Chief Architect 2026: Benefits, Features & Pricing

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Overview
Pricing and Plans
Features
User Reviews

Overview

Chief Architect

4.4

(68)

Pricing

Starting at $2,395.00 one time

About Chief Architect

Chief Architect is an interior design and remodeling software that helps residential builders, architects, and remodelers design and manage architectural designs. The platform allows users to automatically generate floor plans, 3D models and 2D drawings and share them with contractors.

Chief Architect lets designed generate sketches for basic floor plans, and add features such as walls, doors, and windows and elements like moldings, furniture, and appliances. Designers can also create 360-degree panoramic renderings and elevations.

It is available on one-time payment and support is extended via phone, email and other online measures.

Chief Architect Screenshots

Chief Architect Pricing and Plans

Starting price: $2,395.00 one time

Free Trial

Free Version

Chief Architect Premier X13

$3,295.00

flat rate, one time

Plan includes:

30 Floors Design Structure
3d Navigation Tools and Virtual Tours
Artistic Rendering Techniques
Auto-Generate Exterior and Interior Elevations
Clay Rendering Techniques
Control Shadow Intensity
Cross Section Slider
Custom Backdrops
Isometric View Tools
Line Drawing

Chief Architect Interiors X13

$2,395.00

flat rate, one time

Plan includes:

10 Floors Design Structure
3d Navigation Tools and Virtual Tours
Artistic Rendering Techniques
Clay Rendering Techniques
Cross Section Slider
Custom Backdrops
Limited Layered Floor and Ceiling Platforms
Line Drawing
Living Area Calculation
Navigation ALT Mode

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Chief Architect Features

Popular features found in Architectural CAD
2D Drawing
3D Imaging
Architectural Symbol Library
Automatic Formatting
Design Templates
Drafting
Rendering
More features of Chief Architect
3D Modeling
BIM Modeling
Component Library
Landscape Design
Presentation Tools

Chief Architect User Reviews

Overall Rating

4.4

Ratings Breakdown

63%

21%

10%

Secondary Ratings

Ease of Use

4.0

Value for money

4.1

Customer support

4.3

Functionality

4.2

Michele A.

Verified reviewer

Design

Self-Employed

Used weekly for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed November 2018

Beautiful Renderings

This software is easy to use and the render quality is superb. It definitely helps me sell a design.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

This software is perfect for kitchen and bath remodel designs.

Cons:

Some things are complicated, such as putting a cut out in the wall or getting a good camera angle in a small space.

KIRK M.

Verified reviewer

Construction

2-10 employees

Used weekly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed February 2025

Good product

I have been happy with the software overall.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

The ease of drawing out rooms for estimates. Like that you could buy only what you needed and it wasn't an annual thing.

Cons:

Sometimes there was a big learning curve on doing the drawings.

Luis M.

Verified reviewer

Design

Self-Employed

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed February 2021

Not a smart software

Horrible

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

Nothing, I like absolutely nothing about it!

Cons:

Everything, I hate every single thing about this software. It is not smart whatsoever. Once you use smart software, CA will be so insignificant. You have very little room for customization, no phasing, the layout process is completely atrocious. Worst software in existence. Again, one you use good software CA will be a raisin for a brain compared to a highly respected scientist.

Reasons for switching to Chief Architect

Because Revit is smart and CA is not/

John G.

Verified reviewer

Architecture & Planning

2-10 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed July 2020

Using Chief Architect since 2005

Great

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I've used two versions of CA over the last 14 years. It was easy to learn; that is, I learned by trial and error and rarely going to see what others were doing on CA website. It has delivered very good, if not photo-realistic renderings when using the raytrace feature, and I can go through the design and working drawing phases of a residence in a matter of ten days or so for a very custom design comprising 9 24" X 36" sheets. I can't say enough good things about my experience. There have been some minor glitches with this software, but the autobackup feature prevents catastrophic loss. I'm considering getting the latest version. It's gone up in price since the old CA version 9.5 that I purchased, but I'm sure it will be worth the cost.

Cons:

As I said there are always glitches in software as complex as this. There were times when I had to hide certain layers to determine that a specific piece of furniture was preventing the program from creating a 3D model, then modify the object or change it out, then replace the layer and try again. This is a small problem and they probably have fixed it on more recent releases. Many of the problems I believed I had I've solved over time by looking for a solution that was right in front of me. It is very difficult to create software tools that are always "intuitive" no matter how you approach them. For example you may expect to see a tool for doing some function nested within a group of similar functions, but it may be elsewhere. That's the way it is with all software. I will say that documentation could be better. Seems like every issue I have isn't in the index or table of contents, and I very much dislike being scooted to a webpage of issues and have to guess by their titles whether it might pertain to my problem. It's like this everywhere. CA isn't alone here.

Reasons for switching to Chief Architect

Too expensive. I'd been a teacher of architectural drafting and had been using it free, but had to consider my personal budget.

