Home Designer 2026 and beyond will be subscription based

[BACLLC]

Such a bad idea, do they not understand how this measure alienates their current and past customers !! I've used HD Pro for over 7 years and am currently using HD Pro 2021, I will not upgrade nor will I become part of a subscription based service, it is completely to expensive !! I think ,they think, that their customers upgrade every year, which in my case is not true, as I find that minimal yearly upgrades / improvements are not all that they are cracked up to be. Sorry guys no subscription's for me !! Will be looking elsewhere, besides unfortunately AI will crush them if they are not careful !! 

[dlmcilvain]

I have been using Home Designer since it was part of Better Homes and Gardens.  I have gone from the architectural version to pro about 9 years ago.  I use it constantly to designer custom modular homes in which I general contract.  Not happy with the subscription model.  I will keep my Pro 2025 since it will always work and do what I need it to do or at least until it will not work with a new OS.  I am not interested in having to "rent" the software and lose everyting if I can't pay for it.  I think I will be able to use it until I retire in about 10 to 12 years and then it won't matter.  It has been a good run but I am out for the subscription.

[TheMadCadder]

Well hell...

 

For several years I've been figuratively 'trapped' in another company's pile of garbage modeling software. I've been wanting to migrate to CA for decades. Since it first came out on Fred Meyer store shelves. I almost pulled the trigger a couple years ago (in a fit of rage over the previous platform's random bugginess) when the full version CA could be had for a one-time fee of $2800. Unfortunately I decided to wait given the economic times.

 

When I did get to a better position and was more than ready to drop my wad down and move on over to CA I found they had gone to a SaaS price model...same price, now yearly, and I don't own the software. Holy hell was I disappointed as I refuse to pay that mount of cash for a product that I don't own outright. 

 

So I waited again...and gave up on the CA dream.

 

Then I recently stumbled across CA's Home Designer Pro 2025...a standalone, stripped down version of CA...for $800?? Hell yes, take my money!! At least I won't have to use that other garbage anymore going forward. That alone will keep me onboard for quite a while but I seriously doubt I will ever sign on for a SaaS version and I'm very disappointed that I've finally got aboard the CA train only to find out I'll have to pay at every stop just to get to my destination.

 

Not cool...not cool at all.

 

[TBrown66]

As a legacy user this is complete BS, 

Thanks for invalidating every license I own.

And no I wont ever be updating again.

[cgrafx]

Just realized that 2026 is a subscription. I have both cancelled my 2026 subscription and guess I will be using 2025 until its not viable anymore.

 

I have also sent an email to the sales dept expressing my disappointment with what I believe to be a short sighted decision to move to a subscription revenue model.

 

It's not about the money, it's entirely about putting access to my work product in the hands of a 3rd party that can decide at any time to cut me off. 

 

I've started moving away from adobe, Microsoft and any other software project that is a subscription only offering. 

 

I don't rent tools!

[JamieRI]

This "DIY" subscription pricing CUTS ME OUT, after 26 years of shoveling tolerable amounts of money toward CA for a product that I just want to own, not one I need. 

 

I am truly DIY, not a contractor. I have been using this software since 1999 and have paid annual upgrades for many years.

 

Why would any DIY buy this??

• Over time I designed an addition to my house and a couple of renovations. I used it to arrange furniture in my gazabo.
• My wife and tried to design our dream home, but after time the kids grew up and moved away. I assumed that when we got serious and wanted to actually create construction drawings, I would either upgrade or find an architect that uses CA. (Now we see several really smart stock plans from builders available and they provide customization services_
• Some years I don't even open it, or open up a plan just to get some measurements.
• Most of my use is to visualize moving my furniture around, adding shelves, etc. 
• Recently, I roughly captured my daughter's house to brainstorm renovations with her and help with furniture purchases. 

3D Home Architect WAS a DIY product, with a DIY price!  My receipt below is April 1999:  3D Home Architect® Deluxe 3.0 Win9x CD $49.95 ($97.62 in today's dollars). With all upgrades over time I have spent about $550... just to have this DIY designer. 

 

I bought many of my annual upgrades are just to make Home Designer Suite perform better, do 3D better, to support Windows 7, 10 and 11, or to avoid the bigger cost to re-purchase if I didn't upgrade. The price was low enough for me to just do it. It was annoying at times, but I just wanted to be able to use it on my new computers and open old files. A quick review shows I have spent almost 

 

 

Home Designer is not really a DIY product anymore, it has enough to market professional services, yet as I read, it seems that it is just a frustrating version of Chief Architect. Now you are pricing it for small shop professionals.  

