Polycam
Polycam turns phone LiDAR, photos, and drone footage into 3D models, floor plans, and point clouds.
For paid site work the Business tier at $400/year per user ($33/month per user billed yearly) is the one that matters — 2D and 3D floor plans, advanced measurements, point cloud exports, and the shared team library all live there and nowhere below. Free and Basic handle object scans and Gaussian splats well, but the floor-plan and point cloud gap makes them a dead end for site documentation. Freelancers doing small-scale work can justify Basic at $150/year ($12.50/month billed yearly), and the
Verified 7h ago · liveness 87/100 · cite: rightaichoice.com/tools/polycam
- AEC teams needing editable 2D/3D floor plans and floor area before leaving the site
- Forensics and claims investigators documenting scenes and generating AI reports
- Facilities and structural teams replacing manual area records with scan-based measurements
- Product designers and manufacturers capturing prototypes for CAD review
- Projects requiring survey-grade or millimetric accuracy — FARO and Leica-class hardware own that
- Teams that need floor plans, point cloud exports, or advanced measurements without moving up to Business
- Stair dimensions expected to be code-compliant from a scan alone — Polycam's own guidance says tape-measure
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3 free scans · no card needed
Skip Polycam if you need millimetric survey-grade tolerance (FARO and Leica-class hardware cover that) or if your budget only stretches to Basic and the job depends on floor plans, point cloud exports, or automated measurements — those all start at Business.
Floor plans, advanced measurements, point cloud exports, and the shared team library are all locked to Business at $400/year per user, so a Basic subscriber on a documentation job has to upgrade or go without.
Basic at $150/year ($12.50/month billed yearly) fits a solo freelancer or creator doing object scans and splats; Business at $400/year per user ($33/month per user billed yearly) is the entry point for any team that needs floor plans, measurements, point clouds, or a shared library. Against Matterport, Polycam is the cheaper mobile-first option; against specialist floor-plan tools like magicplan or RoomSketcher, the comparison depends on whether you also want the 3D capture and point cloud
In short
Polycam — Polycam turns phone LiDAR, photos, and drone footage into 3D models, floor plans, and point clouds. Best for AEC teams needing editable 2D/3D floor plans and floor area before leaving the site, Forensics and claims investigators documenting scenes and generating AI reports, Facilities and structural teams replacing manual area records with scan-based measurements. Free to start; paid plans from $150/mo.
What's new in Polycam
Checked 7 days agoAcross the latest 5 updates: 5 news mentions.
Polycam publishes Polycam vs. Matterport comparison for 2026-2027
The comparison frames Polycam and Matterport against production pace and specialist versus everyday documentation needs, positioning Polycam as the faster mobile-first path.
Polycam publishes comparison of mobile drone capture processing apps
Post contrasts Polycam, DroneDeploy, and PIX4Dcapture Pro on turning drone footage into 3D models from a phone.
Polycam tests apps on irregular room geometry
Comparison of Polycam, magicplan, RoomSketcher, and CubiCasa on angled walls, alcoves, and curved bays for floor plan capture.
Polycam guide covers what to capture before scanning a room for a digital twin
Tutorial details which room assets to tag manually and which export formats each platform expects for digital twin handoff.
Polycam compares phone scanning apps for facility management
Facilities-focused comparison pits Polycam against magicplan on area records, handoffs, and condition reports.
What people actually say about Polycam — is it worth it?
We ran a structured research pass across product reviews, community discussions, and post-purchase forum threads to surface the patterns vendors won't publish themselves. Below: the recurring strengths, the hidden costs people mention most, and the cohort that consistently regrets adopting this tool.
28 mentions across 5 sources (Reddit, Hacker News, YouTube, Product Hunt, App Store), 40 more we could not attribute · researched Oct 7, 2026.
Weighted by the 68 posts each of 5 sources contributed.
