Gendo vs Maquete

Gendo is a web-based collaborative canvas for architectural visualization. Architects and designers can generate renders from sketches, change materials, populate scenes, transfer styles, enhance images, and upscale renders to 4× resolution. Its natural-language assistant can use workspace tools, and teams can run simultaneous generations, share images, add comments and notes, and iterate together. Users bring scenes or views into the canvas by exporting them; direct plugins for Revit, SketchUp, and Blender are on the roadmap. The free plan includes Material Bank material specification, but its prompts and outputs are not treated as confidential. Studio and Enterprise prompts and outputs are contractually protected from AI training and marketing use. Gendo says data is stored in EU data centres, encrypted at rest with AES-256 and in transit with TLS. Free costs nothing; Studio costs £66 a year, billed annually at £66/mo (£790/year; excl. tax).

Maquete is an AI architectural rendering platform for turning model views and image exports into interior and exterior renders. Users can upload PNG, JPG, or TIFF files in a browser, or render a current viewport through the SketchUp plugin. The maker says a typical still takes around 30 seconds, though complex scenes or high demand may take longer. More than 15 lighting presets and controls for materials, atmosphere, and context help shape the result. Maquete says it aims to preserve composition and proportions, but generated walls, openings, fixed elements, camera, and proportions should be checked against the source model.

Projects can group renders and source images with specification and cost schedules, status, and an activity trail. Guided briefings collect client requirements; slide presentations can be shared by live link or PDF. Starter costs $9 a month for 10 credits, with output up to 2K; Pro costs $24 a month, Studio $59 a month, and Business $99 a month. A 2K still uses one credit, a 4K still two, and five- and ten-second walkthroughs use four and eight credits. Credits reset each billing cycle without rollover. The service runs on web, macOS, and Windows.