◆ Comparison
Most drone mapping platforms
start at thousands a year.
Ours starts at $49 for 250 photos, with no subscription and no expiry date on the credits. Here is the honest version of how we compare — including the things the others do that we do not.
◆ What it costs to start
Published entry prices
What one person pays to begin, annualised, as published on each vendor’s own pages in August 2026. These are not like-for-like — some are per-user seats, some bundle processing credits — so what the money buys is spelled out beside each one. Prices change; check theirs before you decide.
| Platform | To start | What that is |
|---|---|---|
| DroneFlow.Ai | $49 once |
250 photo credits that never expire, no subscription. Or
Pilot at $279/mo and Fleet at
$449/mo. Exports are never metered. Read from: our own pricing page |
| DroneDeploy | $4,188/yr | Flight & Analysis, billed annually, one admin user, up to 3,000 images per map. Teams are quote-only. Read from: dronedeploy.com pricing page |
| Pix4D | $1,290/yr | PIX4Dcloud Starter, per user, including 500 processing credits a year. Pro is $4,490/yr. Read from: pix4d.com pricing page |
| Propeller Aero | No public pricing | Annual contract, quote only. Processing is credit-based. Read from: propelleraero.com — contact sales |
| Esri Site Scan | No public pricing | Licensed per operator on an annual contract, quoted by Esri or a reseller. Nothing publicly listed. Read from: esri.com — contact sales |
| Skycatch | No public pricing | Subscription, quoted by sales. Their self-serve DroneMaps brand lists prices separately. Read from: skycatch.com — contact sales |
| Birdi | $720/yr | Plus, billed annually — 1 user plus guest seats, and 2 gigapixels of processing a month. Read from: birdi.io pricing page |
Where a vendor publishes no price we say so rather than estimating one. “No public pricing” is a fact about how they sell, not a gap in our research.
◆ Being straight about it
What we do not do
Every one of these is real, and every one of them is something at least one platform above does. If your job needs one, buy the tool that has it — we would rather you knew now than after your first invoice.
◆ Credit where it is due
What each of them is genuinely good at
Published capability, not our opinion of their quality.
DroneDeploy
- A first-party flight app, and LAANC airspace approval inside it
- Ground and 360° capture, thermal, and object-counting AI
- Two-way Procore and Autodesk Construction Cloud integrations
Pix4D
- Desktop engines you can run offline on your own hardware
- Automatic GCP detection, and thermal and multispectral processing
- The deepest photogrammetry toolset in the category
Propeller Aero
- The benchmark for earthworks measurement and survey workflows
- AeroPoints smart ground control, and PPK correction
- Hydrology: runoff, watershed and rainfall simulation
Esri Site Scan
- Native to ArcGIS — the right answer if your data lives there
- Unlimited free read-only viewer seats
- Fleet and pilot compliance management
Skycatch
- Built for mining and heavy civil at fleet scale
- Raw LiDAR processing, and fusion with photogrammetry
- On-premises and edge processing for disconnected sites
Birdi
- Generous guest seats for sharing with clients
- Promptable object detection and automatic stockpile finding
- Raw LiDAR processing
◆ Where we are different
What you get here that is hard to get elsewhere
You do not have to process here
Already have a finished export from DJI Terra, Pix4D, Metashape or WebODM? Upload it and you get the full deliverable set, the viewer and the measuring tools without re-processing anything. Most platforms want the photos so they can be the engine. DJI Terra is our most-tested path.
We check the datum instead of trusting it
Every run reads the vertical coordinate system actually written in your file rather than the one a settings box claims. It is the difference between elevations that are right and elevations that look right.
Quality control that can stop a delivery
Automated checks run on every project and a failure blocks it rather than filing a note. You also get an accuracy report against your checkpoints, stating measured error — we do not print the words “survey grade” over a number we have not measured.
Your clients get a real tool, not a picture
A share link lets your client measure, annotate, comment and export — with no account and no seat. On Pilot and up it carries your logo, your colour and your name instead of ours.