Best Free Landscaping Design Apps (2026): 10 Apps Worth Downloading

Quick comparison

The best free landscaping design apps

#1

iScape

Best for: Homeowners who want to see plants and patios in their actual yard through AR

Visit iscapeit.com

Starting priceFree (limited); Pro $29.99/month or $299.99/year

Free planYes — free version (limited database)

iScape is the closest thing to seeing the future of your yard: open the app, point your phone at the lawn, and drop in trees, shrubs, patios and fire pits in augmented reality. For a homeowner choosing between three layouts, that beats staring at a flat plan. The 2D mode lets you edit a photo of your house with the same plants and hardscapes.

The free version covers the basics but throttles the database, which is the point: the full library of thousands of plants and products needs Pro at $29.99 a month or $299.99 a year, and Pro adds a proposal tool for client-ready documents. For one project, use the free tier to narrow your ideas, then pay for one month of Pro to finalize the design. Note the app is iOS and Android only, with no desktop version.

What we like

• AR mode overlays plants onto a live view of your yard through your phone camera
• 2D photo editing for quick before-and-after mockups of your house
• Proposal tool turns a design into a priced client document
• Autosave keeps your project safe while you work

Watch out for

• Mobile only, with no desktop version
• The free tier limits the plant and hardscape database significantly
• Pro at $29.99 a month is steep for a homeowner's one-time project

#2

Planner 5D

Best for: Beginners who want easy 3D yard and home design without a learning curve

★★★★★★★★★★4.7/5 on G2 (188 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit planner5d.com

Starting priceFree (limited catalog); Premium $19.99/month or $59.99/year

Free planYes — free plan (unlimited projects, half the catalog)

Planner 5D is the anti-SketchUp: 3D home and garden design you can use within minutes, no tutorials required. Drag rooms, walls, furniture, plants and outdoor features into a 3D scene and view it in realistic renders. It covers the whole property, which suits homeowners planning house and yard together, and it runs on web, mobile and desktop.

The free version is a genuine trial of the workflow, but the full object catalog needs Premium at $19.99 a month or $59.99 a year, which also adds floor-plan recognition and AI Studio credits. Precision is casual rather than construction-grade, so use it to visualize ideas quickly and cheaply, and switch to SketchUp when a contractor needs exact dimensions.

What we like

• Drag-and-drop 3D design you can use within minutes, no tutorials required
• Runs on web, mobile and desktop with unlimited projects on the free plan
• Premium at $59.99 a year is the cheapest annual upgrade in this list
• Handles interiors, exteriors and outdoor spaces in one app

Watch out for

• The free catalog is limited and the best items need Premium
• Less precise than SketchUp for construction planning
• Subscriptions auto-renew and are non-refundable once digital content is delivered

#3

SketchUp Free

Best for: DIYers who want real 3D modeling of yards and structures at true dimensions

★★★★★★★★★★4.5/5 on G2 (1,328 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit sketchup.com

Starting priceFree (personal use); Go $129/year, Pro $399/year

Free planYes — free web version for personal, non-commercial use

SketchUp Free is the serious tool hiding in a free tier: real 3D modeling running in your browser, precise to the inch. Model your yard's terrain, place a deck, a fence, a shed and a pergola at true dimensions, and walk through the result. The 3D Warehouse provides free models of plants, furniture and structures to populate the scene.

The cost is time. SketchUp rewards a weekend of learning and punishes dabbling; organic shapes like planting beds take more skill than boxes and decks. But when the project involves construction, a deck permit, or a contractor who needs dimensions, nothing else free comes close. For pure planting design, the simpler tools are faster.

