Plot2Plan vs Floorplanner
A long-established online floor plan and room planner: draw rooms, move walls, drop in furniture and render in 2D or 3D. Plot2Plan is a narrower thing: it starts from a plot in Chennai, computes what the by-law allows on it, and drafts a plan inside that envelope which a validator has to pass. Below is what each tool says it does — with the pages we read and the date we read them, so you can check us.
Who each one is for
- Floorplanner. Drawing any space quickly in the browser and rendering it well — homes, offices, events, classrooms — with a very large model library.
- Plot2Plan. Someone with a specific plot in Chennai — bought, or about to be — who needs to know what the by-law allows on it and wants a plan that respects that before an architect is engaged.
These are different jobs, and plenty of people should use both. This page is here so you can tell quickly which one your question belongs to.
Feature by feature
We read Floorplanner’s public pages on 4 September 2026 and recorded only what those pages say. Where they say nothing, the cell reads “Not stated” rather than guessing, and “Not on the pages we checked” means exactly that — not that the product cannot do it. Products change fast: if something here is wrong or out of date, email vinodhec@gmail.com and we will correct it.
| What you might need | Plot2Plan | Floorplanner |
|---|---|---|
| What you start fromHow much you have to know before the tool is useful. | YesPlot size, road width and facing — three taps. Or paste the listing text, or a photo of an existing plan, or a walkthrough video of a house that already stands.see for yourself | YesDraw rooms, move walls, add doors and windows directly in the browser.source |
| Legal envelope for your plotSetbacks, FSI, height and the number of floors your plot actually allows. | YesComputed, not guessed: for Chennai (CMA-R) plots, setbacks, FSI, coverage, the height cap and the resulting floor count come from deterministic code reading TNCDBR 2019, with the rule and clause cited (the guides publish the figures themselves). Outside Chennai you enter your own setbacks and we label them as yours, never as a by-law.see for yourself | Not on the pages we checkedNothing on the pages we checked describes setbacks, FSI, coverage or a permitted floor count for a plot.source |
| Refuses a plan that breaks the rulesA drawing is only worth having if something checked it. | YesEvery plan is checked before you see it: rooms inside the setbacks, no overlaps, coverage and FSI within the limit, the main door on the road-facing wall and actually reaching the road, staircase aligned across floors, wet rooms stacked, and every room reachable on foot from the front door. Failures go back for repair, and anything left over is listed on the plan rather than hidden.see for yourself | Not on the pages we checkedNothing on the pages we checked describes a plan being checked against building rules.source |
| Editable geometryWhether you can move a room, or only regenerate and hope. | YesDrag a room, resize it, or ask in plain words (“swap the kitchen and the bedroom”). Every edit goes back through the same validator.see for yourself | YesDirect manipulation of walls, rooms and openings is the whole tool.source |
| 3D view and walkthroughSeeing the massing and walking the rooms before you build. | YesA shaded 3D model of the validated plan and a first-person walkthrough that can only walk where the validator agrees a door exists. Massing and daylight, not a photoreal interior render.see for yourself | Yes3D visualisation with renders up to 8K, from a library of 260,000+ 3D models.source |
| CAD file and approval-drawing hand-offWhat your architect or draughtsman can actually open. | YesA sanction-style A1 approval sheet (dimensioned plans, site plan, elevation, section, area statement, door/window schedule, title block) as PNG, SVG, print or DXF. Signature boxes stay blank — it is a starting document for a licensed professional, not a submittable drawing.see for yourself | Not statedThe pages we checked describe image resolutions (SD to 8K) but do not state which file formats a project exports to. |
| Indian units and road widthsPlots here are quoted in feet, cents and grounds, on a 30 ft road. | YesFeet and ft² by default with a metric toggle, plot sizes as 30×40, road widths in feet, cents and grounds in the guides, and costs in ₹ at Indian rates.see for yourself | Not statedNo India-specific land measures or road-width bands are stated. |
| Vastu guidanceGuidance, never a legality claim — but it decides layouts in India. | YesA derived design-checks card: pooja, kitchen and master-bedroom placement by compass quadrant, plus natural light. Advisory guidance shown beside the plan — it never decides whether a plan is legal.see for yourself | Not statedVastu is not mentioned on the pages we checked. |
| PriceAs published on their own pricing page on the date we checked. | YesFree during the beta. No credits, no card: plans, validation, 3D and the walkthrough, the approval sheet and the DXF all cost nothing today.see for yourself | Yes“Free for casual use” — a Basic account allows up to 5 projects (3 floors, 3 designs). Credits are $8.15 for 5, up to $163 for 100; Plus and Pro subscription prices were not stated on the page we read.source |
| Usable without an account or creditsWhether you can see the output before you sign up or pay. | YesNothing is behind a sign-in except saving. You can generate, drag, validate, walk through and export while signed out.see for yourself | PartlyThe Basic account is free for casual use; upgrades and renders are bought with credits.source |
Pages read: floorplanner.com · floorplanner.com/pricing.
