How Mobile-First Floorplan Creation Compares to Other Market Solutions

There’s a reason floorplans rank in the top 3 most requested listing features. You can have the most stunning photo of a room, but if buyers don’t see how it fits into the rest of the home, it’s just a nice shot. In a market driven by clarity, without a floorplan, even the best visuals can feel like puzzle pieces with no big picture. 

And yet, most tools for creating them haven’t kept up with how fast agents work or how mobile-first buyers actually buy. What the industry needs now is a complete, mobile-first floorplan solution. Let’s take a look at how floorplan creation has evolved — and what solution finally brings everything together for you.

Why Do Real Estate Agents and Buyers Increasingly Demand Floorplans?

It’s hard to piece together a space from photos alone. You see the rooms, but not how they connect. Floorplans eliminate that gap by showing flow, structure, and livability. It’s what determines how functional and comfortable your property feels, especially in cities with lots of apartments like New York.

That’s why floorplans rank in the top 3 most wanted listing features, right behind photos and property details:

• 93% say they’ll spend more time on a listing if it includes a floorplan.

• 86% of buyers use floorplans to decide which homes to tour.

• 1 in 5 may skip your listing entirely if it doesn’t include one.

Demand is rising fast, but traditional floorplan production methods haven’t caught up to that. They’re fragmented, manual, and not built for mobile-first buyers.

So, how should you be creating floorplans today? What is your best option?

Read further to see the breakdown of hand sketch, digital and mobile-first floorplan solutions — so you can decide which one fits your real estate photography business most.

Hand Sketch Floorplan Creation: Time-Consuming and Fragmented

This method starts with a rough hand- sketch of the property, which is then manually recreated in vector-based softwares like Adobe Illustrator. While the process allows precision and customization needed for high-end listings, it’s not efficient for long-term growth.

Illustrator is a standalone tool. It doesn’t integrate with other systems, so it can’t support automation or real-time collaboration. Every step, from sketch to final render, is done manually and relies on individual skill. This means the output quality can be inconsistent.

Plus, on-site time can take up to an hour for larger homes. Add in the back-and-forth between different tools, vendors, and editors — turnaround time quickly becomes unpredictable. And if you’re managing several listings across different markets or teams, the workflow will be even more complex.

Bottom line: Hand sketch floorplan creation is high effort, low efficiency when you’re scaling or under tight deadlines.

Digital Floorplan Scanning Tools: A Step Forward, But Still Limited

The introduction of panoramic scanning and LiDar scanning apps has changed the floorplan creation game. 

Panoramic scanning uses 360-degree cameras to capture full-room visuals, which are then processed into floorplans. These outputs can be further edited in tools like Illustrator or Floorplanner, making them a strong choice for 2D and 3D visualizations in virtual tours. LiDar scanning methods, on the other hand, use Lidar technology in modern smartphones to generate floorplans automatically. This method is fast, portable, and well-suited for agents who need quick results.

At Esoft, we embraced this shift early on with the launch of our CloudScanner 1.0 last year — a complete floorplan solution that lets you scan, upload, receive and adjust floorplans all in one app. With just a phone or tablet, you can scan properties in under 10 minutes and generate an accurate 2D and 3D floorplan bundle — without paying separately for 3D outputs or facing restrictions if a scan needs to be paused.

This was a major leap forward, but we know it wasn’t the final destination. Today’s users are asking for solutions that do more. From immersive formats that offer a cost-friendly virtual tour alternative, to editing tools that give users more autonomy across 2D and 3D outputs — the future is about an end-to-end efficiency.

To meet those growing expectations, we’ve created CloudScanner 2.0 — a Complete Mobile-First Floorplan Ecosystem designed around your workflow. Here’s how it holds up against other solutions on the market:

Bottom line: As market demands evolve, so does the opportunity for market leaders to capture on that foundation — toward a more complete, mobile-first, and all-in-one experience. CloudScanner 2.0 was designed to help you lead that way.

Complete Mobile-First Floorplan Solutions: Triple Outputs, Full Value

CloudScanner 2.0:  A Complete Mobile-First Floorplan Ecosystem

Built on top of version 1.0’s mobile-first breakthrough, our latest version of CloudScanner gives you more value added without extra hardware, delays, or complexity.

With just one digital scan, you can multiply the value of every capture with 3 outputs: 2D, 3D, and Immersive Floorplan. One platform, one workflow, full consistency at scale.

Here’s how CloudScanner 2.0 supports your business:

✅ Cost and Time Reduction: By replacing outdated, error-prone hand sketches with fast, accurate scans, CloudScanner significantly reduces your time spent per property and operational costs. A 200 m² home can be scanned in under 10 minutes. Output delivery reduced from hours to just 10–15 minutes, enabled by automated processing and self-editing capabilities. 

✅ Market-Proven Accuracy: Developed in the Netherlands — one of the world’s most demanding property markets — CloudScanner meets high industry standards for precision, delivering globally trusted results. With structured scanning and tech-assisted processes, input quality is more consistent, less error-prone, and no longer relies on hand-drawn interpretation.

✅ Ease of Onboarding: With hand-sketching, new hires are required daily side-by-side training for a full week with senior photographers. CloudScanner’s intuitive guideline and in-app visual feedback need just 1 day for a photographer to become proficient, much faster onboarding and easier skill transfer. Paired with the ease of setup through Coconut Portal or API integration, you can accelerate team readiness and reduce learning curves when adopting a new solution.

And here’s what CloudScanner 2.0 delivers from one mobile scan: 

2D Floorplan

A clear, easy-to-read layout of the property available in black-and-white or solid colors. Rooms can be color-coded by type to enhance visual clarity and appeal

• Customizable with branding and room labels

• Ideal for quick client delivery

Explore more
— 2D Floorplan Standard

3D Floorplan

A visually rich layout with depth and perspective to highlight size, structure, and flow; complete with fixtures, furniture, doors, windows, and flooring

• Helping viewers understand space and layout

• Differentiating listings on real estate portals

Immersive Floorplan

• A smart, cost-effective virtual tour alternative that combines a clean 2D floorplan with interactive image hotspots linked to real interior photos

• Lightweight, interactive experience

• Letting users navigate space in a simple, mobile-friendly way

Bottom line: CloudScanner 2.0 turns a single scan into 3 high-quality outputs — fast, consistent, and scalable. This all-in-one, editable floorplan solution helps you meet the demands of today while staying flexible for tomorrow. It reflects what future-ready tools should be: powerful enough to deliver variety, yet simple enough to be used by any team, anywhere.

One of our clients shares their experience with us after switching to CloudScanner

Ready for the Next Chapter of Mobile-First Floorplan Creation?

The days of fragmented tools, bulky equipment, and long production timelines are behind us. With an all-in-one, mobile-first solution like CloudScanner 2.0, you can produce all the visual assets you need — 2D, 3D, and immersive — in one seamless flow. It’s an end-to-end workflow built for real estate photographers, by real estate photographers. Stay tuned as we continuously enhance our offerings to serve your evolving needs!

If this sounds like something your team’s been looking for,
— contact us!

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