AcousPlan vs EASE 5: Which Acoustic Tool for Your Project?

TL;DR

EASE 5 is an electroacoustic simulation platform built for PA system designers. AcousPlan is a room acoustic compliance tool built for architects and consultants. They overlap in RT60 calculation but diverge everywhere else. Choose EASE if your project involves loudspeaker arrays, coverage maps, and delay optimization. Choose AcousPlan if your project involves building code compliance, material selection from a 5,600+ product database, and automated ISO/WELL/LEED reporting. For the majority of architectural acoustic compliance work, the two tools are not interchangeable — they solve different problems at different price points.

Two Tools, Two Design Philosophies

A senior acoustic consultant at a London engineering firm described the distinction in practical terms during a 2025 AES convention panel: "I open EASE when a client asks me to design a PA system for a 2,000-seat auditorium. I open a compliance tool when a client asks me whether their open-plan office meets WELL v2 Feature 74. These are fundamentally different questions."

EASE 5 (Enhanced Acoustic Simulator for Engineers), developed by AFMG in Berlin, has been the industry standard for electroacoustic simulation since the late 1990s. Its core workflow is loudspeaker placement: you build or import a 3D room model, position loudspeaker arrays with manufacturer-measured directivity data (GLL format), set delay lines and EQ, then simulate SPL coverage, STI distribution, and time-domain response across listener planes. Room acoustic parameters — absorption coefficients, reverberation time — are inputs to that electroacoustic simulation, not the primary output.

AcousPlan is a browser-based architectural acoustic compliance platform. Its core workflow is material-driven: you define room geometry and surface materials (from a database of 5,600+ products across 115 manufacturers), then the platform calculates RT60, STI, C80, D50, and checks compliance against ISO 3382, WELL v2, LEED, BB93, DIN 18041, and 11 other national building codes. There is no loudspeaker database. There are no coverage maps. The output is a compliance report, not a PA system design.

The overlap between the two tools is roughly 15% of total functionality — the shared territory of Sabine/Eyring RT60 calculation. Everything else diverges.

Feature Comparison Table

Where EASE 5 Wins Decisively

Electroacoustic Design

There is no contest here. EASE 5 is the global standard for loudspeaker system design and has been for two decades. The GLL loudspeaker database contains over 20,000 measured directivity patterns from manufacturers including d&b audiotechnik, L-Acoustics, JBL Professional, Meyer Sound, and Bose Professional. When an audio consultant needs to compare three loudspeaker array configurations for a 15,000 m³ conference centre, EASE provides SPL coverage maps at every octave band, STI predictions at individual seat positions, and direct-to-reverberant ratio analysis that accounts for loudspeaker directivity.

AcousPlan does not attempt this. It has no loudspeaker database, no coverage mapping, and no electroacoustic simulation engine.

Large Complex Geometries

EASE 5's AURA module (Acoustics Utilizing Ray Acoustics) handles geometrically complex spaces — fan-shaped auditoriums, multi-level balconies, coupled volumes — where ray tracing produces meaningfully different results from statistical equations. For a concert hall with a fly tower coupled to the main volume, ray tracing captures energy exchange between volumes that Sabine and Eyring equations cannot model.

Consultant Credibility in Live Sound

For consultants working in live sound, installed audio, and performance venue design, EASE is an expected part of the deliverable. Clients and contractors in the AV industry recognize EASE output formats and trust them for tender documentation. This professional ecosystem lock-in is a genuine advantage that no alternative tool has replicated.

Where AcousPlan Wins Decisively

Material Database Depth

AcousPlan's database contains 5,600+ acoustic products from 115 manufacturers across 27 countries. Each entry includes frequency-dependent absorption coefficients at 125–4000 Hz octave bands, NRC ratings, product dimensions, indicative cost per square metre, and embodied carbon data for sustainability assessments. EASE 5's material library is smaller and lacks the metadata required for building code compliance workflows — cost data, carbon data, and regional availability are not included.