Verified

Reviewer

Real Estate

51-200 employees

Used daily for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed December 2018

Owner and Principal Designer of Interior Design Firm

I recommend Chief Architect to all of my peers who own their firms as well. The technical support is beyond anything you could get from AutoCAD or SketchUp and the price makes it a much better product than Revit.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

I use Chief Architect daily to draw designs for my clients and contractors. It's very easy to use and customize to specific clients or projects. I'm able to quickly and easily provide plans views, elevation views, and camera views in order to express an idea or check feasibility. I can present materials lists to my contractors, budgets to my clients, and keep track of how much time I'm spending on a project. If I ever have a question on how to do something, I can contact easily and get an answer quickly. I also sign in to the webinar trainings because there is always something new to learn or a faster, better way to do a task.

Cons:

I wish more manufacturers participated and provided models for the software. I find myself using only CA available vendors on my projects when I need to act quickly. The rendering portion of the software could be more developed.

Verified

Reviewer

Design

Self-Employed

Used monthly for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed October 2020

New Chief Architect vs Old Chief Architect

Overall, Chief Architect is a super cool software. It takes time to learn and I'm still re-learning all the bells and whistles. You have to systematically build your design in order for things to come out right. Their pricing is for serious home builders and designers.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

It's super software and so much better than using Autocad. Once the principals are set up you can really get into designing a home quickly. I've helped so many people visualize their dream home with 3D and it gets them so excited. It's fun to work with once you know what the software can do and know where everything is on the toolbars, which also can be customized. Being able to remove surfaces is very handy to see what is happening into the framing and potentially the problems with the design and structure. It's fantastic !

Cons:

Well, it does have a learning curve. Even when I upgraded I found they changed some simple things and made it harder to accomplish which was disappointing. It seems like every year they want you to upgrade. Most of the upgrades at first were in the rendering capabilities which is more for design and not necessary for building the plans. I was happy with the older version until I lost my dongle and had to seriously upgrade quite a few versions and had to practically relearn the whole program. - it changed that much.

Verified

Reviewer

Construction

2-10 employees

Used weekly for less than 12 months

Review source

Reviewed January 2020

We like Chief

WE like Chief Archeiect. We have support only a call away. AND there are many users out there who are willing to help and teach as we go.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

We like that this software is a monthly subscription. We can suspend in downtimes. We like that is easy to use and that there is a large user base to get tips and tricks from.

Cons:

There is an issue with the program holding measurements in that we input certain wall lengths and they somehow become skewed...It leaves a rendering our of square. This should be something inherently basic. Maybe we are missing something. We wish there were more LOG HOME related tools.

Vendor Response

Thank you for your review. If you are getting dimensions that seem to be changing, it is recommended when you set dimensions that you work around the exterior clockwise and then double check all dims are correct. Because dims are dynamic it can be easy type in a dimension value that affects another dimension by accident. You may find watching our videos on dimensions helpful, so that you have a exact understanding of how parallel and perpendicular dimensions work and differ. Here is a playlist of dimension videos: https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/playlists/92/dimensions.html

Replied January 2020

Verified

Reviewer

1001-5000 employees

Used daily for less than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed June 2018

Chief Architect has quickly made creating models and layouts easier than ever before for us.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Customer support

Functionality

Pros:

There are many features to take advantage of almost immediately. They make many of our common tasks such as floor-planning, creating shells, and dimensioning quick and easy.

Cons:

With so many features, we were worried training materials would be hard to come by for our staff. On the contrary, it was extremely easy reaching customer support and training was a breeze.

Verified

Reviewer

Insurance

501-1000 employees

Used daily for less than 6 months

Review source

Reviewed July 2019

Light Years Ahead of Other CAD Programs

After years of using Revit, I had the opportunity to try out Chief Architect recently. Needless to say, I am hooked! CA is a quick study for experienced CAD users and performs exponentially faster that other programs I have used. The ray trace rendering feature is helpful but could be improved by allowing users to render in the cloud as other CAD programs (Autodesk products in particular) do. For designers who want to produce high-quality 3D representations of their work and generate construction documents and elevations, Chief Architect is well worth the investment!

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Value for money

Functionality

Pros:

Ease of use; graphics; available options for materials and finishes; ability to import and edit SKP files

Cons:

Even with rental options, could be a bit expensive for new designers; rendering in the cloud is not an available option at this time

Verified

Reviewer

Architecture & Planning

11-50 employees

Used other for more than 2 years

Review source

Reviewed May 2019

Chief architect.

Ratings Breakdown

Ease of use

Functionality

Pros:

Good 2d components. It is flexible. Light in size and flexible.

Cons:

Poor render quality. Not realistic. Not very useful, it is not best for replacement.

Vendor Response

Thank you for reviewing our product. If you are using our Chief Architect Premier or Interiors version, there are several levels of rendering quality. Our highest quality rendering is done by using the "Raytrace" feature. Raytracing produces photorealistic rendering, but it takes time to complete a raytraced scene. A recent feature added to Chief Architect is "Physically Based Rendering" (PBR). This is a real time view with raytrace like quality. Finally, our "Standard Render" is the most basic rendering, but many like to use this view for day to day design work. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about rendering at 208-292-3400 or email sales@chiefarchitect.com

Replied May 2019

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