The five: IKEA Kitchen Planner, Planner 5D, HomeByMe, SketchUp Free and Flip’s own 3D designer. Every one runs in a browser and costs nothing to try — and every one will happily show you a kitchen that cannot be built. Here is what each is genuinely good at, and the exact point where it stops.
A free kitchen planner is the cheapest hour you will ever spend on a renovation — and the easiest one to waste. The tools below are not interchangeable: one of them exists to sell you a specific cabinet range, one is a 3D modeller wearing a kitchen costume, and two are decorating tools that make beautiful pictures of rooms nobody has costed. Knowing which is which before you invest an evening is most of the battle.
There is no single winner, because they do different jobs. Use IKEA’s planner for an IKEA kitchen, Planner 5D or HomeByMe for a fast good-looking room, SketchUp Free for unusual geometry, and a cabinet company’s own planner when the design has to end in an orderable parts list. All five run in a browser, and all five want an account before you can keep the work for good.
Where we stand: we build one of the five — Flip is a cabinet company with its own free planner, and it is number five on this list. We have tried to describe the other four the way we would want ours described: what the free tier actually gives you, and the honest limit. Free tiers change; check the current terms before you commit an evening to any of them.
Five questions, asked of every tool. They are the ones that decide whether the evening turns into a kitchen.
| Tool | Best for | Free tier gives you | Where it stops |
|---|---|---|---|
| IKEA Kitchen Planner | Designing an IKEA kitchen | The whole planner, ready-made kitchens to start from, and live prices | IKEA parts only |
| Planner 5D | A good-looking room, fast | Unlimited projects and half the furniture catalogue; renders are paid | Not tied to real cabinets |
| HomeByMe | Styling and furnishing | Design and furnish in 3D; two projects and five HD images | Decoration, not construction |
| SketchUp Free | Precise custom geometry | The web modeller and the 3D Warehouse, personal use | You model every box yourself |
| Flip Kitchen Designer | A design you can actually order | Full 3D design, elevations and an itemised plan | Our cabinet range |
Two questions decide most of this and neither is answered on the marketing pages: does the tool design the layout for you, and is that part actually included in the free tier?
| Tool | AI generates the layout | Is that AI in the free tier? | Start designing without an account |
|---|---|---|---|
| IKEA Kitchen Planner | No AI layout — but you can start from a ready-made IKEA kitchen | — | Yes to design; an IKEA Family account to save |
| Planner 5D | Yes — a Smart Wizard that suggests layouts, and a Design Generator that reimagines a room photo | Partly — the wizard, and part of the generator, can be tried free; floor-plan recognition and AI Studio credits are paid | Sign-up expected early |
| HomeByMe | Partly — AI furnishing suggestions (AutoDesign), not cabinet runs | Not spelled out — the free tier itself is two projects and five HD images | Sign-up expected early |
| SketchUp Free | No — you model every box by hand | — | A free Trimble account is required |
| Flip Kitchen Designer | Yes — returns up to four complete layouts | Yes — three AI designs a day, guests included | Yes, as a guest (2 designs, 7 days); a free account to keep more |
Two things fall out of that. “Free AI kitchen design” usually means the planner is free and the AI only partly so — Planner 5D lets you try its layout wizard on the free plan, but its floor-plan recognition and AI Studio credits, like its renders, are on the paid plans. And none of them lets you keep the work for long without an account: the others ask for one up front or at the moment you want to save, export or render, and ours has a guest mode that holds two designs until seven days after your last visit before it wants a free account.
Best if you already know you are buying an IKEA kitchen
The most used free kitchen planner on earth, and for one good reason: it is not really a design tool, it is a configurator for a specific cabinet system. You give it a room shape and your measurements, it gives you cabinets that exist, in the sizes they exist in, with a shopping list at the end. Nothing you draw is imaginary.
It runs in the browser or in the IKEA app, and it no longer makes you start from an empty room: you can begin from one of IKEA’s ready-made 3D kitchens, or scan your kitchen with an iPhone, and the prices update as you design. Plans are kept in your IKEA Family account, and the plan is the thing you take into a booked planning appointment or straight to checkout.
Use it as a feasibility test even if you never buy: if your layout will not close inside a rigid module system, that is worth knowing on day one. If it fits, you have a real plan. If it does not, you have learned that your kitchen needs fillers and custom panels — which is exactly what the next four tools are for.
Best for getting something that looks like a kitchen in twenty minutes
Draw walls, drop in furniture, flip to 3D. Planner 5D is the friendliest tool on this list and the fastest path from “empty room” to “image I can show my partner.” It runs on the web and as an app, the catalogue is enormous, and it does the whole home, not just the kitchen.
The free plan is generous where it matters for a first pass — unlimited projects, with about half of the furniture catalogue. The renders, the rest of the catalogue and AI extras such as floor-plan recognition are on the paid plans, so save the upgrade for the design you have settled on, not the first draft.
Treat what comes out as a mood board with correct wall lengths. It is genuinely useful for deciding you want a peninsula instead of an island; it will not tell you that the peninsula needs a 3″ filler where it meets the wall.
Best for furnishing and styling a room you have already laid out
HomeByMe sits in the same family as Planner 5D but leans harder into look and feel: real brand catalogues, materials, and image quality that flatters a room. Draw the floor plan, furnish it, and produce something closer to a magazine photo than a plan.
