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Maps · head to head

Correlator3D vs Lonboard

Correlator3D logo

Correlator3D

Maps

SimActive photogrammetry with a published price list and a perpetual licence still on sale

From
$295/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Lonboard logo

Lonboard

Maps

Python map rendering in Jupyter that skips GeoJSON and moves millions of features without choking

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Lonboard has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Correlator3D the standard licence caps at 61 megapixel sensors, so an operator moving to a medium or large format camera has to buy a different and separately quoted licence rather than paying an upgrade fee.; Lonboard it is a notebook visualisation library, not a mapping application, so there is no editing, no layout, no map export for print and no sharing beyond distributing the notebook or an HTML file
  • They diverge on capability: Correlator3D covers Aerial triangulation, Lonboard covers GeoArrow binary transfer.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Correlator3D and Lonboard actually diverge.

Attributes where Correlator3D and Lonboard differ
AttributeCorrelator3DLonboard
Starting price$295/monthFree
Pricing modelOne-time purchaseOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWindowsLinux, macOS, Windows

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 Correlator3D

  • Aerial triangulation
  • DSM and DTM generation
  • Orthomosaic production
  • Point cloud and 3D mesh output
  • Feature extraction
  • GPU acceleration
  • Satellite imagery support
  • Batch and unattended processing

Only in Lonboard

  • GeoArrow binary transfer
  • GeoPandas input
  • deck.gl layers
  • Jupyter widget
  • Large dataset handling
  • Styling by attribute
  • Open source licence

What people use each for

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

Correlator3D

  • An aerial survey company processing large photographic blocks where per-project cloud credits would be more expensive than owning a licencenot Lonboard
  • A national or regional mapping agency that needs software it can run offline on classified or restricted imagerynot Lonboard
  • A drone service provider producing bare-earth terrain models for volumetrics and corridor mapping at high throughputnot Lonboard
  • An organisation that wants a perpetual licence because a multi-year subscription cannot be justified against its capital budgeting rulesnot Lonboard

Lonboard

  • An analyst exploring a national road or parcel dataset in a notebook where pydeck or ipyleaflet becomes unusable at that sizenot Correlator3D
  • A researcher publishing a reproducible analysis where the visualisation must run from the same script as the processingnot Correlator3D
  • A data scientist joining spatial data to model outputs in pandas and needing to see the result immediately without exporting to a GISnot Correlator3D
  • A team building an internal analysis pipeline on GeoParquet that wants rendering without a serialisation step in the middlenot Correlator3D

Where each one falls short

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

Correlator3D

  • The standard licence caps at 61 megapixel sensors, so an operator moving to a medium or large format camera has to buy a different and separately quoted licence rather than paying an upgrade fee.
  • It is Windows desktop only with no cloud processing option, so throughput is bounded by the workstation and GPU you buy, and there is no way to burst capacity for one large job.
  • There is no collaboration layer, client portal or field application, so deliverable sharing, review and version control all have to be handled by other software.
  • The interface and workflow are built for photogrammetry specialists; an occasional drone operator will find the learning curve steeper than a consumer-oriented mapping package.
  • The perpetual licence includes only one year of support and updates, and staying current afterwards means paying maintenance, so the headline $5,900 is not the whole long-term cost.

Lonboard

  • It is a notebook visualisation library, not a mapping application, so there is no editing, no layout, no map export for print and no sharing beyond distributing the notebook or an HTML file
  • Maintenance sits with Development Seed as an open source side output of a consultancy, so roadmap priorities follow client projects and there is no support contract to buy
  • Layer coverage is a subset of deck.gl, so an analyst needing a less common layer type has to drop to pydeck or write JavaScript rather than staying in Python
  • It expects data already in GeoPandas or Arrow form, which means the performance benefit depends on the rest of your pipeline being Arrow-friendly; reading a large Shapefile is still the slow step
  • Rendering happens in the browser, so very large datasets are ultimately limited by the client machine's memory and GPU rather than by the server, and a laptop will still fail on data a workstation handles

Pricing, plan by plan

Correlator3D

$295/month
  • Monthly subscription$295/month
    • Unlimited images
    • Sensors up to 61 megapixels
    • All modules and tools
  • Yearly subscription$2950/year
    • Unlimited images
    • Sensors up to 61 megapixels
    • All modules and tools
  • Permanent licence$5900/one-time
    • Perpetual licence
    • Unlimited images up to 61 megapixels
    • All modules and tools
  • Permanent floating licence$6400/one-time
    • Perpetual floating licence shared across machines
    • Unlimited images up to 61 megapixels
    • One year of support and updates included

Lonboard

Free
  • LonboardFree
    • Open source, no licence fee
    • No usage limits
    • Installed from PyPI or conda

Which should you pick?

Choose Correlator3D if

  • You need aerial triangulation.
  • You work on Windows.
  • You also want dsm and dtm generation.
Correlator3D review

Choose Lonboard if

  • You need geoarrow binary transfer.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, macOS, Windows.
  • You also want geopandas input.
Lonboard review

Questions people ask

Is Correlator3D or Lonboard better?
Neither clearly leads. Correlator3D starts at $295/month and Lonboard at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Correlator3D or Lonboard?
Lonboard has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $295/month for Correlator3D and Free for Lonboard.
Does Correlator3D or Lonboard run on more platforms?
Correlator3D runs on Windows. Lonboard runs on Linux, macOS, Windows.
Can I use Lonboard for free?
Yes. Lonboard has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Correlator3D starts at $295/month.
What is Correlator3D best used for?
Correlator3D is most often used for an aerial survey company processing large photographic blocks where per-project cloud credits would be more expensive than owning a licence, a national or regional mapping agency that needs software it can run offline on classified or restricted imagery, a drone service provider producing bare-earth terrain models for volumetrics and corridor mapping at high throughput, an organisation that wants a perpetual licence because a multi-year subscription cannot be justified against its capital budgeting rules. Of those, an aerial survey company processing large photographic blocks where per-project cloud credits would be more expensive than owning a licence and a national or regional mapping agency that needs software it can run offline on classified or restricted imagery are not what Lonboard is typically brought in for.
What can Correlator3D do that Lonboard cannot?
Correlator3D covers Aerial triangulation, DSM and DTM generation, Orthomosaic production, Point cloud and 3D mesh output. Lonboard covers GeoArrow binary transfer, GeoPandas input, deck.gl layers, Jupyter widget.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Correlator3D: Can I still buy a perpetual licence?

Yes. $5,900 for a permanent licence and $6,400 for a permanent floating licence, each including a year of support and updates.

Lonboard: Why not just use pydeck?

pydeck serialises geometry to GeoJSON to reach the browser. Lonboard uses a binary GeoArrow pipeline, which is the reason it handles far larger datasets in the same notebook.

Correlator3D: What limits the standard licence?

Sensor resolution, up to 61 megapixels. Medium format, large format and satellite imagery need separately priced licences.

Lonboard: Who maintains it?

Development Seed, a geospatial engineering consultancy, as an open source project. There is no commercial support offering.

Correlator3D: Is there a cloud version?

No. Processing runs on your own Windows workstation. SimActive offers a data processing service as an alternative to buying the software.

Lonboard: Does it work outside Jupyter?

It is built as a Jupyter widget. Exporting to standalone HTML is possible, but the intended environment is a notebook.

Correlator3D: Does it handle satellite imagery?

Yes, under a separate satellite licence class quoted on request.

Lonboard: Is it free for commercial use?

Yes, it is open source with no licence fee.

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