Giraffe

freemium with two self-serve tiers Design the Building

Cloud-based early-phase urban planning, site feasibility, and generative design platform that connects spatial design with GIS data, financial modeling, and AI-driven analysis for developers, architects, and planners.

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3.6 /5 composite score

C1 4/5 reflects the usable free tier plus the self-serve Core entry, C2 3/5 reflects the documented Workspace API and JavaScript SDK, C4 4/5 reflects IFC and DWG export, and C5 3/5 reflects the Revit, ArcGIS, and Rhino integration set. Firm-size fit spans solo to growing.

Solid

Rubric Scorecard

How we grade →

Criterion	Score	Evidence
Value for the price	4/5	freemium with two self-serve tiers, from $0, free tier Source →
Agent Friendliness	3/5	API: Giraffe Workspace API and JavaScript SDK for building custom extensions and apps (SDK docs at help.giraffe.build) Source →
Ease of adoption	4/5	web-saas, gentle learning curve Source →
Portability & lock-in	4/5	2 file formats, export: bulk
Interoperability	3/5	3 integrations Source →

Pricing

Modelfreemium with two self-serve tiers

Entry price$0

Free tieryes

Trialyes

Billing unitper-seat

Free tier scopeusable

TiersCore ($45), Teams ($1500), Enterprise

Visit Giraffe →

How we verified this: we checked Giraffe against its live site and an independent source — aecmag.com. Nothing on this page is listed from memory. See how we grade. Verified 2026-07-06.

Evidence

File formats

Format	Direction	Support
IFC	export	full -- Export site models to IFC for downstream BIM workflows
DWG	export	full -- Export to CAD format

Integrations

Revit (api-only) Esri ArcGIS (native) Rhino (native)

Adoption

Deploymentweb-saas

Self-serve signupyes

Implementation requirednone

SSO/admin requiredno

Training requiredtutorials

Learning curvegentle

Data export

Export mechanismbulk

Export scopeall-data

Ecosystem

Plugin marketplaceyes

Sources

API docs Pricing Signup Integrations

Also covers

Giraffe also appears in these sub-categories:

Permitting & Zoning

The permitting placement is zoning-envelope analysis inside the 3D massing workflow rather than permit filing. C2 3/5 reflects the documented Workspace API and JavaScript SDK, and C1 4/5 reflects the usable free tier plus self-serve entry pricing.

Alternatives in Conceptual Massing

Rhino 3D

Professional NURBS surface modeler used for complex massing, parametric design via the bundled Grasshopper visual-scripting environment, and computational architecture; one-time license with native DWG, DXF, and IFC export.

4.2/5

Autodesk Forma Site Design

Cloud-based AI platform for early-stage urban design, massing, and microclimate analysis.

3.8/5

Blender

Free, open-source 3D creation suite used by architects for parametric massing via Geometry Nodes, photorealistic Cycles rendering, and Python-scripted design automation; runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux.