Room Scanning Apps for Contractors: 12 Picks for 2026

What the best room scanning apps for contractors have to do

A room scan only helps if it becomes a number. So we ranked every app on one question: does the scan turn into a bid?

Four questions separate them.

Does it measure square footage with a phone camera

Every number downstream starts here. The app has to hold scale across the whole room, not between two tapped points.

LiDAR measures distance directly. Photogrammetry infers scale from overlapping frames, so the same room can come back short in poor light.

The test is cheap. Tape one room you know, scan it, and trust the tool whose square footage matches.

Can you scan a room with an iPhone in one pass

A contractor scan happens once, often with the homeowner watching. If the app cannot capture the room in one continuous walk, you will not do it twice.

Does the 3D room scanning output land in a real deliverable

The model has to leave the phone as something someone else can use. That means a dimensioned floor plan, a point cloud, an OBJ or USDZ file, or a field report.

A shareable link and nothing else is a demo.

Does the scan turn into a priced bid

This is where most of these apps stop. The measurement is an input to a number. Most tools leave you to carry it into a second app.

SimplyWise Cost Estimator prices the scan, with materials from the closest Home Depot to your registered zip.

How a scan becomes a bid on a 14 by 16 room

1. Scan the room in one walk

   Walk the bedroom with LiDAR on an iPhone Pro, or take a photo. You get 224 square feet of floor.

   The capture takes minutes, before you open a tape.

2. Measure the walls

   A 60 foot perimeter at an 8 foot ceiling is 480 square feet of wall. Minus one door and two windows, 429 is left to paint.

   The door takes about 21 square feet and each window about 15. That is 51 square feet of openings.

   The ceiling adds another 224 square feet.

3. Price the labor

   Call it six and a half hours for one painter. At the BLS painter median of $23.75 an hour, labor is $154.38.

   Two coats on 429 square feet of wall is 858 square feet of coverage. Add one coat on the 224 square foot ceiling.

   That crew assumption is the line to argue with, not the wage. At the BLS mean of $26.64 an hour, the same labor is $173.16.

4. Add materials and markup, then send it

   SimplyWise prices materials from the closest Home Depot to your registered zip. Add markup and send.

   Paint and sundries cover 858 square feet of wall and 224 of ceiling, at your label’s stated coverage. Estimates also adjust for regional cost differences.

   Skip the arithmetic. Price the room from a photo and edit the lines before you leave the driveway. Free to try.

Do the same walk without the arithmetic. Turn a photo into an itemized estimate in about 6 seconds, then edit the lines before you send.

The 12 best room scanning apps for contractors, ranked

Ranked for a contractor bidding residential work off a phone. Every price comes from the vendor’s pricing page or App Store listing, linked in Sources.

1. SimplyWise Cost Estimator

Best for contractors who want the scan back as a number.

It prices the capture, with materials from the closest Home Depot to your zip. Scan with LiDAR on an iPhone Pro, or turn a photo into an itemized estimate in about 6 seconds.

Edit the lines, then send a branded quote the client signs. Pricing: $29.99 a month or $239.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial.

That is about $20 a month on annual. Estimates adjust for regional cost differences, and every line carries a material quantity.

One subscription opens every app in the SimplyWise suite.

Try SimplyWise Cost Estimator, free

2. magicplan

Best for a dimensioned floor plan and a field report. Its estimates price from lists you build yourself. Pricing: Sketch is $12.99 for one month.

You mark corners with the camera, or with LiDAR on supported devices. The plan carries room areas, wall lengths, and a field report an adjuster can read.

It runs on iOS and Android. Your price lists have to exist before a plan becomes a bid.

3. Polycam

Best for a detailed 3D model or point cloud. But it is a capture tool, not an estimator. Pricing: Free tier; Basic is $150 a year.

LiDAR on a recent iPhone Pro or iPad Pro gives fast geometry. On phones with no depth sensor, photogrammetry stitches ordinary photos into a model.

The output is a mesh or point cloud. The bid still gets built somewhere else.

4. Apple RoomPlan

Best for native capture on an iPhone Pro. Pricing: Free inside iOS.

RoomPlan is Apple’s own room scanning framework. It combines LiDAR with the camera to build a parametric floor plan in one walk.

Walls come back as labeled objects. It also runs inside RoomScan Pro LiDAR, and it carries no estimate.

5. CubiCasa

Best for a drawn floor plan from one walk-through video. Pricing: The first 2D plan is free; package rates were not published.

You make one scan of the space with the phone. A scaled floor plan with square footage comes back, usually inside a day.

The output is a plan and an area figure. It is not a 3D model and not a bid.

6. Scaniverse

Best for free 3D capture. Pricing: Free, with no in-app purchases.

It captures with LiDAR on a Pro device, or with photogrammetry on other phones. Processing happens on the phone.

It documents conditions rather than bidding them.

7. RoomScan Pro LiDAR

Best for fast floor plans for a solo contractor. Pricing: Free download; the LiDAR subscription is $9.99 a month.

Locometric makes RoomScan. The Pro LiDAR version builds a 2D floor plan and a 3D capture on a Pro device.

The output is a plan and measurements, not a priced estimate.

8. KIRI Engine

Best for models a designer will open somewhere else. Exports OBJ, FBX, and USDZ. Pricing: KIRI Pro is $17.99 a month.

It captures with photogrammetry, LiDAR, and a featureless mode for glossy or blank surfaces.

Files open in Blender with no conversion step. It runs on iOS and Android.

9. SiteScape

Best for as-built point clouds headed to Revit or AutoCAD. iPhone Pro and iPad Pro only. Pricing: SiteScape Pro is $49.99.

FARO Technologies makes SiteScape. It captures a dense point cloud of existing conditions for a drafter to model against.

It documents. Pricing is not part of it.

10. Matterport

Best for a walkable 3D tour of a whole property. Pricing: The app is free; plan rates were not published.

It captures with a 360 camera or a phone. The captures become a 3D tour a client opens from a shared link.

It is built for documentation, not fast on-site bidding.

11. Hover

Best for exterior takeoffs from ground photos, with no ladder. Pricing: Exterior jobs from $59 a project on Starter.

Shoot a guided set of ground photos and Hover returns an exterior model. It carries measurements for siding, roofing, and windows.

Interiors now measure from the phone camera too. It does not build the bid.

12. AR Ruler App and CamToPlan

Best for one quick measurement. Good for one wall, not a whole bid. Pricing: Free with ads; AR Ruler unlocks at $19.99 a month.

AR Ruler App comes from Grymala and reads lengths, areas, and angles through the camera. CamToPlan comes from Tasmanic and also sketches a rough floor plan.

Treat the reading as a check, not a bid-grade measure-up.

How we scored them

We ranked them on scan accuracy first, then trial value, mobile use, and published pricing.