Comparison
A simpler FARO WebShare alternative
WebShare is FARO's cloud for FARO workflows. If you just need clients to open scans in a browser, without the enterprise wrapper, here is how ViewerFX compares.
FARO WebShare, now part of the FARO Sphere platform, publishes scan projects to the web with panoramic scan positions, measurements and project structure. For firms running FARO scanners and SCENE, it is the path of least resistance, and its scan-position navigation is a real strength for facility and plant documentation.
We build ViewerFX, so read this as our perspective, and verify FARO's current products and pricing with FARO, since the platform has evolved and enterprise pricing is rarely public. The short version of the difference: WebShare is an ecosystem product bought through a sales channel, ViewerFX is a link you can have working this afternoon for free.
What WebShare does
WebShare hosts registered scan projects from the FARO pipeline and presents them with panorama views from each scan position, plus measurement and markup, with user and project administration for teams. It assumes SCENE processing upstream and is licensed as a cloud subscription arranged with FARO or a dealer. If your organization needs many users working inside structured projects with IT oversight, that structure is the point.
What ViewerFX does differently
ViewerFX drops the ecosystem requirement and the sales cycle. Any scanner, any processing software, as long as it exports LAS or LAZ. Upload, get a link, send it. The viewer streams the actual point cloud, so your client orbits and measures the real geometry rather than hopping between panorama bubbles.
- Free tier: 2GB and two stored files with every feature, shares carry a small ViewerFX badge. No card, no call.
- Paid from $29 a month, self-serve, sized by storage only. Measurement, annotations, password links and unlimited free viewers on every tier.
- White-label at $199, not behind an enterprise contract, if you want links under your own brand.
Side by side
| Dimension | ViewerFX | FARO WebShare / Sphere |
|---|---|---|
| Buying | Self-serve, free to start | Sales or dealer channel, verify current terms |
| Upstream requirements | Any software that exports LAS or LAZ | FARO pipeline, typically SCENE |
| Viewing model | Streaming point cloud, orbit anywhere | Scan-position panoramas plus point data |
| Client requirements | A browser, no account | A browser, project access per their model |
| Team administration | Minimal by design, one workspace and links | Real project and user administration |
| Link lifetime | Never expires while your account is active | Per their current policy |
Who each one is for
Keep WebShare if you are a FARO shop documenting facilities at scale, your clients navigate by walking scan positions, and your organization needs the administrative structure. It is built for exactly that, and for that shape of work the panorama-first navigation is genuinely better.
Pick ViewerFX if the deliverable is the cloud itself and the audience is a client, engineer or owner who needs to see and measure it without ceremony. Surveying deliverables, topo work, as-builts heading to a design team, drone captures, one-off scan jobs. For that work, an enterprise platform is overhead, and a link is the product.
How to decide
Export one job as LAZ and open it in the free browser viewer right now, no account. If the viewing experience covers what your clients need, a free account gives you a real share link today and plans from $29 when you need more room. If your clients need scan-position walkthroughs of complex facilities, stay with the FARO stack.
Share your next point cloud as a link
Upload a LAS or LAZ and send your client an interactive viewer. No installs on their end, no per-seat fees, links that never expire.