- +Produces usable point clouds and meshes from a plain iPhone in a single site visit
- +Genuinely fast — users report scan-to-model turnaround in minutes, not days
- +Broad export coverage: seven mesh formats plus six point cloud formats
- +Fire investigators use it for measurements, 3D models, and Meta Quest walkthrough training
- +Sharing and collaboration launched free across iOS, Android, and web
- −Aggressive trial auto-billing: multiple users report $400/yr charges after 7-day trials
- −Long-standing Pro users report older scans reverting to unprocessable Draft status
- −Measurements and dimensions sit behind an expensive tier above the monthly plan
- −Floor plans described as poor and measurements 'very inaccurate' by paying users
- −Support is slow and hard to reach; one Redditor asked for a competitor instead
- • Auto-charge of $400/yr Business plan after a 7-day free trial ends
- • Dimension and measurement features reportedly require a plan above the standard monthly tier
- • Gaussian splat upload limits are lower than standard photogrammetry, forcing larger plans
- • Canadian pricing listed as roughly $30/month versus free competitors like Scaniverse
In users’ own words
“I'm new to 3D scanning and using polycam. I'm most interested in scanning bird and mammal bones, skulls and skeletons. I've seen some impressive scans on the [poly.cam](http://poly.cam) website and wanted to contact the user, however I can't find any way to do that. Perhaps I'm missing something obvious, but any help is appreciated. Thanks”
Real posts from independent users, linked to the source — not testimonials we collected.
Viability Score
How well maintained and how widely used is Polycam? Built from what the vendor actually publishes (docs, changelog, tutorials, integrations, pricing), whether the site is live, and how much real users discuss it. How we calculate this
Last calculated: October 2026
How we score →Key Features
- LiDAR and non-LiDAR space capture of rooms, buildings, and interiors
- 360 photosphere capture with an in-app 360 image viewer
- Object capture turning phone photos into instantly shareable 3D models
- AI Capture mode generating 3D models from low photo counts
- Instant 3D and editable 2D floor plans with auto fixture and furniture detection
- Advanced measure tools: interior measure, pen measure, and auto measure
- Automated measurements, floor area, blueprints, room labels, and compass
- Drone and aerial photogrammetry processed into expansive site models
- Photogrammetry up to 2000 images and 30-minute videos on Business and Enterprise
- Gaussian splatting with unlimited splats on Basic and up
- AI 3D model generator and AI texture generator (free web tools)
- AI generated reports and custom branding on Business and Enterprise
- Virtual walkthroughs and shared team library on Business and up
- Mesh exports: GLTF, OBJ, FBX, DAE, STL, USDZ, ESX
- Point cloud exports: PLY, LAS, Geo-LAS, PTS, XYZ, DXF
About Polycam
Polycam is a reality capture app that converts iPhone and Android LiDAR scans, ordinary photos, 360 photospheres, and drone footage into 3D models, editable 2D and 3D floor plans, Gaussian splats, and point clouds. It runs on iOS, Android, and the web, so an AEC crew, facilities manager, forensics investigator, or product designer can document a site in a single visit rather than booking a return trip with dedicated scanner hardware. Capture splits into four modes. Space handles interiors with or without LiDAR plus 360 photospheres. Object makes instantly shareable models of physical items. Floorplan generates customizable 2D plans with auto fixture and furniture detection before you leave the site. Aerial processes drone footage into large site models. Measurement tools span ruler, pen, and auto measure, with floor area, blueprints, editable room labels, and compass data layered into the plan. Export coverage includes seven mesh formats (GLTF, OBJ, FBX, DAE, STL, USDZ, ESX) and six point cloud formats (PLY, LAS, Geo-LAS, PTS, XYZ, DXF), plus video walkthroughs and viewing on Apple Vision Pro. Capture limits scale by tier: Free offers three AI captures and 150 images per photogrammetry capture; Basic removes those caps but still holds 300 images per capture; Business and Enterprise reach 2000 images and 30-minute videos per capture. On price, Polycam undercuts Matterport and beats it on mobile-first flexibility — the company's own 2026-2027 comparison makes exactly that argument for everyday documentation. Where millimetric tolerance is the requirement, FARO and Leica-class hardware still win. Recent Polycam posts also benchmark the app against magicplan, RoomSketcher, and CubiCasa on irregular room geometry, and against DroneDeploy and PIX4Dcapture Pro on phone-based drone processing.
