We checked seven popular Android home design apps for tracker SDKs, permissions and data-safety claims, then put a browser editor through the same test.
Most of the big free home design apps on Android carry third-party tracking code and can ask for your camera, microphone or location. Of seven popular apps we checked against Exodus Privacy's scans, five contain between two and nine tracker SDKs, and the one with the most tells Google Play it shares location, device IDs and purchase history for advertising. A browser tool installs nothing and asks for no phone permissions, but nothing installed is not the same as nothing collected, and our own worked example shows why.
This closes our FloorGen series, so the free browser editor gets the same test as the apps: what does it send, and to whom?
How we checked
- Trackers and permissions come from Exodus Privacy, which downloads Android apps from Google Play and scans them for known tracker code and declared permissions. We used each app's latest report, dated below. Exodus warns that a report "is not a proof of activity of these trackers": it shows code that is present, not data that was sent.
- Store claims and free-tier limits come from each app's Play listing and data-safety section and from vendor pricing pages, read on 10 October 2026.
- FloorGen was checked against its code and a scripted guest session on floorgen.app (headless Chromium driven by Playwright 1.63, 10 October 2026). The script logged every request, cookie and storage key, and any call to the camera, location, notification, Bluetooth or folder-picker functions. We kept the scripts and raw output.
We picked apps by Play download count: Planner 5D (50M+), Home Design 3D, Home Planner AI and magicplan (10M+ each), HomeByMe and Live Home 3D (1M+ each), plus the Android version of Sweet Home 3D (500K+). Home Planner AI is the package Exodus's earlier reports list as Room Planner. Homestyler (10M+) is left out because its newest Exodus report, for version 9.9.2, dates from December 2024.
Trackers: from nine to none
Tracker SDKs Exodus Privacy found in each app's latest scanned Android version, with the scan month. Code present is not proof that data was sent.
Planner 5D 2.98.0, scanned on 6 October 2026, has nine: AppsFlyer, Segment, Firebase Analytics, Crashlytics, Sentry, three Facebook SDKs (analytics, login and share) and Metrics, a Java code-measurement library that Exodus files under analytics. A crash reporter or a login button is not an ad network, so a count is a rough measure, not a verdict.
Home Design 3D 5.6.1 (18 September 2026) has seven. Four carry Exodus's "advertisement" label (Google AdMob, AppLovin, Facebook Ads and IAB Open Measurement), and a fifth is Amazon Advertisement. It is the only app in our set whose listing says "Contains ads."
Home Planner AI (version 2647, 6 October 2026) has six, including Facebook's analytics, login and share SDKs and ironSource. magicplan 2026.37.0 has three (Firebase Analytics, Segment and Sentry), HomeByMe 2.10.1 has two (Firebase Analytics and Sentry), and Sweet Home 3D 7.6.2 has one, Firebase Analytics. Live Home 3D 4.10.2 had none, though that scan is from October 2025.
Permissions: what the apps can ask for
On Android, "runtime permissions, also known as dangerous permissions" are the ones that trigger a system prompt, so declaring one is not the same as being granted it. But the lists show what each app is built to request. Among the permissions Exodus flags as dangerous or special:
- magicplan lists 10, including precise location, camera, microphone, phone state and three Bluetooth permissions. Its pricing page advertises laser-assisted measurement, which would explain Bluetooth.
- Planner 5D lists 6: precise and approximate location, camera, microphone and storage.
- HomeByMe lists 5, including microphone and the "draw over other apps" permission.
- Home Planner AI and Home Design 3D list 3 each: camera and storage. Home Planner AI's listing promises room scanning with the phone, which needs the camera.
- Sweet Home 3D and Live Home 3D list none.
Five of the seven also declare com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID, which lets an app read what Google calls "a unique, user-resettable, and user-deletable ID for advertising." Only magicplan and Live Home 3D don't. Google notes that SDKs can add it to an app's manifest on their own.
What the data-safety labels say
Planner 5D is candid. Its Play data-safety section says it shares seven categories of data with other companies, and lists "Advertising or marketing" among the purposes for approximate location, device IDs, user IDs, emails, app interactions, in-app search history and purchase history. Home Design 3D says it shares device IDs and email addresses for advertising. magicplan declares sharing nine categories, including precise location, photos, address and phone number, for purposes such as app functionality and analytics; none is listed as advertising.
Home Planner AI says "No data shared with third parties" and declares collecting only device IDs, name, email address and user IDs, all for "Account management." That sits awkwardly next to the Facebook, Firebase and ironSource code Exodus found. It is not necessarily a false label. Google lets developers leave out transfers to a "service provider" that processes data on their behalf, though it adds that an SDK "building advertising profiles across multiple customers" does not qualify. Google also says the developer, not Google, is "responsible for making complete and accurate declarations."
Where the free tier ends
| App | What free gets you | What costs money |
|---|---|---|
| Planner 5D | Unlimited projects, half the furniture catalog | Full catalog and renders: $19.99 a month or $59.99 a year. CAD export: Professional, $49.99 a month or $399.99 a year |
| HomeByMe | 2 projects, 5 Full HD images, 2D plans with a watermark | Unlimited projects and watermark-free plan export |
| magicplan | 2 projects | Plans start at 10 new projects a month; extra projects cost $40 each |
| Home Planner AI | Free download; limits not listed | Full catalog, HD renders and unlimited rooms, by subscription |
| Home Design 3D | Free download, with ads | Premium features, weekly or yearly subscription |
| Sweet Home 3D (Android) | Free download; limits not listed | Premium features, weekly or yearly subscription |
If you are weighing a HomeByMe alternative, note that its free plan stops at two projects and watermarks 2D plan exports. The Android Sweet Home 3D is not the desktop program: the desktop version is free and open source under the GNU GPL, while the Play listing is published by a Milan company, AI Photo Editor Lab SRL, and sells subscriptions. Sweet Home 3D's own site calls the mobile app a "paid version."