What we like

• Genuine 3D modeling in a browser: terrain, decks, fences and buildings at real dimensions
• The 3D Warehouse offers millions of free models including plants
• Precise enough for planning actual construction and sharing dimensions with a contractor
• Free version needs no download or install

Watch out for

• The learning curve is real: expect a weekend of tutorials
• Organic shapes like planting beds take more skill than boxes and decks
• Free version is personal use only — any paid work needs Go at $129/year

#4

DreamPlan

Best for: Homeowners who want free 3D design software on their own computer

Visit nchsoftware.com

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

Free planYes — free for non-commercial use

DreamPlan is the only true desktop design software on this list that is free: download it from NCH Software, no account, and design your house and yard in 2D and 3D. It handles floor plans, furniture, terrain, pools, decking and plants, with a library of objects and materials, and it runs on Windows and Mac on ordinary hardware.

The interface looks dated, and that is the fair trade for the price: it is not beautiful software, but it is capable software, and homeowners designing their own property pay nothing. Commercial users need the Plus license at $29.99 one-time, which unlocks the landscaping features held back from the free version. Start here when you want a free desktop tool with no subscription.

What we like

• Completely free for home use with no account required
• Designs interiors, exteriors and landscaping in 2D and 3D on your own computer
• Runs on modest hardware and covers terrain, pools, decking and plants

Watch out for

• The interface looks dated next to the browser tools
• Commercial use requires a Plus license at $29.99 one-time
• Navigation around complex builds can feel awkward

#5

PRO Landscape Home

Best for: Homeowners who want a taste of professional design software

Visit prolandscape.com

Starting priceFree (Home version; full PRO Landscape suite $1,495 one-time)

Free planYes — Home version is free to download

PRO Landscape is professional software with a free Home edition that gives homeowners genuine design tools instead of a toy. You get 3D design, a plant database, photo imaging that drops plants onto pictures of your house, and even CAD import, plus a pricing calculator that helps estimate project costs.

The free version exists to sell the pro product, so expect limits on libraries and features, and the full PRO Landscape suite costs $1,495 one-time. But for a homeowner willing to spend an evening learning, it produces more realistic results than any browser planner, and if you later hire a landscaper who uses PRO Landscape, your file opens in their system.

What we like

• The free Home version includes real 3D design tools and a plant library
• Photo imaging places plants on pictures of your actual home
• CAD file import for working with professional plans
• Files open in the professional PRO Landscape suite if you later hire a landscaper who uses it

Watch out for

• The full PRO Landscape suite is a $1,495 professional product, so the free version is deliberately limited
• Windows-focused with companion tablet apps
• The learning curve is steeper than the simple planners

#6

HomeByMe

Best for: Homeowners designing the house and garden together in one 3D project

★★★★★★★★★★4.9/5 on G2 (5 reviews, checked Nov 2026)

Visit home.by.me

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

Free planYes — Starter plan is free

HomeByMe, from Dassault Systemes, is the polished all-rounder: design your home's interior and its garden in one 3D project, with renders realistic enough to judge sight lines from the kitchen window to the new patio. The interface is friendlier than SketchUp's, which makes it a good middle ground.

The free Starter plan handles a basic project, but serious use pushes you toward the paid plans, with Premium at $29 a month. Garden tools exist but are not the focus — this is a home designer with a yard, not a landscape specialist. Choose it when the house and garden are one project.

What we like

• Polished 3D home and garden designer that runs in the browser
• Realistic renders help you judge how the garden looks from the house
• Free Starter plan covers a basic project with no card required
• Huge branded furniture and decor catalog from Dassault Systemes

Watch out for

• The free tier limits project count and features
• Paid prices vary by source — Premium is $29/month on G2's pricing page
• Garden-specific tools are thinner than dedicated landscape apps

#7

Gardena myGarden

Best for: Gardeners who want a quick sketch plus a watering plan in one afternoon

Visit gardena.com

Starting priceFree

Free planYes — completely free web app

Gardena's myGarden is the friendly option: a free browser tool where you draw your plot, add lawns, beds, paving, plants and furniture, and get a pleasant hand-drawn-style plan. The standout is the sprinkler planner: design your irrigation in five steps and download a piping diagram plus a shopping list of Gardena products.