 

If I was a small shop pro making money on the 2025 perpetual license, I would just do it, without upgrading ever. It really seems like CA is killing a market segment, instead of creating one that pulls users toward the higher priced versions when they need it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mistertheplague]

When they moved Chief to subscription you could pretty much set a timer to HD following suit. 
 

You don’t have to spend much time in the CA ecosystem to realize that Chief rules the roost and everything they do is with Chief users in mind. Not criticizing, I’m sure Chief customers are their bread and butter. 
 

The HD suite has always been a weird offering. Clearly they set the prices/functionality so that Chief users wouldn’t dump the product and downshift to HD. Likely with the added hope that HD users would become invested in the CA ecosystem and upgrade to Chief if they used it for business purposes.

 

Other software companies do this. Quicken is a notable example. Quicken Deluxe is simply Quicken Premier with a bunch of features turned off. The difference is that in Quicken the turned-off functionality is straightforward. Don’t need investments? Get Deluxe. A lot of the features from Chief they throttle in HD seem arbitrary, weird, and highly irritating.

 

I’m wondering if they’ve seen a number of SSA Chief users who didn’t need Chief’s full functionality dump SSA and purchase HD. Or they anticipated that happening as they raise SSA prices YTY to reach the Chief subscription price. 
 

Regardless, this removes HD as a realistic option for serious DIYers and small contractors who only model projects occasionally.

[mthd97]

9 hours ago, mistertheplague said:

 

I’m wondering if they’ve seen a number of SSA Chief users who didn’t need Chief’s full functionality dump SSA and purchase HD. Or they anticipated that happening as they raise SSA prices YTY to reach the Chief subscription price. 
 

Not from my point of view at least. HDP although having great features is no match for CA. CA still has much improvement to be made also. Once you are used to using CA the limitations in HDP can be quite annoying or at least it is to me. 

[Blogography]

Now I wish I had upgraded from 2024 to 2025 when I had the chance... because I won't be changing to a subscription model with 2026 (despite the fact that I upgraded once or twice a year depending on what features were added). I don't get how companies expect you to pay for software that stops working if you don't keep paying. If a company makes a compelling enough feature update for a fair price, I'd gladly pay for that upgrade. — I guess Chief Architect doesn't think that they can get people to upgrade based on merit anymore, so instead they're going to hold you hostage and force you to keep paying whether they add anything compelling or not. Does not bode well for the future of this app.

[jwbassgarl]

I've been using HD Pro since 2016 and have upgraded every year. I will not go to subscription. CA can KMA.

[Puma250]

Been using since the Broderbund product.

I have upgraded regularly at the 50% discount rate. See they are offering it again,

Kind of expected it, but if they can discount it that much why not put a realistic price on it to start with?

If you commit then they change their minds you are screwed and married to it. 

I tend to not have any respect and won't patronize companies that operate is this manner...

Guess it really doesn't matter to me as I have no plans to go subscription route anyway.   

 

[RonTron]

Count me as another one that won't be upgrading. What a bummer. Had done a few upgrades. I went to upgrade as I'm going  to make some changes to my house and wanted to plan it out in newest version.  But, dumb me, I didn't upgrade to 2024 or 2025. I guess I'm stuck now at my 2023 version. 

I dumped Adobe years ago after they did this. Never looked back. 

[BalutFX]

On 11/24/2025 at 5:18 AM, Puma250 said:

Been using since the Broderbund product.

I have upgraded regularly at the 50% discount rate. See they are offering it again,

Kind of expected it, but if they can discount it that much why not put a realistic price on it to start with?

If you commit then they change their minds you are screwed and married to it. 

I tend to not have any respect and won't patronize companies that operate is this manner...

Guess it really doesn't matter to me as I have no plans to go subscription route anyway.   

 

Yep, got the "Upgrade" email yesterday, but won't be renting their software no matter what the discount. I'd caution anyone else from taking the "bait" in their bait-and-switch subscription tactic.  

 

Update: Well, I decided to take the "bait" after-all. Discounted upgrade was about what I was planning to spend on an upgrade to the 2026 version anyway, although now I only have a year to access any plans I create in 2026. I'll re-evaluate then, but may suck-up a monthly rental for the few times I want to make any changes. 

[mthd97]

I guess those of us that have a perpetual license probably won’t change to a subscription model ? 
 

The new users can come in on a subscription and if they get hooked on using DIY HD they might just keep on using it ?

 

The old school users will eventually retire and their operating systems may eventually become obsolete. 
 

I think that if Chief Architect Software can keep the revenue coming in, they will certainly find a way to keep doing that now and in the future.

