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Both MagicPlan and Manifold let you create floor plans from your phone. Both include photos, forms, and reports. On the surface they look like direct competitors. But dig into how each is actually used and you'll find they're built for quite different teams.
MagicPlan: Floor plan — first tool with field documentation added. Best for restoration contractors, insurance adjusters, and anyone whose primary output is a detailed property sketch with an Xactimate estimate.
Manifold: Field documentation platform with 3D scanning and floor plans built in. Best for construction field teams who need GPS photo management, crew coordination, and client sharing across multiple active jobs.
MagicPlan charges per project. Plans start at around $149/month for 10 projects. Additional projects cost $40 each. Unlimited users included.
Manifold charges per user with unlimited projects. Photo plan: $16/user/month. Photo+Scan (includes 3D scanning and floor plans): $24/user/month. No per-project charges.
For a small team doing 20+ jobs a month, Manifold is typically significantly cheaper. For a large team doing fewer than 15 jobs a month, MagicPlan's unlimited-users model can be cost-effective.
MagicPlan has a longer history in floor plan creation and more polish in the sketching UI. It generates 2D and 3D floor plans, allows room-by-room annotation, and exports to a wide range of formats including DXF, SVG, and IFC — useful for architects and engineers.
Manifold's floor plans are generated automatically from 3D scans (available on the Photo+Scan plan). They're accurate to half an inch and produced in about 60 seconds of scanning. Less customisable for architectural presentations, but highly practical for field documentation and remote measurement.
This is where the gap is clearest. Manifold's core is a GPS-tagged, timestamped photo feed — every photo taken in the app is auto-assigned to the right job, tagged with location, time, and user, and visible to the whole team in real time. Bulk upload from camera roll. Offline sync. Shareable gallery links for clients with no login required.
MagicPlan's photos are tied to floor plan rooms and reports. It's excellent for structured property documentation but not designed for the ongoing photo-heavy workflow of a construction crew.
MagicPlan integrates with Xactimate, CoreLogic, Dropbox, OneDrive, and Google Drive. These are essential for restoration/insurance workflows.
Manifold integrates with Zapier and focuses on being a complete standalone field platform rather than a hub for other tools.
Compare Manifold
Real pricing, honest comparisons. No spin.