It will not impress anyone with realism, and the plant suggestions naturally favor Gardena's world. But for planning a garden layout and its watering in an afternoon, with zero cost and zero learning curve, it is one of the most practical tools here. Save and share plans from any device, and start from one of the example gardens.

What we like

• Completely free web app with no trial limits and no account cost
• Charming hand-drawn visual style that is easy to read
• Built-in sprinkler system planner that generates a piping diagram and shopping list

Watch out for

• Simple by design: no 3D, no AR, no photorealism
• The plant library leans toward Gardena's product ecosystem
• Best for planning, not presentation

#8

Plan-a-Garden

Best for: Weekend gardeners planning one flower bed or a small patio

Visit bhg.com

Starting priceFree

Free planYes — free web tool

Plan-a-Garden from Better Homes and Gardens is the quick sketchpad: open it in your browser, drag plants, beds and patios onto your yard, and see a reasonable visualization in minutes. No cost, no trial, no upsell pressure — open it and start dragging plants onto your yard.

The limits are obvious: no 3D, no AR, no irrigation planning, no plant database depth. It is a sketching tool, not a design platform, and it suits a weekend gardener planning one flower bed or a small patio. But speed has value, and for simple projects the simple tool wins.

What we like

• Completely free to open and design, with no cost to start
• Drag-and-drop beds, plants, patios and structures with realistic plant images
• Pre-made templates and a printable plant list for ordering

Watch out for

• Basic feature set with no 3D or AR
• Tied to the Better Homes and Gardens ecosystem
• Not suited to large or complex properties

#9

Garden Planner

Best for: Vegetable gardeners who want planting schedules, not just pictures

Visit smallblueprinter.com

Starting price$48 one-time (free trial download)

Free planNo — free trial download

Garden Planner by Small Blue Printer is the specialist's tool: less about beautiful renders, more about growing food successfully. Drag-and-drop beds, paths, fences and structures onto a plan, then use the vegetable bed tool to arrange crops, the planting calendar to time sowings, and the journal to track what worked.

It is a $48 one-time purchase with no subscription and free future updates, which suits gardeners who resent monthly fees. The trade-off is aesthetics: your plan looks like a plan, not a magazine photo. For ornamental landscaping, pair it with one of the visual tools above; for the vegetable patch, it stands alone.

What we like

• Built for food growing: vegetable bed tools, a planting calendar and a garden journal
• Over 1,200 customizable plant and object symbols
• One-time purchase with free updates, no subscription

Watch out for

• The visual style is plan-view diagrams, not pretty 3D renders
• Pricing is not prominently published — $48 comes from a third-party read of the vendor catalog
• Narrower focus than the full landscape designers

#10

Live Home 3D

Best for: Apple users who want 3D home and garden design on iPhone, iPad and Mac

Visit livehome3d.com

Starting priceFree (limited); Standard $59.99 one-time, Pro $129.99 one-time

Free planYes — free version with limits

Live Home 3D is the Apple-friendly option: a 3D home and garden designer for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows and Apple Vision Pro, with a Room Scanner that uses LiDAR to build a 3D copy of a room. Design in 2D and 3D, edit terrain in Pro, and view the result in realistic renders and video walkthroughs.

The free version is genuinely useful for trying the workflow, but exports carry watermarks, only one project is allowed at a time, and designs are limited to two floors. Standard costs $59.99 as a one-time licence and removes those limits, while Pro at $129.99 one-time adds terrain editing, advanced lighting and high-resolution export.

What we like

• Room Scanner uses LiDAR to build a 3D copy of a room on iPhone and iPad
• Runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Windows and Apple Vision Pro
• One-time lifetime licences instead of a subscription: Standard $59.99, Pro $129.99

Watch out for

• The free version watermarks exports and allows only one project at a time
• Terrain editing and advanced lighting wait for Pro
• A home designer first — garden tools are general, not specialist

The best free landscaping design app for your yard depends on one question: do you want to see plants in your actual yard, or plan beds and paths on a screen? We ranked the ten tools below by fit for the most common buyer — a homeowner planning their own yard — starting with the AR visualizers and ending with the desktop specialists, and every price was checked on November 7, 2026.