Behind the Verdict
Pick Polycam when documentation speed beats survey precision. A facilities manager walking a floor plate, a claims investigator tagging a scene, or a product designer scanning a prototype can finish the job on hardware already in their pocket. The instant 3D and editable 2D floor plans with auto fixture detection are the reason we'd reach for this over a generic photogrammetry app — you get a usable plan before you leave, not after a desktop processing session. Pass on it if your deliverable needs millimetric accuracy. Polycam's own guidance tells users to tape-measure stair dimensions rather than trust a scan for code compliance, and FARO or Leica-class gear still owns that territory. Anyone expecting managed virtual-tour hosting at Matterport's level should also look elsewhere — Polycam is capture-first. The tier wall is the real decision. Floor plans, advanced measure tools, point cloud exports, and the shared team library are Business features; Free and Basic can't touch them. The most popular plan on the pricing page is Business for that reason. Budget accordingly before you start a site project on a free account. Basic is the honest freelancer option. Unlimited object captures, unlimited Gaussian splats, unlimited space captures with and without LiDAR, and six mesh export formats for $150/year ($12.50/month billed yearly) is a fair deal for a solo creator — just don't expect floor plans. The $30/month monthly rate is steep enough that yearly billing is the only sensible path. Enterprise starts at $1200/year per user with a three-user minimum. Beyond the Business feature set it adds the Content management API, admin-controlled feature customization, enhanced data privacy, custom branding, and folders with role-based management. SSO, regional cloud storage, and
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Real-world workflow fit
Concrete scenarios for the personas Polycam actually fits — and what changes day-one when you adopt it.
Walk a tenant improvement with an iPhone in Space mode, trigger instant 3D floor plan generation on site, then open the editable 2D plan to correct wall thickness, add room labels, and check floor area before leaving.
Outcome: A dimensioned plan and shared library entry the same afternoon instead of a scheduled return visit with a dedicated scanner.
Capture the loss site in LiDAR Space mode, pull virtual walkthroughs and an AI generated report, then export a point cloud in LAS or DXF for the adjuster and hand the walkthrough to a remote reviewer.
Outcome: Scene documentation and a shareable walkthrough produced in one visit, with the report attached to the claim file.
Photograph a physical prototype in Object or AI Capture mode, generate a textured mesh, and export OBJ, FBX, or STL into Blender, Rhino, or Maya for review.
Outcome: A textured model ready for CAD or remote design feedback without shipping the prototype.
Use Cases
- Capture a room and generate a dimensioned 2D floor plan with furniture detection before leaving the site.
- Scan a construction site in Space or Drone mode for progress monitoring and digital twin records.
- Photograph a product and export a textured 3D model for e-commerce or downstream CAD work.
- Document a scene with LiDAR and produce virtual walkthroughs for insurance and forensic claims.
- Process drone footage in the cloud into an aerial 3D model of a roof or full site.
- Use AI Capture to prototype 3D models from a minimal set of phone photos.
- Tag room assets and export point clouds to a facilities or BIM workflow for handoff.
- Scan sets, props, and locations for media and VFX without dedicated scanning gear.
Limitations
- The free plan is capped at limited Space, Object, and AI captures, 150 images per photogrammetry capture, 3-minute videos, GLTF exports only, and public link sharing with a watermark.
- Floor plans with editing, auto fixture detection, advanced measure tools, point cloud exports, virtual walkthroughs, and the shared team library all start at Business, which is $400/year per user ($33/month per user billed yearly) — nothing below that tier supports site documentation end to end.
- Photogrammetry scales by tier: 150 images per capture on Free, 300 on Basic, 2000 on Business and Enterprise, with 3-minute, 5-minute, and 30-minute video caps respectively.
- Enterprise starts at $1200/year per user with a 3-user minimum billed yearly, and SSO, regional cloud storage, custom billing, and dedicated success are quoted as paid add-ons on top of that.