For an architect in Sydney specifying ceiling tiles that comply with NCC 2022 Section F5 and are available from Australian distributors, AcousPlan returns relevant products. EASE requires manual material entry or import from external sources.

Automated Compliance Checking

AcousPlan checks room designs against 13 building codes and certification standards simultaneously: ISO 3382-1/2/3, WELL v2 Feature 74, ANSI S12.60, BB93, DIN 18041, NCC 2022, and others. When an architect changes a ceiling material, compliance status updates in under 200 milliseconds. EASE 5 calculates acoustic parameters but does not automate compliance checking against specific building codes — the consultant must compare results to standard requirements manually.

Try It Free: Use AcousPlan's calculator to check your room against 13 building codes simultaneously — no account required for basic simulations.

Cost Accessibility

EASE 5 Full costs $3,500–5,000 per year. AcousPlan's free tier covers basic RT60 and STI calculations with no time limit. The Pro tier at $29/month adds unlimited projects, all building codes, PDF/DOCX reports, and the full material database. For a small practice that handles 10 compliance projects per year, AcousPlan Pro costs $348 annually versus $3,500+ for EASE 5. The savings fund an actual acoustic consultant for the one project per year that genuinely requires electroacoustic simulation.

Zero Installation

AcousPlan runs in any modern browser. EASE 5 requires a Windows installation with a USB hardware dongle (WIBU-KEY) for license verification. For architects working on macOS or Chromebook, or consultants who need to run a quick RT60 check during a site visit from a tablet, browser access is not a minor convenience — it removes a genuine workflow barrier.

The Practical Decision Framework

The choice between EASE 5 and AcousPlan is not about which tool is "better" in abstract terms. It is about which problems you need to solve.

Choose EASE 5 if:

• More than 30% of your projects involve loudspeaker system design
• You work with concert halls, stadiums, houses of worship, or transportation terminals where PA coverage is critical
• You need to model geometrically complex spaces with coupled volumes
• Your clients or contractors expect EASE output format in tender documentation

• Your work is primarily architectural acoustic compliance (offices, schools, healthcare, residential)
• You need automated checking against multiple building codes simultaneously
• You want a material database with cost, carbon, and regional availability data
• Your team includes architects and engineers who need acoustic results without 80 hours of software training

• You handle a mixed portfolio spanning PA design and room compliance
• You use EASE for venue acoustics and loudspeaker optimization, and AcousPlan for the 15–20 compliance checks per month that do not require ray tracing or loudspeaker modeling

What About EASE Evac and EASE Focus?

AFMG offers two lower-cost alternatives within the EASE ecosystem. EASE Evac ($995) is dedicated to emergency voice alarm system design per EN 54-32 and IEC 60849. EASE Focus ($395) handles line array modeling for live sound. Neither tool overlaps significantly with AcousPlan's compliance focus.

If your work is exclusively emergency voice alarm, EASE Evac is likely the right tool. If your work is live sound reinforcement, EASE Focus competes with EASE 5 Full, not with AcousPlan. The competitive overlap remains between EASE 5 Full's room acoustics features and AcousPlan's compliance engine.

Summary

EASE 5 is the industry standard for electroacoustic simulation — a position it has held for over 25 years. AcousPlan does not attempt to compete in loudspeaker system design, coverage mapping, or ray-tracing simulation of complex geometries. What AcousPlan provides is a faster, cheaper, and more accessible path to architectural acoustic compliance: the RT60 checks, STI calculations, material selections, and building code verifications that constitute the majority of acoustic design tasks in commercial and institutional buildings.

The question is not which tool is better. The question is which problems dominate your workload. For most architectural practices, the answer points toward compliance-focused tools. For audio consultancies, the answer points toward EASE. For firms that do both, the answer is both.

Start Your Comparison: Run a free simulation on AcousPlan and see how your room performs against WELL, LEED, and ISO 3382 standards — then decide whether your project also needs electroacoustic modeling.

AcousPlan provides advisory acoustic calculations for architectural compliance. All simulation results should be verified by a qualified acoustic professional before use in construction documentation. EASE 5 is a registered trademark of AFMG Technologies GmbH.