3DF Zephyr vs Metashape price at a glance
3DF Zephyr prices come from 3DFlow's own buy and feature comparison pages, which quote euros excluding VAT. Metashape prices come from Agisoft's online store in USD. Both were checked in October 2026, and dollar figures for Zephyr use the European Central Bank rate of 1.1206 from October 9, 2026, so your card statement will differ a little.
| What you compare | Zephyr Lite | Zephyr, 30-day subscription | Zephyr, perpetual | Metashape Standard | Metashape Professional |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | EUR 199 once (about $223) | EUR 250 a month (about $280) | EUR 4,200 once (about $4,707) | $179 once | $3,499 once |
| Ground control points | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Georeferenced orthomosaic and DEM | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Contour lines | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Volumes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Laser scan processing | Viewer only | Yes, with 3DF Scarlet registration | Yes, with 3DF Scarlet registration | No | Laser scan import and alignment |
| GPU acceleration | Up to two GPUs | All GPUs | All GPUs | Yes | Yes |
| Updates | 12 months, then 20% of the price a year | While subscribed | 12 months, then 20% of the price a year | Free within version 2.x | Free within version 2.x |
| Operating system | Windows | Windows | Windows | Windows, Mac, Linux | Windows, Mac, Linux |
Read the table this way: for a map a surveyor can sign, the choice is the full Zephyr license against Metashape Professional. Both entry editions are 3D model tools, not survey tools.
Is 3DF Zephyr cheaper than Metashape?
No, not for survey work. The full Zephyr perpetual license costs EUR 4,200, about $4,707, against $3,499 for Metashape Professional, so Metashape saves about $1,200 per computer up front. Zephyr also charges 20% of the license price a year to keep updates after the first 12 months. Zephyr is cheaper only for a short job, where one month at EUR 250 covers a single project.
How much does 3DF Zephyr cost?
3DF Zephyr costs EUR 199 for Lite, EUR 250 a month for the 30-day subscription and EUR 4,200 for the full perpetual license, all excluding VAT. Only the subscription and the perpetual license include ground control, orthophotos, DEMs and contour lines. A free edition exists but stops at 50 photos and cannot export survey data, so it is a test tool, not a production option.
What a 3-person survey team pays for 3DF Zephyr, Metashape and DroneMapping over 3 years
Take a US survey and civil firm where a pilot, a CAD technician and a project surveyor all process flights, deliver orthomosaics, surfaces and contours, and send contractors monthly stockpile volumes. Three people working at the same time need three licenses of a desktop product.
| Cost over 3 years | 3DF Zephyr perpetual | 3DF Zephyr subscription | Metashape Professional | DroneMapping Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One license | about $4,707, plus about $1,883 to keep updates in years 2 and 3 | about $10,085 (36 months) | $3,499, updates within 2.x | $4,464 for 10 seats |
| Three licenses | about $19,770 with updates | about $30,260 | $10,497 | Included |
| Sharing maps with clients | Export and host files yourself | Export and host files yourself | Agisoft Cloud, priced by storage and compute hours | View links included |
| Workstations | One Windows PC each, NVIDIA or OpenCL GPU | Same | One PC or Mac each | Not needed |
| Total software for 3 people | about $19,770 | about $30,260 | $10,497 plus cloud use | $4,464 |
On these numbers Metashape Professional is the cheaper desktop choice for a team, by about $9,000 over three years. Zephyr's subscription only pays off for a firm that processes a few months a year and lets the license lapse in between.
Is 3DF Zephyr as accurate as Metashape?
Both reach survey accuracy when you fly with ground control and check the result against checkpoints. Metashape has the longer track record in survey and research work and gives more manual control over alignment and calibration. Zephyr wraps the same steps in a guided wizard. Test both on one site with the same GCP file and compare the checkpoint RMSE in X, Y and Z.
Does 3DF Zephyr run on a Mac?
No. 3DFlow describes 3DF Zephyr as a Windows application, with GPU acceleration through NVIDIA CUDA or OpenCL cards and a slower CPU fallback. Agisoft Metashape runs on Windows, macOS and Linux. A Mac office that wants neither workstation can process in a browser instead, which our photogrammetry software for Mac page covers.
When 3DF Zephyr is the right purchase
Zephyr suits firms that want a gentle learning curve and mixed capture:
- New technicians, because the step-by-step wizard asks fewer questions than Metashape's settings.
- Occasional survey jobs, where one EUR 250 month covers a project and the license sits idle the rest of the year.
- Laser scans plus drone photos, since 3DF Scarlet registration comes with the full license.
- Inspection and heritage meshes, where Zephyr's editing tools save time.
The trade is cost per seat and Windows only. A US buyer also pays in euros, so the dollar price moves with the exchange rate, and a euro invoice still has to be booked at the dollar amount your card was charged. If your bookkeeper keys a stack of vendor bills like this every month, invoice data extraction reads the totals and VAT lines for them.
When Metashape is the right purchase
Metashape Professional suits firms that process every week:
- You want the lowest one-time price for a full survey tool, $3,499 per computer.
- The office runs on Macs or Linux as well as Windows.
- You script batch jobs in Python for repeat sites.
- You plan to use Agisoft Cloud to share results, which requires a Professional license.
Before you buy, read our Agisoft Metashape pricing breakdown, which explains why the $179 Standard edition is not enough for drone mapping, and our Metashape alternative page if more than one person will process.
When a cloud plan with seats costs less than either
Both desktop products charge per computer, which is the wrong shape for a firm where the pilot uploads, the CAD tech pulls contours and the project manager checks volumes. DroneMapping turns geotagged drone photos into an orthomosaic, DSM and DTM, volumes, contours and a GCP accuracy report in any browser, with 10 seats on Team for $249 a month or $1,488 a year. One flight takes up to 500 photos, and we do not process laser scans, so a firm built on terrestrial scanning should keep Zephyr or Metashape for that work. For another head-to-head on desktop licenses, see Pix4D vs Metashape pricing.