Gardenly turns a photo of your garden into a photorealistic restyle in under 30 seconds — pick from 20+ styles and get a climate-aware plant list with it. Plantyd builds a to-scale plan from a satellite view of your property, with hourly sun/shade simulation and a growth timeline out to year 15.
The honest framing: Gardenly produces inspiration, Plantyd produces a buildable plan. They answer different questions, and some gardeners will get value from both — a Gardenly render to settle the style, a Plantyd plan to make it real.
At a glance
| Plantyd | Gardenly | |
|---|---|---|
| Design paradigm | To-scale canvas from a satellite view of your property | AI redesign of an uploaded photo, in under 30 seconds |
| Output | Measurable plan with plant schedule and shopping list | Photorealistic concept image + suggested plant list |
| Sun & shade analysis | Hourly simulation built into the design canvas | Separate free lookup widget, not integrated |
| Growth over time | Years 1, 3, 5, 10, 15 | Seasonal view (one season at a time) |
| Plant identification | Not offered | Yes — camera-based plant ID |
| Garden styles | Design from scratch — no preset styles | 20+ preset styles (cottage, xeriscape, Japanese…) |
| Free tier | Free forever: 1 project, 15 plants | None — paid only, 7-day money-back guarantee |
| Paid price | $9.99/mo flat, or $79/yr | From $4.50/mo (annual, 50%-off framing), 20 AI credits/mo |
Gardenly details verified June 2026 from gardenly.app. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@plantyd.com.
Inspiration vs a plan you can build
Gardenly's pitch is speed, and it delivers: one photo, one style choice, and a finished-looking garden render in under 30 seconds. With 20+ styles, built-in plant ID, and climate-aware plant suggestions, it's a genuinely fun way to explore what your space could feel like.
But an AI render is an aesthetic concept, not a buildable plan. It won't survive a measuring tape: there's no square footage, no spacing math, no guarantee the plants in the image fit your beds at maturity. Plantyd works from your property's real geometry, so the output is a plan with dimensions — every plant placed at its real mature size, with a shopping list you can take to the nursery.
Real sun simulation vs a lookup table
Gardenly offers a free Sunlight Calculator as one of its 16 free tools, but it's a separate lookup widget — it isn't connected to your design. Plantyd computes sun and shade hourly across your actual yard, inside the canvas, using your latitude, longitude, and date. The difference matters most exactly where designs fail: part-shade plants placed where afternoon sun scorches them, or sun-lovers under a canopy that fills in by year five.
Growth handling differs the same way. Gardenly can show a design across a season; Plantyd animates it across 15 years, so the maple that looks modest in the render is shown at the size it will actually reach.
Pricing models: flat vs credits
Gardenly's entry price is lower — from $4.50/month on an annual plan with its launch discount — but it's credit-based (20 AI generations a month at the entry tier), and there's no free tier, just a 7-day money-back guarantee. Plantyd is a flat $9.99/month or $79/year with no usage credits, plus a free-forever tier with one project and up to 15 plants — you can design before paying anything.
Which should you choose?
Plantyd is the better fit for…
- Turning an idea into a dimensioned plan you can build and shop from
- Placing plants around real sun, shade, and year-15 mature size
- Trying the product free before paying anything
- Predictable flat pricing with no AI credits to count
Gardenly is the better fit for…
- Instant photorealistic inspiration in a specific garden style
- Identifying existing plants from a photo
- Exploring many aesthetic directions before committing to one
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between Plantyd and Gardenly?
Gardenly is an AI photo-redesign tool: it restyles a photo of your garden into a photorealistic concept in under 30 seconds. Plantyd is a to-scale planning tool: it builds a measurable landscape plan from a satellite view of your property, with hourly sun/shade analysis and a 15-year growth timeline. One produces inspiration; the other produces a plan you can build from.
Does Gardenly make to-scale landscape plans?
No. Gardenly's output is an aesthetic render plus a suggested plant list — there are no dimensions, spacing math, or mature-size placement. If you need a plan with real measurements, that's what Plantyd is built for.
Can I use Gardenly and Plantyd together?
Yes, and it's a sensible workflow: use Gardenly to explore styles and settle the look you want, then build the real, dimensioned version in Plantyd with plants that fit your sun, zone, and space at maturity.
Does Plantyd generate AI redesigns from a photo?
No. Plantyd uses simulation, not generative AI — real solar geometry for sun and shade, and species data for growth over 15 years. You design the plan yourself on a to-scale canvas; Plantyd shows you how it will actually behave.
See your yard in sun, shade, and year 15
Start a plan free on a satellite view of your actual property — one project, up to 15 plants, no credit card.
Start designing freeWant to see real plans first? Read the design walkthroughs on the blog.