- Polycam's own documentation notes that stair dimensions still require a manual tape measure for code compliance, and survey-grade work belongs to FARO and Leica-class scanners.
as of 2026-09-30
Verification history
We have re-verified Polycam 93 times since . Each pass re-reads the vendor's own pages and re-checks every listed field against that evidence; passes where nothing had changed are marked as such.
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
- — re-verified summary, description, our verdict, our analysis, pricing model, pricing tiers, features, integrations, who it suits, who should skip it
- — re-checked, vendor evidence unchanged
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Showing the 6 most recent of 93 verification passes.
Free to cite with attribution — this page re-verifies continuously.
12-month cost
Project the real annual outlay, including the implied monthly cost when only an annual tier is published.
Vendor list price only. Add-on usage, seat overages, and contract minimums are surfaced under Hidden costs & gotchas.
Plans compared
For each published Polycam tier: who it actually fits, and what it adds vs. the previous tier. Cross-reference the cost calculator above for projected annual outlay.
Free
$0
Ideal for
Beginners discovering 3D scanning and anyone testing Polycam on personal projects before any paid commitment.
What this tier adds
Starting tier: limited Space, Object, and AI captures, 150 images per photogrammetry capture, 3-minute videos, GLTF exports, public link sharing, and watermarked embeds.
Basic
$150/year ($12.50/month billed yearly; $30/month billed
Ideal for
Freelancers, creators, or individuals producing small-scale capture work who don't need floor plans or point clouds.
What this tier adds
Adds unlimited object captures and Gaussian splats, unlimited Space captures with and without LiDAR, unlimited AI generated captures, private link sharing, and six mesh export formats at 300 images and 5-minute videos per capture.
Business
$400/year per user ($33/month per user billed yearly)
Ideal for
Teams and professionals doing site documentation — AEC crews, claims investigators, interior designers, and facilities teams.
What this tier adds
Adds 2D and 3D floor plans with auto fixture and furniture detection, advanced measure tools, point cloud exports in PLY, LAS, Geo-LAS, PTS, XYZ, and DXF, virtual walkthroughs, a shared team library, AI generated reports, and 2000 images and 30-minute videos per capture.
Enterprise
$1200/year per user (3 users minimum, billed yearly)
Ideal for
Organizations operating at scale that need admin control, data privacy, branding, and role-based content management across multiple users.
What this tier adds
Adds the Content management API, admin-controlled feature and capture-mode restrictions, enhanced data privacy, custom branding, and folders with role-based management; SSO, regional cloud storage, custom billing, and dedicated success are paid add-ons.
Where the pricing makes sense
The company stage and team size where Polycam's pricing actually pencils out — and where peers do it cheaper.
Basic at $150/year ($12.50/month billed yearly) fits a solo freelancer or creator doing object scans and splats; Business at $400/year per user ($33/month per user billed yearly) is the entry point for any team that needs floor plans, measurements, point clouds, or a shared library. Against Matterport, Polycam is the cheaper mobile-first option; against specialist floor-plan tools like magicplan or RoomSketcher, the comparison depends on whether you also want the 3D capture and point cloud
Setup time & first value
How long it actually takes to get something useful out of Polycam — broken out by persona, not the marketing-page minute.
Free and Basic: an iPhone or Android install and a first object scan in under 15 minutes; exports land in GLTF immediately. Business: budget 30-60 minutes for the first floor plan and measurement pass, plus extra time to set up the shared team library and capture-mode conventions for a crew. Enterprise adds admin configuration of capture-mode restrictions, role-based folders, and any add-on
Switching to or from Polycam
How to bring data in from common predecessors and how to get it back out — written for the switcher, not the buyer.
- →From Matterport: export your existing 3D tours for reference, then re-capture core spaces with Polycam Space mode to get editable 2D floor plans and point cloud exports in the same app.
- →From magicplan or RoomSketcher: re-scan rooms on Business with auto fixture and furniture detection, then reconcile wall thickness and room labels against your existing drawings.
