Swyvl vs Cintoo
These are not the same product. Cintoo is a scan-to-BIM and digital twin platform for laser-scanning teams, with scan against model heat maps and deep Autodesk and Procore integration. Swyvl is a delivery platform and site record for everything a survey or drone job produces, sent as one branded link that does not expire.
Everything below about Cintoo comes from their own website and public help center, read on 7 November 2026. We have not tested their product. Where we could not confirm something, the page says so rather than guessing.
The short answer
Keep Cintoo if the scan is checked against a model. If your team runs BIM against scan deviation analysis, tracks progress against design, or works large terrestrial scanning projects inside Autodesk and Procore, Cintoo does things Swyvl does not do at all.
Choose Swyvl if the delivery is the work. If a job ends with a point cloud, an orthomosaic, drone video, a set of 360° photos and a drawing that all have to reach a client who will not install anything, Swyvl opens every one of those in a browser and keeps them anchored to the site and the date.
The clearest practical differences: Cintoo compares scans with BIM models and Swyvl does not, and Swyvl carries orthomosaics, drone video and splats alongside the scan, which Cintoo does not document as upload types.
Being straight about it
Where Cintoo is stronger
Six things they do that we either do worse or do not do. If any of these decide your purchase, they are the better buy and you should not take our word for the rest.
Scan against BIM, measured
Cintoo puts a heat map over scan and model and colors what sits outside the tolerance you set, with issue tracking and progress monitoring alongside. If deviation analysis is the job, this is the core of their product. Swyvl does not compute differences at all.
Built into Autodesk and Procore workflows
Models come in from BIM 360 and ACC with their hierarchy and metadata, Revit positioning is respected, and notes and issues push to Procore as Observations. Add the Esri widget, BIM Track and open APIs. Swyvl has no integrations.
A survey-grade measurement set
Axis-locked measurements, Disto, pipe center and diameter, polyline and stereo measurement between two panoramas. Swyvl has point, distance, area and height, and no volume or cross-sections.
Large TLS projects, streamed as mesh
Their TurboMesh conversion turns registered scans into lightweight meshes for streaming, with teleport navigation between scan positions and a VR app. It is designed for many-scan projects worked on by large teams.
More hosting choices, and the audits
Eighteen project hosting regions across three clouds, a Hybrid Cloud option on your own Azure or AWS, ISO 27001 and an annual SOC 2 Type 2 audit. Swyvl offers eight regions. If your procurement checklist asks for these, ask both of us in writing.
Unlimited collaborators
Cintoo describes its model as unlimited users and project collaborators. Swyvl prices editor seats, though the clients who open your links are always free.
Where Swyvl is stronger
Mostly a question of scope. Cintoo goes deep on scan and model. Swyvl covers the whole delivery and what happens to it afterwards.
The whole deliverable, not just the scan
Cintoo's upload documentation covers scans, models and office documents. A survey or drone job also produces an orthomosaic, flight video, 360° photos and sometimes a splat or an XGRIDS scan. On Swyvl they sit in one link, each in the viewer built for it.
E57 360s beside the cloud
Upload an E57 with its 360° photos and each photo opens side by side with the point cloud. Sync view turns both together, a click walks you to the next photo in both, and a note pinned on the photo lands on the 3D point it shows.
Notes that carry to the next scan
Notes belong to the place. When your scans are georeferenced, a note from this year shows at the same spot on next year’s scan of the site, labeled with where it was made, so open items do not get lost between visits.
No desktop app to upload
Cintoo Connect, the uploader for scans, is a Windows application. Swyvl uploads from any modern browser, up to 100 GB per file, and has been tested with E57s of over 450 million points.
Clients reply, and you see who opened it
People you invite by email reply on notes for free, with photos and a sketch, and every open and download is logged. Neither is documented for Cintoo share links, which are view-only.
A price you can read
Cintoo publishes no prices. Swyvl is free to start, $49 a month for one person, and the client who opens your link never costs a seat.
