Metashape vs Reality Capture price at a glance
Metashape figures come from Agisoft's online store and Agisoft Cloud billing article. RealityScan figures come from Epic Games' license page. Both were checked in October 2026, in USD.
| What you compare | Agisoft Metashape | RealityScan (formerly RealityCapture) |
|---|---|---|
| Survey edition price | Professional, $3,499 once per computer | $1,250 per seat per year above $1M revenue |
| Cheaper option | Standard, $179, but no orthomosaic, DEM or GCP georeferencing | $0 under $1M revenue, all features |
| License model | Perpetual, node-locked, floating licenses through resellers | Yearly subscription per seat, custom terms above 25 seats |
| Updates | Free within 2.x, a version 3 is not covered | Included while the seat is paid |
| Operating systems | Windows, macOS and Linux | Windows desktop, Linux build for command line only |
| GPU | Uses the graphics card to speed up matching and depth maps | NVIDIA CUDA 3.5 or higher required for model and texture, 6.1 or higher recommended |
| Cloud processing | Agisoft Cloud, Professional license required, $4.25 to $5 per compute hour plus storage from $10 a month | None from Epic, you run it on your own machines |
| Trial | 30 days | 30 days |
The short version: Metashape is a one-time purchase per computer, RealityScan is a yearly rent per person, and the $1 million line decides whether RealityScan costs anything at all.
Is Reality Capture cheaper than Metashape?
Only under certain conditions. Under $1 million in company revenue, RealityScan is free and Metashape Professional is $3,499, so RealityScan wins outright. Above the threshold, one RealityScan seat costs $2,500 over two years and $3,750 over three, so Metashape's one-time $3,499 becomes the cheaper license in year three.
That break-even moves if Agisoft ships a paid version 3 during your three years, because a 2.x license does not cover it. It also moves if you need Agisoft Cloud hours to keep big jobs off your office PC.
How much does Agisoft Metashape cost?
Agisoft lists Metashape Standard at $179 and Metashape Professional at $3,499, both one-time node-locked licenses for a single computer. Survey work needs Professional, because orthomosaics, elevation models and ground control georeferencing are not in Standard. Agisoft Cloud processing is billed on top, from $4.25 to $5 per compute hour.
How much does Reality Capture cost for a business?
RealityScan is free for individuals, students, schools and companies with under $1 million in revenue over the past 12 months. Companies above that pay $1,250 per seat per year, with updates for that year. Teams of more than 25 seats get custom terms. For the full breakdown, see our Reality Capture pricing article.
What a 3-person survey team pays over 3 years
Take a US survey firm with about $3 million in revenue. Two technicians process drone flights and a project surveyor checks the surfaces and signs off the contours. They fly about 4,000 images a month and deliver orthomosaics, DTMs, contours and stockpile volumes to contractors.
| Cost over 3 years | Metashape Professional | RealityScan | DroneMapping Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 processing seat | $3,499 | $3,750 | $4,464 for 10 seats |
| 2 processing seats | $6,998 | $7,500 | $4,464 for 10 seats |
| 3 processing seats | $10,497 | $11,250 | $4,464 for 10 seats |
| Workstations | One per license, bought and maintained by you | One per seat, NVIDIA required | Not needed, processing runs in the cloud |
| Volumes and cut and fill | Volume tools on the DEM, reports built by you | Not built in, done in CAD or GIS after export | Stockpile PDFs and cut and fill against a design surface |
| Client delivery | Files you send, or Agisoft Cloud sharing | Files you send | View links, no seat or login needed |
| Major version upgrade | Not covered for a version 3 | Included while you pay | Included |
DroneMapping Team is $249 a month or $1,488 a year on yearly billing. A solo pilot who only needs maps, surfaces and volumes can run on Starter at $588 a year with 3 seats, which is $1,764 over three years.
The cost that is not on either price list
Both desktop engines run on your hardware. A workstation that handles 2,000 to 3,000 drone photos without stalling has 64 GB of RAM or more, a fast NVMe drive and a recent NVIDIA card, and every seat needs one. Graphics cards also age out on a three to four year cycle, so a second hardware purchase often lands inside the same window as the license.
That spend is easy to lose track of when the license is on one invoice, the GPU on another and the yearly seat renewals on a third. Firms that run several engines usually log all of it in their expense management software so the real cost per processing seat is visible when the renewal date comes around.
Which is better for drone surveying, Metashape or Reality Capture?
For survey deliverables, Metashape Professional has the longer track record: mature GCP and checkpoint handling, DEM and orthomosaic tools, Python scripting and network processing. RealityScan is usually faster at reconstruction and stronger at detailed meshes and laser scan fusion, but it grew out of visual effects work, so survey reporting happens in other software.
Does Metashape or Reality Capture work on Mac?
Metashape does. Agisoft ships it for Windows, macOS and Linux, though large jobs still need a lot of memory. RealityScan does not have a macOS desktop app, and its model and texture steps need an NVIDIA CUDA card that Macs do not have. A Mac office either buys a Windows machine or uses a Reality Capture alternative for Mac that runs in the browser.
When to buy Metashape Professional
- One analyst does all the processing and likes controlling every parameter.
- You want a one-time purchase and you own the hardware already.
- Part of the office works on a Mac or on Linux.
- You script batch jobs in Python or run network processing on your own nodes.
When to buy RealityScan seats
- Your company is under $1 million in revenue, so the license is free.
- You build high-detail meshes of bridges, facades or heritage sites.
- You combine drone photos with terrestrial laser scans in one project.
- You have one technician on a strong Windows machine and do not need survey reports in the same tool.
When a cloud plan costs less than both
Every extra person on a desktop engine means another license and another workstation. If the pilot, the CAD technician, the project manager and the client all need the same surface, a cloud survey platform is cheaper by the second seat. DroneMapping Team includes 10 seats, GCP and checkpoint reports with RMSE in X, Y and Z, DXF and SHP contours, stockpile PDFs and cut and fill software against your design surface, on a Mac or a PC.
What we do not do: we do not process LiDAR or terrestrial scans, and we do not build heritage-grade textured meshes. If that is your main work, keep a desktop engine.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Metashape and Reality Capture for a team?
Yes. DroneMapping Starter is $99 a month or $588 a year with 3 seats, and Team is $249 a month or $1,488 a year with 10 seats and survey outputs. There is no workstation to buy, and every plan is on the drone mapping pricing page. The Agisoft Metashape alternative page compares the per-computer cost line by line.