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Maps · head to head

Agisoft Metashape vs Foursquare Spatial Studio

Agisoft Metashape logo

Agisoft Metashape

Maps

Desktop photogrammetry that turns photographs into point clouds, meshes, orthomosaics and DEMs

From
$179/one-time
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Foursquare Spatial Studio logo

Foursquare Spatial Studio

Maps

The product formerly sold as Unfolded, now a Foursquare platform rather than a standalone company

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Agisoft Metashape processing is entirely local, so throughput is a function of your workstation, and a large project on modest hardware can take days where a cloud service would return results overnight.; Foursquare Spatial Studio unfolded no longer exists as a product or a contracting entity, so buyers researching under that name find documentation, pricing discussion and comparison material that no longer applies to what Foursquare sells
  • They diverge on capability: Agisoft Metashape covers Structure-from-motion alignment, Foursquare Spatial Studio covers Browser rendering at scale.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Agisoft Metashape and Foursquare Spatial Studio actually diverge.

Attributes where Agisoft Metashape and Foursquare Spatial Studio differ
AttributeAgisoft MetashapeFoursquare Spatial Studio
Starting price$179/one-timeOn request
Pricing modelOne-time purchasequote
PlatformsWindows, macOS, LinuxWeb

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Maps).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Agisoft Metashape

  • Structure-from-motion alignment
  • Dense point cloud generation
  • Mesh and texture
  • Orthomosaic and DEM
  • Ground control points
  • Point cloud classification
  • Multispectral processing
  • Python and Java scripting

Only in Foursquare Spatial Studio

  • Browser rendering at scale
  • H3 spatial indexing
  • Data joins
  • Time animation
  • Map sharing and embedding
  • Cloud data connections
  • Foursquare data access

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Agisoft Metashape

  • A survey or engineering firm processing high volumes of drone imagery that wants unlimited local processing instead of per-hectare cloud creditsnot Foursquare Spatial Studio
  • A quarry or mine measuring stockpile volumes monthly, where the same flight is reprocessed repeatedly and cloud pricing by area is punitivenot Foursquare Spatial Studio
  • An archaeology or heritage team documenting sites on a capital grant with no recurring software budget to renew a subscriptionnot Foursquare Spatial Studio
  • A VFX or games studio scanning props and environments, where Standard at $179 covers the whole requirement because georeferencing is irrelevantnot Foursquare Spatial Studio

Foursquare Spatial Studio

  • A retail property team comparing catchment overlap between candidate sites using hexagonal aggregation rather than drive-time polygonsnot Agisoft Metashape
  • A telecommunications planner visualising a national dataset of measurements in the browser without building a tile pipelinenot Agisoft Metashape
  • An analytics team that already writes deck.gl in-house and wants a hosted environment so non-developers can explore the same datanot Agisoft Metashape
  • A marketing group that wants Foursquare places and movement data joined to its own customer geography in one toolnot Agisoft Metashape

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Agisoft Metashape

  • Processing is entirely local, so throughput is a function of your workstation, and a large project on modest hardware can take days where a cloud service would return results overnight.
  • The vendor is a Russian company, and since 2022 payment is restricted to wire transfer, ACH and SEPA direct debit with no card payment, which some corporate and government procurement departments simply cannot process.
  • There is no collaboration layer: no shared projects, no web viewer, no permissions. Sharing results means sending files, which is a real limitation on multi-office teams.
  • Support is thin compared with commercial drone platforms, and the software assumes photogrammetric competence; users who do not understand overlap, ground control and residuals produce confidently wrong models.
  • A node-locked licence is tied to a machine, and moving it or covering a second workstation means either a reseller-quoted floating licence or buying twice, which erodes the cost advantage for teams rather than individuals.

