Why it exists
When I began planning my pool, the information I needed was nowhere in one place. How deep should it be? What size fits the garden? Skimmer or overflow? What does it really cost, and what moves the price? The useful answers were scattered across Facebook groups, in threads from people halfway through their own builds, next to advice that contradicted the thread before it.
PoolPlanner is what I wanted at the start: a way to see the pool at its real size in 3D before a single spade goes in, and straight answers to the questions every pool raises, in one place. I'm building that pool now, so the library is written from the questions I'm working through myself.
Who makes it
PoolPlanner is made and run by one person: me, Zsolt Kocsmarszky, a designer and founder based in Hungary. I design and build the software, write the guides and answer the email.
No builders, no referral fees
No pool builder, manufacturer or supplier is involved in PoolPlanner. Nobody pays to be recommended, and no link on the site earns a commission. When a guide says one option suits most gardens better, that comes from the figures and the trade-offs, not from anyone selling it.
How the figures are worked out
Every number on the site is computed from the same geometry as the 3D model. The pool's outline is traced once, and its water volume, surface area, perimeter, excavation, fill time and equipment sizes are all worked out from it — on the plan pages, in the comparisons and for your own design alike. None of it is copied from a brochure.
Prices are the one thing that can't be computed exactly: the ground, access to the garden and the country move them more than the pool itself does. So costs are given as ranges, together with what drives them.
What's free, and what Pro adds
Designing is free and needs no account: every shape, size, finish and accessory, the 3D view by day and by night, the figures, and a link to share your design.
Pro is a single payment, not a subscription. It adds the construction blueprint, realistic renders of your design, a cost breakdown, sun loungers, and the garden's styles, plants, boundary and fence.
What it isn't
PoolPlanner doesn't build pools, and it doesn't replace a builder's survey or an engineer's drawings. A design and its blueprint are for deciding what you want and talking it through with a builder — the ground, the structure and the permits still need a professional's eye.
How the library is written
Each guide answers one question and each comparison decides between two options, in plain language, with every term explained where it first appears. It is written in English and published in 8 more languages.
If something is wrong, out of date or unclear — in any language — write to me and I'll fix it.