How to choose the best free landscaping design app

• Start with your question. If the question is "what will this look like," AR and 3D tools answer it; if it is "what goes where," 2D planners are faster and clearer.
• Count what the free tier lets you keep. iScape's free tier limits the plant database, SketchUp Free is personal use only, and Live Home 3D watermarks exports — the cap you hit first is your real price.
• Check the device. iScape is mobile only, DreamPlan and Garden Planner are desktop downloads, and Planner 5D, HomeByMe and SketchUp Free run in a browser.
• Check the plant library. Every free tool throttles the same thing: the plant database is what sells the pro version, so layout planning is free and planting plans cost money.
• Think about who else reads the plan. A landscaper can open PRO Landscape Home files and measure a SketchUp model, but a Gardena sketch is a conversation starter, not a build drawing.

A design app is one system in your stack, not the whole stack. If you run a landscaping business and need customers to find you, our guide to local SEO for home services covers the visibility side. And before you publish pages for the services you sell, run them through the free local business schema generator — it builds the structured data that helps Google show your business in local results.

Whatever you shortlist, try it with a real project before you pay. The free tiers in this list are long enough to plan one genuine yard — your beds, your paths, your plants — and that project tells you more than any review can. Check two things in the trial: that you can save and reopen the plan, and that exports are usable without a watermark. Every tool here has a free tier or trial, so there is no reason to buy before you have planned one bed in it.

Free landscaping design app pricing: what you will actually pay

Take a homeowner redesigning a front yard: new beds along the house, a path to the door, and three trees. On the free tiers alone the design costs $0 — Gardena myGarden sketches it, iScape previews the trees in AR, and DreamPlan models it in 3D. The first money appears when the free limits bite: one month of iScape Pro at $29.99 unlocks the full plant database to finalize the planting list, and Garden Planner at $48 once adds the sowing calendar for the beds.

Over a year, the routes split three ways: $0 on free tiers alone; $59.99 for Planner 5D Premium billed annually, which covers the whole project in one app; and $77.99 for the pay-once combination of Garden Planner at $48 plus one month of iScape Pro at $29.99. A full year of iScape Pro costs $299.99, against $359.88 paying monthly — $59.89 saved — but few homeowners need twelve months of Pro for one yard. If you also need construction drawings, compare the CAD side in our guide to the best free CAD software for home design.

Three costs sit outside every number above. First, the plants themselves dwarf the software: the software is the cheapest part of any yard project. Second, HomeByMe's Premium plan is a $29-a-month subscription, so the cost repeats while the project runs. Third, none of these prices includes a landscaper — the apps plan the work, they do not do it.

Know the difference: free plan, free trial and one-time purchase

The confusion in this category is the word "free," which means three different things. A free plan never expires: Gardena myGarden, Plan-a-Garden and DreamPlan cost $0 for as long as you use them, with limits on features rather than time. A free trial ends: Garden Planner lets you download and try the full app, then asks for $48 once. And a one-time purchase is neither a plan nor a trial: DreamPlan Plus at $29.99, Garden Planner at $48 and Live Home 3D Standard at $59.99 are single payments with no subscription and no renewal.

There is a second, quieter confusion: AR, 3D and 2D are different answers to different questions. AR (iScape) shows you what a plant looks like in your actual yard. 3D (SketchUp, Planner 5D, DreamPlan, HomeByMe, Live Home 3D) shows you heights, sight lines and how the garden looks from the windows. 2D (Gardena, Plan-a-Garden, Garden Planner) shows you what goes where, faster and clearer than either. Most homeowners need 2D first, then 3D or AR to check the result.

A third distinction worth knowing is the plant database. Every free tool throttles the same thing — the plant library — because the database is what sells the pro version. That matters less than it seems for layout planning, but it matters a lot for planting plans. Use the free tool for layout, then verify plant choices with your local nursery or extension service, because hardiness zones, sun exposure and soil matter more than any app's generic database.

