Best Apps For Landscape Design

The landscape design app is quite easy to use and allows you to manage your business easily. The app helps create a list of contacts in your smart phone, schedule appointments, generate invoices, track time and expenses, receive estimates on jobs and have them emailed back directly to you. As of now you can add up to five contacts to whom you can send the estimate but we will shoot for the possibility of unlimited uploads at the beginning of next year.

Best Apps For Landscape Design

1. iScape
   Compatible with: iOS 12.2 or later, MacOS 11.0 or later

iScape is a landscape design software specifically for Apple Products. It’s optimized for iPad, but can be downloaded on iPhone, iPod Touch, and Mac devices as well. It’s available for both homeowners and professionals. So it’s meant to be easy to use. It also provides realistic visualization tools to help you see what each design will actually look like once it’s completed. Then you can share designs or even collaborate with other users.

The basic version is free for homeowners and hobbyists. There’s also a premium version available for $29.99 per month that includes features like 3D AR designs and proposal tools.

2. Planter
   Compatible with: Android and iOS devices

Planter specializes in optimizing growth conditions for various garden plants. You can create a grid with your landscape dimensions and add more than 50 preloaded plants or create custom additions. The app includes information about companion plants, frost zones, and spacing. It’s ideal for planning vegetable gardens, with less features for those interested in flowers and hardscapes.

The app is free to download and has in-app purchases. It’s designed for consumers. So it’s easy to use. But it doesn’t include many of the advanced design features of other software programs.

3. PRO Landscape Home
   Compatible with: Windows desktop app, can be used on Mac using Parallels Desktop; companion apps available for Android and iOS tablets.

PRO Landscape is a computer design software for landscape architects. It includes realistic photo imaging and CAD designs so you can see proposed ideas right on your screen. It’s also a licensed program, so you can run it on multiple devices or include multiple users in each project. The companion apps for tablets include tools for providing estimates and collecting payments on-site.

The companion apps are free to download. But the desktop version is $1,245. It comes with 24/7 support. And free demos are available as well.

4. SketchUp
   Compatible with: Web-based software

SketchUp is a free 3D modeling software. It’s not specific to landscape design. But it is useful for placing objects in a space. So landscape designers could use it to render plants, patios, benches, and water features.

It’s a web-based software, so it’s accessible to just about anyone. And it even includes cloud storage and sharing, perfect for those who need to send design ideas to clients. The free version is meant for small projects. But there are also paid options starting at $119 per month.

5. Microsoft Pix Camera
   Compatible with: iOS

Microsoft Pix Camera looks like a simple photo capture app. But it allows you to take full panoramic shots of a yard. Then it includes Photosynth technology that you can use to add extra features to the images, giving you a realistic view of what the new design may look like.

It doesn’t include some of the advanced features of other software programs. But it is totally free and allows you to render new designs over an actual image of the yard.

6. Houzz
   Compatible with: iOS, Android, Amazon

Houzz is a mobile home design and remodeling app. You can upload photos and then add popular products to see how they may look in the space. It’s designed for interiors, but also works for garden spaces. It’s also meant for consumers, so it’s user-friendly but doesn’t have many advanced design features.

See Also: Graphic Design Secrets Revealed: Trends to Make Your Site Irresistible (INFOGRAPHIC)

7. LawnStarter
   Compatible with: iOS and Android

LawnStarter is a mobile app for both homeowners and landscaping professionals. It’s not really a design app. But you can use it to connect with customers for jobs. It has a booking feature and lets you set prices and create schedules. Basically, you can use it along with the design apps on the list. Simply market your services and make appointments, then use the other apps to showcase your designs.

Best Paid Landscape Design App for Companies and Designers
The above apps are at least free to download, though many do come with additional costs. The following ones charge for downloads. But some at least offer free trials so you can see what you’re getting before paying. Here are some top landscape design tools for those interested in paid products.

8. Garden Planner
   Compatible with: PC, Mac, iPad, and web

Garden Planner is a software program from The Old Farmer’s Almanac. It includes the ability to draw out garden beds, add plants, and move things around to create ideal layouts. It’s adaptable for various gardening styles. So it works for those with large gardens as well as those with small containers or raised beds. However, it’s more about the plants than it is about the design elements or visualization.