The browser alternative, and what it still sends
A website can't quietly read your location or switch on your microphone: the browser asks you first. FloorGen's studio code never calls the camera, microphone, location or notification APIs. The one permission it can request is write access to a folder, in Chrome and Edge, and only when you turn on folder sync. Our session logged no permission calls and no cookies.
The site's security policy allows scripts from only two outside hosts: Cloudflare's analytics beacon and Google's sign-in button. Across the home page and the editor with a template open, our browser made 167 requests. 165 went to floorgen.app and 2 to static.cloudflareinsights.com.
That is short, not empty. Here is what a guest sends:
- A guest check-in. The browser makes a random guest ID and posts it when the app opens and again when you return after 15 minutes, with your device type, browser language and, for each project, its name, dates, counts of floors, rooms, walls and items, and floor area. The plan itself is not sent. The server keeps a one-way hash of your network address with the record, and the privacy policy discloses all of this.
- Analytics. The main tool, Rybbit, runs on FloorGen's own server behind its own domain. It sets no cookies, but it keeps a visitor ID in local storage. Cloudflare Web Analytics also counts page views and sets no cookies either.
- Session replay. As of 10 October 2026, the live Rybbit configuration has session replay switched on. During our short scripted session, the browser uploaded four replay batches totaling about 592 KB: snapshots of the page's structure and its changes as you work, which a replay tool uses to play a visit back. FloorGen's privacy policy describes its analytics as recording "what happens in the app in general terms" and doesn't mention replay, and the project's analytics decision record, ADR 0003, says replay is off.
If you're planning a remodel and want the least data to leave your device, draft as a guest and keep anything identifying out of project names.
Where FloorGen falls short
FloorGen has no phone app and no LiDAR or camera room scan, so you measure rooms by hand. Home Planner AI, which asks for the camera, advertises one. FloorGen is hosted only and not open source. If you want a planner you can audit and run offline, desktop Sweet Home 3D is the stronger choice. FloorGen's page on how it is compared with Sweet Home 3D sets out the trade-offs. Sign-in is Google only, which loads Google's script. There is no DWG or IFC export. And as above, a guest is not invisible.
Privacy scorecard
| App | Trackers (Exodus, scan date) | Dangerous or special permissions | Play label: shares data | Ads |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planner 5D | 9 (Oct 2026) | 6 | Yes, incl. for advertising | No ads label |
| Home Design 3D | 7 (Sep 2026) | 3 | Yes, incl. for advertising | Contains ads |
| Home Planner AI | 6 (Oct 2026) | 3 | No | No ads label |
| magicplan | 3 (Sep 2026) | 10 | Yes, not for ads | No ads label |
| HomeByMe | 2 (May 2026) | 5 | No | No ads label |
| Sweet Home 3D (Android) | 1 (Dec 2025) | 0 | No | No ads label |
| Live Home 3D | 0 (Oct 2025) | 0 | No; declares no collection | No ads label |
| FloorGen (browser) | No APK; 1 outside host | None prompted | No store label | None |
The short version: the app with the most trackers at least declares its ad sharing, one with six declares no sharing at all, the cleanest scans belong to two of the smallest apps, and the browser tool asks for nothing but still sends a guest check-in and analytics. Before installing any of these, look the app up on Exodus and deny any permission a feature doesn't need.
Disclosure: FloorGen is built by ThreatFrontier's publisher. FloorGen details were checked against its code and live site in October 2026.
Sources
- Exodus Privacy, Planner 5D report: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.planner5d.planner5d/latest/
- Exodus Privacy, Home Design 3D report: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/fr.anuman.HomeDesign3D/latest/
- Exodus Privacy, Home Planner AI report: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.icandesignapp.all/latest/
- Exodus Privacy, magicplan report: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.sensopia.magicplan/latest/
- Exodus Privacy, HomeByMe report: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.threeds.homebyme/latest/
- Exodus Privacy, Sweet Home 3D report: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.eteks.sweethome3d.mobile/latest/
- Exodus Privacy, Live Home 3D report: https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/reports/com.belightsoft.livehome3d/latest/
- Google Play, Planner 5D listing and data safety: https://play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=com.planner5d.planner5d
- Google Play, magicplan data safety: https://play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=com.sensopia.magicplan
- Google Play, HomeByMe data safety: https://play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=com.threeds.homebyme
- Google Play, Live Home 3D data safety: https://play.google.com/store/apps/datasafety?id=com.belightsoft.livehome3d
- Google Play, Home Design 3D listing: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=fr.anuman.HomeDesign3D
- Google Play, Home Planner AI listing: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icandesignapp.all
- Google Play, Sweet Home 3D listing: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.eteks.sweethome3d.mobile
- Google Play Console Help, data safety section: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/10787469
- Google Play Console Help, advertising ID: https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/6048248
- Android Developers, permissions on Android: https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/permissions/overview
- Planner 5D pricing: https://planner5d.com/pricing
- HomeByMe offers: https://home.by.me/en/offers/
- magicplan pricing: https://magicplan.app/pricing
- Sweet Home 3D home page: https://www.sweethome3d.com/
- Sweet Home 3D download page: https://www.sweethome3d.com/download/
- FloorGen privacy policy: https://floorgen.app/privacy