model All 4 strengths for Chief Architect Automatic generation of roofs, foundations and framing Produces dimensions, schedules and materials lists from the model Focused specifically on residential design Trial version available	2D plan and 3D view update together as you draw Over 10,000 models and 400 textures included in the full download All 5 strengths for Sweet Home 3D 2D plan and 3D view update together as you draw Over 10,000 models and 400 textures included in the full download Produces photo-quality renderings and video walkthroughs An online version runs in any WebGL browser, with nothing to install Translated into around twenty languages
Expensive subscription aimed at professionals Specialised for homes rather than general-purpose CAD	Aimed at interior layout, not engineering drawings or parametric parts Java-based, so it does not feel like a native application on any platform All 3 limitations for Sweet Home 3D Aimed at interior layout, not engineering drawings or parametric parts Java-based, so it does not feel like a native application on any platform The 3D rendering is good enough to plan with rather than to publish
Downloadable app	Downloadable app, Web application
Not open source	Open source
License not stated	License: GPL-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Offline features available
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Chief Architect chiefarchitect.com Catalog checked September 24, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Sweet Home 3D sweethome3d.com sourceforge.net/projects/sweethome3d Catalog checked September 20, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.