What software do interior designers use? The 2026 stack, by job

Nobody runs a studio on one program. I build software for interior designers, so I get asked this a lot, and the honest answer is that every designer I've spoken to runs a stack: a drawing tool, something to render with, something to present with, a spreadsheet or two they're slightly ashamed of, an invoicing tool and a lot of email. The question is never "which app" but "which app for which job".

So that's how this is laid out. Seven jobs, the tools designers use for each, and what to pay for first. Mortar Design, the product I work on, shows up in the business jobs. I've tried to place it where it belongs and say plainly where it doesn't.

One scope note. If you searched "interior design software" and wanted a room planner for your own house, this isn't that. Planner 5D, Homestyler and friends are homeowner tools. Lovely for a weekend, not what a practice runs on.

1. Drafting and 3D: SketchUp, AutoCAD, Revit, Chief Architect

This is the job most people mean when they ask what "program" designers use for floor plans.

SketchUp is the default for residential interiors. It's fast, it's visual, and the learning curve is kind. Most small studios draw in SketchUp and never need anything heavier.

AutoCAD is still the standard for 2D construction documents. If you're handing drawings to a contractor or a joiner, or your projects come from an architect's DWG files, you're probably in AutoCAD for the technical set even if you model in SketchUp.

Revit is where it goes when the firm is bigger or works alongside architects. BIM is overkill for a single-room refresh, but for commercial, hospitality or anything with an architecture arm, it's often non-negotiable because that's what the rest of the project team is using.

Chief Architect sits in the kitchen, bath and design-build corner. Residential, catalogue-driven, strong on cabinetry and elevations. Chief Architect's product page now sells one edition, Premier, with an interiors section rather than a separate Interiors product ($229 a month billed monthly on their site as of 1 November 2026).

Which studios use which, roughly: solo residential designers pick one of SketchUp or Chief Architect and stay there. Studios of three or more tend to run SketchUp plus AutoCAD. Anyone working with architects ends up in Revit whether they wanted to or not.

2. Rendering and visualisation: Enscape, V-Ray, Lumion, Twinmotion

Renders sell schemes. The tools split into two groups.

Real-time tools let you walk a client through the model while you talk. Enscape is a plugin that lives inside SketchUp, Revit and the other hosts, so there's no export step. Twinmotion and Lumion are standalone apps you sync a model into. Twinmotion runs on Mac and Windows; Lumion is Windows only and leans towards exteriors and animated fly-throughs.

Offline renderers take longer per image and look better for it. V-Ray plugs into SketchUp, Revit and Rhino and is the usual pick for the final hero image on a presentation board.

The common pattern is one real-time tool for design development and client walkthroughs, then V-Ray (or a rendering freelancer) for the handful of images that end up in the portfolio.

AI render tools are the emerging category: a SketchUp screenshot in, a photographic image out in seconds, and the business platforms have started bundling "AI rendering" too. I'm not naming any because the market is moving faster than I can verify it. Try a couple on a real project before you lean on one in front of a client.

3. Mood boards and presentations: Canva, Morpholio Board, Milanote, Pinterest

Where the concept gets pitched.

Pinterest for collecting, nearly universally. Canva for the presentation deck, because it's quick and the templates look fine. Morpholio Board if you're iPad-first; it's built for interiors specifically and will pull product cut sheets from a board. Milanote if you want a free-form canvas with a web clipper and client commenting.

The catch with all four is that the board is a picture. The sofa on it has no price, no vendor and no approval status, so the same item gets re-entered into whatever tracks the budget. That's the gap Mortar's mood boards are built around: every item on the board is a real project product with a vendor, a price and an approval state, there's a live budget bar on the canvas, the palette is sampled from the actual product images rather than a preset, and clients can approve or decline items straight off the shared board. Boards export as tearsheet PDFs in designer and client versions.

If your presentations are mostly concept and you don't track procurement in the same place, Canva or Morpholio will serve you well and cost less.

4. Specification, FF&E schedules and procurement: Gather, Fohlio, Programa, Studio Designer, Mortar

If you're new to the term, what FF&E means and how the schedule works is a separate post, and there's a free finishes schedule template if you want to start in a spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet is where almost every studio starts and where almost every studio gets hurt: versions drift, statuses live in email, the budget doesn't move when the items do.

Gather and Fohlio are the commercial-grade specification tools. Gather describes itself as "everything your team needs for complex FF&E work" and now includes an API and MCP access for AI assistants. Fohlio relaunched in June 2026 as an AI-powered spec and procurement platform aimed at hospitality, retail and multi-site. Both are built for architecture and large-firm workflows; if you're a residential studio they're more than you need.

Programa is the design-led option: FF&E, finishes, lighting and joinery schedules, a clipper, client dashboard approvals and procurement. Studio Designer does procurement inside a full accounting system and now owns Mydoma, which makes the pair the scale player in the category.

Mortar does item-level procurement with a Quote Inbox, purchase orders and finishes schedule revisions, tied to the same list the budget and the client portal read from. Change a price on an item and the budget, the schedule and what the client sees all move together. See procurement and finishes schedules.

