Yard Planner vs GardenPuzzle
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Yard Planner
Design your dream outdoor space with a drag-and-drop interface. Choose from over 800 hand-drawn elements like trees, pools, and structures to create detailed landscape layouts. Share your creations with friends or clients.
- Drag-and-drop functionality
- 800+ hand-drawn landscape elements
- Sketch Tool for free-form shapes
- Google Maps integration for property mapping
- Layer management for complex designs
- Shareable editable designs
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YARD PLANNER is a simple drag-and-drop 2D landscape design app with all the tools you need to mock up your property, create new designs, and share them with friends and family. YARD PLANNER is ideal for homeowners who want to try out fresh ideas for their yard. Useful for landscape professionals to share designs with clients and contractors. Also perfect for children and adults alike to exercise their imagination and creativity! Use YARD PLANNER to select and place over 800 beautiful hand-drawn elements including trees, gardens, pools, patios, hammocks, driveways, houses and sheds, solar panels, and just about anything you might want for your property–even parties and weddings! Features include: • Sample designs to inspire or get you started • Simple drag-and-drop functionality • 34 palettes (800+ hand-drawn elements) to create your landscape design layout • Resize, Rotate, Undo/Redo, Duplicate, Flip, Group • Rotate elements with “Snap to 90” or turn off to rotate more precisely • Snap to grid (elements stick to a re-sizeable grid of guidelines, turn on/off in Settings) • Rulers (visible at edges of design; zoom in to the single unit; user selects feet/meters; can be turned on/off) • Choose from 15 different background colors • Sketch Tool (allows users to draw garden beds and other free-form shapes with an eraser and brushes of different colors, widths and opacity) • Map Tool (This highly accurate mapping tool based on Google Maps allows you to drop pins at the corners of your property and import the map image with measurements into the app as a background.) • North arrow (appears with Map Tool) • Site Analysis palettes to mark the locations of your site’s utilities and light and moisture conditions • Notes (allows users to tag elements in their designs with typed comments or descriptions) • Light/Dark mode (changes Note tags and North arrow from white to black for visibility against light backgrounds.) • Animated Figures (a palette of animated elements—a person, dog, cat, bird, and car—that move through your design on a looped or repeating path, adjustable speed, play and stop animation) • Import a Photo as a background (useful for importing a digital image of your property plan) • Create different Layers of elements in your design. Add, delete, rename layers, make each layer visible/invisible, lock/unlock for editing, and reorder layer position. • In-app step-by-step guide to creating your Property Plan. • Designs automatically save to the app’s Saved Designs gallery • Share designs on social media • Email an editable design so friends can edit one another’s designs and email them back and forth ***As featured in The New York Times, Fox News, USA Today, Gardenista, and more. “Home Outside allows you to create intricate and varied landscapes…And when you’re finished designing your yard or indulging in a little dreamscaping, you can email results to friend.” –Kate Murphy, The New York Times “The app gives you drag and drop tools to create a garden design idiosyncratic to your garden [and] allows you to choose hardscape materials, design paths and patios, and arrange furniture in your outdoor space.” –Dalilah Arja, Gardenista “I can’t imagine a designer who wouldn’t want to have this on their phone or tablet. I’ve tried this app … it’s a great tool for a ‘quickie’ design that you can show clients … and then refine as you like.” –Jane Berger, Garden Design Online
GardenPuzzle
Quickly sketch and visualize garden designs with this intuitive tool. Easily add plants, equipment, and surfaces to create your ideal outdoor space. Unlock advanced features like a full plant database and four-season previews with an in-app purchase.
