Why can I not renew my monthly subscription? It asks if I want to be on a waiting list

PIX4Dmapper
1

Is there a change in subscription models? I cannot seem to renew our monthly subscription as we have done dozens of times now. Why is it now asking about a waiting list?

2

Hi @candarco

Thanks for contacting Pix4D Community!

Please, regarding this matter, we suggest you contact the Sales team directly in the following link: Talk to sales

Have a very nice day!

Best regards

3

I just did some quick calculations using your credits calculator. It looks like our costs will increase from a monthly fee of around 300, to about 4000.

Are you kidding?

We’ve been with you from the start but you’ll never see another penny if you really believe you can be that predatory.

We use a P1

4

Hi @candarco

We are very surprised by these numbers, can you please explain in detail how you used the calculator?

I would like to share the following article, where we explain how to use the calculator and give other explanations that will be useful to you.

I am looking forward to your answer.

Have a very nice day!

Best regards

5

I used the calculator in this manner. I selected the P1 camera, our average project has about 600 pictures. We currently do 20 a month and are going to increase that.

The calculator tells me that for 20 projects at those numbers, I will need 5400 credits.

5400 Credits means the 10000 package, will last me almost two months, meaning, this will now cost 3500 dollars worth of credits and 500 in subscription fees for two months.

That is a complete outrage. Don’t make me read between the lines here, “Talk to sales, talk to sales”.

Are they going to bring this price down to the point where 2 months doesn’t go from $581 to 4000?

You’ve multiplied the cost of your service by 8 times in my use case, or if my numbers are wrong please correct them.

Why would you even attempt that??

6

Wait what?

Let me get this straight. You’ll now need a monthly or yearly subscription to Pix4d cloud and you will also need to buy some credits to process projects in the cloud?

Unreal if this true.

7

Hi,

I wanted to share some important information about the processing capabilities of PIX4Dmapper and PIX4Dcloud. I hope this clears up any confusion and helps you make informed decisions.

Firstly, it’s important to note that you can process your data using PIX4Dmapper without needing a PIX4Dcloud license or credits. So, if you prefer to stick with PIX4Dmapper for processing, you won’t have to worry about any additional licensing or credits on PIX4Dcloud.

However, if you’re interested in utilizing the cloud-based processing features of PIX4Dcloud, you’ll need a PIX4Dcloud license and credits.

In case you decide to upload your data from PIX4Dmapper to PIX4Dcloud for processing, please keep in mind that you’ll need both a PIX4Dmapper license and a PIX4Dcloud license, along with cloud credits. This combined approach ensures you can take full advantage of the features and functionalities offered by both platforms.

We strive to provide a seamless experience and want to ensure that our licensing and processing requirements are transparent. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the licensing system, please feel free to reach out to us.

Daniele

8

Hi Daniele

In my point of view it seems that the only thing that you strive is to pick every last penny from your users pockets.

I remember the ‘good old days’ when the pix4dcloud was part of the S&U package for the Pix4Dmapper. Back then I was pretty happy paying customer.
Fast forward few years and the comes the announcement that the cloud will be separated from the S&U package and you will need to pay for it seperately.
And then comes 2023 and now you’ll need to pay separately for the cloud and if you want to prcess something on the cloud you will need to buy credits.

You are now the Leica of photogrammetry and I don’t mean that in a good way.

Not to mention that Pix4Dmapper seem to be an End of Life product for you


1 Like
9

Hi Jaakko, @candarco,

Let me jump into the conversation here with a more complete and official response.

Point 1:

We are not changing the cloud price for existing customers: For now they can keep renewing their non-expired license with the same conditions.

Point 2:

While I understand the changes to the pricing model may not be appreciated by everyone, I can assure you that Pix4D’s goal to have fair pricing which allows us to continue to invest in improving our products for customers. We pay more to process larger projects and larger images on the cloud, so it’s only fair we pass that cost on to you.

However, it is also important to understand is that PIX4Dcloud you see today is not the same cloud that we had during the days when it was included in the PIX4Dmapper product. We have been investing heavily in PIX4Dcloud for the last few years.

Our latest update to the PIX4Dcloud (not Advanced) offering is intended to be very cheap for users of our Desktop products to access those features which make the most sense for them at a very low price, (49.20 / month if purchased annually):

PIX4Dcloud Advanced has undergone extensive developments:

  • All the new features listed in Cloud Basic above

  • Intelligent mission split for large missions in the Mission Planner

  • AutoGCP

  • Timeline

  • Volume comparison tools

  • 2D and 3D comparison tools

  • 2D and 3D design overlays coming from BIM files (IFC and DXF)

We shifted to the new credit system to allow us to charge more fairly for processing. If you process larger cameras (> 20 mpix), it costs us more to process in the cloud, so we have charge more. If you process with smaller cameras you pay less ( <= 20 mpix). With a Phantom 4 Pro or similar resolution camera, you should pay the same or slightly less than before. If we didn’t change our processing allowances to the new credit model, customers with smaller cameras would essentially be paying part of the processing bill for customers with larger cameras. I don’t think that would be appropriate.

