PointFoundry vs GIStance
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PointFoundry
Capture real-world spaces as detailed 3D point clouds using your device's LiDAR scanner. Explore, refine, and export your scans in industry-standard formats for various professional and creative applications.
- Real-time LiDAR point cloud capture
- Live 3D preview with depth-aware occlusion
- Interactive 3D viewer with touch controls
- Section cut planes for detailed analysis
- Export to PLY and XYZ formats
- Adjustable scan parameters (depth, density, cleaning)
- On-device processing, no cloud upload
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Turn the world around you into stunning 3D point clouds with just your iPhone or iPad. PointFoundry uses your device's built-in LiDAR scanner to capture real spaces as dense, colourful point clouds — millions of individual 3D points, each with real colour sampled from your camera. Walk through a room, scan a building facade, capture a sculpture. What you get back is a faithful digital replica made of pure geometry. SCAN Hit record and start moving. PointFoundry captures thousands of points per second while you walk, building your point cloud in real time. A live 3D preview shows exactly what you're capturing, with depth-aware occlusion so walls correctly hide what's behind them. Smart filters work silently in the background — rejecting noise, filtering grazing surfaces, and only keeping points that have been confirmed across multiple frames. The result is clean, accurate data straight out of the scanner. EXPLORE Open any scan in the interactive 3D viewer. Orbit, zoom, and pan through your point cloud with fluid touch controls. Switch between real colour, height gradient, depth mapping, and flat white rendering modes. Use section cut planes to slice through your scan on any axis — peel back walls, reveal cross-sections, isolate floors. EXPORT Share your scans as industry-standard PLY or XYZ files. Use them for engineering, architecture, surveying, VFX reference, digital preservation, or just because 3D scanning is genuinely fun. DIAL IT IN Fine-tune your scanning with adjustable depth range, point density, and cleaning strength. Capture tight detail at 1cm spacing or cover large areas faster at 5cm. Set your max depth from 0.5m to 5m. PointFoundry adapts to the job. Features at a glance: • Real-time LiDAR point cloud capture with live 3D preview • Depth-aware occlusion — walls hide rooms behind them • Confidence, surface normal, and temporal consistency filtering • Voxel-based deduplication for even point distribution • GPU-accelerated post-processing (smoothing & noise removal) • Interactive 3D viewer with orbit camera and touch gestures • Two colour modes: Real Colour, Height • Section cut planes on X, Y, and Z axes • Export to PLY and XYZ formats • Adjustable depth range, density, and cleaning strength • Scan management with thumbnails and file sizes • No account required. No cloud upload. Everything stays on your device. Requires iPhone or iPad with LiDAR scanner. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
GIStance
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GIStance turns an iPhone plus a connected GNSS receiver into a survey-grade field capture system for infrastructure, utility and construction crews. Centimeter-level positioning, georeferenced photo documentation, and 3D LiDAR scanning — captured on site, structured for the office. Built for FTTX rollout, utility networks and construction documentation, GIStance replaces the paper-notes-plus-consumer-camera workflow with a single tool that records where every asset is, what it looked like, and when it was captured. Precise positioning • Connect an external GNSS/RTK receiver for centimeter-level accuracy • Live fix status and accuracy readout before you record a point • Positions attached to every photo, measurement and scan Georeferenced photo documentation • Capture site photos with coordinates, timestamp and accuracy embedded • Tie documentation to project sections and construction phases • Consistent, auditable evidence for as-built records and billing 3D LiDAR scanning • Capture point clouds and meshes of trenches, structures and installations • Scans stored as measurement artifacts alongside points and photos Built for the field • Works with mapped basemaps for on-site orientation • Fast capture flow designed for gloved hands and daylight screens • Data queued and synced when connectivity allows Part of a documentation ecosystem Field captures sync to the FotoGIS asset hub and become available in the GISdoc office platform for project tracking, phase completion, plan-vs-actual comparison and report generation. What the crew captures on site is what the office works with — no manual re-entry. Who it's for • Field surveyors and rollout crews • Utility and network operators • Construction documentation and as-built teams Requirements GIStance requires a compatible external GNSS receiver for survey-grade accuracy and an active GISdoc/FotoGIS account. It is a professional B2B field tool, not a standalone consumer app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: GIStance at none against PointFoundry's 2. GIStance also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. PointFoundry sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. GIStance asks for nothing beyond the download.
PointFoundry ships an update every 3 months, GIStance weekly. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | PointFoundry | GIStance |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 17.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 6 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jaisah Webb | NGN IT-Solutions GmbH |
In-app purchases
PointFoundry
- PointFoundry Pro$9.991 Year
- PointFoundry Pro - Unlimited$29.99
GIStance
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is PointFoundry free?
Is GIStance free?
Do PointFoundry or GIStance have ads?
Which is updated more often, PointFoundry or GIStance?
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