[ChiefTimmy]

Of course it's all about money and not customer loyalty and a great product.

Chief should be ashamed of themselves for becoming so greedy. 

[Renerabbitt]

Hello Home Designer users — I’ve been reading through the concerns, and I wanted to share a few thoughts from the perspective of someone who develops products in this space.

First, about subscriptions:
When you’re building software in an industry being reshaped weekly by architectural AI tools, it becomes extremely difficult to plan development using the old “large update once a year” model. A subscription isn’t about squeezing more money out of users — it’s about stabilizing and predicting revenue so development hours can be budgeted accurately. Without that predictable baseline, the risk of under-delivering on annual features becomes very real.

And whether we love it or not, most companies producing software worth improving will be moving to subscriptions simply because the AI-driven volatility in the market requires it. Chief isn’t an outlier here — they’re trying to ensure they can continue delivering steady updates instead of falling behind or shipping underbaked features.

For those considering canceling services:
You would be genuinely hard-pressed to find a software package comparable to the Home Designer line for anything near the annual cost. The value per dollar is still extremely strong.

For those planning to use their final perpetual version forever:
Just keep hardware and OS compatibility in mind. The relationship goes both ways — new graphics cards and new operating systems eventually drop support for older applications. We’ve literally seen this happen recently with Intel-based Macs losing compatibility with Chief Architect X17 because newer drivers no longer support the old architecture. It’s not about Chief “forcing” you to upgrade — it’s the cost of frozen software running on evolving hardware.

About HD Pro 2026 specifically:
The catalog downloads alone justify a big chunk of the cost. You now have access to tens of thousands of optimized, ray-trace-ready 3D assets — a huge advantage, especially considering the 3D Warehouse now limits users to three downloads per day. What used to be “free and easy” is no longer as accessible, and Chief’s curated, optimized library now carries even more value.

The new Project Management feature should also significantly streamline workflows that previously required juggling multiple plan files, layer sets, and clunky workarounds.

And don’t overlook ray tracing: with DLSS support on compatible NVIDIA cards, you can design in real-time ray-traced 3D — something that used to require multiple machines or heavy offline rendering.

---

Hopefully this perspective helps.
HD Pro 2026 genuinely looks like a solid upgrade, and the industry-wide shift to subscriptions has real reasons behind it — not just profit, but sustainability and continued development.

 

[jwbassgarl]

Sorry, you won't be convincing me or anyone else in this thread to subscribe to HD. As I've said previously, I have been using HDP since 2016, and have upgraded every year. If I had not wanted to upgrade for some reason, I could still use my existing copy of HDP, plus still have access to all the Models I have constructed in the last 9 years. If I upgrade to subscription, and decide at some point that I no longer want it, or can't afford it, I will loose access to any and all previous models. This is the deal breaker.

 

I'm sure CA will survive nicely by selling the subscription service to professional Architects who require the software for their line of work. The enthusiasts, like me and everyone else in this thread, who use it non-professionally, do not need it. And I bet there are a lot more of us then you realize.

 

You can spin it any way you want, in the end it's just another money grab. I won't close by wishing you (the company) well, because I don't. I have invested literally thousands of dollars, and thousands of hours in your software, only to be crapped on in the end.

 

PS. I don't know If you are an employee of CA or not, either way the sentiment stands.

   

[Rookie65]

While not a licensed architect, I do use HD Pro for my design business. Luckily, I still have HDP 2025, which I plan to still use for my plans. I bought the 2026 version thinking it would be a step up, as the other "updates" would usually be. Well, I was sorely mistaken once I realized how many features were deleted, messed up, or changed. It was a lesson that I don't plan on making next year, unless they can fix the issues that were created in this 2026 version. I guess time will tell

[Renerabbitt]

1 hour ago, jwbassgarl said:

I could still use my existing copy of HDP, plus still have access to all the Models I have constructed in the last 9 years. If I upgrade to subscription, and decide at some point that I no longer want it, or can't afford it, I will loose access to any and all previous models. This is the deal breaker.

I would call CA support on this, pretty sure you will be able to open your models using your previous HD versions. That's how it works with the premiere line, no reason you shouldnt be able to. That's precisely why people are talking about keeping their 2025 HDP plans
 

1 hour ago, jwbassgarl said:

I won't close by wishing you (the company) well

I do not work for Chief Architect
 

1 hour ago, jwbassgarl said:

PS. I don't know If you are an employee of CA or not, either way the sentiment stands.

