Macs are powerful tools for professional home builders and designers. These reliable computers power some of the most interesting and effective home designs today. But there’s a problem — some home design software isn’t made for Apple computers.
You can find home design software for Mac computers, but it’s a good idea to vet each program before you decide to use it for your business.
We’re here to help. In this 7-minute read, we will walk you through the best home design software for MacOS.Why trust us? Here at Cedreo, we’ve got 20+ years of experience working with housing pros in the home design software space. So we know what it takes for contractors and designers to create stunning home designs that land them more clients!
How to Choose the Best Home Design Design for Mac
Home design software for Mac computers isn’t rare. In fact, you have dozens of options to choose from. So, how do you figure out which one is best for you? By looking at the following factors:
Ease of Use
Your turnaround time for home designs has a direct impact on your bottom line. The faster you can create beautiful designs, the more deals you can close. If you’re struggling with your chosen house design software for Mac, you’re wasting time — and money.
Some platforms have a much steeper learning curve than others. Many programs are intended for those with a professional background in CAD or 3D modeling. That may be perfect for you, but it might also be overkill if all you need to do is quick, simple, and effective floor planning and rendering.
Cedreo, for example, provides a wide range of powerful home design features while being optimized for speed. Many users can complete the 3D design of an entire home in under two hours.
Floor Planning
To get a real picture of your proposed home design, your clients need to be able to see the floor plan from multiple perspectives. The best floor plan software for MacOS will allow you to design in both 2D and 3D.
Interior Design
Interior design is an essential component of many home designs. This is the part of your design that your clients will have the easiest time picturing — they’ll imagine themselves actually living in the space you’ve created.
With that said, it’s not hard to understand why it’s essential to choose a home design software that allows you to create gorgeous interior designs.
The program you choose should have a large library of furniture, materials, and decorations to choose from. And it’s even better if you can customize all of those design elements to fit the size and look you’re going for.
Exterior Design
Exterior design is all about curb appeal, both for those who drive by the home and those who pull into the driveway every day. This is the first impression any home gives, and it should be a great first impression.
The best landscape design software for Mac should allow for easy customization of every aspect of the exterior of the building — landscaping, driveway, decks, and more.
Programs like Cedreo allow you to create stunning outdoor views of home designs and customize even the smallest details, such as the surface materials you use outside the home.
Home Decoration
A flat design with no decoration may not be boring to a professional. But to some clients, it’s impossible to imagine living in a home without some decorations to make the design feel more welcoming.
The best home interior design software for mac needs to give you the ability to quickly decorate your 3D home designs. Otherwise, you could lose potential sales.
Cloud-Based
No one should be saving design files to hard drives and hoping nothing happens to them. Your Mac-capable home design software needs to be compatible with the cloud. That way, you can access your designs from anywhere and never have to worry about losing them to hard drive damage and similar problems.
Professional Presentation Documents
Home design software with professional presentation tools helps builders and designers showcase floor plans, 3D renderings, and design details in a polished, client-friendly format. Clear, well-structured presentations improve communication and make it easier for clients to visualize their future homes.
With the right tools, users can create branded documents featuring 2D and 3D plans, materials, and annotations, giving them full control over project presentations. This not only enhances credibility but also speeds up decision-making and helps secure more projects.
Easy to Share Documents
Your clients may not have the software and know-how to view professional project files in formats like .dwg (AutoCAD) or .rvt (Revit). That’s why you need a simple way to share images and documents in easy-to-view formats.
So look for design software that lets you quickly download and share PDFs, PNGs, or JPEGs. This saves you time by letting you quickly share the latest designs with clients to get their feedback.
Support Options
What do you do when you can’t figure out how to do something in your home design program? You should be able to call or email a support professional and resolve your issue quickly. The home design software for mac you select should also offer tutorial videos that show you how to complete specific tasks.
Other Advanced Features
The best design software goes beyond floor plans with user-friendly tools like terrain modeling for realistic landscapes and printing to scale for accuracy. Viewing houses in 2D and 3D simultaneously streamlines redesigns, while simple 3D modeling allows quick adjustments. Features like realistic rendering, multi-level design, and flexible options for unique buildings (like tiny homes) make your design workflow more efficient and inspiring. support to users, as well as a library of support and FAQ resources, including video tutorials.
9 Best Home Design Software Platforms (Free and Paid) for Mac Users
In this section, check out nine of the best options for home design programs for Mac users. Below, we’ll look at free and paid options, target users, key features, and pricing for each program. From software for complete beginners to professional interior designers to experienced builders, there’s something here for everyone.
1. Cedreo
Best for: Professional home builders, designers, and remodelers
In under two hours, housing professionals can create a detailed new floor plan with Cedreo, complete with 2D layouts, 3D renderings, and terrain modeling.
