AI assistants and search decision
HouseGPTS
A capable developer can reproduce a useful subset (photo upload, style-based image generations, basic exports) using public image-generation APIs and an open-source floor-plan UI, but the full product—high-quality tuned engines, large-scale queueing, HD/360 features, and production credit/billing systems—relies on proprietary models, operational polish, and scale that are hard to replicate cheaply.
Visit website↗$20/mo
$240/yr
Read off the official pricing page.
$100one-off70 h to build
$200/mo6 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 11 seats.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All HouseGPTS alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Upload a photo → select style/designer → run image-to-image AI to produce variations → present variations and allow HD export/download.
What it still won’t have
- Access to vendor-tuned premium AI engines and any proprietary model optimizations
- Polished multi-variation generation with per-render credit accounting and mixing of engine costs
- HD export pipeline and watermark-free commercial export handling at scale
- Floor Plan Studio, 360° room panoramas and Home Tour multi-room walkthrough builders
- Operational polish: queueing at scale, priority support, and ongoing model/engine management
What remains hard
- Product polish and ongoing maintenance
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 11 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a minimal AI home-design web app using Next.js (React) frontend, Node.js/Express backend, PostgreSQL for accounts/credits, and AWS S3 for image storage. Integrate a third-party image-generation API (eg. OpenAI/Stable API) for image-to-image/inpainting. Implement: 1) authenticated photo upload with basic segmentation/masking and preprocessing; 2) style/designer selection UI and generation request flow that queues jobs; 3) worker to call the image API, save variants, and return thumbnails; 4) variation gallery with preview and HD export (stored to S3); 5) per-user credit decrementing and simple billing placeholder (no payment gateway required for prototype). Out of scope: training/custom AI models, multi-room 360° viewer, full commercial billing/enterprise features. Require error handling for failed API calls, retries, and unit tests for upload, queue, and API worker flows.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 3 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- Evidence score63
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 3
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productHouseGPTs — AI Home Design Generator — Redesign Any Room From a Photo
- official pricingHouseGPTs Pricing
- open sourcemehanix/arcada
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