5. Budgets, client approvals and project management

This is the category people mean by "interior design business software", and it's crowded: Studio Designer, Design Manager, Programa, DesignFiles, Mydoma, Houzz Pro, Materio, Gather, Planify and us. I've compared nine of them, features and prices, in the best interior design project management software roundup, so I won't repeat it here. The short version of how they split:

• Accounting-first: Studio Designer and Design Manager. A general ledger, item-level margin, reporting your CPA will like. Deep, and a learning curve to match.
• Design-first: Programa, DesignFiles, Mydoma. Boards and schedules that look good in front of a client, with invoicing bolted on and accounting handed to QuickBooks or Xero.
• Everything-in-one-place: Materio, Planify and Mortar. One list for selections, approvals and money, with a client portal on the front.

Where Mortar sits, honestly: $59 per user per month, unlimited projects, every feature on the one plan, and we publish our payment fees including our own share, which nobody else in the list does. The trade-off is that it's a young product with a short track record, and there's no native general-ledger accounting. If you want your project tool to be your books, that's Studio Designer or Design Manager. If you're happy keeping the books in QuickBooks or Xero and want the project side to be visual and in step, that's the lane we're in.

6. Proposals, contracts and getting paid

Three jobs that often get three tools.

Proposals and contracts. Solo designers lean heavily on service-business CRMs like HoneyBook and Dubsado: a proposal, a contract and a deposit invoice in one document, with e-signature. Both list interior designers as a target customer. If you'd rather not add a subscription for this yet, we have a free proposal template you can adapt.

Accounting. QuickBooks in the US, Xero in Australia and the UK, more or less. Every design-first platform expects you to have one of these; the accounting-first platforms try to replace it.

Invoicing and payments. This is where the design platforms differ most. Mortar's billing and payments builds the invoice from what the client approved, takes a deposit (percentage or fixed) and credits it on the balance invoice, sends reminders that state what's still owed, and lets clients pay by card or bank transfer (US ACH, Australian BECS) through their portal via your connected Stripe account. Offline payments by bank transfer, cheque or cash carry no Mortar fee. Online fees are published on our pricing page, and bank fees cap at $15.

7. Client communication: email, portals and the Sunday-night update

Every tool above is for you. This one is for the client, and it's the one most studios still run on email and a weekly PDF.

A client portal replaces the "any news on the dining table?" message with a place the client can look. The best ones need no login, show only what you've chosen to show and keep decisions dated on the item. Planify, Programa, Mydoma, DesignFiles and Mortar all have one; what differs is what sits behind it. Mortar's client portal is fed by the same project list as the budget and the orders, with price visibility modes and supplier hiding, so the client sees the approved sofa and its status and not your trade pricing or the vendor.

Whatever you use, keep the rule: the client should be able to answer their own question before they email you.

Three sample stacks

Read it as "what people around me run", not a prescription. Plenty of six-person studios are happy on SketchUp, Canva and a very good spreadsheet.

What to pay for first

Opinionated, and in order.

1. A drawing tool you'll use daily. SketchUp for most. Don't buy Revit until a project forces you to.
2. Accounting. QuickBooks or Xero from day one. Retrofitting books is miserable.
3. One place for selections, budget and client approvals. This is the subscription that pays for itself, because it's the one that stops the Sunday-night update. Mortar, Programa, Materio or Planify depending on size and budget.
4. A proposal and contract flow. Templates are fine until you're sending more than a couple a month. Then HoneyBook or Dubsado, or do it inside your project tool.
5. Rendering. Last, honestly. A good SketchUp model and a confident presentation close more projects than a photoreal render, and you can outsource the hero image until it's routine.

Skip, at least to start: a separate mood board app if your project tool already does boards, and a generic PM tool (Asana, Monday, Notion) stood up as a procurement tracker.

Where Mortar fits, in a hundred words

Mortar Design is project and budget management for interior designers: one list that the mood board, the finishes schedule, the budget, the orders, the invoices and the client portal all read from, so adding a product once keeps every view in step. It's $59 per user per month, unlimited projects, every feature on the one plan, seven-day trial, no card. It is not accounting software and it won't replace QuickBooks or Xero. It's also younger than everything else in this post, so if a ten-year track record matters more to you than the workflow, Studio Designer and Programa have one. We'd still like you to try it.

FAQ

What software do most interior designers use? A stack, not one program. The most common combination in residential practice is SketchUp for drawing, a real-time renderer like Enscape, Pinterest and Canva for concept boards, a business platform for budgets, procurement and the client portal (Mortar, Programa, Studio Designer, DesignFiles or Mydoma), and QuickBooks or Xero for the books.

What program do interior designers use for floor plans? SketchUp for quick 3D and concept plans, AutoCAD for 2D construction drawings, Revit when working alongside architects or on commercial projects, and Chief Architect for kitchen, bath and design-build work.

Is there a free option? For drawing, SketchUp has a free web version and Blender is free, though neither is built for interiors documentation. Pinterest and Canva's free tier cover concept boards. For the business side, nothing serious is free; the usual zero-cost route is a spreadsheet, which works until it doesn't. Most of the business platforms, including Mortar, offer a free trial.

What do interior designers use for client presentations? Canva or Keynote for decks, Morpholio Board or Milanote for free-form boards, and renders from Enscape, Twinmotion or V-Ray for the hero images. Studios that run a platform like Mortar increasingly present from the shared board itself, so the client can approve items where they see them.

Do I need accounting software as well? Yes, unless you pick an accounting-first platform like Studio Designer or Design Manager. Design-first tools, Mortar included, handle budgets, invoices and payments but hand the general ledger to QuickBooks or Xero. Your accountant will want it that way.