- →From phone photos and manual measurement: replace the tape-and-notebook pass with a LiDAR Space capture, then use pen measure and auto measure to check the dimensions you already recorded.
- →From DroneDeploy or PIX4Dcapture Pro: upload your existing drone imagery to Polycam's aerial photogrammetry on a Business or Enterprise seat to produce the site model.
- ↗To FARO or Leica-class scanners: re-survey the areas where code-compliant or millimetric dimensions are required, keeping Polycam outputs as reference geometry.
- ↗To Blender, Maya, 3ds Max, Rhino, or SketchUp: export OBJ, FBX, DAE, or GLTF and continue modeling in your desktop pipeline.
- ↗To Unity, Unreal Engine, or Three.js: export GLTF or FBX for real-time and web viewers.
- ↗To Xactimate: export the scene data and floor plan outputs into the claims estimating workflow.
Integrations
Resources & Guides
Tutorials & Learning
YouTube returned 6 videos for “Polycam”, and we withheld 6: 6 could not be judged, because “Polycam” is a single word that other videos use for other things. We are showing none, because we could not prove any of them are about Polycam.
Official links
Tools that pair well with Polycam
Common stack mates teams adopt alongside Polycam, with the specific reason each pairing earns its keep.
Floor Plan & AI Home
CamPlan turns a LiDAR walk of your iPhone or iPad around a room into an editable 2D and 3D floor plan plus a branded client report.
DroneDeploy
Reality capture platform that turns drone, robot and 360-camera data into site maps, 3D models and AI-flagged schedule and safety reports.
Matterport
Matterport turns real buildings into measurable 3D digital twins for tours, floor plans, and facility operations.
Featured Head-to-Head Comparisons
Airtable vs Polycam
Don't cross-shop these. Polycam is a capture tool that turns the physical world — rooms, prototypes, job sites — into 3D models, floor plans, and point clouds you export to SketchUp, Blender, or Unity. Airtable is a software platform for organizing business data and building internal apps, and its 2026 trajectory (Omni GA, HyperDB at 100M+ records, a pending Bending Spoons acquisition) is entirely about enterprise workflows. If your problem involves measuring a site, pick Polycam; if it involves managing records, pick Airtable. Buying either to solve the other's problem wastes money.
Notion vs Polycam
These are not competitors and you should never be choosing between them — Polycam is a capture tool that turns a phone, drone, or LiDAR scan into a 3D model, floor plan, or point cloud, and Notion is a workspace that stores and automates written knowledge. Polycam replaces a site visit with a scan; Notion replaces scattered docs and Slack threads with one system of record plus agents. The only sensible overlap is stack composition: if you run an AEC, forensics, or design operation, Polycam produces the site data and Notion can host the project documentation around it. Budget one seat of Notion per person and one Polycam tier sized to your capture and export volume.
Miro vs Polycam
These two don't compete — a buyer almost never chooses between them. Polycam is a capture tool: you point a phone, drone or LiDAR at a physical space and get floor plans, meshes and point clouds you can hand to SketchUp, Unreal or Xactimate. Miro is a thinking-and-alignment tool: a canvas where product, design and engineering teams plan sprints, run design reviews, and now push Claude Code screens onto boards via MCP. If your problem is documenting a building, a prototype part or a crash scene, buy Polycam. If your problem is getting a distributed team from idea to shipped design, buy Miro. The only overlap is 'AI features' as a category, and that's not a purchasing decision.
Linear vs Polycam
These two products never meet in a buying decision, and treating them as rivals would mislead you. If your problem is documenting a physical site — rooms, buildings, props, a claims scene — Polycam is the tool, and its limits are real: survey-grade accuracy belongs to FARO/Leica-class hardware and stairs still need a tape. If your problem is running software development with AI agents in triage, coding and review, Linear is the tool, and its free tier caps at 250 issues and 2 teams. Buy for the problem, not the comparison.
