Photogrammetry Software reviews from Reddit

Summary

We analyzed 246 Reddit reviews across 12 subreddits and 55 posts to rank the best Photogrammetry Software brands recommended by redditors, including communities like r/photogrammetry, r/UAVmapping, r/3DScanning, r/Surveying, r/Vive. Top-rated brands include Agisoft (4.0/5), RealityCapture (4.4/5), Pix4D (3.9/5).

Stats
Reviews246
Subreddits12
Posts55
Brands60
Products20
Top communities
r/photogrammetry128r/UAVmapping71r/3DScanning15r/Surveying11r/Vive6
246 reviews from
and
By Brand
/
By Product
#1

Agisoft

4.0
(39)
"I think Agisoft is the best, Pix4D is the easiest, but WebODM is a really good open source option"
·
"Agisoft Metashape if you want point clouds the fastest"
·
"Agisoft Metashape is the best."
·
"Agisoft Metashape for creating the highest quality DSM, DTMs and Orthos."
·
"I totally agree with Agisoft making great models. Best results out of everything I've tried so far."
·
"A much more robust program."
·
"Metashape seems very good though there are quite a few things, I can't get even close to as good (without significant manual work) like cell towers or anything else with intricate detail."
·
"Metashape is the way forward but most softwares have a trial period so see what works best for you."
·
"I use metashape and reality capture primarily, as well as 3DF Zephyr for some applications."
·
"Small company standard is pretty much Agisoft Metashape."
·
#2

RealityCapture

4.4
(34)
"I would recommend getting started with Epic Reality Capture (free) and make your way to Agisoft Metashape Pro."
·
"Reality Capture is now free fyi."
·
"RealityCapture (by Capturing Reality): Super fast and accurate photogrammetry software."
·
"I second Reality Capture. For the photogrammetry part of the workflow, RC is better than any of them."
·
"Reality Capture is free for small businesses"
·
"Capturing Reality's (now Epic games) 'Reality Capture'/RC for high quality point clouds and textured mesh models."
·
"Reality capture. It's free, fast and capable of big projects"
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"Reality capture is a very powerful piece of software and it's free."
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"Shoot with whatever and use Reality Capture to process it."
·
"100% reality capture no question."
·
#3

Pix4D

3.9
(27)
"Pix4D is Swiss based and is one of original modern photogrammetry companies."
·
"The best software for aerial mapping are without a doubt 3DFZephyr and PIX4D."
·
"Check out Matic. It's a huge improvement over mapper, especially for big datasets."
·
"Excellent tools and all kinds of geo-referencing support and exporting tools."
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"I am a PIX4D fan too."
·
"Pix4d over agisoft?? 😂 must be a lot of small shops here."
·
"Pix4D if you want mesh/DTMs the fastest"
·
"You should be able to try Pix4D and Metashape for free."
·
"Pix4Dmatic (Mapper is old and not developed anymore) now does Ortho facades nicely."
·
"The one I think most people probably use but it's also expensive."
·
#4

Meshroom

4.2
(19)
"It's also free. You can create point clouds or textured models."
·
"Try Meshroom."
·
"Meshroom"
·
"Meshroom - Best free solution."
·
"Highly Reccomend Meshroom, which is free."
·
"Meshroom is free and runs locally on a windows pc."
·
"The software is Meshroom it's open-source software and needs Nvidia with Cuda Support GPU."
·
"So far, so good."
·
"Try Meshroom."
·
"It’s free and open source."
·
#5

3DF Zephyr

3.8
(14)
"The best software for aerial mapping are without a doubt 3DFZephyr and PIX4D."
·
"I use metashape and reality capture primarily, as well as 3DF Zephyr for some applications."
·
"3DF Zephyr works great with european refererence systems, very easy compared to Metashape from my experience."
·
"3DF Zephyr Free edition. The primary limitation is 50 images max in reconstruction."
·
"3DF Zephyr. HQ is Italy and ownership is Italian and US VC."
·
"You should give 3DF Zephyr a look… very good for the 3D stuff."
·
"3df zephyr is worth checking out."
·
"I’d recommend 3DF Zephyr."
·
"The tools in 3DF Zephyr are mainly for cleanup."
·
"Go to the 3DF Zephyr website and check out their new free version."
·
#6

Agisoft Metashape

4.3
(12)
"I would actually begin with Metashape ( try getting a free trial). It is very user friendly and I find that learning the step by step process of building models helps you learn more about the photogrammetric process."
·
"Agisoft Photoscan is very powerful, and 3DF Zephyr is really good also."
·
"Agisoft Photoscan does this (and most photogrammetry tasks) just fine."
·
"Agisoft Photoscan i believe is one of the leading ones out there but personally i get consistently better results using Autodesk's 123D Catch or Recap."
·
"It's been working pretty well, the professional version, a bit expensive though.."
·
"Id say give metashape a try."
·
"It’s great."
·
"You can free trial Metashape for 30 days."
·
"Definitely metashape, works really fast on the new m1 chips."
·
"Metashape. If you don't need targets and alignment, the non-pro version is great. And fast."
·
#7