Garden Planner Pricing
You just need an annual subscription to access this tool. It costs $29 per year if you allow it to renew automatically, or $40 per year otherwise, or $70 for a 2-year subscription. There’s also a 7-day free trial available.

9. Uvision 3D Landscape Creator
   Compatible with: Windows PCs

Unilock’s Uvision 3D Landscape Creator is a software specifically for landscaping professionals. It includes a full library of pavers, walls, hardscapes, and plants that you can move around to create ideal layouts. Then you can use it to calculate prices and share designs with clients.

Uvision 3D Landscape Creator Pricing
This software is a one-time purchase of $379.95. Or if you have the 2018 version, it’s just $179.95. A free trial is also available.

10. Garden Designer
    Compatible with: Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android

Best free landscape design app

1. SketchUp Free
   SketchUp Free dashboard

Our pick for the best free landscape design software is SketchUp Free, the lite version of SketchUp solution perfect for personal use. This 3D modeling tool will run straight from your browser–no download is necessary and there are no strings attached. It’s available on the Trimble website. Here, landscape designers are given a room where they can draw their ideas and bring them to life.

Upon registration, you are granted access to your own repository on Trimble Connect, a building information management software or BIM software. This storage can hold up to 10 GB of images, plans, and any files that you need to keep. This means that your progress is safe and backed up. This is especially useful when creating a design that needs more than one session to finish. Not to mention that since the app is browser-based, you can access everything from anywhere; creating from one device and finishing it on the other entails no problem.

One of the most notable features of this app is being able to access Trimble’s 3D Warehouse. This is a huge library of shared 3D models from both vendors and users. Aside from that, SketchUp Free has a basic, but mostly sufficient, interoperability support. It’s capable of importing PNG, JPG, SKP and STL files and can export SKP, PNG and STL files as well. Finally, this version supports the use of SketchUp Viewer which allows you to view your design right from your iOS and Android devices.

Detailed SketchUp Review

READ MORE
Key Features of SketchUp Free

1. It runs straight from your web browser; no need for download nor credit card, just an internet connection.
2. It offers cloud storage capable of holding up to 10 GB of data.
3. It provides a degree of interoperability by being able to import PNG, JPG, SKP and STL files and export SKP, PNG and STL files.
4. It can connect with Trimble’s 3D Warehouse which is one of the biggest 3D model libraries in the world.
5. It can, through the SketchUp Viewer, display the created models on Android and iOS devices.
6. DreamPlan
   DreamPlan dashboard

Another great free landscape design software worth looking into is DreamPlan. Because of its ease of use and handy design tools, novices can comfortably utilize this in no time at all. It’s not only good for designing landscapes and gardens, but it is also capable of interior, room, home, and floor plan design and remodeling. It can be used for building models of pools and decks, as well as gardens, backyard, and more.

When dealing with outdoor landscaping areas, DreamPlan can do more than just place objects on them. It can actually reshape the terrain itself. You can level, raise, or depress the land as your design see fit. Aside from that, this landscape design tool also displays grid lines while in 3D view. This is mostly useful for easily determining whether something (walls, objects, rooms, etc.) can fit into the space available.

Do you already have a floor plan for your dream house? Great! Simply import the image/s into the system and wait for it to convert it into a 3D model. The converted model, of course, can be updated in the system if necessary. Moreover, expansion packages can be downloaded to gain additional content that could be used to improve outdoor living space.

If you are a homeowner or a hobbyist, DreamPlan has a free version that’s offered for non-commercial use.

