Comparison
Potree without the self-hosting
Potree is the open-source standard for point clouds in the browser, and it is genuinely good. The hard part was never the rendering. It is everything around it.
Let us start with credit where it is due. Potree, which grew out of research at TU Wien, is the reason everyone now expects point clouds to just work in a browser. It is free, open source, renders beautifully, and if you are technical and want to own every piece of your stack, you can absolutely build your sharing workflow on it. Plenty of firms have.
What people discover after the demo is that rendering was maybe a fifth of the job. To actually hand a client a link, you become responsible for a pipeline: run PotreeConverter on every dataset, put the octree output somewhere on the web, stand up and pay for a server or bucket, wire up HTTPS, think about who can access what, and keep all of it alive for as long as the client might click the link. None of that is hard once. All of it is toil forever.
What self-hosting Potree actually involves
- Converting every LAS or LAZ with PotreeConverter before anyone can view it
- Hosting the converted output, with storage and bandwidth on your bill
- TLS, domains and a web server, kept patched
- Access control you build yourself if a dataset is sensitive
- Measurement and annotation features you configure or code around the viewer
- Being the help desk when a link does not open on someone's laptop
If you have a developer on staff and steady volume, that tradeoff can be rational. You pay in time instead of subscription, and you own everything. If you are a surveyor or a small scanning shop, it is a second job you did not bid.
What ViewerFX is
ViewerFX is that whole pipeline, run for you. You upload the raw LAS or LAZ, conversion to a streaming format happens automatically, and out comes a link with measurement, spot elevations, annotations, optional passwords and revocation built in. Storage, bandwidth, HTTPS and uptime are our problem.
- Free tier: 2GB and two stored files, every feature, no card. Free shares carry a small ViewerFX badge.
- Paid from $29 a month by storage, with unlimited free viewers and links that never expire while your account is active.
Side by side
| Dimension | ViewerFX | Self-hosted Potree |
|---|---|---|
| Software cost | Free tier, then flat monthly | Free and open source |
| Real cost | The subscription | Your time, plus hosting and bandwidth |
| Conversion | Automatic on upload | You run PotreeConverter per dataset |
| Passwords and revocation | Built in, per link | You build it |
| Customization depth | Branding on paid tiers, white-label at Business | Unlimited, it is your code |
| Who fixes it at 5pm Friday | Us | You |
Who should genuinely self-host
Teams with development capacity, unusual requirements the products do not cover, strict data-residency rules, or enough volume that a subscription would exceed an engineer's attention. Also anyone who simply enjoys owning the stack. Potree is great, and if that is you, use it with our respect.
Everyone else is usually asking a narrower question: can my client open this scan tonight, measure what they need, and can I stop thinking about it. That is a hosted-product question.
Try the hosted version
The free browser viewer opens a local LAS or LAZ instantly with no account, which is also a fair preview of the rendering. A free account turns a file into a real share link in a few minutes, and plans from $29 take over when the work scales. Keep Potree in your back pocket. If we ever stop earning the subscription, it will still be there, and honestly, that keeps us sharp.
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.