--- title: "Atlasly vs PlanningBot: Which AI Planning Tool Is Right for Your Practice?" description: "Honest comparison of Atlasly and PlanningBot for UK planning workflows — what each does well, where they differ, and how to choose between them." canonical: https://atlasly.app/blog/atlasly-vs-planningbot published: 2026-04-19 modified: 2026-04-19 primary_keyword: "Atlasly vs PlanningBot" target_query: "Atlasly vs PlanningBot comparison AI planning tool" intent: commercial --- # Atlasly vs PlanningBot: Which AI Planning Tool Is Right for Your Practice? > Honest comparison of Atlasly and PlanningBot for UK planning workflows — what each does well, where they differ, and how to choose between them. ## Quick Answer Atlasly and PlanningBot are both UK-focused AI planning tools, but they solve different problems. PlanningBot is a policy-grounded chatbot for answering NPPF and local plan questions inside Claude or ChatGPT. Atlasly is a full site intelligence platform — it answers policy questions *and* delivers 3D models, CAD/BIM exports, flood/heritage/ecology overlays, topography, transport analysis, and a client-ready PDF. Choose PlanningBot if you only need planning-policy Q&A. Choose Atlasly if you need the full pre-construction site package. ## Introduction The AI planning tools category is crowded with generic ChatGPT wrappers. Two UK-focused tools stand out: PlanningBot and Atlasly. They're often compared, but they're not the same kind of product. This is an honest comparison — written by the Atlasly team, but aiming to be accurate about what PlanningBot does well and where each tool fits. The short version: if your question is "can you tell me what the NPPF says about this?", either tool works, and PlanningBot may be lighter-weight for that narrow need. If your question is "what should we do with this site?", Atlasly covers the full decision-making surface that PlanningBot doesn't try to. ## What PlanningBot does (and does well) PlanningBot is a UK planning AI tool focused on one job: answering planning policy questions accurately, without hallucinations. Their approach is grounding — when you ask a question, PlanningBot fires live queries to official UK planning databases (local planning authority portals, NPPF corpus, BNG data, heritage listings, CIL schedules) and only lets the AI interpret verified data. This is the right technical approach for reducing planning-policy hallucination. **How it ships:** - An MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that plugs into Claude or ChatGPT, so you can use it inside your existing AI conversation - A dedicated Web Chat for practices that don't already use Claude/ChatGPT **Where it's strong:** - Narrow, reliable planning policy Q&A in a chat interface - Cross-referencing a site against NPPF, BNG, heritage, CIL, and local plan policies - Low-friction — if you already use Claude or ChatGPT, installing the MCP server gives you planning answers in 30 seconds **Where it stops:** - Text only. No maps, no 3D, no CAD/BIM exports, no shareable packages. - UK-focused (by design). - Doesn't cover the non-policy side of a site — flood, ecology, topography, transport scoring, microclimate, ownership, development feasibility — you're expected to handle those elsewhere. ## What Atlasly does differently Atlasly is a full site intelligence platform. Planning policy is *one* of the 17 steps in its automated site analysis pipeline, not the whole product. **The 17 steps** cover: geocoding, building footprints, topography, land use, green/blue infrastructure, street networks, heritage designations, ecology and biodiversity, physical features, planning history, **policy and compliance search** (this is the PlanningBot-equivalent step), land registry, microclimate, transport and PTAL, **CAD/GIS export generation in 14 formats**, PDF report, and AI report synthesis. **What Atlasly adds that PlanningBot doesn't:** - A 3D site context model (building facades, roof geometry, terrain mesh) exportable to GLB, OBJ, FBX, Collada, IFC, STL - CAD-ready exports (DXF, DWG, SKP) with georeferenced coordinates — files open directly in AutoCAD, Revit, SketchUp, Rhino without redrawing - Flood risk, heritage, ecology, topography, transport layers combined on one interactive