AI room design apps vs an online interior designer: which should you use?
Use an AI room design app if you want to try lots of looks for a room quickly and cheaply. Use a 3D room planner if the problem is layout and measurements. Use an online interior designer if you want someone's judgement and a list of things to buy. Solved does all three: ideas for your room, planned to scale, with the pieces bought for you.
| AI room design apps | 3D room planners | Online interior designers | Solved | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | Generated pictures of your room in a new style | A measured floor plan and a 3D model you furnish yourself | A design from a person, usually with a shopping list and revisions | Ideas for your own room, shaped around what you like and how you use it, planned to scale, with the pieces bought for you |
| How fast | Seconds to minutes | Hours, once you have learned the tool | Days to weeks, because of the back and forth | From photo to room design in minutes |
| Typical cost | Free trials, then monthly plans (Interior AI from $29 a month billed yearly) | Free to start, with paid extras | Roughly £160 to £700 a room in the UK | Free to use. You set the budget for the room |
| Can you buy what you see? | Usually not the exact pieces. A few apps now add shopping links | Some link to a shop. Mostly generic models | Yes, that is the point of the shopping list | Yes. Every piece is real and we order it for you |
| Works around what you own? | Partly. Most restyle the whole photo | Only if you model your own furniture | Yes, if you tell them what is staying | Yes, that is where we start |
| Best for | Deciding on a direction | Layouts, renovations, extensions | A finished room with expert judgement | Ideas, fit and buying in one place |
What are AI room design apps good at?
AI room design apps are good at showing you a direction fast. You upload a photo, pick a style, and get a redesigned picture of your room in under a minute. Interior AI, for example, says it produces a design in about 25 seconds and up to 16 at once.
That speed is genuinely useful early on. Seeing your own living room as Japandi, then as warm mid-century, tells you more about what you like than any mood board.
Where they fall short is the step after the picture. The furniture in most generated rooms looks like real furniture but is not a specific product you can order, so you are left to find something close. A few apps have started to close that gap: Reimagine Home now attaches real products from retailers to its designs and lets you buy the set.
When is a 3D room planner the better choice?
A 3D room planner is the better choice when the question is about space rather than style. Will the sofa fit under the window? Does the dining table leave room to walk past? Is it worth knocking through?
Tools like Planner 5D and Homestyler let you draw or upload a floor plan, turn it into a 3D model and place furniture from a large library. They are free to start. The trade off is time: you are doing the designing, and the furniture is mostly generic.
If the question is just where the sofa should go, see how to arrange living room furniture.
What does an online interior designer give you that an app does not?
An online interior designer gives you judgement. A person looks at your room, asks what you need it to do, and makes choices an app will not: which of your things to keep, what to move, where to spend and where to save.
In the UK, published prices for this kind of e-design run from about £160 to £700 a room, against £2,000 or more for a traditional designer who visits. Decorilla, which serves the UK, lists packages from $599 before discounts. Havenly is the best known name but prices in dollars and does not list UK service.
The cost is time and back and forth. Expect questionnaires, a concept, revisions, then a shopping list you order yourself.
Which should you choose?
Choose by the problem you actually have, not the tool you have heard of.
- Not sure what style you want: an AI room design app.
- Not sure the furniture fits: a 3D room planner.
- Starting a room from scratch or renovating: an online or in-person interior designer.
Or, if you want the ideas, the fit and the buying handled together, that is what Solved is for.
Where does Solved fit?
Solved does the job of all three. You send a photo of your room, and we work with you to understand what you like and how you use the room. Then we show you ideas for it, like an app would. We plan them to scale, like a room planner would. Then we buy the pieces for you, the way a designer would.
So you are not choosing between a quick picture, a floor plan you build yourself and a designer you wait weeks for. You see your own room finished, sized to fit, working around what you already own, and every piece in it is real and can be ordered in one go. Solved is free to use: you set what you want to spend on the room, and the design works to that budget.
The one job we leave to others is building work. If you are moving walls or planning an extension, start with an architect or a designer who visits.
What would we do first?
Take one photo of the room from the doorway, in daylight, and write down the three things that are definitely staying. Whichever route you pick, that photo and that list will get you a better answer.
Sources, checked 12 October 2026. Interior AI plans and speed: interiorai.com. Reimagine Home shoppable products: reimaginehome.ai. Planner 5D: planner5d.com. Homestyler: homestyler.com. Decorilla packages and UK service: decorilla.com/pricing. Havenly packages: havenly.com/pricing. UK e-design and full-service price ranges: housedesigner.com, fifimcgee.co.uk.