What is the difference between Floorplanner and magicplan?

Floorplanner and magicplan are different tools with different strengths. The best choice depends on your workflow, budget, and whether you need features like 3D scanning, floor plan generation, GLA calculation, or design capabilities. This page breaks down a direct comparison.

Which is better for real estate appraisers — Floorplanner or magicplan?

Floorplanner and Magicplan serve different workflows. Floorplanner is better suited for one use case while Magicplan fits another — the right choice depends on whether you need field capture or office-based GLA calculation from existing floor plans.

Can Floorplanner and magicplan be used together?

Floorplanner and Magicplan can complement each other in some workflows — for example, using one for field capture and the other for GLA calculation and reporting. Check the comparison table above for specific integration details.

How much does Floorplanner cost compared to magicplan?

Floorplanner and magicplan have different pricing models — one may charge per user, per project, or via annual subscription, while the other may offer a free tier or pay-per-use option. Check the comparison table above for current pricing details and which offers better value for your volume of work.

Which is easier to use — Floorplanner or magicplan?

Ease of use depends on your starting point. Floorplanner tends to fit one type of user or workflow, while magicplan is designed for another. If you are working from an existing floor plan PDF and need to calculate square footage quickly, a browser-based tool like PlanSnapper may reduce the learning curve entirely — no software installation required.

Do I need Floorplanner or magicplan if I already have a floor plan PDF?

If you already have a floor plan as a PDF or image, you may not need either tool. PlanSnapper lets you upload the PDF directly and trace walls in your browser to calculate GLA — no software installation required. Both Floorplanner and magicplan are most useful for creating sketches from scratch or capturing measurements in the field.

Which works better for calculating GLA — Floorplanner or magicplan?

Both Floorplanner and magicplan can support GLA calculation, but the workflow differs. One may require field measurement and sketch entry while the other may allow importing existing floor plans. If your starting point is an existing PDF or image floor plan, PlanSnapper provides a faster path — upload, trace, and get the GLA figure without entering either tool's workflow.

How do Floorplanner and magicplan handle existing floor plan PDFs?

Neither Floorplanner nor magicplan is primarily designed to import and calculate square footage from an existing PDF floor plan. Both tools are built around creating or capturing floor plans from scratch. If you already have a PDF floor plan, PlanSnapper lets you upload it directly, trace the walls, and get an accurate GLA figure without redrawing anything.

Which is better for occasional users — Floorplanner or magicplan?

Floorplanner and magicplan are both specialized tools with learning curves that reward regular use. Occasional users often find dedicated subscription tools hard to justify. For someone who needs to calculate square footage a few times a month, PlanSnapper is designed for exactly that — no training required, no annual contract, upload and measure in minutes.

Compare · 6 min read

Floorplanner vs MagicPlan: Which Floor Plan Tool Should You Use?

Floorplanner and MagicPlan are both popular floor plan tools, but they approach the problem very differently. Floorplanner is a browser-based design tool -- you draw floor plans from scratch and furnish rooms. MagicPlan is a mobile app that uses your phone camera to scan and measure rooms automatically. Here is a detailed comparison to help you pick the right one.

The short version

Floorplanner: A browser-based tool for drawing floor plans and interior layouts from scratch. Best for interior designers, home stagers, and homeowners who want to plan a space and produce clean 2D/3D visuals.
MagicPlan: A mobile app that scans existing rooms using AR or LiDAR and generates floor plans automatically. Best for real estate agents, property managers, contractors, and anyone who needs fast, accurate measurement of a physical space.

Floorplanner vs MagicPlan: at a glance

	Floorplanner	MagicPlan
Primary use case	Draw and design floor plans from scratch	Scan and document existing rooms automatically
Platform	Browser (web-based)	iOS and Android mobile app
Room scanning (AR/LiDAR)	No	Yes (key feature)
2D floor plan quality	Excellent (clean, professional output)	Good (accurate, professional)
3D visualization	Good (3D view, furniture placement)	Basic 3D floor plan view
Furniture and decor	Extensive catalog	Minimal
Speed for existing spaces	Slow (manual drawing)	Fast (room scan in seconds with LiDAR)
Professional reporting	Moderate	Strong (PDF exports, cost estimates)
Free plan	Yes (1 project)	Yes (limited floor plans)
Paid plans	From ~$5/mo	From ~$8/mo

What Floorplanner does well

Floorplanner produces clean, polished 2D floor plans through a browser -- no app download needed. The drawing interface is straightforward: snap walls to a grid, add doors and windows, drop in furniture from a catalog. The output is publication-quality and works well for real estate listings, interior design presentations, and home renovation planning.

The furniture catalog is more robust than MagicPlan's -- you can furnish a room fully and switch to 3D view for a realistic preview of the space. For anyone who wants to plan a layout before physically moving furniture or making design decisions, Floorplanner delivers.

Floorplanner also works on any computer without requiring a smartphone. For real estate photographers, designers, and others who work primarily at a desk, this is a practical advantage.

Where Floorplanner falls short

Manual drawing only. If you need to capture the dimensions of an existing space, you have to measure everything yourself and enter it manually. MagicPlan scans the room automatically.
Time-consuming for documentation. Creating a floor plan of a property with multiple rooms takes significant time when drawing from scratch. MagicPlan can scan an entire home in minutes.
No mobile scanning. Floorplanner has a mobile app, but it does not use AR or LiDAR to capture room dimensions. It is the same draw-by-hand experience on a smaller screen.

What MagicPlan does well

MagicPlan's AR and LiDAR scanning is genuinely useful. Walk into a room, open the app, point at corners, and the floor plan draws itself. On LiDAR-equipped iPhones (iPhone 12 Pro and later), the process takes seconds per room and the accuracy is good enough for most professional applications -- real estate listings, insurance claims, contractor estimates.

The professional workflow features are strong: you can add notes, photos, and cost estimates to each room, generate detailed PDF reports, and share projects with clients. For property managers documenting units before and after tenancy, or contractors doing site assessments, MagicPlan saves significant time compared to manual measurement and drawing.

Where MagicPlan falls short

Mobile-first, desktop-secondary. MagicPlan is primarily a phone app. The web viewer exists, but serious editing is done on mobile. If you prefer working at a desk, the experience is less fluid than Floorplanner.
Not a design tool. You cannot furnish a space in MagicPlan and see it in a photorealistic 3D view. The app documents and measures -- it does not help you plan how a space will look.
LiDAR accuracy depends on hardware. On older phones without LiDAR, the AR-based measurement is less precise and slower. The most-advertised workflow requires an iPhone 12 Pro or newer.

Which should you choose?

Choose Floorplanner if: You need to design or plan a space from scratch, create polished floor plan visuals for presentations or listings, or want to visualize furniture placement and interior design options.

Choose MagicPlan if: You need to quickly capture the floor plan of an existing space without manual measurement, produce professional documentation for real estate, insurance, or construction purposes, or work primarily in the field on a smartphone.

What about measuring GLA from an existing floor plan?

Both Floorplanner and MagicPlan generate floor plans -- one from scratch, one from scans. But if you already have a floor plan (from MagicPlan, CubiCasa, Matterport, or any other source) and need to measure ANSI Z765-compliant gross living area from it, neither tool is designed for that task. Calculating GLA from an existing floor plan image requires uploading it, tracing the perimeter at scale, and applying ANSI rules for above-grade area -- a separate workflow from creating or scanning.

Already have the floor plan?

Upload any floor plan PDF or image and calculate ANSI Z765-compliant GLA in minutes. Works with CubiCasa, Matterport, iGUIDE exports, and any floor plan image.

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