OpenDroneMap

4.1
(10)
"WebODM is great. I'm very impressed with what it can do and how much it keeps improving over time."
·
"It's WebODM for me: Free, Little knowledge required, Near-infinite scalability."
·
"WebODM is free if you have a good computer."
·
"Open drone map"
·
"WebODM on Docker (Linux). Self-hosted. Supports multiple nodes."
·
"ODM ftw"
·
"WebODM"
·
"I stand by webodm, it may be a little slow at times but with a decent desktop, the results are always good."
·
"WebODM"
·
"I would love to use webodm, but it's not there yet in terms of user-friendliness."
#8

WebODM

4.2
(6)
"You can install for free. Runs well (very well on Linux - we use Manjaro Gnome unstable repo). Lots of tools included."
·
"Works well without a GPU."
·
"Webodm is a good starting point."
·
"WebODM would probably work pretty well for you"
·
"I'm very happy with webodm too."
·
"WebODM. Or for 50 images or less 3DF Zephyr Free is good too."
#9

3D Zephyr

4.2
(5)
"Would be my suggestion."
·
"In my opinion its far, far superior."
·
"I have the lite version, which is $50 for a lifetime version."
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"I recently did a trial of Zephyr 3DF to capture a single object for a 3d printing project and was impressed."
·
"3DF Zephyr is pretty decent, but is limited to 50 photos at a time unless you buy one of their higher-tier versions."
#10

Metashape

4.2
(5)
"By far my favorite and they offer a full free trial."
·
"Metashape in the settings can adjust whether to use only the CPU or the CPU and GPU."
·
"Recently the new 2.0 update to Metashape is performing much better."
·
"Maybe later try Metashape."
·
"Metashape works pretty well imo."
#11

DroneDeploy

4.0
(5)
"I use DroneDeploy for a lot of my renders."
·
"Far superior at DTM's and Ortho editing."
·
"I like DroneDeploy"
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"Drone Deploy is my second choice"
·
"Altizure, dronedeploy, pix4d, and whatever comes out this week."
#12

Maps Made Easy

4.5
(4)
"Maps Made Easy is great if you're using a DJI platform."
·
"I second the motion for MapsMadeEasy. You can control many more variables with it than dronedeploy"
·
"Super affordable and you can do it without a subscription."
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"If you are a cheapskate like me, the Maps Made Easy IOS app works a treat."
#13

Bentley

4.5
(4)
"Bentley Context Capture if you want incredible vertical detail on walls/uneven surfaces."
·
"Bentley Context Capture. It's by far the best I've seen for accurate and detailed 3D mesh models."
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"Bigger players that need a site management and tie up many types of survey use more integrated solutions, like Bentley iTwin."
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"Try iTwin Capture Modeler by Bentley. Also free for students. Started as Acute3D, a French company. It works good with other Bentley software."
#14

COLMAP

4.3
(3)
"My favourite free options."
·
"COLMAP is relatively user friendly and easy to set up, but I don't think it projects textures - just vertex-shades your final model."
·
"Colmap is another freebie better than regard3d but not quite as easy."
#15

MicMac

3.7
(3)
"/r/MicMac should be your friend. If you survive the learning curve!"
·
"Otherwise, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't suggest MicMac :-D"
·
"MicMac is cpu only, and peaks at about 400MB of RAM used per core."
#16

VisualSFM

3.3
(3)
"Success with VisualSFM and openMVG."
·
"VisualSFM is the best for free, but results are usually marginal and if you pay, one program will do most/all you need, since VisualSFM won't create meshes."
·
"VisualSFM is great, but it's a bitch and a half to compile all the dependencies."
#17

Blender

4.5
(2)
"Blender"
·
"I use blender and 3d builder, both are free."
#18

Trimble

4.5
(2)
"Trimble photogrammetry suite, including, TBC Photogrammetry module, UASMaster, and INPHO gives you the most control from survey to photogrammetry and best results."
·
"Trimble TBC Photogrammetry Module with UASMaster."
#19

ContextCapture

4.0
(2)
"Ummm, contextcapture? Excellent models but not the quickest."
·
"I'm a fan of ContextCapture."
#20

OpenMVG

4.0
(2)
"Try OpenMVG."
·
"OpenMVG : https://github.com/openMVG/openMVG"
#21

3Dsurvey

4.0
(2)
"3Dsurvey. Doesn't have much automatic feature detection, but strong CAD, perpetual license will cost you less than 5k."
·
"It has multiple options, including CAD drawing that you can export in to Arcgis."
#22