map - 15-minute city walkability scoring with 4 persona types - Solar and shadow analysis - A specialist AEC chatbot (Atlas AI) with SVG diagram generation, density calculators, and persistent site memory - Client-facing PDF reports with 30-day public share links - Multi-jurisdiction coverage (UK, US, UAE plus global data) **Where Atlasly is also strong at planning:** - Atlas AI is trained on NPPF 2023, London Plan 2021, and 40+ urban design frameworks (Gehl, Jacobs, CABE, NACTO) - Returns citations with legal status (statutory / material / guidance) - Cross-references the live site against local plan allocations, conservation areas, Article 4 directions, listed buildings So on the narrow question "does the NPPF permit this use on this site?", both tools work. But PlanningBot stops at the answer, and Atlasly continues into the map, the 3D model, the CAD files, and the client deliverable. ## Feature comparison **Planning policy Q&A** - PlanningBot: Yes (core product) - Atlasly: Yes (via Atlas AI, which is free and unlimited) **NPPF citations with legal status** - PlanningBot: Yes - Atlasly: Yes **Local plan coverage** - PlanningBot: Yes, via LPA portal queries - Atlasly: Yes, via local plan lookup + manual upload on Teams **BNG / Biodiversity Net Gain** - PlanningBot: Yes - Atlasly: Yes (Natural England, SSSI, ancient woodland) **Heritage constraints** - PlanningBot: Policy references - Atlasly: Mapped evidence (listed buildings, conservation areas, scheduled monuments) **Flood risk (EA zones)** - PlanningBot: Not the focus - Atlasly: Full integration with Environment Agency flood zone data **Topography** - PlanningBot: No - Atlasly: Mapbox Terrain-RGB ±1-5 m + USGS 3DEP **Transport / PTAL scoring** - PlanningBot: No - Atlasly: PTAL + isochrones + travel time matrices **15-minute city analysis** - PlanningBot: No - Atlasly: Yes (4 persona types, weighted amenity categories) **3D site context model** - PlanningBot: No - Atlasly: Yes (GLB, OBJ, FBX, IFC) **CAD/BIM exports (DXF/DWG/SKP/IFC)** - PlanningBot: No - Atlasly: Yes, georeferenced, 14 formats **Client PDF report** - PlanningBot: No - Atlasly: Yes, professional, white-labelable **Interactive map interface** - PlanningBot: No - Atlasly: Yes (Site AI Workspace — 18 capabilities) **Multi-jurisdiction** - PlanningBot: UK-focused - Atlasly: UK, US, UAE primary; global secondary **MCP integration with Claude / ChatGPT** - PlanningBot: Yes (native feature) - Atlasly: Not yet (in development) **Free tier** - PlanningBot: Yes (limited Web Chat) - Atlasly: Yes (5 analyses/month, unlimited Atlas AI chat, no credit card) ## Who should choose which **Choose PlanningBot if:** - You primarily need fast, accurate NPPF / local plan Q&A - You already use Claude or ChatGPT and want planning intelligence inside that conversation - You don't need maps, 3D, or CAD/BIM exports - Your workflow is UK planning advisory, not full design and delivery **Choose Atlasly if:** - You need the full pre-construction site package — policy *and* flood, heritage, ecology, topography, transport, 3D context, CAD exports - You produce client-facing deliverables (PDF reports, share links) - You export into AutoCAD, Revit, SketchUp, Rhino and want the base geometry done for you - You work internationally (UK, US, UAE, or beyond) - You want a specialist AEC chatbot included for free (Atlas AI) - You're an architect, engineer, or masterplanner — not just a planning consultant **Use both if:** - You want PlanningBot inside your Claude/ChatGPT conversations for quick checks, and Atlasly as the system of record for project deliverables - The tools don't overlap destructively — they're complementary at different stages ## Honest trade-offs **Atlasly trade-offs:** - Atlasly is a browser-based platform, not a pure chat interface. If you only want to ask questions inside ChatGPT, PlanningBot is lighter-weight for that specific use. - Atlasly has more features, so there is more to learn on first use. Onboarding is a few minutes, but it's more than zero. - The free tier is 5 analyses/month. For heavy daily use you need Pro (£14.99/month) or Teams (£49.99/month). **PlanningBot trade-offs:** - Text-only output. If a client, contractor, or design team needs a map, 3D view, or CAD