This user-friendly software is built for speed and efficiency, helping professionals craft real-life designs with customizable textures, furniture, windows, and walls. Stunning photorealistic designs and professional presentation documents ensure clients clearly visualize projects, so you can get faster approvals and more closed deals.
Unlike traditional interior design software, Cedreo offers a seamless, cloud-based experience that works effortlessly on Mac and Windows. From designing new layouts to refining interiors and site elements, Cedreo’s all-in-one platform simplifies every stage of the home design process.
Key Features:
- Full control over interiors, furniture, and site elements for customized designs
- Extensive decor library with more than 7,000 items to bring ideas to life
- Advanced terrain modeling for a more realistic representation of the property
- 2D and 3D floor plans with high-quality rendering for professional presentations
- Easy sharing tools for collaboration with colleagues
- Lighting and shadow customization to create the perfect ambiance
- Presentation document tools to generate polished, client-ready proposals
- Option to save and reuse document templates for efficiency across multiple projects
Pricing: There’s a Cedreo plan to meet any usage and budget. Check out our plans here.Cedreo offers a free, no-obligation trial. Why wait? Sign up today.
2. SketchUp
Best for: Experienced architects and commercial contractors
If you have years of experience with CAD and technical 3D design, you may be able to make use of SketchUp’s relatively wide variety of features somewhat quickly. However, you should be aware that while this software can do a lot of things, it is not specifically built to be a house design software for Mac.
You’ll get plenty of features or capabilities with SketchUp, but you may lack the knowledge necessary to use them correctly. With the right level of training, you can use SketchUp to create home designs and display them to clients through animations, virtual tours, and flyovers. Keep in mind that you have to download add-on software to generate 3D renderings in SketchUp.
Key Features:
- Large catalog of premade 3D models
- 2D and 3D floor plan design
- Ability to create 3D models
- Smart reporting tools
- Augmented reality (AR) design viewing
Pricing: SketchUp is available via three plans:
- Shop: $119/year. Pro: $349/year.Studio: $749/year.
3. Live Home 3D
Best for: Interior designers, landscape designers and architects
Live Home 3D is a tech-forward Mac software that is available on desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. With touch-screen controls on portable devices and several AR-capable features, Live Home 3D provides ease of use and an impressively smooth design experience.
This software offers a relatively rare feature with its AR room scanner. The scanner can make a digital copy of a real room and allow you to design over it in the app, making it a solid option for interior designers.
The app itself is free, but to make it truly functional for a professional home builder or designer, in-app purchases are necessary. Depending on what you need the software to do, these purchases can become expensive.
Key Features:
- Autosave while you work
- 3D object library of 2,000 items
- Video walkthroughs
- Terrain editing (Pro version only)
- Ability to create custom materials
Pricing: Live Home 3D breaks down its pricing by feature.
Pricing: $99.99 for a Lifetime License
4. Planner 5D
Best for: Real estate agents, DIYers, and homeowners
If you’re looking for easy-to-use software for Macs, it’s difficult to beat Planner 5D. But this ease of use can come at the expense of some of the more advanced features that professional home builders and designers need to create designs that will please their clients.
The ability to quickly create a rough design, furnish it, and share it with a client can be useful for real estate agents and similar professionals, but this software is designed largely for amateur use. The software has versions designed for use on Apple phones and tablets, as well as Mac computers.
Key Features:
- 2D and 3D design
- Image capture with photo editing tools
- User-created furnishing catalog
- Automated arrangement of furniture
- Access to Planner 5D design community
Pricing:
- Free version available, with limited access to the catalog and no ability to customize furniture.
- Premium: $19.99/month
- Professional: $49.99/month
5. Homestyler
Best for: DIY and personal use for homeowners
Homestyler is an app for iOS devices that allows you to create simple and photo-worthy home designs and fill them with real furnishings from well-known brands. This interior design software is an excellent choice for homeowners who want to experiment with a new decorating scheme for their living space.
Real estate professionals may also find Homestyler useful when they need to help clients picture their living quarters inside an existing home. However, the app is not meant for creating a new home design from scratch. Instead, its primary offering is that you can upload a photo of an existing space and design on top of it.
Key Features:
- Design sharing with other Homestyler users
- Real furnishings from popular brands
- 2D and 3D designs
- Panoramic views of completed designs
- Photo uploading
Pricing:
- Free version limits features and creates designs with a Homestyler watermark.
- The Pro plan is $4.99 per month. It offers access to all features with limited renderings.
- The Master plan is $9.99 per month and unlocks all features and a larger number of renderings.
