9 Best Free 3D Landscape Design Software in 2026, Compared

Quick comparison

The best free 3d landscape design software

#1

SketchUp

Best for: DIYers who want complete 3D modeling freedom and are willing to learn the tool

Visit sketchup.com

Starting priceFree (SketchUp Free plan; Go $129/year)

Free planYes — SketchUp Free (web, personal use)

SketchUp Free is the heavyweight of this list hiding in a free web app. It is a real 3D modeler, not a garden wizard: you draw your lot to scale, pull trees, shrubs, pergolas and patio furniture from the 3D Warehouse library of millions of free models, and orbit around the result in full 3D. For a homeowner willing to spend a weekend learning, no free tool produces more convincing after views.

The trade-off is effort. There is no add flower bed button; you place and scale every object yourself, and terrain shaping takes practice. The free web version also omits the desktop app, LayOut documentation and commercial use, which start with Go at $129 a year. Buy it when you want precision and have patience; pick Planner 5D when you want a finished-looking yard this afternoon.

What we like

• A real 3D modeler at no cost, not a garden wizard with training wheels
• 3D Warehouse offers millions of free plants, fences, pergolas and furniture models
• The largest tutorial library of any tool here, so help is always a search away
• Precise to-scale modeling, so the design you draw is the design you can build

Watch out for

• You model everything yourself — there is no drag-and-drop flower bed or patio button
• The free web version has no desktop app, no LayOut and no commercial licence
• Garden-specific tools need extensions, and terrain shaping takes practice

#2

Planner 5D

Best for: Homeowners who want a drag-and-drop yard with a 3D walkthrough in one afternoon

Visit planner5d.com

Starting priceFree (Basic plan; Premium $59.99/year)

Free planYes — free Basic plan

Planner 5D is the fastest route from a blank lot to a 3D yard you can walk through. You sketch the property lines, drag in a patio, lawn, trees and garden beds from a catalog of more than 10,000 items, and switch to 3D to stroll around the result. The whole thing runs in the browser or on your phone, and an AR mode drops the design onto your real yard through the camera.

The free tier covers the basics to plan a real project, but the catch is the catalog split: many of the nicest plants, materials and high-resolution renders need Premium at $59.99 a year. The outdoor selection is smaller than the interior range, since the product's heart is home design. For visualizing a patio-and-planting project before you buy mulch, the free tier does the job.

What we like

• The fastest route from a blank lot to a 3D yard you can walk through
• More than 10,000 items in the full catalog, with AR view on mobile
• Runs in the browser and on phone, tablet and desktop with one account
• Free tier covers unlimited projects, so a single yard costs nothing to plan

Watch out for

• Many of the nicest plants, materials and high-resolution renders need Premium
• The outdoor and garden catalog is thinner than the interior furniture range
• Subscriptions auto-renew, and monthly billing costs $19.99 against $59.99 a year

#3

HomeByMe

Best for: Homeowners who want photorealistic renders of a yard to show a contractor

Visit home.by.me

Starting priceFree (Starter plan; Premium $29/month)

Free planYes — Starter plan (3 projects)

HomeByMe takes the opposite approach from SketchUp: draw a simple 2D plan of your yard, and the software builds the 3D version for you. You furnish the space from a catalog of real branded products, adjust colors and materials, and generate 4K images that look close to photographs. Sharing the project with family for opinions takes one link.

The free Starter plan is genuinely usable, but it rations projects and high-resolution renders, so plan your design before you start clicking: 3 projects and 3 realistic images per account. Planting design is also fairly basic compared with dedicated garden tools; you get beds, lawns and decorative trees rather than a plant database. For a homeowner who wants to show a contractor build this, the renders alone make HomeByMe worth trying.