- Quick garden sketching
- Plant database search
- Add equipment to designs
- Surface painting (water, paths, lawns)
- Photo import for background
- Four-season preview
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Sketch your garden in 5 minutes - simple sketching and prototyping tool for garden lovers. An application for garden lovers and landscape designers, this tool allows you to quickly sketch garden designs and create visualizations. Primarily intended for quick prototyping and experimenting, it is simple yet powerful. Start by taking a photo of your garden, search through the plant database by filtering by size, type, or name, and add equipment (such as benches or fences) to the design. You can also finish by painting surfaces, including water, paths, or lawns. An additional in-app purchase can unlock access to the full plant and texture database, the ability to use the device camera to take the background photo, and a four-season preview of your garden. This purchase also grants access to these features in the web and Mac apps, which can be downloaded from our website: https://gardenpuzzle.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: GardenPuzzle at Free against Yard Planner's $3.99. GardenPuzzle also leads on iOS requirement (9.0 vs 14.0). Yard Planner's advantage is rating (3.4 vs 2.6) and in-app purchases (none vs 6). On update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
GardenPuzzle is free to download; Yard Planner costs $3.99 up front. GardenPuzzle sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. Yard Planner asks for nothing beyond the download.
Yard Planner holds the better App Store score, 3.4 against 2.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Yard Planner has 381 ratings behind it against 18, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 39% of Yard Planner's written reviews are positive against 19% of GardenPuzzle's.
Yard Planner ships an update every 2 months, GardenPuzzle every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 2, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Yard Planner | GardenPuzzle |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.4 (381 ratings) — better | 2.6 (18 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 39.1% of reviews — better | 18.5% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 381 — better | 18 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #190 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 762 MB | 605 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Home Outside, Inc. | Marek Rafalowicz |
Customer experience
Yard Planner
GardenPuzzle
User reviews
Yard Planner
From 381 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 💡 Helpful for visualizing designs
- 🚀 Simple and straightforward
- 👍 Great for beginners
- 👍 Useful for planning and sketching
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes and stability issues
- 🔧 Limited customization options
- 🔧 Lacks advanced design tools
- 🔧 Restricted to portrait mode on iPad
- 🔧 Outdated and basic graphics
GardenPuzzle
From 18 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great for visualizing garden design
- 👍 Allows use of own photos
- 👍 Shows designs through seasons
- 👍 Good for landscape professionals
- 👍 Amazing customer support
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashing and freezing
- 🐛 Designs not saving properly
- 🐛 Difficult to use on mobile
- 🐛 Limited plant selection
- 🐛 Expensive in-app purchases
Bugs and requests
Yard Planner
Reported bugs
5 issues- Layers and objects disappearing
- Inability to undo actions
- Inaccurate grid and scale
- Mapping and photo import issues
- Unexpected crashes and freezes
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to change object dimensions independently
- More plant, structure, and hardscape options
- Metric measurement support
- Landscape mode support for iPad
- Export options for high-quality images
GardenPuzzle
Reported bugs
12 issues- App keeps crashing
- App freezes during use
- App reverts to original image
- Projects not saving
- App won't open or load
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- Stuck at loading percentage (e.g., 10%, 89%)
- In-app purchases not adding to app
- Back and delete functions not working
- Cannot resize plants realistically
- Horizon line not helpful/adjustable
- Paid features not recognized on other devices (e.g., iPad)
- Upload own photo feature requires additional payment after initial unlock
Requested features
9 requests- Ability to turn design into a plantable plan
- Ability to convert plan into 3D view
- More plant species and varieties
- More texture options (e.g., mulch)
- More structure color options
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Ability to add hedges correctly
- More native U.S. Mid-Atlantic plants
- More information about each plant species
- Ability to use desktop projects on mobile app
In-app purchases
Yard Planner
No in-app purchases
GardenPuzzle
- Plants and Structures$3.99
- Custom Background$3.99
- Four Seasons$3.99
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Vegetables Database$3.99
- Extra 200 plants$3.99
- Premium Access for 6 months$28.99
Questions
Is Yard Planner free?
Is GardenPuzzle free?
Which has better reviews, Yard Planner or GardenPuzzle?
Do Yard Planner or GardenPuzzle have ads?
Which is updated more often, Yard Planner or GardenPuzzle?
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