Lm Studio vs Polycam
These tools don't compete — they solve unrelated problems, and no buyer shortlists both. If your problem is running open models locally (GLM, Kimi, DeepSeek, Qwen3.8) for private agentic work, LM Studio is the pick: it's free on your hardware, with pay-as-you-go cloud inference when local isn't enough. If your problem is turning a room, building, prototype, or set into a 3D model or floor plan from a phone or drone, Polycam is the pick. Choose based on your job, not on a head-to-head — there isn't one.
Sketch vs Polycam
You are not choosing between these. Polycam and Sketch solve different problems for different people, and no buyer with one budget and one job shortlists both. Pick Polycam if you need to digitise a physical space or object — floor plans, point clouds, mesh exports into SketchUp, Revit-adjacent AEC pipelines — and accept that survey-grade millimetric accuracy still belongs to FARO and Leica. Pick Sketch if you are a Mac-only product designer who wants offline file control, a one-time license instead of a subscription, and free developer handoff seats. If your actual question is 'which 3D capture app', compare Polycam to Matterport; if it is 'which Mac design tool', compare Sketch to Figma.
Figma vs Polycam
These are not competitors and you should not treat them as an either/or purchase. Polycam is a reality-capture tool: you point a phone, drone, or LiDAR device at a physical site and get 3D models, point clouds, and auto-detected floor plans — Unity, Unreal, Blender, and Xactimate are its neighbours. Figma is a digital product design workspace where teams design, prototype, and hand off software interfaces, with Make, Weave, Motion, and Dev Mode on the canvas. If you have a scanning problem, buy Polycam; if you have an interface-design problem, buy Figma. The only link between them is that a design team might use Polycam output as reference material inside a Figma workflow — that's a coexistence, not a choice.
Penpot vs Polycam
These are not competitors, and no buyer should be choosing between them — Polycam digitizes physical spaces and objects into meshes, point clouds, and floor plans, while Penpot builds the interfaces that run on a screen. If you are documenting a building, a scene, or a prototype for CAD and VFX, Polycam is the tool; if you are designing a responsive product UI with tokens and CSS handoff, Penpot is. The only reason to read further is if your organization happens to buy both categories, in which case evaluate them separately against their real rivals (Matterport for capture, Figma for design).
Kiri Engine vs Polycam
If you need advanced scanning of challenging surfaces (shiny/transparent) or 3DGS for real-time assets, KIRI Engine is the winner. For professional AEC workflows, automatic floor plans, or drone scanning, Polycam’s broader export list and professional support make it the better choice.
Screenmind vs Polycam
These are not competitors. Polycam is the tool you pick when you need to turn a physical space, object, or drone pass into a 3D model, floor plan, or point cloud — it competes with Matterport, magicplan, and DroneDeploy, not with anything on a Mac desktop. ScreenMind is a free macOS utility for people who want Recall-style screen memory and local meeting transcription without cloud calls or telemetry; it competes with Recall and paid meeting-notes subscriptions. If your problem is 'document this building,' buy Polycam (expect to move up to Business for exports). If your problem is 'remember what I saw on screen today,' download ScreenMind.
3d Scanner App vs Polycam
For professionals needing floor plans, drone support, and AI-powered features, Polycam is the clear choice with more export formats and cross-platform capture. Casual iOS users or those wanting a simple, on-device LiDAR scanner with quick AR sharing should pick 3D Scanner App for its ease of use and lower friction.
Agentcad vs Polycam
Polycam is the best choice for professionals needing photorealistic 3D scans and floor plans from real-world spaces. Agentcad is ideal for AI agents and developers who want to programmatically generate and iterate on 3D parts. Choose Polycam for reality capture; choose agentcad for agent-driven CAD design.
Alternatives to Polycam
View all
Floor Plan & AI Home
CamPlan turns a LiDAR walk of your iPhone or iPad around a room into an editable 2D and 3D floor plan plus a branded client report.
DroneDeploy
Reality capture platform that turns drone, robot and 360-camera data into site maps, 3D models and AI-flagged schedule and safety reports.
Matterport
Matterport turns real buildings into measurable 3D digital twins for tours, floor plans, and facility operations.
Frequently Asked Questions
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