What we like

• Draw a simple 2D plan and the software builds the 3D version for you
• 4K rendered images that look close to photographs
• Catalog of real branded products, so the render shows what you would actually buy
• Share a project with family or a contractor through a single link

Watch out for

• Free Starter covers only 3 projects and 3 realistic images per account
• Paid tiers and one-time image packs make the pricing confusing to follow
• Planting design is basic — beds, lawns and decorative trees, not a plant database

#4

DreamPlan

Best for: Homeowners who want free desktop software with no account and no signup

Visit nchsoftware.com

Starting priceFree (non-commercial use; paid Plus from $29.99 one-time)

Free planYes — free version (non-commercial use)

DreamPlan is refreshingly old-fashioned: download it, open it, design. No account, no subscription screen, no credit card. The free version for non-commercial use covers floor plans plus outdoor design, with terrain reshaping, trees, shrubs, flower gardens, pools and the ability to import 3D models. You can switch between 3D, rendered 2D and blueprint views, and export images or 3D files.

The honest catch is polish. The interface and the 3D output look like desktop software from a decade ago, and the renders will not impress anyone next to Planner 5D's. The free licence also excludes commercial use, so contractors need the paid Plus licence, listed from $29.99 one-time by third-party sellers. But for a homeowner who wants to lay out beds and a patio without signing up for anything, DreamPlan remains one of the simplest free options.

What we like

• Free version with no signup, no account and no subscription screen
• Terrain reshaping, trees, shrubs, flower gardens and pools included
• Switch between 3D, rendered 2D and blueprint views of the same design
• Exports to JPG, PNG and 3D formats for sharing or printing

Watch out for

• The interface and the 3D output look dated next to the web rivals
• Free licence covers non-commercial use only — contractors need a paid licence
• No cloud sync, so designs live on one computer unless you move the files

#5

iScape

Best for: Homeowners who want to see plants and patios at real scale in their actual yard

Visit iscapeit.com

Starting priceFree (free version; Pro $299.99/year)

Free planYes — free version (2 designs)

iScape does something none of the desktop tools can: you point your phone at your yard, and it overlays the design onto the real space in augmented reality. Photograph the back garden, drop in a maple tree, a stone patio and hydrangeas at true scale, and see how they will look from the kitchen window. The catalog covers thousands of real-world plants, pavers and furniture with photorealistic detail.

The free version handles personal projects, saving 2 designs with a limited database; Pro at $299.99 a year adds the full catalog plus material inventories and branded PDF proposals. The limitation is the form factor: designing a whole property on a phone screen gets fiddly, and it is iOS and Android only. For answering will that tree overwhelm the yard, nothing else here shows you the answer in your actual space.

What we like

• Augmented reality designs on photos of your actual yard, at true scale
• Thousands of real plants, pavers and furniture with photorealistic detail
• Shareable visuals that show exactly how a tree will look from the kitchen window
• Pro adds material inventories and branded PDF proposals for contractors

Watch out for

• Mobile only — designing a whole property on a phone screen gets fiddly
• Pro at $29.99 a month is the priciest subscription in this list
• The free version saves only 2 designs with a limited plant database

#6

Gardena myGarden

Best for: Gardeners who want a quick, free sketch of beds, lawns and watering zones

Visit gardena.com

Starting priceFree (no paid plan)

Free planYes — completely free

Gardena myGarden is the quiet, dependable option. It is a free online planner from Gardena, the German garden brand, focused entirely on garden design rather than whole-home modeling. You lay out beds, lawns, paths and watering zones, place plants, and view the result in 3D. There is no free tier with limits because there is no paid tier at all.

The trade-off is sophistication. The 3D view is simpler than Planner 5D or SketchUp, the plant library leans toward what Gardena sells, and collaboration features are minimal. But for a first-time gardener planning raised beds and a sprinkler layout, the focus is a feature: no house-modeling tools getting in the way, no upsell screens, just the garden. It is the lowest-friction start on this list.

What we like

• Completely free with no paywall, no account wall and no paid tier at all
• Focused purely on gardens, not whole houses, so nothing gets in the way
• Built-in sprinkler planner that produces a shopping list for the watering system
• Example gardens from Gardena's experts give you a starting point to edit

Watch out for

• The 3D view is simpler than the dedicated modelers, and the plan is largely top-down
• Plant library leans toward what Gardena sells, not a neutral database
• No measured construction output — a contractor cannot build from the sketch

#7

RoomSketcher

Best for: Homeowners planning the house and the yard together in one measured project

Visit roomsketcher.com

Starting priceFree (Free plan; Pro $144/year)

Free planYes — free plan (2 credits)

RoomSketcher is known for floor plans, but its free tier covers outdoor areas too, which earns it a place here. Draw your home and lot to scale, furnish the interior, then lay out the patio, deck and garden in the same project and view it all in 3D. The plans are accurate enough to hand to a contractor, and the free account requires no credit card.

