7 Polycam Alternatives for Contractors, Free and Paid (2026)

What Polycam does well, and where contractors outgrow it

Polycam is one of the best capture apps you can put on a phone. It handles LiDAR scans, photo scans, Gaussian splats, and drone footage, and it runs on iPhone, Android, and the web. If you need a 3D record of a room as it stands today, it's hard to fault.

The friction for contractors starts after the scan. Floor plans, DXF export, and Polycam's AI spatial reports (room-by-room square footage, wall area, a fixture list) are Business-plan features, at $400 a year per user. The free plan gives you a limited number of captures and GLTF files. And no plan shows the client the finished remodel or puts a price on it. You get an accurate picture of the room as it is, then you carry the numbers somewhere else.

So choose an alternative by what you need to hand over. Most of these apps read the same iPhone LiDAR sensor, and the sensor's accuracy doesn't change with the app. The deliverable does: a priced proposal, a field report, a CAD file, a virtual tour, or a free 3D model. If a free scanner is all you're after, Scaniverse and KIRI Engine are #6 and #7.

1. Alcovia: when the scan has to sell the job

Alcovia picks up where Polycam stops. You scan the room with LiDAR on an iPhone Pro or iPad Pro, then redesign it with AI from a written prompt or the client's inspiration photo. You get a photorealistic render of that room, remodeled, and a client-ready PDF before you leave the house.

Pricing is per project, which changes the math against a per-seat subscription. Core is $49 a project with no monthly fee and covers the scan, an automatic floor plan, the 3D model, AI redesigns, and the photorealistic PDF. Growth, at $199 a project, adds a material takeoff and a project quote built from the same scan. If floor plans are all you want, Polycam's Business plan costs less once you pass about eight jobs a year per user. Below that, Core costs less, and the render comes with it.

The limits, plainly. Alcovia runs on iPhone and iPad only, with no Android app, and scanning needs the LiDAR sensor in a Pro model. It's built for rooms you're about to remodel, so it isn't the tool for object scans, drone captures, or point clouds headed into a BIM model. Keep Polycam for those. Alcovia is also in closed beta: you join the early-access list, and your first project is free.

Best for: remodelers who want the scan to end in a proposal the client can sign. Feature by feature in Alcovia vs Polycam.

2. magicplan: floor plans, field reports, and estimates

If what you want from a scan is a measured floor plan, magicplan is the closest swap. It draws the plan as you walk the room, uses LiDAR on iPhone and iPad Pro models, and has an Android app too. Photos, 360° images, notes, and checklists attach to the job, and it builds estimates with quantities filled in from the plan.

These days its center of gravity is restoration and insurance work: Xactimate integration, moisture readings, field reports. Pricing follows that crowd. Plans are sold by project volume, starting at 10 new projects a month, with unlimited users and two free projects to start. Unused projects roll over, which helps, but a small remodeling shop still pays for capacity it may not use.

What magicplan won't do is show a client the finished room. It measures and documents the space as it is, and it does that well.

Best for: restoration crews and contractors whose deliverable is a measured plan and an estimate that holds up. Details in Alcovia vs magicplan.

3. Twindo (formerly Canvas): CAD files drawn for you

If you scan rooms so you can draw them in Chief Architect, SketchUp, or Revit, look at Twindo, the new name for Occipital's Canvas. You scan with a LiDAR iPhone or iPad Pro, and Twindo sends back editable CAD or BIM files. AI does the first pass, and a human modeler reviews every file before it reaches you.

That's the difference from Polycam's DXF export. Polycam gives you a floor plan and a mesh to build from. Twindo gives you the model, built and checked, and stops there: no remodel render, no estimate.

You pay by the square foot. The free Starter plan covers up to two projects a month, with 2D floor plans at $0.18 a square foot and 3D CAD models at $0.26. A 1,500-square-foot first floor comes to $270 as a 2D plan or $390 as a 3D model. The paid Essentials plan lowers those rates.

Best for: design-build remodelers and architects who would rather not draft existing conditions by hand.

4-5. Matterport and HOVER: tours and exteriors

Matterport is built around the walkthrough: a 3D tour a client, adjuster, or buyer can open in a browser. Its app captures with an iPhone or Android phone (using LiDAR where the phone has it), a 360° camera, or Matterport's own cameras. The free plan keeps one active space. Paid plans scale with how many spaces you keep live, and floor plans and CAD files are extra purchases. For contractors it pays off on documentation and before-and-after records more than on design or pricing.

HOVER belongs here if some of your scanning happens outside. It builds a measured 3D model of a home's exterior from a handful of phone photos, covering roof, siding, windows, doors, and gutters. It has also added interior scans that return floor plans and measurements, priced per scan: $29 for a room under 200 square feet on the pay-as-you-go plan. Our HOVER alternatives guide covers it in depth.

Best for: Matterport when the tour is the deliverable. HOVER when the work is roofs, siding, and windows.

6-7. Free Polycam alternatives: Scaniverse and KIRI Engine

Two apps give you real 3D capture for nothing. Scaniverse, from Niantic Spatial, captures and processes Gaussian splats and meshes on the phone itself, with no limit on captures. It runs on iPhone and Android, doesn't need LiDAR, and exports PLY, GLB, FBX, and SPZ files. Paid plans add cloud processing and team features, but the free app does the core job.

KIRI Engine's free plan includes unlimited scans and exports, up to 150 photos per scan, with photo and object modes on iPhone, Android, and the web, plus a LiDAR mode on iPhone and iPad Pro models. Pro, at $79.99 a year, raises the photo limit and adds mesh-from-splat scans and PBR materials.

Neither app prices a job or shows a remodel. You get a 3D model. Across this list, the part a contractor bills from (a floor plan, a CAD file, an estimate) is usually the part you pay for. So the better test drive is a paid tool's free start: Polycam's 7-day Business trial, two free projects on magicplan, three on HOVER, one active space on Matterport's free plan, and your first project on Alcovia.

How to pick the right Polycam alternative

Start with what leaves your hands after the scan. A measured plan and estimate for a restoration job: magicplan. A CAD model your designer works in: Twindo. A tour for a client or adjuster: Matterport. Exterior measurements: HOVER. A free 3D record: Scaniverse or KIRI Engine. And if you need Polycam's raw capture, meaning point clouds, drone models, and object scans, keep Polycam. Nothing on this list covers as many capture types.

If what leaves your hands is a remodel the client can see, with a price attached, that's the job Alcovia was built for. It's the only app here that takes a LiDAR scan to a photorealistic render of the remodeled room and a client-ready proposal. Running two tools is reasonable too: Polycam or Matterport for the record, Alcovia for the sale.

Whichever app you choose, how you scan affects the numbers. Our guide to scanning a room with an iPhone applies to all of them, and magicplan vs Polycam vs Alcovia puts the three LiDAR apps side by side.