file, PlanningBot doesn't produce those. - UK-only focus. Doesn't serve US, UAE, or international jurisdictions. - Single-domain depth (policy). If you need topography, transport, or environmental overlays for the same site, you're using other tools alongside. Neither tool replaces specialist consultant sign-off for formal submissions (Flood Risk Assessment, Transport Assessment, Daylight/Sunlight, etc.). Both give you an informed baseline faster. ## From Practice We were in a practice review last month where the architect had used PlanningBot for the NPPF question and Atlasly for everything else — flood, topography, 3D context, DXF. That's a reasonable stack. The catch is the architect still manually copied the PlanningBot answer into the project folder, because PlanningBot doesn't write to anything downstream. Our observation: if your pre-construction workflow has a single place where the site story lives, it tends to be the tool that produces the deliverable — which is usually the one that exports CAD and PDF. The tool that lives in the chat window tends to inform the work, but not be the system of record. ## Frequently Asked Questions **Is Atlasly a PlanningBot alternative?** They overlap on planning policy Q&A but solve different problems overall. PlanningBot is a focused planning-policy chatbot. Atlasly is a full site intelligence platform (17-step pipeline, 3D models, CAD/BIM exports, maps, PDF reports, plus a planning-policy chatbot called Atlas AI included for free). **Can Atlas AI (from Atlasly) do what PlanningBot does?** For planning policy Q&A with NPPF / London Plan / local plan citations — yes. Atlas AI is trained on the same policy corpus and provides legal-status tagging. It is free and unlimited on the Atlasly Starter plan. PlanningBot's specific advantage is live LPA portal queries for per-site policy context, which Atlasly covers via its planning-history and policy-compliance pipeline steps. **Does Atlasly have an MCP server like PlanningBot?** An Atlasly MCP server is in development. Once shipped, users will be able to call Atlasly site analysis tools directly from Claude or ChatGPT — with the full intelligence package (not just planning policy) available inside those conversations. **Which is cheaper?** Both have free tiers. Atlasly's free Starter plan includes 5 full site analyses per month plus unlimited Atlas AI chat. Check each product's current pricing page for paid tiers. **Does Atlasly produce CAD/BIM files?** Yes — DXF, DWG, SKP (SketchUp), GLB, OBJ, FBX, STL, Collada, IFC, GeoJSON, Shapefile, SVG, CSV, PDF. All georeferenced. PlanningBot does not produce CAD/BIM files. **Which is better for non-UK work?** Atlasly. PlanningBot is UK-focused. Atlasly supports UK, US, UAE primary coverage with global data for terrain, transport, climate, and buildings. **Can I use both tools together?** Yes. They are complementary. PlanningBot for fast planning Q&A inside your Claude/ChatGPT conversation; Atlasly as the system of record for the full site intelligence package and deliverables. ## Conclusion PlanningBot and Atlasly are not really direct competitors — they're different products that overlap in one area (UK planning policy Q&A). PlanningBot is a focused, well-executed planning-policy chatbot that fits neatly into Claude or ChatGPT workflows. Atlasly is a full pre-construction site intelligence platform where planning is one pipeline step among seventeen. If the question you keep asking is "what does policy say?", PlanningBot is the right tool. If the question is "what should we do with this site — and can I hand the outputs straight to the design team and the client?", Atlasly is built for that whole workflow. Try Atlasly free — 5 site analyses per month, unlimited Atlas AI chat, no credit card: https://atlasly.app/auth ## Related Reading - https://atlasly.app/blog/uk-planning-compliance-checker-architects - https://atlasly.app/blog/atlas-ai-free-architecture-planning-assistant - https://atlasly.app/blog/planning-constraints-before-you-design-uk - https://atlasly.app/blog/ai-site-analysis-vs-manual-research --- Source: https://atlasly.app/blog/atlasly-vs-planningbot Platform: Atlasly — AI site intelligence for architects, engineers, and urban planners. https://atlasly.app