Online architect vs local architect: how to choose.
If you are planning an extension, a loft conversion or a whole-house renovation, you will quickly hit the same fork in the road: do you hire a local practice down the road, or work with an online architect who handles everything remotely? Most comparison articles answer that with a price table and leave it there. The honest answer depends on your house, your council and how much design exploration your project actually needs.
This guide explains what an online architect really does, what stays identical whichever route you pick, where England and Wales differ, and the cases where a local practice is genuinely the better call. We run an online service ourselves, so we have been clear about where that model has limits.
What an online architect actually is
An online architect is a practice that runs the design and drawing work remotely: video calls instead of office meetings, a shared link instead of a folder of printed sheets, and a single measured survey of your home rather than repeated visits. The drawings that land on the council’s desk are the same kind of drawings a high street practice produces. The difference is the process around them, not the output.
Two things get confused here. “Online” does not mean nobody ever comes to your house — a measured survey of the existing building is non-negotiable, because every dimension on every drawing is derived from it. And “online” does not describe a qualification. Residential work in the UK is done by architects, architectural technologists and architectural designers, and the title you need depends on the job, not on whether the meetings happen over video.
How the survey works when nobody visits twice
This is the part most comparison pages skip, and it is the part that decides whether a remote service works at all.
A traditional practice typically measures by hand, then returns when something does not add up: a sloping floor, a hidden chimney breast, a ceiling height nobody wrote down. Each return visit is a delay.
A remote service solves it by capturing the house once, properly. We use a 3D scan of the whole property, which produces a dimensionally accurate record of every room, opening and level. The design team then works from that scan rather than from memory or a sketch, so the question “how wide is that opening again?” is answered by looking, not by driving back.
The practical test when you are comparing online architects: ask how they capture your existing building, and whether that capture is a measured survey or a set of photos and your own tape measurements. Photos and homeowner measurements are where remote services go wrong, because an error in the existing drawings carries into the planning drawings, the building regulations drawings and eventually the builder’s price.
A council does not know, or care, how your drawings were produced. A planning application is assessed against the development plan and local policy; a lawful development certificate is assessed against whether the work falls inside permitted development; building regulations approval is assessed against the Approved Documents. None of those tests has a line about whether your designer lives nearby.
What does affect the outcome is whether the drawings are complete, correctly scaled, correctly annotated and submitted with the right documents. Validation delays — where a council rejects the application before it is even assessed — are almost always a paperwork problem, not a design problem.
The local knowledge argument is real but narrower than it sounds. It matters most where policy is discretionary: conservation areas, listed buildings, article 4 directions, strong local design guidance, or a site with a history of refusals. It matters least on a standard rear extension or loft conversion in an undesignated area, where the rules are national and the same book is open in every office in the country.
England and Wales are not the same planning system
If you are comparing services, check which countries they actually work in — and check they know the difference, because permitted development rights diverge.
In England, a single-storey rear extension can go beyond the standard permitted development depth through the larger home extension prior approval route: up to eight metres for a detached house, or six metres for any other house, where the property is not on designated land, subject to notifying the council and a neighbour consultation period. Guidance published by the Planning Portal for this route relates to England, and notes that policy in Wales may differ.
Wales has no equivalent prior approval route. Welsh permitted development keeps to the standard single-storey rear extension limits — four metres for a detached house, three metres for any other house — so a depth that is a notification exercise in Bristol is a full planning application in Cardiff.
That single difference changes the route, the timescale and the cost of a project. It is a good question to put to any online architect before you commit: ask them to tell you which route your specific extension depth falls under, in your country. We are based in Cardiff and work across England and Wales, so both systems are everyday work rather than an exception.
The fee question, asked properly
The cost comparison usually gets framed as cheap versus expensive. It is more useful to compare how the fee is structured, because that is what determines your exposure.
A percentage fee is calculated from your build cost. If the build gets more expensive — and builds often do — the fee rises with it. An hourly fee has the same open end. A fixed price is agreed before you commit, and does not move when the build does.
Neither model is automatically better value. What matters is what is inside the number. Ask every practice you are comparing to confirm, in writing, whether these are included or extra: the measured survey, planning drawings, building regulations drawings, structural engineer’s calculations, rounds of changes, the application submission itself, and handling the council’s questions after submission. A low headline figure that excludes building regulations drawings and structural calculations is not a low figure — those are not optional on a real build.
Our own packages are set out on our pricing page: Essentials for planning drawings on small projects, Standard for a typical extension or loft, and Premium for complex or high-spec work. The price is confirmed in writing after a free design meeting, because the honest answer depends on your building’s complexity.
When a local practice is the better choice
There are projects where we would tell you to use a traditional architect with a studio near your site:
Listed buildings and heritage-led work, where the design conversation with the conservation officer is iterative and face to face carries real weight.
A difficult or contested site — a history of refusals, a tight urban plot with overlooking issues, or a case likely to go to committee.
New builds and major remodels where the design itself is the point and you want extended exploration of options, not a route through the council.
Projects where you want the designer to administer the build, inspecting on site, valuing the builder’s work and holding the contract.
For a rear extension, a side return, a loft conversion or a garage conversion in an undesignated area, those advantages mostly do not apply, and the thing that decides your outcome is the quality and completeness of the drawings.
Six questions to ask before you choose an online architect
How do you survey my existing house? A measured survey or 3D scan, not photos you send in.
What exactly is in the price, and what is extra? Get the list of inclusions in writing before you pay anything.
Do you do building regulations drawings and structural calculations, or only planning drawings? Plenty of services stop at planning, which leaves you to find and brief a second firm.
Who submits the application and who answers the council? The weeks after submission are where projects stall.
How many rounds of changes do I get? “Unlimited” and “one” are very different services.
What happens if planning is refused? Ask for the answer as a written policy, not a reassurance.
On that last one, ours is the Planning Permission Guarantee: if planning is refused, we keep working for free or refund 50% of our fees.
Where we stand
Arkiplan was founded in Cardiff in 2008 and works with homeowners across England and Wales from one in-house team. We have helped 2,000+ homes gain permission for extensions, lofts and renovations, 94% of our planning and LDC applications are approved, and we hold 4.7 stars across 570+ reviews. You can see how the process runs on our how it works page.
If you want a considered answer about your own house rather than a general comparison, the Deep Dive with Dave is a paid session at Price confirmed in your proposal that looks at your property, your council and what is realistically achievable. If you are not satisfied, tell us within 7 days and we will refund the amount you paid in full.
