DroneDeploy alternatives?

[TexasRancher]

Welp, just saw the DroneDeploy free version is going away soon... and since I do not do this for money... curious what, if anything, you all use as an alternative?

I have fun with Dronedeploy, but I just do not see myself using it enough for $83 a month or $129 month to month.....I have a pretty stout PC...but do not know if there is anything better out there that does not require a master degree to set up.. heh

Anyway, looking to see if anyone else out there has other means..

Thanks guys

R

 

[Meta4]

Welp, just saw the DroneDeploy free version is going away soon...

Can you point to some details on this please?

 

[MAvic_South_Oz]

Pix4Dcapture is one free in basic form.
I used to have another one or two, but had to make some room on the phone.
Just had them downloaded to one day experiment with, but haven’t looked at any of them yet.
Shame about Drone Deploy if this is correct, it always had good reviews.

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

https://www.opendronemap.org/webodm/

OpenDroneMap/WebODM has come a long way in the past year. It's free, but they also have an installer so you don't have to try to set it up yourself. You can set it up yourself if you have some command line experience. The installer is only $57.00. Keep the DroneDeploy app or Pix4d app for taking the photos.

 

[Remote Pilots Australia]

DJIFlightPlanner for planning the way point missions ($99 U.S. once off), supports everything from Spark to Matrice. Export into a .csv and import into Litchi ($20 - $25 once off depending on if you catch it on sale) and adjust way points for height in relation to ground not take off point and you have something 99% as good as the DroneDeploy interface.

Then if you are only going to do photo stitching Microsoft ICE is free and does a reasonable job or if you need full wire frame and 3D rendering etc my preference is Agisoft Photoscan or Metascape as it just became known as. There is a free version, I use the professional version which is a couple of grand but when I could run up a $1000 per month bill with DroneDeploy it soon pays for itself ... as long as you have a P.C. to drive it.

Regards
Ari

 

[bushie]

I use drone Harmony. It is not free but is relatively cheap and just a one off charge. It only works on Android. Not sure what the difference is with droneDeploy.

 

[TexasRancher]

Can you point to some details on this please?

Sorry, was a busy day so reply is slow.

I got an email with this:

Important Updates to Your DroneDeploy Account
Dear Rancher,

Thank you for being a part of the DroneDeploy community! Drone operators, like you, have created tens of millions of acres of high-resolution maps and 3D models on DroneDeploy.

As the community has grown, processing and hosting maps & models has become more expensive. We’ve decided to take the difficult step to retire our free “Explorer” plan (which provides free data processing, storage and analysis), effective March 12, 2019 - our Flight app on iOS and Android will remain Free.
While you won’t be able to process additional maps with your existing account permissions, we have upgraded your account as a courtesy to give you until May 12, 2019 to export your 2D maps (orthomosaics) as JPG or GeoTIFF, and 3D models as OBJ files. This will allow you to keep a permanent local copy of your DroneDeploy data. After May 12, 2019, we will begin to delete map data outside of paid subscriptions. Subscribing to any of our paid plans before the May 12, 2019 deadline will retain your data for the life of that DroneDeploy subscription.

We hope that you keep flying with us with our free flight app, and consider subscribing to our paid plans this year. We’re reinvesting the savings from retiring the “Explorer” plan to offer better, faster processing, new flight modes, better reporting, and tons more features for all of our subscribers, so expect great things!

If you’d like to try the latest features of DroneDeploy Pro for 14 days:
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Thanks to all of the suggestions. I will spend time this weekend seeing what I can set up

R

 

[53-63-6f-74-74]

I use drone Harmony. It is not free but is relatively cheap and just a one off charge. It only works on Android. Not sure what the difference is with droneDeploy.

Your confusing the actual flight apps (that are free, and remain free) with the processing. DroneDeploy and Pix4d both have fully functional flight apps (and there are other out there as well such as Precision Flight, Altizure, etc.) that are perfect for photo capture. It's the processing that costs money, and this is what the OP is trying to avoid. As I mentioned above, WebODM/OpenDroneMap combined with one of these flight apps is a no-cost solution.

 

[TexasRancher]

Your confusing the actual flight apps (that are free, and remain free) with the processing. DroneDeploy and Pix4d both have fully functional flight apps (and there are other out there as well such as Precision Flight, Altizure, etc.) that are perfect for photo capture. It's the processing that costs money, and this is what the OP is trying to avoid. As I mentioned above, WebODM/OpenDroneMap combined with one of these flight apps is a no-cost solution.

Oh no, I know the flight app will be free. I was curious if there was a way to stitch them for less.. heh

Sorry, I do not use it much... if my realtor friend decided he wanted me to help more.. I'd make him pay for the service, otherwise.. it is still great for making the flights and taking all the pictures.

Lol.. duh.. you were talking to him

R