--- title: "Chief Architect Software Reviews, Demo & Pricing - 2026" description: "Review of Chief Architect Software: system overview, features, price and cost information. Get free demos and compare to similar programs." source_url: "https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/" page_type: "product" language: "en" --- [Home](https://www.softwareadvice.com/) / [Architectural CAD Software](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/) / Chief Architect Software Advice offers objective insights based on verified user reviews and independent product and market research. When our advisors match you to a software provider, we may earn a referral fee. Overview [Reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/reviews/)[Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/alternatives/) # Chief Architect Review From $2,395-$3,295/one time Free trial 2 plans Wondering if Chief Architect is right for your organization? Our Architectural CAD Software selection experts can help you in 15 minutes or less. On this page - Overview - User Interface - Popular Alternatives - Pricing and Plans - Features - User Reviews - Popular Comparisons ## Overview Chief Architect 4.4 [(68)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/reviews/) Pricing Starting at $2,395.00 flat rate 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. Do you work for Chief Architect? [Manage this product listing](https://www.g2.com/products/armor-agent/claim_requests/new?auto=true) Wondering if Chief Architect is right for your organization? Our Architectural CAD Software selection experts can help you in 15 minutes or less. ## Chief Architect User Interface ## Popular Chief Architect Alternatives Main Product Chief Architect 4.4 [(68)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.01Ease of use - 4.15Value for money - 4.27Customer support - 4.16Functionality Pricing Starting at $2395.00 one time Get Price Alternative Product [RoomSketcher](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/roomsketcher-profile/) 4.4 [(197)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/roomsketcher-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.42Ease of use - 4.19Value for money - 4.51Customer support - 4.18Functionality Pricing Starting at $144.00 per year Get Price Alternative Product [AutoCAD](https://www.softwareadvice.com/manufacturing/autocad-profile/) 4.7 [(3216)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/manufacturing/autocad-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.12Ease of use - 4.20Value for money - 4.21Customer support - 4.59Functionality Pricing Starting at $250.00 per month Get Price Alternative Product [Houzz Pro](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/houzz-pro-profile/) 4.3 [(1088)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/houzz-pro-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.17Ease of use - 4.02Value for money - 4.26Customer support - 4.16Functionality Pricing Starting at $399.00 per month Get Price Alternative Product [SketchUp](https://www.softwareadvice.com/3d-architecture/sketchup-profile/) 4.5 [(1047)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/3d-architecture/sketchup-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.40Ease of use - 4.32Value for money - 4.13Customer support - 4.31Functionality Pricing Starting at $19.99 per month Get Price Alternative Product [Revit](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/revit-profile/) 4.6 [(484)](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/revit-profile/reviews/) Ratings Breakdown - 4.01Ease of use - 4.18Value for money - 4.14Customer support - 4.58Functionality Pricing Starting at $365.00 per month Get Price ## 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 Read More 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 Read More Confused about pricing? We've got you covered. Get a personalized pricing breakdown tailored to your specific needs—no guesswork, no generic estimates. ## 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 ## Chief Architect customer ratings - Overall rating: 4.4/5 - Total reviews: 68 ### Rating distribution - 5 stars: 43 reviews (63%) - 4 stars: 14 reviews (21%) - 3 stars: 7 reviews (10%) - 2 stars: 1 reviews (1%) - 1 star: 3 reviews (4%) ### Secondary ratings - Ease of use: 4.0/5 - Value for money: 4.1/5 - Customer support: 4.3/5 - Functionality: 4.2/5 --- ### Beautiful Renderings - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Michele A. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 2 years - Reviewed: November 2018 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. This software is easy to use and the render quality is superb. It definitely helps me sell a design. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### 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. --- ### Good product - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: KIRK M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Construction - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2025 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. I have been happy with the software overall. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### 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. --- ### Not a smart software - Overall rating: 1/5 - Reviewer: Luis M. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: February 2021 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Horrible #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 1/5 - Value for money: 1/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 1/5 #### 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/ --- ### Using Chief Architect since 2005 - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: John G. - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Architecture & Planning - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: July 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered Great #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 3/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### 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. --- ### Owner and Principal Designer of Interior Design Firm - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Real Estate - Company size: 51-200 employees - Product usage: Used daily for more than 2 years - Reviewed: December 2018 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. 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: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### 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. --- ### New Chief Architect vs Old Chief Architect - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Design - Company size: Self-Employed - Product usage: Used monthly for more than 2 years - Reviewed: October 2020 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. 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: 3/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### 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. --- ### We like Chief - Overall rating: 4/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Construction - Company size: 2-10 employees - Product usage: Used weekly for less than 12 months - Reviewed: January 2020 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered 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: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### 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 --- ### Chief Architect has quickly made creating models and layouts easier than ever before for us. - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Company size: 1001-5000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 2 years - Reviewed: June 2018 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 5/5 - Value for money: 5/5 - Customer support: 5/5 - Functionality: 5/5 #### 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. --- ### Light Years Ahead of Other CAD Programs - Overall rating: 5/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Insurance - Company size: 501-1000 employees - Product usage: Used daily for less than 6 months - Reviewed: July 2019 - Review source details: This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you. 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: 5/5 - Value for money: 4/5 - Functionality: 4/5 #### 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 --- ### Chief architect. - Overall rating: 3/5 - Reviewer: Verified Reviewer - Verified reviewer: Yes - Industry: Architecture & Planning - Company size: 11-50 employees - Product usage: Used other for more than 2 years - Reviewed: May 2019 - Review source details: This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered #### Ratings breakdown - Ease of use: 4/5 - Functionality: 3/5 #### 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 --- Showing 1 - 10 of 68 Reviews [See All Reviews](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/reviews/) ## Chief Architect Popular Comparisons [RoomSketcher vs Chief Architect](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/vs/roomsketcher/)[AutoCAD vs Chief Architect](https://www.softwareadvice.com/manufacturing/autocad-profile/vs/chief-architect/)[Houzz Pro vs Chief Architect](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/vs/houzz-pro/)[SketchUp vs Chief Architect](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/vs/sketchup/)[Revit vs Chief Architect](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/vs/revit/)[AutoCAD Architecture vs Chief Architect](https://www.softwareadvice.com/construction/autocad-architecture-profile/vs/chief-architect/)[Vectorworks Architect vs Chief Architect](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/vs/vectorworks-architect/) [Compare All Alternatives](https://www.softwareadvice.com/architectural-cad/chief-architect-profile/alternatives/) ## Other Top Recommended Architectural CAD Software [Sage Construction Suite](https://www.softwareadvice.com/product/185440-Sage-Construction-Suite/) **4.0** (1061) Recently recommended **191** times [Visio](https://www.softwareadvice.com/flowchart/visio-profile/) **4.5** (3284) Recently recommended **0** times [AutoCAD](https://www.softwareadvice.com/manufacturing/autocad-profile/) **4.7** (3216) Recently recommended **0** times [SketchUp](https://www.softwareadvice.com/3d-architecture/sketchup-profile/) **4.5** (1047) Recently recommended **0** times Stuck Between Options? 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