Agisoft PhotoScan

4.0
(2)
"Get photoscan and call it a day."
·
"Agisoft Photoscan does this (and most photogrammetry tasks) just fine."
#23

Propeller

4.0
(2)
"If you want to try cloud computing I can recommend Propeller, they go alright."
·
"I now use Propeller. It's not the cheapest, but for the scale of work I do, it pays dividends."
#24

DJI

4.0
(2)
"For the matrice 4e, I recommend DJI’s own software - Terra. The distortion profile is a little crazy on the matrice, and Terra handles it really well."
·
"It's unreal fast. Scales excellently with consumer Graphics and lots of ram."
#25

Photogrammetry Software

3.5
(2)
"Check out: https://pfalkingham.wordpress.com/2016/09/14/trying-all-the-free-photogrammetry/"
·
"Are there any decent programs that work with AMD or do I need to get myself an NVIDIA card?"
#26

Autodesk Meshmixer

5.0
(1)
"Autodesk Meshmixer is free, easy to learn and very intuitive."
#27

Apple Object Capture

5.0
(1)
"Best one so far is to use Apples own Photogrammetry API! Its called Object capture."
#28

Agisoft Metashape Pro

5.0
(1)
"I’ve compared Pix4d to MetaShape Pro and consistently have better absolute accuracy."
#29

Reality Capture

5.0
(1)
"The best software I have ever used as a hobbyist (BY FAR) was Reality Capture."
#30

Zephyr

5.0
(1)
"Zephyr is an awesome piece of software and I use it to reverse engineer things in cad all the time."
#31

Regard3D

4.0
(1)
"Easy: http://www.regard3d.org/index.php"
#32

Agisoft Metascan

4.0
(1)
"Check out Metascan."
#33

RealityScan

4.0
(1)
"RealityScan is the reality capture app for iOS."
#34

3DF Zephyr Lite

4.0
(1)
"I have 3D Zephyr Lite and it's pretty good, good masking features, and is reasonably fast and accurate."
#35

GeoCloud

4.0
(1)
"Check out GeoCloud.work. They host Metashape and other software on virtual computers."
#36

Pix4D Mapper

4.0
(1)
"Before I started using Pix4D Mapper, it's what I used."
#37

3DF Zephyr Ed

4.0
(1)
"You could request academic license for 3DF Zephyr Ed edition or use 3DF Zephyr Free."
#38

Map Pilot Pro

4.0
(1)
"Map Pilot pro has worked pretty well for me."
#39

Apple Object Capture API

4.0
(1)
"I'd recommend RealityCapture or Metashape."
#40

Qlone

4.0
(1)
"Take a look at Qlone for Mac."
#41

123CAD

4.0
(1)
"Is a free program on phones that uses the cloud."
#42

Capture Reality

4.0
(1)
"They have changed their pricing but you're results in my opinion will be better."
#43

ReCap

4.0
(1)
"ReCap is running a promotion right now to get 2 years for the price of 1."
#44

Apple

4.0
(1)
"Try Apple's Object capture api, there's a free compiled version called PhotoCatch."
#45

Leica

4.0
(1)
"I like Leica Cyclone 3DR"
#46

Carlson

4.0
(1)
"Carlson Survey with Point Cloud Basic. That's as easy as you are going to get for point cloud editing with real survey-designed CAD."
#47

PixElement

4.0
(1)
"PixElement. LiDAR+Imagery data compatible. Good modeling for water surfaces. Simple UI, all the tools and deliverable exports I need."
#48

Virtual Surveyor

4.0
(1)
"I like Virtual Surveyor"
#49

KIRI Engine

4.0
(1)
"KIRI engine has very good free exports with a bunch of file formats."
#50

Autodesk ReCap

4.0
(1)
"Autodesk Recap is a little easier than Zephyr."
#51

Gnext

4.0
(1)
"Gnext is pretty useful and on par price wise with competitors."
#53

DigiCamControl

4.0
(1)
"I'm planning to start using a free and open source camera tethering software called DigiCamControl."
#54

eFoto

4.0
(1)
"Here's one I've never heard of that looks interesting: http://www.efoto.eng.uerj.br/en"
#55

Polycam

3.0
(1)
"On an iPhone use Polycam"
#56

Altizure

3.0
(1)
"Altizure, dronedeploy, pix4d, and whatever comes out this week."
#57

David 3D

3.0
(1)
"David 3D isn't actually photogrametry, but rather Structured Light but works as you describe."
#58

ESRI

3.0
(1)
"I didn't have a great first contact with it, but maybe you'll like it?"
#59

Hexagon

3.0
(1)
"I've used Hexagon, but I've not used anything else so I can't compare it."
#60

Autodesk

3.0
(1)
"It’s supposed to be good, but I have no idea if the client program will run in Wine."

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