The free tier allows 2 starter credits with basic 3D viewing and low-resolution snapshots, which is enough for one home-and-yard project done carefully. Landscaping tools are clearly secondary to the interior features, and the polished visuals, high-quality floor plans and walkthroughs need Pro at $144 a year — plus credits for each 3D output. If your project is really the whole property, inside and out, RoomSketcher's free tier is a practical single workspace.

What we like

• Accurate to-scale plans you can hand to a contractor
• One project covers the house interior, patio, deck and garden together
• 3D viewing included on the free tier, with no credit card required
• AI Convert turns an uploaded plan image into an editable project

Watch out for

• Free tier caps at 2 starter credits, so premium outputs run out fast
• Credits meter 3D output, so costs creep with every render you generate
• Landscaping tools are secondary — interiors are clearly the main event

#8

Live Home 3D

Best for: Apple-household homeowners who want a polished native app with terrain editing

Visit livehome3d.com

Starting priceFree (free version; Pro $149.99 one-time)

Free planYes — free version

Live Home 3D is a polished multi-platform designer that runs natively on Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and even Apple Vision Pro. You draw floor plans, model the house exterior, adjust the terrain for sloped lots, and furnish everything in 3D with walkthroughs. The interface is modern and precise, with real measurements throughout, so the design you make is buildable, not just pretty.

The free version lets you design with some limits on export and advanced features; the full experience needs the Pro edition, a one-time licence listed at $149.99. Like most home-first tools, the plant and garden library is thinner than the interior catalog. But for Apple-household homeowners who want a native app rather than a browser tab, Live Home 3D's free version is the smoothest yard-design experience on this list.

What we like

• Native apps for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and Apple Vision Pro
• Proper terrain editing with elevation points, so sloped lots model correctly
• Precise measurements throughout, so the design is buildable, not just pretty
• One-time licence — no subscription to keep paying after you buy

Watch out for

• Free version watermarks exports and caps video at 720p
• Terrain editing and enhanced materials need the paid Pro edition
• One-time licence pricing varies by store, so check the price before you buy

#9

Sweet Home 3D

Best for: DIYers who want a free offline designer with no account and no paywall

Visit sweethome3d.com

Starting priceFree (open source, no paid plan)

Free planYes — free, open source

Sweet Home 3D is the only tool here that is free in every sense: free to download, free to use, open source, with no paid plan waiting behind it. Draw the plan of your house and yard, arrange furniture and outdoor objects on it, and visit the result in 3D. It runs offline on Windows, Mac and Linux, and the community supplies hundreds of free add-on models and textures.

The trade-off is polish and plant knowledge. The interface looks dated, there is no plant database or garden-specific tool, and your designs stay on the computer that made them — no cloud sync, no mobile app. But nothing here beats it on honesty: no account, no ads, no caps, no upsell screens. If you want a free offline designer for a yard plan you will print and take outside, start here.

What we like

• Free and open source, with no paid plan, no account and no ads
• Works fully offline on Windows, Mac and Linux
• Draw the plan, furnish it and walk through the result in 3D
• Hundreds of free add-on models and textures from the community

Watch out for

• The interface looks dated and the object library is smaller than the web rivals
• No cloud sync and no mobile app — designs stay on the computer that made them
• No plant database or garden-specific tools; you place generic objects yourself

The best free 3d landscape design software does one job well: it turns the yard in your head into a 3D view you can walk around, change and show to someone else before you spend a dollar on plants or pavers. We ranked the nine tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a homeowner planning one yard — starting with the most capable free modeler and ending with the simplest free options, and every price was checked on the vendor's own pricing page on November 7, 2026, except where noted in "How we chose".