Key Features of DreamPlan

1. It is an easy-to-use tool that both professionals and beginners in the field of landscaping can truly enjoy.
2. It is capable of changing the shape of the terrain of outdoor areas to landscape.
3. It can show gridlines not only in 2D but in 3D mode as well.
4. It sports trace mode which converts imported images of house plans into working 3D models.
5. It offers additional content by downloading expansion packages.
6. Plan-a-Garden
   Plan-a-Garden dashboard

Plan-a-Garden of BHG (Better Homes & Gardens) allows the creation of any type of garden design, whether it’s as big as your whole yard or just a small patio-side plot. It’s easy to utilize as well because you can simply drag and drop elements around. It has dozens of structures to choose from such as decks, fences, sheds, buildings, gazebos, ceramic pots, basketball hoops, and even ponds. There are pre-made templates where you can pick the background scene you can use for enhanced visualization. This app also provides a selection of textures like gravel walkways, meadow sceneries, and red brick patios.

There are over 150 flowers, shrubs, and trees to fill your garden with. And of course, it has no shortage of plants you can select from. With over 900 types available, your garden landscaping possibilities are practically endless. You can also choose the lighting for an area and Plan-a-Garden features a search filter where you can find the right size, type, and light of objects you’re looking for.

Progress is saved online so all your efforts and ideas won’t be lost. When satisfied with the outcome, an image of the garden can be saved and a list of all the plants included within can be exported as well.

BHG offers a browser-based app that you can try just by signing in with Facebook or filling up a short form. Oh, and it’s free.

Key Features of Plan-a-Garden

1. It utilizes convenient drag-and-drop functionality to move things around.
2. It provides background sceneries to choose from that can improve the overall visualization of your garden.
3. It has 900+ plants available for use including shrubs, perennials, and trees.
4. It features a series of textures, such as bright-blue water ponds, gravel walkways, and red brick patios, which upgrades the quality of the landscape being developed.
5. It allows the addition of structures like gazebos, fences, basketball hoops, and sheds to spruce things up.
6. Garden Planner
   Garden Planner dashboard

Garden Planner is a simple and easy-to-use landscaping and garden design tool which employs a drag-and-drop interface for arranging objects, buildings, plants, and trees. This app has a library of more than 1,200 objects and plant symbols to choose from. These are customizable so you can easily change their style, color, and size. Thanks to this, you can represent virtually any objects or plants for your landscape. With this tool, you can create the garden layout you want in minutes.

The app’s most recent version now includes the capability to view plans in 3D as well, instead of just an overhead 2D view. Also, Garden Planner has a new feature where you can stroll around your garden in 3D. Another feature worth mentioning is the Vegetable Patch Builder that uses a simple grid to easily create a layout of planting beds for your vegetables and herbs.

When done, you can print the plan, including a list of all the objects used in your garden. It also uses a coded system that can match the items in the list with the objects shown on the plan. This way, you’ll easily know where each item in the list is placed in your layout.

Garden Planner has a free browser-based application that you can try. Take note, however, that this online demo is an older version of the app (Garden Planner 3.0). Also, while you can still design your garden and print it out here, changes aren’t saved so all your progress is lost when the browser closes. There’s a trial version offered, too and a free license is given to charities/non-profit organizations, pre-school/primary school, or a community group. When you choose to buy the software, however, it would just be a one-time payment and all future updates are free.

Key Features of Garden Planner

1. It has a library which contains 1,200+ object and plant symbols to choose from.
2. It allows each of the created symbols to be customized in color, style, and size, which enables them to represent a vast range of objects in the real world.
3. It is capable of easily creating a layout for herb beds and veggie patches.
4. It provides a virtual tour where you can walk around the garden in 3D.
5. It has a simplistic approach and tools that enable the creation of solid landscape and garden design within minutes.
6. Marshalls Garden Visualiser
   Marshalls Garden Visualiser dashboard

Marshalls Garden Visualiser performs a sophisticated task in a simple way. It’s a free visualization software that allows the creation of garden designs in 3D and then taking a walk around it, just like in video games. The virtual tour can be done during the building process which is helpful in making better decisions along the way.

With Garden Visualiser, you can specify the size of your garden as well as change the ground’s shape to ensure a more accurate design and layout. You can add an image of your house which is helpful in making sure that your garden looks good at your place. This free landscape design software also allows the creation of your own custom features such as garden paths and garden walls with pillars. And to further spruce up your design, the tool offers a vast selection of items that you can add such as walling, paving, summerhouses, edgings, paths, block paving, and planting.

