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Maps · head to head

Bing Maps vs Cesium ion

Bing Maps logo

Bing Maps

Maps

Web mapping services with street maps, aerial imagery, and APIs for developers

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Cesium ion logo

Cesium ion

Maps

Hosted 3D geospatial tiling and streaming, metered by storage, streaming and gigapixels

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Cesium ion has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Bing Maps bing Maps for Enterprise is deprecated and will be retired by 6/30/2025 for free accounts and 6/30/2028 for enterprise accounts; Cesium ion streaming is metered in gigabytes a month, so a public-facing application's cost is driven by visitor traffic you do not control, and a successful launch can blow through a tier immediately.
  • They diverge on capability: Bing Maps covers Core Functionality, Cesium ion covers 3D Tiles tiling.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Bing Maps and Cesium ion actually diverge.

Attributes where Bing Maps and Cesium ion differ
AttributeBing MapsCesium ion
Starting priceOn requestFree
Pricing modelfreemiumPer month by storage, streaming and gigapixels
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWebWeb, Cloud

Identical on both: 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 Bing Maps

  • Core Functionality
  • User Interface

Only in Cesium ion

  • 3D Tiles tiling
  • Global terrain and imagery
  • Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles
  • Cloud reality modelling
  • Streaming delivery
  • Access tokens
  • Geocoding
  • Self-hosted option

What people use each for

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

Bing Maps

  • Driving directions and turn-by-turn navigation guidancenot Cesium ion
  • Real-time traffic monitoring and road condition updatesnot Cesium ion
  • Commuter route planning with live traffic intelligencenot Cesium ion

Cesium ion

  • A survey firm delivering a photogrammetry mesh to a client as a browser link rather than a 40 GB downloadnot Bing Maps
  • A simulation team streaming global terrain and imagery into an Unreal Engine environmentnot Bing Maps
  • An urban planning department publishing a city model that planners can inspect without desktop GIS softwarenot Bing Maps
  • A software product embedding 3D geospatial views and needing hosted tiling rather than building a tilernot Bing Maps

Where each one falls short

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

Bing Maps

  • Bing Maps for Enterprise is deprecated and will be retired by 6/30/2025 for free accounts and 6/30/2028 for enterprise accounts
  • All implementations must migrate to Azure Maps to avoid service disruption

Cesium ion

  • Streaming is metered in gigabytes a month, so a public-facing application's cost is driven by visitor traffic you do not control, and a successful launch can blow through a tier immediately.
  • Reality modelling is billed in gigapixels a month, an unfamiliar unit that makes it hard to estimate in advance how many drone flights a plan will actually cover.
  • The free Community tier is restricted to non-commercial or open use, so a consultancy sharing a model with a paying client does not qualify regardless of how small the dataset is.
  • Team accounts cost substantially more than individual ones at the same quota, $524 against $149 on Commercial, so adding a second colleague is a large step rather than an incremental seat charge.
  • Self-hosting is available only under a custom enterprise agreement, which leaves organisations with data residency or air-gap requirements out of the published tiers entirely.

Pricing, plan by plan

Bing Maps

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Bing Maps review.

Cesium ion

Free
  • CommunityFree
    • 5 GB storage
    • 15 GB per month streaming
    • 20 gigapixels per month reality modelling
  • Commercial$149/month
    • 50 GB storage
    • 150 GB per month streaming
    • 40 gigapixels per month reality modelling
  • Premium$499/month
    • 250 GB storage
    • 500 GB per month streaming
    • 100 gigapixels per month reality modelling
  • Custom$undefined/year
    • Negotiated quotas
    • Self-hosted deployment in your own environment
    • Enterprise support

Which should you pick?

Choose Bing Maps if

  • You need core functionality.
  • You also want user interface.
Bing Maps review

Choose Cesium ion if

  • You need 3d tiles tiling.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Cloud.
  • You also want global terrain and imagery.
Cesium ion review

Questions people ask

Is Bing Maps or Cesium ion better?
Neither clearly leads. Bing Maps starts at On request and Cesium ion at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Bing Maps or Cesium ion?
Cesium ion has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Bing Maps and Free for Cesium ion.
Does Bing Maps or Cesium ion run on more platforms?
Bing Maps runs on Web. Cesium ion runs on Web, Cloud.
Can I use Cesium ion for free?
Yes. Cesium ion has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Bing Maps starts at On request.
What is Bing Maps best used for?
Bing Maps is most often used for driving directions and turn-by-turn navigation guidance, real-time traffic monitoring and road condition updates, commuter route planning with live traffic intelligence. Of those, driving directions and turn-by-turn navigation guidance and real-time traffic monitoring and road condition updates are not what Cesium ion is typically brought in for.
What can Bing Maps do that Cesium ion cannot?
Bing Maps covers Core Functionality, User Interface. Cesium ion covers 3D Tiles tiling, Global terrain and imagery, Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles, Cloud reality modelling.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Bing Maps: What happened to Bing Maps for Enterprise?

Bing Maps for Enterprise is deprecated and will be retired. Free account customers can continue using the service until 6/30/2025, while enterprise account customers can continue until 6/30/2028. Microsoft recommends migrating implementations to Azure Maps to avoid service disruptions.

Source
Cesium ion: How is Cesium ion priced?

By several meters at once: storage in gigabytes, streaming in gigabytes per month, and reality modelling in gigapixels per month. Commercial starts at $149 a month for an individual.

Bing Maps: When will Bing Maps for Enterprise be discontinued?

Bing Maps for Enterprise retires 6/30/2025 for free accounts and 6/30/2028 for enterprise accounts. All implementations using Bing Maps for Enterprise REST APIs and SDKs must be updated to use Azure Maps before the retirement dates.

Source
Cesium ion: Is the free tier usable commercially?

No. Community is for non-commercial or open use. Commercial work needs a paid plan.

Bing Maps: What should I use instead of Bing Maps?

Microsoft is transitioning customers to Azure Maps, which provides consumption-based pricing with volume-based discounts and pay-only-for-what-you-use cost structure. Azure Maps offers all mapping features without throttling.

Source
Cesium ion: Can I run ion on my own infrastructure?

Only under a custom enterprise agreement negotiated with Cesium.

Cesium ion: Do I need Cesium ion to use CesiumJS?

No. CesiumJS is open source and free. ion provides hosted tiling, base layers and streaming that you would otherwise have to build.

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