Correlator3D price at a glance
Prices come from the Correlator3D pricing page on simactive.com, checked in October 2026. SimActive prints the drone tier in US dollars. The tier covers cameras up to 61 MP, a limit SimActive raised from 50 MP in July 2023 so that full-frame sensors such as the Sony A7R IV fit the cheaper license.
| What you are pricing | Price | What it gets you |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly subscription | $295 a month | All modules, unlimited images, cameras up to 61 MP, one computer |
| Yearly subscription | $2,950 a year | The same, ten months' price for twelve |
| Permanent license | $5,900 once | The same, with 1 year of support and updates included |
| Permanent floating license | $6,400 once | A permanent license that moves between computers on your network, 1 year of support and updates |
| Medium Format edition | Quoted | Cameras up to 100 MP |
| Large Format and Satellite editions | Quoted | Aircraft mapping cameras and satellite imagery with no resolution limit |
| DroneMapping Team | $1,488 a year | Orthomosaic, DSM and DTM, volumes, DXF and SHP contours, cut and fill, GCP and checkpoint report, 10 seats |
One older review site lists the permanent license at $5,990. That figure does not match SimActive's current page, so use $5,900 in a 2026 budget and confirm it on your quote.
How much does Correlator3D cost?
Correlator3D costs $2,950 a year for one drone seat on the yearly subscription, which is the option most small firms pick. Paying monthly at $295 makes sense for a single large job or a busy season. The permanent license at $5,900 equals two years of the yearly plan, so it pays off from year three if the yearly maintenance SimActive quotes you is well under $2,950.
What sets SimActive apart from most desktop vendors is that every license includes all modules. Aerial triangulation, the DSM and point cloud, DTM extraction, orthomosaic and mosaic editing, 3D models, Gaussian splats, NDVI, contours and volume calculation are all in the same price. There is no Standard and Professional split like Agisoft's, and no credits per project like PIX4Dcloud.
Is Correlator3D a subscription or a one-time purchase?
Both. SimActive sells monthly and yearly subscriptions and two permanent licenses. The permanent licenses come with one year of technical support and software updates. After that the software keeps working, but new versions and support need a maintenance renewal, and SimActive does not print that price. Ask for it before you choose permanent over yearly.
The costs that are not on the Correlator3D price page
The license is the line everyone compares, and for a small survey firm it is rarely the largest one over three years. Four other costs decide the total.
The workstation comes first. Correlator3D runs on 64-bit Windows, needs at least 12 GB of RAM per SimActive's features page and an OpenCL graphics card from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel. Gaussian splats need NVIDIA. SimActive's forum suggests an RTX 3060 class card, 32 GB of RAM and an NVMe drive for drone work. If your office runs on Macs, that is a new Windows PC, priced and maintained by you.
The second operator is next. A license covers one computer. If the pilot and the project engineer both need to process during the same week, that is either two licenses or the $6,400 floating license on a shared network, and only one of them processes at a time on the floating option.
Then maintenance. On a permanent license, updates and support stop after year one unless you renew, and new camera support and processing improvements arrive in new versions.
Last, the steps after processing. Correlator3D calculates volumes and change between surfaces, but it has no client view link and no month-end stockpile report formatted for accounting. Construction teams usually export the surface to CAD or a separate viewer, and someone spends time on that each month.
Correlator3D price compared with Pix4D, Metashape, iTwin Capture and RealityScan
These are the published US prices for a single processing seat, checked in October 2026.
| Software | Published price | Licensing | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|
| SimActive Correlator3D | $2,950 a year or $5,900 permanent | Per computer, all modules | Windows |
| Pix4Dmapper | $3,990 a year | Per device | Windows |
| Agisoft Metashape Professional | $3,499 once | Per node, 1 year of updates | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Bentley iTwin Capture Engine | From $4,000 a year | 1 license, 2 Keys | Windows |
| RealityScan | $1,250 per seat a year above $1M revenue | Per seat | Windows |
| DJI Terra Standard | $1,680 a year or $4,800 permanent | Per device | Windows with NVIDIA |
| DroneMapping Team | $1,488 a year | 10 seats, processing included | Any browser |
Correlator3D lands in the middle of the desktop field on price and at the top on what one license includes. Its permanent price is above Metashape Professional's, but the yearly price is below Pix4Dmapper's and iTwin Capture Engine's. Our pages on Agisoft Metashape pricing, ContextCapture price and Pix4Dmatic pricing break those competitors down line by line.
What a 3-person survey team pays for Correlator3D over 3 years
Take a small survey and construction support firm with a drone pilot, a project surveyor and a superintendent on the client side. The pilot flies about 3,000 photos a month. The surveyor needs a DTM and contours for the engineer, and the superintendent wants stockpile numbers each month.
| Cost line over 3 years | Correlator3D yearly | Correlator3D permanent | DroneMapping Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software for the pilot | $8,850 | $5,900 plus 2 years of maintenance | Included |
| Second processing seat for the surveyor | $8,850 more, or a floating license | $5,900 or the $6,400 floating license | Included in 10 seats |
| Windows workstation with a GPU | Priced by you | Priced by you | Not needed |
| Client view and stockpile report | Exports and a separate tool | Exports and a separate tool | Included |
| Known software total | $8,850 for 1 seat, $17,700 for 2 | $5,900 to $12,300 plus maintenance | $4,464 |
If the firm processes UltraCam or satellite imagery, or ties photos to LiDAR, Correlator3D is buying capability we do not offer, and the comparison stops being like for like. If the deliverables are an orthomosaic, a surface, contours and a stockpile volume, the cloud plan costs about half of one yearly seat and covers the whole team.
Most firms do not pay for software from a single line in the budget, so it helps to put the license, the workstation and maintenance side by side before the purchase request goes in. If your office already routes vendor quotes and renewals through procurement software, add the three-year figures rather than the first-year price, because that is where permanent and subscription options differ.
When the Correlator3D price is worth paying
Correlator3D is good value in a few clear cases. You process imagery from manned aircraft cameras or satellites, and the Large Format or Satellite edition replaces a much more expensive production system. You need LiDAR registration and orthos rectified to a LiDAR DEM. You run very large blocks with no image limit and have one dedicated operator on a fast Windows PC. Or your contract requires processing on your own hardware.
It is poor value when the license sits on one PC in the office while three people wait for exports, when the office runs on Macs, or when what the client actually wants is a link to a map and a monthly volume. That is the case for most drone survey and construction teams with two to ten people.
Does Correlator3D have a free trial?
Yes. SimActive offers a free trial download from its website. Run it on a flight you already processed, with the same ground control and checkpoints, and run the same photos through a cloud tool. Compare checkpoint RMSE in X, Y and Z, the stockpile volume, the time to a shareable result and how many people could work on it. The DroneMapping demo lets you measure a processed site in the browser before you upload anything.
Is Correlator3D cheaper than Pix4D?
Yes, on the published yearly price. Correlator3D's yearly subscription is $2,950 against $3,990 a year for Pix4Dmapper, and Correlator3D includes every module in that price. The permanent license at $5,900 has no current Pix4Dmapper equivalent, since Pix4D sells Mapper by subscription. Both run on one computer per license.
Related pages
- Correlator3D alternative with a full feature comparison and a switching test
- ContextCapture price for teams also quoted iTwin Capture
- Agisoft Metashape pricing for the Standard and Professional split
- Pix4D alternative with the full Pix4D price list
- Drone mapping pricing with every DroneMapping plan
Price your next flight without a Windows workstation
Upload a flight you processed in Correlator3D and compare the surface, the volumes and the contours. Team is $1,488 a year with 10 seats.