Software · pricing
Chief Architect pricing
Chief Architect publishes 2 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
- Entry price
- $695/perpetual
- Model
- One-time
- Tiers
- 2
- Free tier
- Not on record
Chief Architect plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $695/perpetual | 4 | Entry tier |
| Architectural | $1595/perpetual | 4 | +$900/perpetual, 4 more features |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Standard
$695/perpetualThe entry tier. It covers 2d and 3d design, floor plan creation, construction documentation, material lists.
Architectural
$1595/perpetualOver Standard, this tier adds:
- Advanced architectural tools
- BIM capabilities
- Rendering
- Collaboration tools
What the product covers
The full Chief Architect feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Core
- 2D and 3D design
- Floor plan creation
- Construction documentation
- Material lists
- Rendering
Integrations
- Revit
- SketchUp
- CAD
- Google Drive
Security
- SSL encryption
- Data backup
- User authentication
Platform
- Windows support
- Mac support
People bring Chief Architect in for producing construction documents, elevations and 3d renderings for residential architecture, automatic generation of framing, roofs and material lists from a building model, kitchen and bath design with manufacturer cabinet catalogs. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Chief Architect are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
Before you pay for Chief Architect
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 2 tiers between $695/perpetual and $1595/perpetual, with the jump itemised above. With no free tier on record, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to compare Chief Architect against the tools that do have one before committing.
Chief Architect runs on windows, mac, and is published by Chief Architect Inc of Bend, OR. The full record is on the Chief Architect review.
Chief Architect pricing questions
- How much does Chief Architect cost?
- Chief Architect publishes 2 tiers, from $695/perpetual for Standard up to $1595/perpetual for Architectural. The cheapest paid tier is $695/perpetual.
- Does Chief Architect have a free plan?
- Not on the record we hold: Chief Architect is listed as one-time. Whether a free trial is offered is not something this record captures, so check the vendor's site.
- What is the difference between Standard and Architectural on Chief Architect?
- Architectural costs $1595/perpetual against $695/perpetual, and adds advanced architectural tools, bim capabilities, rendering, collaboration tools.
- Is the Architectural plan on Chief Architect worth it?
- That depends entirely on whether you need what it adds, which on the published record is advanced architectural tools, bim capabilities, rendering, collaboration tools. It costs $1595/perpetual against $695/perpetual for Standard. Softwr has not used either tier, so this page can tell you what changes, not whether it is worth the difference to you.
- What am I actually paying for with Chief Architect?
- The record lists 14 features across 4 areas: core, integrations, security, platform. In practice it is brought in for producing construction documents, elevations and 3d renderings for residential architecture, automatic generation of framing, roofs and material lists from a building model, kitchen and bath design with manufacturer cabinet catalogs.
- Does Chief Architect charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 2 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Chief Architect prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Chief Architect against before paying?
- Nothing else in this directory is filed close enough to Chief Architect to make a useful price comparison.