The P1 camera has 45 mpix, which makes the processing on the Cloud servers more expensive (for us and for you).To @candarco, if the cloud credit price is too high for processing on PIX4Dcloud, a workaround could be to process your data locally in PIX4Dmatic and upload the results for sharing with the “Share to Cloud” functionality directly from the PIX4Dmatic and PIX4Dsurvey desktop applications to the PIX4Dcloud. There are no credit costs charged for projects processed on PIX4Dmatic or PIX4Dsurvey then uploaded with “Share to Cloud”.

This may be a viable option for you too @Jaakko_Laihola, if you use PIX4Dmatic. With PIX4Dmatic we rebuilt the software from scratch with revamped UI and algorithms that make it the new standard for photogrammetry.

Regarding PIX4Dmapper: you are correct that PIX4Dmapper is not as heavily developed as in previous years, nevertheless it gets new releases with bug fixes and camera database updates. As hinted to above, our main desktop investment goes to PIX4Dmatic, PIX4Dsurvey, PIX4Dfields and PIX4Dreact.

A few key improvements in PIX4Dmatic over PIX4Dmapper:

  • support larger projects
  • Improved GPU optimizations
  • Improved image marking workflows.
  • Significantly improved point cloud and mesh quality.
  • Noise reduction and sky removal automatic filtering
  • Geoids support
  • history tab (you keep control of each step and can go back in time!),
  • PIX4Dcatch (RTK) workflow for terrestrial and indoor work
  • A site localization workflow when using PIX4Dcatch (RTK).
  • A nice Share-to-cloud function which rapidly shares desktop processing results to your PIX4Dcloud account with no processing credit costs.

PIX4Dsurvey, PIX4Dfields and PIX4Dreact also provides specific features for optimized workflows for specific verticals.

Finally, if none of this is interesting to you, you’re free to stick with a PIX4Dmapper OTC license and to process on your desktop. They still work well enough for many use cases and only have a one time OTC license fee.

Best regards,

Jeff Muller

Director of Enterprise Cloud Platform

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10

You guys are ostracizing potential and current enterprise customers with this move :frowning:. If anyone owns a P1/M3E, or other high megapixel sensor and do not have the hardware to process on the desktop they are going to find another option that is cheaper. This move turns Pix4DCloud into the most expensive cloud processing solution with higher end sensors.
It is great that it does not cost credits (yet) to share stuff from Matic/Survey into Cloud though, I think that is a nice gesture.
In my experience with the trial, cloud processing deliverables are still lower quality than your cloud competitor DroneDeploy
 what is the reason to choose pix4dcloud for processing anymore? Other software has better 2D/3D resolution and is cheaper.

If your organization did not change the way cloud processing is charged you would have the 100% best enterprise ecosystem on the market.

11

Hi ccash,

I agree that if you use a P1 (45mpix), the cost of PIX4Dcloud will be higher than it was historically. As I said before we pay much more to process larger projects and larger images on the cloud, so it’s only fair we pass that cost on to you.

The M3E is another story though. The M3E camera has 20mpix resolution. It’s a global shutter camera and this drone is a worthy successor to the P4P. If I understand your use case, you use the M3E and you only care about an ortho, mesh or point cloud deliverable with no GCPs.

For this you can buy Cloud Basic for 1 year plus a 2500 credit package, you would pay 1589 USD annually. Less than 1/2 the price of the DD Individual subscription. This would be enough credits for 30 x 600 image projects with a M3E (2500 credit + 500 base → 3k credits). So if you do 2-3 projects per month this would serve you well. Need a few more projects, buy a few additional credits, as needed.

With Cloud Advanced, an annual subscription + a 10000 credit pack would cost 6489USD annually and allow 104 x 600 image projects over the course of a year (10000 + 2500 base → 12500 credits). Unlimited users, AutoGCP, timeline, volume tools. 9-10 projects per month. Need less projects or smaller projects, buy less credits and save money.

If you need GCP or volume tools you need to buy the DD Advanced which would 7200 / annually for one user.

As I mentioned before, the new PIX4Dcloud pricing is intended as a utility model. If you use less, you can pay less. Credits don’t expire unless your subscription lapses.

  • For smaller customers we believe this level of fine-grained cost control is what is needed.
  • For medium size customers, the pricing provides good value, relative to the competition.
  • For larger customers we also have enterprise pricing schemes which can potentially reduce the cost further.

We also provide desktop software (PIX4Dmatic or PIX4Dmapper). Here you can do unlimited processing on your desktop with fine-grained control of all processing options. A yearly subscription of PIX4Dmatic is almost 1000USD cheaper than the lowest DD Individual account.

Finally, I will say that we have some updates to our PIX4Dcloud meshing algorithms which should be available in Q4 that will improve that specific deliverable. This same update should also improve the point cloud and ortho generation as well.

Best regards,
Jeff
Director of Enterprise Cloud Platform

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