Your design can be saved on your account online so your progress won’t be lost. When you’re done and satisfied with the design, you are also given the option of requesting information from Marshalls to help you order the products used in your layout. Thus, you can build the actual garden yourself, or hire a professional to do so.

You can find and run the tool straight from your web browser. However, Marshalls Garden Visualiser requires Unity Web Player to run so if you can’t get it to open, then try using a different browser such as Firefox or Opera.

Key Features of Marshalls Garden Visualiser

1. It allows 3D visualization and a virtual tour of your garden design while building it.
2. It can set the garden size for more accurate design.
3. It provides themes to choose from in case you don’t want to start from scratch.
4. It allows you to request Marshall for information about the products used in the design to help you in ordering them.
5. It offers a lot of objects and products to choose from.
6. Terragen
   Terragen dashboard

Terragen from Planetside is a comprehensive design tool that enables the creation, animation, and rendering of natural environments in a photo-realistic and high-quality fashion. The terrain can easily be created and manipulated with highly realistic aspects. In fact, real-world terrain can be replicated and altered through the third-party terrain editor. Digital elevation data can also be georeferenced in a snap. This software is not only good for designing your landscape but it can also greatly enhance the visuals through flexible lighting, gorgeous shading models, and complex atmosphere control.

One of the most useful aspects of Terragen when it comes to landscaping is its powerful functionalities for creating and manipulating objects. Fully-textured and complex objects? Not a problem. It’s easy to add life to your design by placing models of trees, houses, rocks, and others. You can use whatever object you had rendered and populate the environment with it by placing thousands or millions of them in the scenery. It has many advanced object manipulation capabilities as well such as instancing, granular-level customization, and procedural shading.

Terragen has a free version available for non-commercial purposes or as a 30-day trial for commercial evaluation.

Key Features of Terragen

1. It can create and alter the terrain to make it look exactly like what you had in mind, or better.
2. It features advanced rendering capabilities on atmosphere, clouds, objects, etc.
3. It has lots of sophisticated shaders that can be applied to many items in the design.
4. It can build, render and manipulate any type of object to make a detailed environment.
5. It can render natural environment or landscape in realistic quality.
6. Kerkythea
   Kerkythea dashboard

Kerkythea is a freeware solution capable of producing high-quality renders by using physically accurate lights and materials for the best quality outcome within an efficient timeframe. The software simplifies rendering by giving users every essential tool for automating the scene setup, such as material editor, GL real-time viewer and general render settings in one common interface.

Kerkythea is a powerful engine for Global Illumination rendering that follows real-world physics to accurately represent the design when it is actually realized. It also uses a real-life scale model, which means you should think of the actual size in making your design.

The software holds the effect of material on the rendered image in high regard which is why it features Material Editor System. This gives you great control over many aspects of the materials created. The materials produced in Kerkythea are very accurate because they’re based on the physical laws of the real world.

While it was created as a plugin for SketchUp, it is a standalone application and can be downloaded for free after filling out a form.

Key Features of Kerkythea

1. It features a powerful material editor that provides great control over the quality of the final material.
2. It contains all the necessary tools needed for automating scene set up in a single interface.
3. It provides a physically accurate scaling of materials.
4. It applies the physics of the real world for global illumination rendering.
5. It is capable of rendering your 3D models in photo-realistic quality.
6. PRO Landscape Home
   PRO Landscape Home dashboard

PRO Landscape Home is the lite and free version of PRO Landscape. It can be used on mobile devices like phones and tablets to give your place a beautiful landscape makeover in a quick and easy way. You can start by taking a picture of your house with your device. From there, you can go ahead add objects such as plants, mulch, grass, furniture, pavers and many more to complete your design. To see how much you have improved (or worsen) your place, you can use the “before and after” view. You’re able to save the design you created and edit it later if you like. When everything looks good, you can share your work with your friends and families, or to strangers, on social media platforms. The design can also be printed or emailed.

