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CAD · head to head

Altium 365 vs Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler

Altium 365 logo

Altium 365

CAD

Cloud workspace for Altium Designer PCB projects, now inside Renesas

From
$1990/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler logo

Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler

CAD

Photogrammetry engine formerly sold as ContextCapture, now inside Bentley's iTwin line

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Altium 365 the 1,990 US dollar Altium Develop entry price is capped at five authors in total, so a growing team hits a forced migration to Agile Teams with unpublished pricing exactly when headcount is rising.; Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler the rename from ContextCapture is more than cosmetic: licensing moved into Bentley's subscription and consumption model, and existing perpetual users should confirm what a renewal converts to before assuming continuity of cost.
  • They diverge on capability: Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler covers Aerial triangulation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Altium 365 and Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler actually diverge.

Attributes where Altium 365 and Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler differ
AttributeAltium 365Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler
Starting price$1990/yearOn request
Pricing modelPer user per yearquote
PlatformsWeb, Windows, Cloud, On-premiseWindows, Cloud

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

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 Altium 365

  • Shared workspace
  • Managed components
  • Browser review
  • Unlimited workspace users
  • MCAD CoDesigner
  • Manufacturing portal
  • Requirements Portal
  • BOM Portal

Only in Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler

  • Aerial triangulation
  • Dense mesh reconstruction
  • Point cloud fusion
  • Orthophoto and DSM output
  • 3D Tiles and 3MX export
  • Distributed processing
  • Retouching and editing
  • Georeferencing and control

What people use each for

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

Altium 365

  • A hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight CAD seatsnot Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler
  • A team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of Gerbersnot Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler
  • A company running board and enclosure design in parallel and needing bidirectional geometry exchange with mechanical CADnot Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler
  • A buyer checking component lifecycle and availability against the live BOM before a design is frozennot Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler

Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler

  • A highway authority reconstructing a corridor from drone imagery for design work in OpenRoadsnot Altium 365
  • A survey firm delivering city-scale textured meshes to a municipal client for planning and visualisationnot Altium 365
  • An engineering consultancy fusing terrestrial laser scans with drone photography of a bridge for condition assessmentnot Altium 365
  • A team publishing streamable 3D Tiles of a construction site so stakeholders can view it in a browsernot Altium 365

Where each one falls short

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

Altium 365

  • The 1,990 US dollar Altium Develop entry price is capped at five authors in total, so a growing team hits a forced migration to Agile Teams with unpublished pricing exactly when headcount is rising.
  • Add-on portals are expensive per seat; BOM Portal has been quoted at around 1,999 US dollars per user per year and MCAD CoDesigner at around 499, so the real cost of a working configuration is well above the headline.
  • It is tied to Altium Designer; there is no meaningful use of the platform for teams designing in KiCad, OrCAD or Allegro, which makes it a lock-in decision rather than a tooling one.
  • Renesas acquired Altium in 2024, and a semiconductor manufacturer owning the design tool used to select competing semiconductors is a conflict some buyers will want addressed in writing before uploading a library.
  • Repeated repackaging, from Altium 365 Standard and Pro tiers to Altium Develop and Agile Teams, has made renewal comparisons difficult and customers have found their previous tier no longer maps to anything on the price list.

Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler

  • The rename from ContextCapture is more than cosmetic: licensing moved into Bentley's subscription and consumption model, and existing perpetual users should confirm what a renewal converts to before assuming continuity of cost.
  • Consumption-based entitlements make the cost of a large reconstruction hard to predict in advance, which is awkward when you are quoting a fixed-price deliverable to a client.
  • The desktop engine is Windows only and reconstruction is compute-hungry, so meaningful throughput needs either serious workstation hardware or paid cloud processing.
  • Bentley does not publish a plain rate card and pricing varies by region, reseller and existing agreement, so two firms buying the same thing can pay very different amounts.
  • Value compounds inside the Bentley ecosystem, and a firm whose design work happens in Autodesk or Esri tools pays for a positioning it will not use while getting the same mesh a cheaper standalone photogrammetry package would produce.

Pricing, plan by plan

Altium 365

$1990/year
  • Altium Develop$1990/year
    • One Altium Designer author licence
    • One workspace for shared projects and libraries
    • Unlimited workspace users for review, comment, tasks and BOM access
  • Altium Agile Teams$undefined/year
    • For teams beyond five ECAD authors
    • Extended workspace governance and administration
    • Quoted, no published price
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • On-premise or private cloud workspace server
    • Formal ECO and lifecycle governance
    • Quoted, no published price

Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler

On request
  • iTwin Capture Modeler$undefined/year
    • Subscription entitlement through Bentley licensing
    • Consumption charged against Bentley Keys on some agreements
    • Reality Modeling WorkSuite bundles Modeler with reality data management

Which should you pick?

Choose Altium 365 if

  • You need shared workspace.
  • You work on Web, Windows, Cloud, On-premise.
  • You also want managed components.
Altium 365 review

Choose Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler if

  • You need aerial triangulation.
  • You work on Windows, Cloud.
  • You also want dense mesh reconstruction.
Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler review

Questions people ask

Is Altium 365 or Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler better?
Neither clearly leads. Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Altium 365 or Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler?
Altium 365 starts at $1990/year and Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler at On request.
Does Altium 365 or Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler run on more platforms?
Altium 365 runs on Web, Windows, Cloud, On-premise. Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler runs on Windows, Cloud.
What is Altium 365 best used for?
Altium 365 is most often used for a hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight cad seats, a team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of gerbers, a company running board and enclosure design in parallel and needing bidirectional geometry exchange with mechanical cad, a buyer checking component lifecycle and availability against the live bom before a design is frozen. Of those, a hardware startup where two engineers draw boards but eight people need to review them, avoiding eight cad seats and a team handing fabrication and assembly data to a contract manufacturer as a versioned release rather than a zip of gerbers are not what Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler is typically brought in for.
What can Altium 365 do that Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler cannot?
Altium 365 covers Shared workspace, Managed components, Browser review, Unlimited workspace users. Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler covers Aerial triangulation, Dense mesh reconstruction, Point cloud fusion, Orthophoto and DSM output.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Altium 365: Is Altium 365 free with Altium Designer?

A workspace is included with a current subscription, but the higher tiers, extra authors and the add-on portals are chargeable. The unlimited non-author users are genuinely included.

Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler: Is ContextCapture discontinued?

The name is. The product continues as iTwin Capture Modeler within Bentley's iTwin family.

Altium 365: What does it cost?

Altium Develop starts at about 1,990 US dollars a year for one author plus a workspace, with extra authors at 995 US dollars each up to four more. Larger teams are quoted.

Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler: Does it still support a perpetual licence?

New buyers should expect subscription or consumption-based entitlements. Confirm the exact conversion path if you hold an older perpetual licence.

Altium 365: Who owns Altium now?

Renesas Electronics completed its acquisition of Altium in 2024. Altium 365 is therefore a Renesas-owned platform.

Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler: Can it process laser scan data as well as photographs?

Yes. It fuses point clouds with imagery in a single reconstruction.

Altium 365: Can I keep design data on my own servers?

Yes, through the Enterprise on-premise workspace server, but that is a quoted product and most of the newer portal features assume the hosted platform.

Bentley iTwin Capture Modeler: Do I need other Bentley software to use it?

No, output formats are usable elsewhere, but the commercial and workflow case is strongest if you already run MicroStation or OpenRoads.

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