What Plot2Plan does that Floorplanner doesn’t
- Legal envelope for your plot. Computed, not guessed: for Chennai (CMA-R) plots, setbacks, FSI, coverage, the height cap and the resulting floor count come from deterministic code reading TNCDBR 2019, with the rule and clause cited (the guides publish the figures themselves). Outside Chennai you enter your own setbacks and we label them as yours, never as a by-law.
- Refuses a plan that breaks the rules. Every plan is checked before you see it: rooms inside the setbacks, no overlaps, coverage and FSI within the limit, the main door on the road-facing wall and actually reaching the road, staircase aligned across floors, wet rooms stacked, and every room reachable on foot from the front door. Failures go back for repair, and anything left over is listed on the plan rather than hidden.
This list is generated from the same table — it can only name rows where our column is a plain yes and theirs is a sourced absence, so it cannot drift into a claim the table does not support.
The short version: for a Chennai (CMA residential) plot, the setbacks, FSI, height cap and the resulting floor count are computed by code from the Tamil Nadu Combined Development and Building Rules, 2019, with the clause cited — the AI is never allowed to invent a legal number, only to arrange rooms inside an envelope it cannot change. A plan that breaks it does not reach you.
What Floorplanner does that we don’t
- A library of over 260,000 3D models and 8K renders — far beyond anything we draw.
- Any kind of space, not just a house on a plot: offices, shops, event layouts, classrooms. Free for schools worldwide.
- Years of drawing-tool polish. Plot2Plan generates a plan for you and lets you adjust it; it is not a general-purpose CAD canvas.
If that is what you are after, Floorplanner is the better tool and you should use it. We would rather say so than win the click and waste your afternoon.
What our output actually looks like
Not a screenshot — the drawing below is rendered live by the same code the app uses, on a 30×40 ft Chennai plot with a 30 ft road, so this page cannot advertise output the product no longer produces.
The 3D model, the first-person walkthrough, the A1 approval sheet and the DXF come off this same geometry. See the 3D walkthrough guide or the importer guide if you already have a house.
Other comparisons
Frequently asked questions
Is Floorplanner free?
“Free for casual use” on their pricing page: a Basic account allows up to 5 projects limited to 3 floors and 3 designs, with credits (from $8.15 for 5) buying upgrades and higher-resolution renders. Plot2Plan is free during the beta with no credits at all, and needs no account until you want to save a plan.
Can Floorplanner tell me how many floors I can build?
No — nothing on the pages we checked (4 September 2026) computes a permitted floor count, setbacks or FSI. It draws what you tell it to draw. Plot2Plan computes the floor count for Chennai (CMA residential) plots from TNCDBR 2019 — and it is computed, never chosen, because on a small plot the setbacks usually bite long before the coverage limit does.
Floorplanner vs Plot2Plan?
Floorplanner is a better drawing tool and has a vastly bigger model library. Plot2Plan is the better starting point when you own a plot in Chennai and do not yet know what may legally stand on it: it computes the envelope first, drafts inside it, refuses a plan that breaks it, and hands you an approval sheet and a DXF for your architect — free.
Does Floorplanner work for a plot outside Chennai?
Floorplanner is not city-specific, so nothing stops you drawing any plot anywhere in it. Plot2Plan is the opposite trade-off: our computed setback, FSI, height and floor-count numbers cover Chennai (CMA residential) only, because that is the one zone whose rule data we have verified. Bengaluru is deliberately paused until its by-law rows are verified, and for any other location you can enter your own setbacks — we then label every number as yours rather than as a by-law. We would rather cover one city honestly than fifty vaguely.
Try it on your own plot
Enter the plot size, the road width and which way it faces — the envelope, the plan and the validator’s verdict take about a minute, and nothing is behind a sign-in.