How to choose the best free 3d landscape design software

• Decide how you want to see the yard. iScape shows plants at true scale in your actual yard through your phone camera; SketchUp, Planner 5D and RoomSketcher show a 3D model on a screen; Gardena myGarden is mostly a top-down sketch.
• Count what the free plan rations. HomeByMe allows 3 projects and 3 realistic images, RoomSketcher gives 2 starter credits, and iScape saves 2 designs. The cap you hit first is your real starting price.
• Check the plant catalog. SketchUp's 3D Warehouse and iScape's real-plant database cover thousands of species; HomeByMe and DreamPlan give you beds and decorative trees rather than a plant library.
• Think about who builds it. If a contractor will build the design, pick a tool with measured, to-scale output — SketchUp or RoomSketcher — rather than a concept sketch from Gardena myGarden.
• Match the device you own. iScape is mobile only, DreamPlan and Sweet Home 3D are desktop downloads, and Planner 5D, HomeByMe and Gardena myGarden run in the browser.

Design software is one part of getting a yard built — the other part is getting found when neighbors search for help. If you run a landscaping business rather than planning your own yard, our local SEO service covers the visibility side. And before you publish pages about the services you offer, run your titles through the free SERP snippet preview tool — it shows exactly how the title and description will look in Google.

Whatever you shortlist, try it with your real yard before you pay. The free plans in this list are long enough to model one genuine project — your lot, your patio, your planting beds — and that one project tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that the free plan covers the whole yard without hitting a paywall mid-design, and that you can export or share the result in a form your contractor can actually use.

Free 3d landscape design software pricing: what you will actually pay

Take a homeowner planning one backyard: a patio, a lawn, two planting beds and a row of shrubs. On list prices, the software costs $0 on every tool here — SketchUp Free, Planner 5D Basic, HomeByMe Starter, DreamPlan, iScape, Gardena myGarden, RoomSketcher Free, Live Home 3D and Sweet Home 3D all cover a first project without payment. The money only starts when the free plan runs out, and the caps decide when that happens.

Three of those caps bite fast. HomeByMe Starter covers 3 projects and 3 realistic images, so a fourth design or a fourth render needs a paid tier — Premium at $29 a month, with no published annual price. RoomSketcher Free gives 2 starter credits, so the third 3D photo costs extra unless you move to Pro at $144 a year. iScape saves only 2 designs free, so a third saved design needs Pro at $299.99 a year. A homeowner who redesigns twice and renders often can therefore pay $144 a year for RoomSketcher Pro, or $29 a month for HomeByMe Premium, in the first year, while a homeowner who plans once and exports once pays $0.

Over a year, that is $0 on Gardena myGarden and Sweet Home 3D, which have no paid plan at all; $29.99 once for DreamPlan Plus if you want the commercial licence; $59.99 for Planner 5D Premium; $129 for SketchUp Go; $144 for RoomSketcher Pro; $149.99 once for Live Home 3D Pro; and $299.99 for iScape Pro. HomeByMe Premium is $29 a month with no published annual price. The same backyard costs $0 at the cheap end and $299.99 at the dear end — a gap that comes entirely from render caps and catalog locks, not from features.

Two costs sit outside every number above. First, the one-time licences — DreamPlan Plus and Live Home 3D Pro — are paid once and kept, while the subscriptions renew every year, so compare them over three years, not one. Second, the render credits: RoomSketcher charges credits for 3D photos even on Pro, and HomeByMe sells extra images in packs, so a homeowner who renders every version of the design pays more than the subscription alone. If you also design the house itself, not just the yard, compare the same tools in our guide to the best free CAD software for home design.

Know the difference: free plan vs free trial vs one-time licence

The confusion in this category is between three ways of paying nothing — and they are not the same thing. A free plan never expires but limits something: HomeByMe rations projects and images, RoomSketcher rations credits, and iScape rations saved designs. A free trial gives you the full paid product for a set number of days and then stops; Planner 5D offers a 7-day trial of Premium, and SketchUp offers a 7-day trial of its paid plans. A one-time licence is different again: you pay once and keep the software, which is how DreamPlan Plus and Live Home 3D Pro are sold.

There is a second, quieter confusion: a free plan and a free version are the same promise with different names. DreamPlan and Live Home 3D call theirs a free version, SketchUp and Planner 5D call theirs a free plan, and both mean the same thing — a permanent, limited edition you can keep using. The word to watch is not plan or version, but the limit attached to it: non-commercial use on DreamPlan, watermarked exports on Live Home 3D, and project caps on HomeByMe.