The app contains a library of images that you can use for your design. There are plenty of items available but it’s easy to find something because they’re categorized and there’s a search function if needed. The images are also organized through climate zones which is helpful so that you only get to select the plants that would actually grow in your area. And to top it off, each plant has corresponding detailed information about it, such as description, mature height & width, botanical & common names, climate zones, and color. So if anything else, you learn more about nature.

One of PRO Landscape Home’s most notable features is its capability to find a nearby professional who can transform your design idea into reality. These are landscape contractors whom you can ask to bid for your work. If you, however, fancy on doing it by yourself, then you can consult the local garden center for helpful advice in picking out the needed landscape materials.

PRO Landscape Home is available for download on iPhone & iPad, Android phone & tablet, and Amazon Kindle Fire phone & tablet.

Key Features of PRO Landscape Home

1. It is available for your Android, iOS, and even Amazon Kindle devices.
2. It allows the creation of stunning landscape design in a matter of minutes.
3. It enables you to share your design ideas on social media sites.
4. It helps turn your designs into reality by finding a landscape contractor for you or aiding you in building it yourself.
5. It features a customizable library with loads of images for you to choose from.
6. iScape App
   iScape App dashboard

iScape App is a tool for iOS devices used for designing outdoor living space through the help of augmented reality. This app aims to let you have a solid visualization of your project before spending actual money for bringing it to life. It has a series of design tools, which are all easy to use so that you can quickly create a solid design even if you’re not well-versed in this kind of activity. Examples of these tools include cut-out & clone, duplicate, textures, favorites and spin/rotate.

There are no shortages of design elements in the system as well. In iScape App, you can find all the essentials such as plants, trees, fences, and bricks as well as the unique enhancements like fire pits, water features, and brick pavers. And the amazing part is that all the items used in your design are in the iScape inventory. This means that if you want to buy them, you can simply order from the app.

Moreover, you can share your design ideas with others where you can collaborate on a project for a better outcome. The app also empowers you to hire a professional landscape designer if you want to take your project to the next level.

You can download iScape on your iOS device from the App Store. The tool is free and there are in-app purchases you can avail if you want to upgrade your designing capabilities.

Key Features of iScape App

1. It is a simple tool with powerful features that are easy to use even for novices.
2. It features thousands of design elements you can incorporate into your project.
3. It has an inventory of all products in the system which allows a smooth and easy order process if you choose to.
4. It allows the sharing of ideas, images and projects, useful when collaborating with someone.
5. It provides you with an avenue for hiring professional landscapers in case you decide to take your design very seriously.
6. Lands Design
   Lands Design dashboard

Lands Design is an all-inclusive landscape design software that covers all the phases involved in the development of landscaping projects. From generating technical plans in 2D, to realistic production of images in 3D, to the virtual walks throughout the green area design. It’s a handy tool capable of streamlining many of the tedious processes involved in CAD design such as generating terrain, creating 3D elements, designing planting layouts, preparing dimension plans, etc.

It has a huge database of objects that can be used for landscape design such as the 1,800+ plant species, civil work elements, vegetation, and urban furniture blocks. There are also about 500 drawings of 2D and 3D plants that are available in DWG format. It includes extensive features for terrain modeling and watering system. And another impressive functionality is the rich documentation feature which automatically updates when adding or deleting elements.

Lands Design has a free 30-day trial edition. It has the same functionality as the commercial edition except for the absence of nXt Plants, which are essentially the species of plants included in the “favorites” group, and the full access to the objects in ModelCAD, a vast library of design elements.

Key Features of Lands Design

1. It is a complete software solution for landscaping projects and landscape design.
2. It streamlines the laborious CAD design processes like producing documentation tables, designing auto sprinkler systems, and many others.
3. It has a vast database of design elements. (1,800 plant species, 500 2D and 3D plant drawings, urban furniture blocks, civil work objects, etc.)
4. It features walk mode, which allows you to walk around the rendered field to check how the 3D models in your design would look when implemented.
5. It can render photorealistic images for enhanced visualization through the nXtRender plugin.

Conclusion

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