Side by side
Cintoo details as published on their site and help center on 7 November 2026. Swyvl details are what ships today.
| Cintoo | Swyvl | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is built for | A reality-capture platform for scan-to-BIM and digital twins. Laser scans are turned into streamable meshes and compared with BIM and CAD models. | Delivering everything a survey or drone job produces, anchored to the site and the date it was captured. |
| Scan file types | Structured, registered scans as RCP, FARO FLS or LSPROJ, and E57. Unstructured mobile scans as E57, LAS, LAZ and PLY. Point clouds export as E57, POD, RCS and RCP. | LAS, LAZ, E57, PTX, PTS, XYZ and PLY, streamed in the browser at full size. Point clouds converted from E57 keep 1 mm precision. |
| Other file types | BIM and CAD models (IFC, DWG, JT, STEP, NWD, OBJ, RVT), 2D CAD, and documents attached to the project: Office files, PDF and images. Orthomosaics as maps, drone video, Gaussian splats and XGRIDS scans are not documented as upload types as of 7 November 2026. | GeoTIFF orthomosaics on a map, 360° photos and video, drone video with SRT telemetry, Gaussian splats, XGRIDS LCC and LCC2, 3D Tiles, IFC, DXF and DWG, GIS vectors, PDFs and images. 40+ file types in 14 viewers. |
| How scans get in | Through Cintoo Connect, a Windows application that processes scans before upload. Models and documents upload in the web app. | Straight from the browser, up to 100 GB per file, in parallel chunks that resume if the connection drops. |
| 360° imagery | Panoramas from structured scans, viewed at each scan position, with teleport navigation between them. 360 video from a certified Ricoh THETA X, aligned to scans and models, is a paid add-on (360 Edition). | The 360° photos inside an E57, including Leica and Matterport cube-face 360s, open side by side with the point cloud, with Sync view and click to walk in both. Standalone 360° photos and 360° video have their own viewers. |
| Scan against BIM | A Visual Difference heat map of scan against model, with a tolerance you set. Issue tracking and progress monitoring are part of BIM Coordination. | None. Swyvl shows captures side by side but does not compute the difference. |
| Measurement | Freehand, axis-locked X, Y and Z, Disto, Pipe (center and diameter), Surface, Polyline, and Stereo between two panoramas. | Point, distance, area and height, in every 3D and map viewer, on the hub and on share links. No volume or cross-sections. |
| Notes on the next scan | Annotations live in the project. Carrying them from one scan of a site to the next is not documented as of 7 November 2026. | A note belongs to the place, not the file: when both scans are georeferenced, a note pinned on this scan shows at the same spot on the next one, in your workspace. |
| Link sharing | Share links are view-only. A password and a 14-day expiry are on by default, and either can be changed or switched off. Optionally limited to project members. | Public link opens with no account. Password or named-people access, changeable after the link has gone out, and revocable the same second. No expiry. |
| Can the recipient download? | Not documented for share links as of 7 November 2026. Their help center says recipients cannot edit or save what they see. | Yes, if you allow it. View and download sit side by side on every file. |
| Can the recipient reply? | Not documented for share links. Project members work with annotations and issues inside the project. | People you invite by email reply on notes for free, with no account to set up, and can add photos and a sketch. |
| Who opened what | Not documented in their public help center as of 7 November 2026. | Every open, view, download and reply logged with the time, the file and the location, and kept for two years. |
| Integrations | Import models from Autodesk BIM 360 and ACC with hierarchy and metadata, push notes and issues to Procore as Observations, BIM Track, an Esri ArcGIS Experience Builder widget, a VR app and open APIs and SDKs. | None. Swyvl reads what your CAD or processing software exported. |
| Organized by | Projects divided into work zones. | Physical sites on a map, each holding dated collections. Every capture is anchored to the place and the day. |
| Storage regions | Chosen per project from 18 named regions on AWS, Azure and Google, plus a Hybrid Cloud option that keeps files in your own Azure or AWS. Account metadata in the US, EU or Canada. Other regions on request, with possible extra fees. | Eight named regions on every plan: Australia, US East, US West, UK, Europe, Canada, Japan and Singapore, chosen at signup. The application database (file names, notes, comments) is a single central instance. |
| Price | No published prices as of 7 November 2026. BIM and Twin editions, with the 360 Edition as an add-on. They describe unlimited users and project collaborators. | Published: free plan, then $49 and $199 a month in USD. One seat on the entry plan, and client viewers are always free. |
| How you start | A 30-day free trial set up by their team on request, or a demo. | Free plan, sign up yourself, no credit card. Paid plans bought online. |
Sources for the Cintoo column: cintoo.com and their help center at help.cintoo.com, read 7 November 2026. Some Cintoo features sit in specific editions or add-on modules, and their help center does not always say which. Prices and plan limits change. Check theirs with them before deciding.
