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Maps · head to head

Cesium ion vs Felt

Cesium ion logo

Cesium ion

Maps

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

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Felt logo

Felt

Maps

Collaborative browser mapping with a free non-commercial tier and annual-only paid contracts

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Felt felt publishes no prices for Professional or Enterprise, so buyers cannot compare against ArcGIS Online or QGIS with hosting without entering a sales process
  • They diverge on capability: Cesium ion covers 3D Tiles tiling, Felt covers Real-time collaboration.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cesium ion and Felt actually diverge.

Attributes where Cesium ion and Felt differ
AttributeCesium ionFelt
Pricing modelPer month by storage, streaming and gigapixelsquote
PlatformsWeb, CloudWeb, iOS, Android

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), 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 Cesium ion

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

Only in Felt

  • Real-time collaboration
  • Drag and drop data
  • Unlimited viewers
  • Field app with offline support
  • Dashboards
  • Live cloud sources
  • API and SDK

What people use each for

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

Cesium ion

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

Felt

  • An environmental consultancy that needs a client to view and comment on survey results without installing GIS softwarenot Cesium ion
  • A utility field crew collecting asset condition offline and syncing to the same map the office is looking atnot Cesium ion
  • A planning department sharing a proposal map with the public where the viewer count is unpredictable and viewer seats would be uncostednot Cesium ion
  • A team of analysts who each hold data in different formats and want one map assembled in an afternoon rather than a weeknot Cesium ion

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Felt

  • Felt publishes no prices for Professional or Enterprise, so buyers cannot compare against ArcGIS Online or QGIS with hosting without entering a sales process
  • Paid tiers are annual contract only with no monthly option, which excludes consultancies that need a tool for a single short engagement and forces them to the free non-commercial tier they are not licensed to use for client work
  • The API, JavaScript SDK and live warehouse connections are enterprise-only, so a mid-sized team that wants programmatic access has to buy the top tier rather than pay for one capability
  • Analytical depth is limited: there is no meaningful geoprocessing, topology checking or model building, so Felt sits beside a real GIS rather than replacing one
  • The Professional tier caps data processing at 25 GB a month and map views at 100,000 a month, which are easy to exceed with raster imagery or a public-facing map, and the overage terms are not published either

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Felt

Free
  • PersonalFree
    • Free forever for non-commercial mapping
    • Map creation, upload and sharing
    • Not licensed for commercial use
  • Professional$undefined/year
    • 10 full-access seats with unlimited viewers
    • 25 GB of data processing per month
    • 100,000 map views per month
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Live cloud sources including Postgres, Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks and S3
    • REST API and JavaScript SDK
    • AI features

Which should you pick?

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

Choose Felt if

  • You need real-time collaboration.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want drag and drop data.
Felt review

Questions people ask

Is Cesium ion or Felt better?
Neither clearly leads. Cesium ion starts at Free and Felt at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cesium ion or Felt?
Cesium ion starts at Free and Felt at Free.
Does Cesium ion or Felt run on more platforms?
Cesium ion runs on Web, Cloud. Felt runs on Web, iOS, Android.
Can I use Cesium ion for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Cesium ion best used for?
Cesium ion is most often used for a survey firm delivering a photogrammetry mesh to a client as a browser link rather than a 40 gb download, a simulation team streaming global terrain and imagery into an unreal engine environment, an urban planning department publishing a city model that planners can inspect without desktop gis software, a software product embedding 3d geospatial views and needing hosted tiling rather than building a tiler. Of those, a survey firm delivering a photogrammetry mesh to a client as a browser link rather than a 40 gb download and a simulation team streaming global terrain and imagery into an unreal engine environment are not what Felt is typically brought in for.
What can Cesium ion do that Felt cannot?
Cesium ion covers 3D Tiles tiling, Global terrain and imagery, Google Photorealistic 3D Tiles, Cloud reality modelling. Felt covers Real-time collaboration, Drag and drop data, Unlimited viewers, Field app with offline support.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Felt: What does Felt cost?

Felt does not publish prices for Professional or Enterprise. Personal is free but licensed for non-commercial use only.

Cesium ion: Is the free tier usable commercially?

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

Felt: Can I pay monthly?

No. Paid plans are annual contracts. There is a 7 day trial of Professional.

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

Only under a custom enterprise agreement negotiated with Cesium.

Felt: Do viewers cost anything?

No. Viewer access is unlimited on the paid plans, which is the main reason organisations with large map audiences choose it.

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.

Felt: Is there a nonprofit discount?

Yes, 30 per cent for verified United States nonprofits, and free access for verified students and classrooms.

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