A third distinction worth knowing is the render cap versus the catalog lock. A render cap charges you for outputs — HomeByMe images, RoomSketcher 3D photos — so the cost grows with every version you generate. A catalog lock charges you for inputs — Planner 5D's premium plants, iScape's full database — so the cost is fixed once you pay. If you render rarely but want every plant, the catalog lock is the cheaper buy; if you want every render but few plants, the render cap hurts more.

Quick comparison: tool type by need

Mistakes to avoid

• Budgeting on the free plan, then finding the render costs extra. HomeByMe Starter covers 3 realistic images and RoomSketcher Free gives 2 credits. If you render every version of the design, count the paid tier in the price from day one.
• Buying on the monthly price. iScape Pro costs $29.99 a month but $299.99 a year — two months free. Planner 5D Premium is $19.99 a month against $59.99 a year. Annual billing is the cheaper route on every subscription here.
• Ignoring the cap that bites first. A tool can be free and still be the wrong buy: HomeByMe at $0 is no bargain once you pass 3 projects, and iScape at $0 is no bargain once you pass 2 saved designs.
• Paying for the commercial licence before you need it. DreamPlan's free version covers home use, and SketchUp Free covers personal projects. Buy the paid licence the month you take on paid work — not before.
• Forgetting the second device. iScape is mobile only and DreamPlan is desktop only. If you design on a phone and present on a laptop, pick a tool that runs on both, like Planner 5D or SketchUp.

How we chose

We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 7, 2026 and recorded the starting price exactly as shown, and we ranked the tools by fit for the most common buyer — a homeowner planning one yard — not by brand size. Three prices could not be verified on the vendor's own page: DreamPlan's Plus licence from $29.99 one-time and Live Home 3D Pro at $149.99 one-time come from third-party listings, because NCH's purchase page did not load and BeLight publishes no price list on its site; HomeByMe's Premium at $29 a month is vendor-supplied pricing via G2, since HomeByMe's own site sells one-time image and project packs from $19.47 and publishes no subscription rate card. Ratings are shown only where a G2 page was verified in the last few days; DreamPlan, iScape and Gardena myGarden carry no rating because DreamPlan's only Capterra listing is 3 reviews last crawled 160 days ago, iScape has no G2 or Capterra listing, and Gardena myGarden has no reviews on any G2 or Capterra page. No vendor paid for a place in this list, and none of the links here are affiliate links.

What to do next

Start with the free plan of your top pick and model your real yard — your lot, your patio, your planting beds — before you pay anything. Check that the free plan covers the whole design without hitting a paywall, and that you can export or share the result in a form your contractor can use. If the yard is sorted but new customers are not finding your landscaping business, our local SEO service handles the visibility side — or compare design tools in our guide to the best 3D CAD software. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.

Sources we checked (15)

• SketchUp pricing — sketchup.com/plans-and-pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
• SketchUp reviews — g2.com/products/sketchup/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
• Planner 5D pricing — planner5d.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
• Planner 5D reviews — g2.com/products/planner-5d/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
• HomeByMe reviews and pricing — g2.com/products/homebyme/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
• HomeByMe free plan — home.by.me/en/services/floorplan-drawing-service (checked November 7, 2026)
• DreamPlan — nchsoftware.com/design/index.html (checked November 7, 2026)
• DreamPlan pricing (third-party listings) — trustradius.com/products/dreamplan-home-designer/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
• iScape pricing — iscapeit.com/faqs (checked November 7, 2026)
• Gardena myGarden — gardena.com/int/garden-life/garden-planner (checked November 7, 2026)
• RoomSketcher pricing — roomsketcher.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
• RoomSketcher reviews — g2.com/products/roomsketcher/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
• Live Home 3D reviews — g2.com/products/live-home-3d/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
• Live Home 3D pricing (third-party) — tidbits.com/watchlist/live-home-3d-5-1 (checked November 7, 2026)
• Sweet Home 3D reviews — g2.com/products/sweet-home-3d/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)