Alternatives to COLMAP

Photogrammetry pipeline that turns a set of photographs into camera poses and a dense 3D model. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as COLMAP.

  • WebODM

    Turn aerial photographs into maps and 3D reconstructions.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinuxSelf-hostedWeb

    WebODM targets aerial photographs, produces maps, point clouds, elevation data and textured models, and can run self-hosted or on the web under AGPL-3.0.

  • Meshroom

    Arrange image and 3D processing tasks as connected nodes.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsLinux

    Meshroom arranges image and 3D processing as connected nodes with cached results, runs on Windows and Linux, and depends on installed plugins.

  • RealityScan

    Photogrammetry software from Epic Games that builds detailed 3D models from photos and laser scans.

    FreemiumProprietaryWindowsAndroidiOS

    RealityScan from Epic Games handles photos and laser scans with GPU acceleration and a mobile capture app, but is closed source with a Windows-only desktop version.

  • Polycam

    A 3D scanning app that turns phone captures and drone footage into 3D models and floor plans.

    FreemiumProprietaryAndroidiOSWeb

    Polycam is a proprietary freemium scanning app for phones and the web that also generates floor plans and CAD and BIM exports, with paid plans.

Also worth comparing

These listings name COLMAP as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • KIRI Engine

    A 3D scanning app that builds models from phone photos, LiDAR and Gaussian splatting.

    FreemiumProprietaryAndroidiOSWeb

    COLMAP is free and open source under BSD-3-Clause and runs on your own Windows, macOS or Linux machine, but reconstruction is slow and needs a capable GPU.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.