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