The free account lets you design and furnish; what it limits is the high-definition exports and how many projects you keep — two projects and five HD images at the time of writing, with screenshots unlimited — and those limits change, so read the current plan before you build your whole house in it.
Perfect as step two: settle the layout in something dimensional, then bring the finished shape here to argue about the floor and the backsplash. Doing it the other way round — falling in love with a render, then discovering the run is 4″ too long — is the classic way to lose a weekend.
Best when your kitchen is strange and you need total control
Not a kitchen tool at all — a general 3D modeller that happens to be free in the browser, with a vast library of user-made models to pull from. If your room has a chimney breast, a sloped ceiling, a bulkhead nobody can move, or you are building the boxes yourself, SketchUp will model exactly what is there, to the millimetre, and nothing will round it off for you.
The free tier is the web version: core modelling, cloud storage, the 3D Warehouse. The trade-offs are real — no extensions, no CAD file import, and personal (non-commercial) use only. And there is no cabinet intelligence whatsoever: a base cabinet is a box you drew, and it will let you draw one 34″ wide with a door that opens into the fridge.
Worth it if you enjoy the modelling, or if your room genuinely defeats the configurators. Otherwise it is a lot of evenings to arrive where a kitchen-specific tool starts.
Best for turning the picture into a plan you can order and build
We built this because of the gap the other four leave: a pretty 3D kitchen that no supplier can quote. Flip is a free browser planner where every box is a real cabinet with a real code and real dimensions — the same ones in the cabinet sizes reference — so the design and the order are the same document.
Start from a layout template (single wall, L, U, G, island) or type in your own measured walls, then arrange cabinets in 2D — or let AI Design propose complete layouts — and walk the result in 3D. It handles the parts the decorating tools skip: fillers, end panels, toe kicks, corner solutions, appliance openings. It draws wall elevations for the installer, colours the doors from real finish catalogues, puts a countertop, backsplash and floor on it, draws the countertops to 1/16″ for a fabricator, and exports a PDF and an itemised list of what the kitchen is made of.
If you are still deciding whether you want a galley or an L, open Planner 5D. If you have decided, and you want the version of the drawing that survives contact with a tape measure and a delivery truck, open the planner — and if you want the guided tour first, every button is documented here, with a short video for each step.
All five will let you draw a kitchen that cannot be built, and only two will warn you. The failures repeat with remarkable consistency:
Whichever tool you choose, run your finished plan against that list before you buy anything. Two hours of checking beats a pallet of cabinets that is 3″ too long for the wall.
There is no single winner, because they do different jobs. For an IKEA kitchen, the IKEA Kitchen Planner — it is the only one that outputs their part numbers. For a fast, good-looking visual, Planner 5D or HomeByMe. For exact custom geometry, SketchUp Free. For a design that ends in an orderable, buildable cabinet plan, a cabinet company’s own planner such as Flip’s.
Yes — all five here run in a browser tab. The IKEA planner, Planner 5D, HomeByMe, SketchUp for Web and the Flip designer all open without installing anything, though most want an account before you can save or export.
Most do not. General planners like Planner 5D, HomeByMe and SketchUp treat cabinets as furniture models, so you get an image, not a parts list. Only planners tied to a real cabinet range — IKEA’s, or a manufacturer’s own designer like Flip’s — can output codes, sizes, fillers and panels that a supplier can price.
Some let you start without one. Ours shows a sign-in card when it opens, but Try it as a guest on that card gets you the designer — walls, cabinets, 3D, AI Design three times a day — with no account, and keeps up to two designs until seven days after your last visit. Keeping work for good, exporting and high-definition renders are where an account becomes necessary in nearly every tool, so expect to sign up at the point you want to keep the work.
Usually only partly. The planner is normally free while the bigger AI features are the paid upgrade — Planner 5D lets you try its layout wizard for free, but its floor-plan recognition and AI Studio credits come with the paid plans. Free AI layout generation does exist: the Flip designer returns up to four complete layouts and includes three AI designs a day, guests included. Drawing and quoting by hand costs nothing either.
It is excellent at geometry and useless at cabinets. You model every box, door and counter yourself, and it will not warn you about a size that does not exist or a door that hits the fridge. Choose it when the room is unusual enough that the configurators cannot describe it — sloped ceilings, chimney breasts, immovable bulkheads — and budget hours rather than minutes.
Almost never the designing. What gets metered is the output and the storage: photoreal high-definition renders, PDF or image exports, how many projects you can keep, part of the furniture catalogue, and commercial use. Plan on the free tier, and check the current terms before you rely on an export.
Do the first pass yourself — a free planner makes you confront your own measurements, which is where most bad kitchens are decided. Bring a professional in for the parts with consequences: moving plumbing, gas or ducting, structural changes, and the final check of clearances and appliance openings before anything is ordered.
As accurate as the numbers you feed them, and no more. They model what you type; none of them can see that your wall bows by half an inch or that the floor drops toward the door. Measure three heights per wall, check the diagonals for square, and treat any planner output as a plan to verify on site rather than a guarantee.
Free, in your browser, with real cabinet sizes behind every box — and a plan at the end that a supplier can actually read.
Open the 3D planner →