My top 5 design tools of 2025

This year was big in technology for the interior design industry. We saw many digital tools/softwares hitting the market, trying to make a name for themselves and promising big things and better workflows for interior designers.

Since I became an online creator, a number of these companies have asked me to promote their softwares in exchange of money or free access to their tools. This has allowed me to try out many different tools and to turn down a lot of these offers, because their tools don’t quite convince me, and I will never recommend a software that I don’t personally use and love.

In this post I am sharing only the Top 5 Tools that I found extremely useful for interior design workflows this year and can recommend to aspiring designers and design professionals like you. Let’s dive in.

Rayon Design 

It goes without saying that choosing a tool for creating 2D technical drawings is not easy. The universal tool has been Autocad for years now, but few people are satisifed by it. After all, Autocad developers have done little efforts in updating their interface and drawing in autocad is painfully slow, because everything has to be created from scratch (if you know, you know).

Autocad doesn’t have asset libraries for doors, furniture, buidling components, etc. Anything you need in your drawing has to be manually drawn, step by step, line by line. Is it time consuming? Very much. But since every other design firm is still using Autocad, I cannot tell you to abandon your Autocad skills (just yet) because it’s still an industry-standard tool in the world of interior design.

However, if you are looking ahead, you might want to learn other tools that might replace autocad one day. The leading tool that became the most known for 2D drawings in 2025 is rayon design. A tool that is becoming increasingly popular for its aesthetic feel, asset libraries, personalization and intuitive interface. Worth the try? In my opinion, yes. You can create truly beautiful drawing sets in less time, so although big companies are not using it now, students and freelancers will find it extremely useful for creating compelling designs and beautiful portfolios.

Morpholio

I was in design school when I knew about Morpholio. For context, this company has two apps: Morpholio Board and Morpholio Trace, and they have different use cases.

Morpholio Trace is today the leading app for creating sketches on Ipad, as well as detailed drawings drawn to scale. It is an app created specifically for interior and architecture workflows, so every tool is made with designers’ needs in mind. It’s really awesome, so if you have an IPad, you don’t want to miss on this one.

Morpholio Board on the other hand is a tool for creating design boards easy and hassle-free. They have a library of popular designer items such as furniture, lighting, accesories and much more. Moreover, you can link your pinterest account to the app and bring your pinned images without leaving the app - a game changer.

With the world transitioning to digital tools and designers experimenting with digital moodboards as well as digital sketching, these apps are a must-try. When I was in design school, we still used physical moodboards and hand-sketches, and although it was fun, I have to admit that it was not as convenient. It was stressful and time-consuming. If I had an IPad back then, I would have enjoyed sketching and concept ideation way more.

Sketchup

It’s no news that I have been a huge fan of Sketchup for almost a decade, to the point I teach others how to master Sketchup for interior design and architecture. But this year, Sketchup did something that changed the way designers will work with 3D modeling forever. They actually did two major updates that are game-changers and I can’t be more happy that they finally did. The first update is collaboration tools inside of Sketchup, meaning that others can add little sticky notes with comments on your model, this is extremely helpful when discussing designs with cabinet makers, builders and most importantly, clients. The other big thing is that they optimized the platform and it now responds quicker than ever. Less slow models, crashes and lagging. This really speeds up the 3D modeling workflow and cuts modeling time in half. Sketchup is one of those tools that once you learn, you cannot go back, so definitely a favorite one of all times.

Programa

I knew Programa earlier this year, when I had the opportunity of collaborating with them - and it became a favorite one instantly. Programa is a all-in-one platfrom for project management, which means all of your interior projects can be organized and managed in one place. You can even add financial tools, spec sheets, moodboards, and organize the phases of projects on a timeline.

Before I started using programa, my project documentation was all over the place, and most of it was compiled on PDFs that I had to constantly update every time there was a new change. Now, I do it all inside of programa and it updates automatically for everyone who has access to my projects (that could be a client, the contractor or other designers).

Cosmos

The last tool on my list of my top 5 tools in 2025  is Cosmos. This is a minimalist, ad-free platform designed for creatives to collect, curate, and organize images, videos, and links. It is heavily positioned as a "better Pinterest" for those seeking a more focused, high-quality experience.

As a designer, I am always on the look for new inspiration websites because a big part of my inspiration comes from the web. Although I will keep using Pinterest, I have found Cosmos to be a more quite, curated app, so it really became a favorite one real quick. If you haven’t tried it, I cannot recommended it enough!

That wraps my top 5 tools learned and used this year in my interior design freelancing business. I hope you can get your hands on some/all of this tools soon, you won’t regret it!