Gridsnap vs magicplan: Drawing Floor Plans vs Scanning Rooms
magicplan and Gridsnap answer two different questions. magicplan answers “what does this existing building measure?” — you walk the rooms with a phone, capturing with the camera or LiDAR and laser meters, and a floor plan (plus photos and cost estimates) comes out; it’s built for contractors, adjusters and surveyors in the field. Gridsnap answers “what should this building be?” — you draft and design in the browser, in millimetres, with elevations, 3D, plan checking and vector exports. They can even chain: capture on site with one, redraw and design in the other.
Gridsnap vs magicplan
| Gridsnap | magicplan | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free; $19 once for one project (90 days), or $9/mo · $90/yr ongoing | 2 free projects; paid plans sized by project volume (from 10 new projects/mo; $40/project overage) |
| Platform | Browser (nothing to install); works on any OS | iOS and Android apps, with cloud access; LiDAR on iOS Pro devices |
| How the plan is made | Drawn: millimetre-exact drafting with snapping, or traced over a scan/photo underlay | Captured: camera/LiDAR scanning and laser-assisted measurement on site |
| Plan checking | Built-in plan check: overlaps and in-wall errors free; blocked doors/windows, circulation, room sizes, daylight on Pro | None |
| Cost estimating | Quantity takeoff (Pro): measured wall runs, materials, roof and decking areas, plus wall area per room for decorating — no pricing | Built-in estimating with automatic quantity counts |
| Site documentation | Not a feature | Unlimited photos, videos and 360° images attached to the plan |
Compared as of 2026-08-19. magicplan details from its own published pricing and documentation; corrections welcome via the editor's feedback form.
Where magicplan is strong
- Fast on-site capture: walk the rooms with a phone (camera or LiDAR) and the plan draws itself
- Built for field work: laser-meter integration, photos/videos/360° attached to rooms, built-in cost estimating
- Unlimited users on every plan — teams share the account
When Gridsnap is the better choice
Choose Gridsnap when you’re designing rather than surveying: planning a renovation or a new layout, checking it for real problems, and producing drawings — automatic elevations, 3D walkthrough, scaled vector PDF sheets, layered DXF. It’s also the better home for a plan after capture: import the scan or exported image as an underlay, calibrate it, and redraw it as clean, editable CAD geometry you can design against.
When magicplan is the better choice
Choose magicplan when the job starts inside an existing building and speed matters: insurance claims, contractor quotes, surveys of many properties. Phone-based capture with estimating and site photos in one app is a field workflow Gridsnap simply doesn’t have — Gridsnap has no mobile capture at all.
Common questions
Weighing more options? See the best free floor plan creators roundup, the full feature list, or browse ready-made templates to judge the output directly.
Can Gridsnap scan a room like magicplan?
No. Gridsnap has no camera or LiDAR capture — plans are drawn, or traced over an imported image that you calibrate against one known distance. magicplan is the right tool for walking a building and capturing it; Gridsnap is the right tool for designing and drafting.
Can I use magicplan and Gridsnap together?
Yes, and it’s a sensible chain: capture the existing building on site with magicplan, export an image of the plan, then import it into Gridsnap as an underlay, calibrate the scale and trace it. You end up with clean, millimetre-exact CAD geometry you can redesign, check and export as PDF or DXF.
Which is cheaper for a single project?
Both have a free path. magicplan includes 2 free projects with full features; paid plans are sized by monthly project volume, with overage at $40 per project. Gridsnap’s drafting and exports are free without a project meter; Pro is $9/month for the expert checks and AI features.
Try it on your own plan
Gridsnap runs in the browser and the drafting core is free — draw a room to real dimensions and run the plan check on it in a couple of minutes.