6. SmartDraw
Best for: Architects and home contractors
SmartDraw is a comprehensive 2D design tool that boasts a wide variety of features — even some that transcend traditional design and get into project management and productivity. While this software’s offerings are broad, its main limitation is in the 3D design department. To do 3D designs with SmartDraw, you will have to find a program that integrates with the software.
Still, the program is meant for use by professionals and offers impressive functionality along with an intuitive user interface. Easy to integrate with file-sharing applications, SmartDraw is especially ideal for professionals who would like to collaborate on 2D design projects.
Key Features:
- Integrations with file-sharing and productivity apps
- Floor plan templates
- Comprehensive symbol library
- Ability to create scaled CAD drawings
- Free support
Pricing:
- Individual User: $9.95/month.
- Team (3+ users): $8.25/month.
7. Sweet Home 3D
Best for: Remodelers, home builders, and homeowners
When you download Sweet Home 3D, you get a drag-and-drop 2D and 3D design editor and many of the standard features you expect in home design software. This may not be the best free home design software for Mac, but it is completely free.
The lower-quality graphics in this program can leave something to be desired for professionals who need to present designs to clients. However, the simpler graphics contribute to the overall high speed of this software.
While Sweet Home 3D can accommodate some complex design needs, such as irregular wall shapes, it doesn’t offer the full suite of features that many other Mac home design programs offer, such as standard CAD symbols.
Key Features:
- Blueprint import
- 2D and 3D views of designs
- Customizable 3D models
- Integration with various plugins for added features
Pricing:
- Free with 1,600 3D models and 400 textures.
- Additional textures and objects can require a small fee.
8. Chief Architect
Best for: Architects and home builders
Available for both Macs and PCs, Chief Architect is a well-known home design software that packs a large number of modern features and all the functionality of a traditional CAD program. With these benefits comes a potential drawback for smaller-scale home design operations: price. Chief Architect is one of the most expensive pieces of home design software for Macintosh users.
Key Features:
- Virtual tours and photorealistic renderings
- Comprehensive landscape design capabilities
- CAD tools
- Custom design backdrops
- Floor plan templates
Pricing:
- $229 per month
9. Space Designer 3D
Best for: Home designers and casual users
A gorgeous interface is the first benefit of Space Designer 3D that you will notice. The experience is both intuitive and precise. With a library of 10,000 furnishings and materials, this software offers a broad range of interior design options.
The 3D walkthrough features can be useful during presentations, but keep in mind that the graphics remain boxy and fall short of the “photorealistic” standard. However, for ease of use and customization, Space Designer 3D earned its spot on this list.
Key Features:
- PDF and DXF project export
- 3D furniture modeling
- Ability to import existing designs
- Dimension tool to calculate object and room measurements
- Tourable 3D renderings
Pricing:
- Free plan.
- Premium $25/month
- Ultimate $45/month
Which Home Design Software is Right for a Mac User?
Finding the best home design software for Macs isn’t easy, but we hope this list will help. Begin your search by thinking about which features you need, your budget, and your level of technical expertise. Then, try out the options to see which one works best for you.
Cedreo offers a free version for exactly this purpose. We want you to see what Cedreo can do before you make your purchase. We believe that once you try us, you will see what we see — that Cedreo is the best house design software for Mac.
To get started, just sign up for free.
House Design Software Mac FAQs
What is the best home design software for Mac?
The best room design software for Mac depends on your needs. However, user-friendly options like Cedreo, SketchUp Pro, and Live Home 3D offer professional interior design tools, customizable doors, and high-quality rendering. Cedreo stands out for home builders and remodelers with its browser-based platform, extensive design library, and photorealistic 3D visuals, making it a top choice for professional residential projects.
What programs do interior designers use on Macs?
Professional interior designers and home design companies on Mac often use Cedreo, SketchUp Pro, and AutoCAD for creating detailed houses, interiors, and buildings. Cedreo is a complete interior design software solution for residential projects, offering 2D and 3D floor planning, site elements, and high-quality rendering. With tools for testing layouts, generating presentation documents, and streamlining workflows, it’s a powerful choice for both redesign projects and full-scale new builds.
Can I use a MacBook for home design?
Yes, a MacBook is great for home design, especially with cloud-based tools like Cedreo that run directly in a browser without requiring high-end hardware. Whether you’re designing houses, planning interiors, or adding doors and site details, MacBooks provide excellent graphics performance for smooth rendering and professional-quality designs.
Can I use a MacBook for interior design?
Absolutely, a MacBook is suitable for interior design since it supports professional software like Cedreo, SketchUp Pro, and Live Home 3D. Use a Mac with programs like those for creating detailed floor plans, rendering interiors, and designing complete residential spaces. With a Mac and the right software, you can experiment with materials, visualize upgrades, and create polished presentations.are for Mac.
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