Which one fits your work
Keep Cintoo if
- You check as-built scans against BIM models for deviation, and the heat map is the deliverable.
- You track construction progress against design over many scan sessions.
- Your projects are large terrestrial scanning jobs with many registered setups.
- Your team lives in Autodesk Construction Cloud, Revit, Navisworks or Procore.
- You need pipe, Disto or stereo measurement, or a VR walkthrough of the scan.
- Procurement needs ISO 27001, SOC 2 or a specific hosting region from a long list.
Pick Swyvl if
- A job ends with several file types and one client who will not install anything.
- You send orthomosaics, drone video, 360° photos or drawings as well as scans.
- Your E57s carry 360° photos and you want them beside the point cloud.
- You scan the same site again and want last visit’s notes waiting on the new scan.
- Your client has to be able to reply on the spot without buying a seat.
- The link has to still work when they come back in two years.
- You upload from a Mac, or anywhere without a Windows app.
- You are one person, or a small team, and want a price on the website.
They are not mutually exclusive. A team can run scan against BIM checks in Cintoo and still need one link that carries the whole job, scans, orthomosaics, video and drawings, to the client.
Questions people ask about both
Do both handle 360° photos from a laser scanner?
Yes, in different ways. Cintoo shows the panoramas from structured scans at each scan position and lets you teleport between them, and measure between two panoramas. Swyvl opens the 360° photos inside an E57 side by side with the point cloud, stitches Leica and Matterport cube-face 360s, and lets you pin a note on the photo that lands on the scan. Why E57 with 360s.
Can I compare a scan with a BIM model in Swyvl?
Not as a deviation analysis. Swyvl opens IFC models in a BIM viewer and point clouds in their own viewer, but it does not compute the difference between them. Cintoo's Visual Difference heat map does exactly that, and it is the main reason to keep Cintoo.
What does Cintoo cost?
They do not publish prices. As of 7 November 2026 their site offers a demo or a 30-day free trial set up by their team, with BIM and Twin editions and a 360 Edition add-on. Swyvl publishes its prices: free, $49 and $199 a month.
Do share links expire?
On Cintoo, by default, after 14 days, and a password is on by default too. You can change or switch off both. Swyvl links have no expiry and stay live until you revoke them, with a password or named-people access when you want one.
Can my client measure on a link from either one?
On Cintoo, measurements can be shared on a link if the creator's role allows it. On Swyvl, point, distance, area and height are on every share link, and your team can save a measurement as a note for an invited client to reply to. How notes work.
Where is the data stored?
Cintoo lets you pick a hosting region per project from a list of 18 across AWS, Azure and Google, or keep files in your own cloud. Swyvl stores your files in one of eight regions you choose at signup, on every plan. If residency decides your purchase, ask both for the detail in writing.
Send one link with the whole delivery on it
Upload last month's job, scan, orthomosaic, 360s and drawings, and see what your client opens. Free plan covers 5 GB, no credit card.