I'm not sure why you don't want to wish me well, generally a good natured fellow that tries to help the community

 

 

1 hour ago, jwbassgarl said:

And I bet there are a lot more of us then you realize

There are over 2M seats in the HD line, I would venture that 80% are non-professionals, and though people may not like the subscription model, there are very few comparative and price  competitive software's out there that aren't subscription. 2020, revit LT, cabinet vision, sketchup pro, they are all subscription. and it truly isn't a cash grab, this doesn't change their revenue, they are still seeing the similar numbers, +/- 5%, but this ensures they have dependable development capital. The premiere line has been on subscription for 2 years now...it didn't increase their revenue, only volume of sales increases their revenue. With more start up developers in the industry chief needs to account for volatility. This has been an all-internally developed company for 30 years where the avg employee has worked for 10 years. Not once in 10 years have they even increased the cost of the software at the rate of inflation over the course of the same time. You've all been paying nearly the same price while inflation is at 3% and net avg wages at 3-4%, and this years annual subscription currently is 20% less than last year pay-to-own? We've been fortunate for them..they aren't taking advantage of us. Also giving annual subscriptions access to 10's of thousands of 3d objects at no additional cost is unheard of.
Go talk to them in person and find some of the most grounded and well-to-do people you might run into. Greg the CEO isnt driving around in a Lambo. You can actually call them up and might even get him on the phone if you like, you dont have to take my word for it.

 

[mthd97]

Hey @Renerabbitt, Nice to hear you chime in over here. No disrespect but what you said above was easy to say when many of the CA users are still on the old system of perpetual yearly fee upgrading. I would like to hear what you would have to say if and when all are forced onto a yearly subscription model ? I would think you may consider your options more carefully if that ever happens in the future ?
 

A yearly fee would be ok for the once off DIY home designer. Many of us are used to the old systems and do not want to change to timed subscriptions. I am definitely not a fan of slot machine CAD. I am glad CA allows many of us to remain on the old system as long as we keep paying the yearly fee. That way our licenses can remain perpetual. 
 

Somewhere down the line the potential exists for “AI” to steal or write its own CAD code “AICAD” and charge its own yearly fees. When there is a plethora of “AICAD” products out there, the price will go down just like it has for professional rendering. AI will try and steal the CAD and design market. Fully AI designed homes are not far off and many of us may be looking for other employment.

 

That just is the real world.  Let’s see what the future holds ?

 

 

[ishoultz]

I think what a lot of users are disappointed in is the lack of "bang for the buck" that this new subscription model comes with. Most of the new "features" are really just things that (I would guess) were as easy as turning 0's into 1's in the software. Allowing access to certain features that I would guess were already built-in but not allowed to be accessed. Most of the thousands of library models are supplied by the manufacturers, so I'm not exactly sure why they didn't allow all users access to those in the first place. The ray-tracing is a nice feature for people who actually need it. I think a lot of users like to make those realistic images, but I don't think that was a deal breaker for the majority of HDP users. I'm guessing most of us don't have capable enough computers to fully utilize this feature anyway. I still think they could have kept the perpetual license aspect and just allowed access to these (and other) features as a subscription based add-on to the software. Allow users to "Ala Carte"  the software features that they specifically need for their purposes. If they were looking for additional revenue sources, I would think building off of your existing customer base would've been a much safer bet.

 

Regarding the subscription based license, I'm sure there will be a lot of hobbyist type people who try out the new subscription model for a few months, then just let it lapse. I'm also sure there will be some that pay for the full year at once. Those will be the true test for CA. Year 2 subscription numbers would be interesting to see compared with average yearly update numbers. I only found this software last year, so I'm not planning on switching to a subscription based license. I plan on using my license as long as my computer allows, then I'll be looking for a different software solution. It's easier to walk away when you don't have years of time invested, or thousands of dollars invested. There are still other software solutions that offer perpetual licenses, so I plan on investigating all available options when it's required. 

 

I just hope that this decision won't be the final straw for all of the non-professional/semi-professional users that have been using the software for years. That would truly be a loss. This was a relatively easy software to learn the basics of and be productive quickly. The user forum seems to be pretty active, and most users offer tips and tricks to get you out of a jamb. 

[mthd97]

Quite frankly most of the other home design software on the market is garbage in comparison to CA & HDP. Very difficult to use and time consuming and no framing or material list tools. So if CA wants timed subscriptions they will get plenty of customers for the near future. Even the main competitor softplan is timed subscription too.

 

They got us all hooked and locked in for now. New design clients with DIYHD software could force us to get a timed subscription just to see their work and communicate with them ? Smart business by these CAD software vendors for now. Only the best products will survive unless AI plagiarizes and copies the best code out there.