Foursquare Spatial Studio

  • Unfolded no longer exists as a product or a contracting entity, so buyers researching under that name find documentation, pricing discussion and comparison material that no longer applies to what Foursquare sells
  • Pricing is not published at all, and because access to Foursquare datasets can be bundled into the same agreement, separating the cost of the software from the cost of the data requires explicitly asking for a split quote
  • Much of the visualisation capability exists in kepler.gl and deck.gl, which are free and open source, so the paid product must justify itself on hosting, collaboration and data rather than on rendering
  • Foursquare's core business is selling location data, which means the analytics roadmap follows what makes that data sell, and a customer using only its own data is not the priority segment
  • It is analysis and visualisation, not a spatial database or an editing environment, so organisations still need PostGIS, a warehouse or a GIS for the authoritative data and its maintenance

Pricing, plan by plan

Agisoft Metashape

$179/one-time
  • Standard$179/one-time
    • Photogrammetric alignment, dense cloud, mesh and texture
    • No georeferencing or coordinate systems
    • No ground control points
  • Professional$3499/one-time
    • Everything in Standard
    • Georeferencing, coordinate systems and ground control points
    • Orthomosaic, DEM and point cloud classification
  • Floating licence$undefined/one-time
    • Shared across machines rather than node-locked
    • Sold through authorised resellers only
    • Quoted rather than listed

Foursquare Spatial Studio

On request
  • Foursquare Spatial Studio$undefined/year
    • Quoted by users, data volume and which Foursquare datasets you take
    • Cloud warehouse connections on the higher tier
    • Not published

Which should you pick?

Choose Agisoft Metashape if

  • You need structure-from-motion alignment.
  • You work on Windows, macOS, Linux.
  • You also want dense point cloud generation.
Agisoft Metashape review

Choose Foursquare Spatial Studio if

  • You need browser rendering at scale.
  • You also want h3 spatial indexing.
Foursquare Spatial Studio review

Questions people ask

Is Agisoft Metashape or Foursquare Spatial Studio better?
Neither clearly leads. Agisoft Metashape starts at $179/one-time and Foursquare Spatial Studio at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Agisoft Metashape or Foursquare Spatial Studio?
Agisoft Metashape starts at $179/one-time and Foursquare Spatial Studio at On request.
Does Agisoft Metashape or Foursquare Spatial Studio run on more platforms?
Agisoft Metashape runs on Windows, macOS, Linux. Foursquare Spatial Studio runs on Web.
What is Agisoft Metashape best used for?
Agisoft Metashape is most often used for a survey or engineering firm processing high volumes of drone imagery that wants unlimited local processing instead of per-hectare cloud credits, a quarry or mine measuring stockpile volumes monthly, where the same flight is reprocessed repeatedly and cloud pricing by area is punitive, an archaeology or heritage team documenting sites on a capital grant with no recurring software budget to renew a subscription, a vfx or games studio scanning props and environments, where standard at $179 covers the whole requirement because georeferencing is irrelevant. Of those, a survey or engineering firm processing high volumes of drone imagery that wants unlimited local processing instead of per-hectare cloud credits and a quarry or mine measuring stockpile volumes monthly, where the same flight is reprocessed repeatedly and cloud pricing by area is punitive are not what Foursquare Spatial Studio is typically brought in for.
What can Agisoft Metashape do that Foursquare Spatial Studio cannot?
Agisoft Metashape covers Structure-from-motion alignment, Dense point cloud generation, Mesh and texture, Orthomosaic and DEM. Foursquare Spatial Studio covers Browser rendering at scale, H3 spatial indexing, Data joins, Time animation.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Agisoft Metashape: How much does Metashape cost?

Professional is $3,499 and Standard is $179, both node-locked. Floating licences are quoted through resellers.

Foursquare Spatial Studio: Can I still buy Unfolded?

No. Foursquare acquired Unfolded in 2021 and sells the product as Foursquare Spatial Studio. There is no Unfolded contract.

Agisoft Metashape: Is it a subscription?

No. These are perpetual node-locked licences. Major version upgrades are charged separately.

Foursquare Spatial Studio: Is kepler.gl the same thing?

No. kepler.gl is the free open source visualisation library from the same original team. Spatial Studio is the hosted commercial platform built around it.

Agisoft Metashape: What is the difference between Standard and Professional?

Standard has no georeferencing, coordinate systems, ground control points, orthomosaic export or scripting. Anything survey or mapping related requires Professional.

Foursquare Spatial Studio: What does it cost?

Foursquare does not publish pricing. Ask for the software and the data licences to be quoted separately.

Agisoft Metashape: Does it process in the cloud?

No. All processing is local on your own hardware, which is the main reason it is cheap at volume and slow on weak machines.

Foursquare Spatial Studio: Do I need Foursquare's data to use it?

No, you can load your own, but the commercial proposition is strongest for customers who also want the places and movement datasets.

Agisoft Metashape: Are there educational licences?

Yes, Agisoft offers reduced academic pricing on a separate page.

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