Quick comparison: tool type by need

Mistakes to avoid

• Budgeting on $0, then finding exports watermarked. Live Home 3D watermarks free exports and iScape's free tier limits the plant database — check the export and save limits before you plan a whole yard in a free tier.
• Buying a year of Pro for a one-month project. iScape Pro is $29.99 for a month or $299.99 for a year; buy the month, finalize the design, and cancel.
• Designing in 2D only. Flat plans hide height mistakes: a tree that blocks the kitchen light or a fence that shades the beds. Check the key views in 3D or AR before you buy plants.
• Trusting the app's plant database over local knowledge. No app knows your microclimate; verify hardiness, sun and soil with your local nursery or extension service.
• Paying a subscription when a one-time licence covers the job. Garden Planner is $48 once, DreamPlan Plus is $29.99 once, and Live Home 3D Standard is $59.99 one-time — subscriptions suit ongoing work, not one yard.

How we chose

We checked each vendor's own pricing page on November 7, 2026, using fresh search-index copies where a direct fetch failed: iScape's FAQ page confirms Pro at $29.99 a month or $299.99 a year, Planner 5D's pricing page confirms Premium at $19.99 a month or $59.99 a year, and Trimble's pricing page confirms SketchUp Go at $129 a year and Pro at $399 a year — the older $119 and $349 figures date from before a July 2025 price rise. Five prices come from third-party sources because the vendors do not publish them prominently: Garden Planner at $48 one-time, DreamPlan Plus at $29.99 one-time, the full PRO Landscape suite at $1,495 one-time, Live Home 3D's prices, which vary by store and platform — Standard $59.99 and Pro $129.99 one-time, currently discounted from $79.99 and $149.99 list — and HomeByMe Premium at $29 a month, from G2's pricing page, since the vendor's own site shows prices in local currency. Ratings appear only where a G2 page exists — SketchUp, Planner 5D and HomeByMe — and the other tools are unrated: DreamPlan has a Capterra listing with only 3 reviews, so we left it unrated, and the remaining six tools have no G2 or Capterra page at all. We ranked by fit for the most common buyer, a homeowner planning their own yard, not by brand size. 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 tier of your top pick and plan one real bed in it. Check that you can save and reopen the plan, and that the export is usable without a watermark, before you pay for anything. If the yard is sorted but customers are not finding your landscaping business, our monthly SEO service handles the visibility side — or compare providers in our guide to SEO for home services. Once your tools are in place, find out what's holding your rankings back.

Sources we checked (16)

• iScape pricing — iscapeit.com/faqs (checked November 7, 2026)
• Planner 5D pricing — planner5d.com/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
• SketchUp pricing — sketchup.com/plans-and-pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
• DreamPlan — nchsoftware.com/design/index.html (checked November 7, 2026)
• PRO Landscape Home — prolandscape.com/en/ (checked November 7, 2026)
• HomeByMe — home.by.me/en/ (checked November 7, 2026)
• HomeByMe pricing — g2.com/products/homebyme/pricing (checked November 7, 2026)
• Gardena myGarden — gardena.com/int/garden-life/garden-planner/ (checked November 7, 2026)
• Plan-a-Garden — bhg.com (checked November 7, 2026)
• Garden Planner — smallblueprinter.com (checked November 7, 2026)
• Garden Planner price — bloomseye.com/garden-design-software (vendor catalog read October 30, 2026)
• Live Home 3D — livehome3d.com (checked November 7, 2026)
• Live Home 3D in-app purchases — apps.apple.com/us/app/live-home-3d-house-design/id1066784070 (checked November 7, 2026)
• SketchUp reviews — g2.com/products/sketchup/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
• Planner 5D reviews — g2.com/products/planner-5d/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)
• HomeByMe reviews — g2.com/products/homebyme/reviews (checked November 7, 2026)