Swyvl vs Propeller
These are not the same product. Propeller is an end-to-end survey and earthworks system that a site owner or contractor buys: drone processing, ground control hardware, volumes and progress against design. Swyvl is for the surveyor or drone operator delivering any file type to many clients, organized by site and date, sent as one branded link that does not expire.
Everything below about Propeller 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 Propeller if you run the site and the numbers are the work. If you need stockpile volumes, cut/fill against the design, drone processing and ground control in one system for your own earthworks team, Propeller does things Swyvl does not do at all.
Choose Swyvl if the delivery is the work. If you fly or scan for many clients and each job ends with an orthomosaic, a point cloud, 360° photos, a drawing and a flight video that all have to reach someone who will not install anything or buy a seat, Swyvl opens every one of those in a browser and keeps them anchored to the site and the date.
The clearest practical differences: Propeller measures volumes and Swyvl does not, and Propeller processes your drone imagery while Swyvl starts from the processed outputs.
Being straight about it
Where Propeller is stronger
Five 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.
Volumes, stockpiles and cut/fill
Stockpile volumes with reports, cut/fill between any two surfaces, survey against design, takeoff maps and shrink/swell. This is what Propeller is bought for. Swyvl has no volume tool at all. It is on our roadmap, and until it ships Propeller is the answer for earthworks quantities.
Capture to processed survey in one system
Upload raw drone photos or LiDAR and get an orthophoto, terrain and point cloud back within a day. Swyvl does not process imagery. You need Pix4D, Metashape, DJI Terra or similar first.
Their own ground control hardware
AeroPoints record their own position and double as the PPK base station for a compatible drone. If accuracy you can prove is the job, Propeller sells the hardware and the workflow together. Swyvl has nothing in the field.
Progress against the design
Load the DXF, TTM, IFC or LandXML design and see what remains to reach it, on a timeline of surveys. Swyvl shows two captures side by side but does not compute the difference.
Built for the whole site team
Forty users included in the annual fee, stackable permissions per site, a mobile app that shows your live position against the design, and push-to integrations with Procore, Trimble Connect and Autodesk. Their footer also carries a SOC 2 Type 2 badge. Swyvl is not yet certified.
Where Swyvl is stronger
Mostly a question of who it is for. Propeller goes deep on one site's earthworks. Swyvl covers every file type a job produces and gets it to many clients.
Any file type, not just the survey surface
Propeller is built around orthophotos, terrain, point clouds and designs. On Swyvl the E57 laser scan with its 360° photos, the Gaussian splat, the XGRIDS scan, the drone video with its flight path and the PDF report sit next to the orthomosaic, each in its own viewer.
Made for the person delivering, to many clients
Propeller is usually the site owner's system. If you fly or scan for a dozen clients, each one gets their own share link with your logo on it, and none of them needs a Propeller account or a seat.
The link does not expire
Crew links default to 14 days. Swyvl share links stay live until you revoke them, which matters when a client comes back eighteen months later looking for the as-built.
A price you can read
Propeller publishes no platform prices. Swyvl is free to start, $49 a month for one person, $199 for a team of five, and the client who opens your link never costs anything.
You see who opened it
Every open, view, download, reply and approval is logged with the time and place. Useful when a client says they never got the survey.
You choose the region, on any plan
Eight named storage regions, picked at signup, and your files are stored in the one you chose. On Propeller, picking a country is a Scale tier option.
Side by side
Propeller details as published on their site and help center on 7 November 2026. Swyvl details are what ships today.
| Propeller | Swyvl | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is built for | An end-to-end survey and earthworks analytics system for construction, mining, aggregates and waste sites: capture, processing, volumes and progress against design, on one map. | Delivering everything a survey or drone job produces to many clients, anchored to the site and the date it was captured. |
| Who usually buys it | The site owner or contractor running the earthworks, on an annual platform subscription. | The surveyor or drone operator doing the work, from a free plan or $49 a month. |
| Processing drone imagery | Yes. Photogrammetry and LiDAR processing, results within 24 hours of upload, with an email when the survey is ready. | No. Swyvl takes what Pix4D, Metashape, DJI Terra or RealityScan exported and opens it in the browser. |
| Ground control and PPK | AeroPoints, their own smart ground control points, $1,000 USD per unit, which also act as the base station for a PPK workflow with a Propeller-compatible drone. | None. Swyvl starts after processing, with the outputs. |
| Volumes and earthworks | Stockpile volumes and reports, cut/fill between any two surfaces, survey against design, takeoff maps, shrink/swell, and material tonnage and cost reports. | No volume measurement. It is on our roadmap and not shipped. Point, distance, area and height work in every 3D and map viewer. |
| File types accepted | Raw drone imagery for processing. Designs as DXF, TTM, IFC, KML/KMZ, LandXML and PDF (500 MB limit). Pre-processed GeoTIFF orthophoto and DEM, TIN surfaces, LAS/LAZ point clouds. JPG and PNG photos and 360° images. E57, Gaussian splats and drone video uploads are not documented as of 7 November 2026. | Point clouds (LAS, LAZ, E57 and more), GeoTIFF orthomosaics, 3D models, Gaussian splats and XGRIDS scans, 360° photos and video, drone video with SRT telemetry, PDFs and images. 40+ file types in all. |
| Exports | DXF and OBJ models, GeoTIFF and JPEG orthophotos, LAZ 1.4 point clouds, DTM and DSM GeoTIFFs, DXF contours, GeoJSON and GCP CSV, plus PDF maps and timelapse and flythrough videos. | The files you uploaded, downloadable from a share link if you allow it. |
| Sharing | Invite people by email or invite link to a site, with stackable permissions (view, inspect, measure, export and more). View only is the default. Separately, Crew links open on any device with no install, for DXF layers, PDF overlays and volume measurements. | Share links that open in any browser with no account. Password or named-people access, changeable after the link has gone out, and revocable the same second. |
| How long the link lasts | Crew links expire after 14 days by default, and the expiry can be changed to any date or renewed. | No expiry. The link you sent last year still opens, unless you revoke it. |
| Users included | The annual platform fee includes 40 standard users, 4 TB of storage and unlimited sites, with more users or storage bought at renewal. | One editor seat on Solo, five on Team. Client viewers are unlimited and free on every plan. |
| Who opened what | Platform analytics for usage across an organization, and a CSV of who has access to a site. A per-link view log is not documented as of 7 November 2026. | Every open, view, download, reply and approval logged with the time and where it was opened from. |
| Your branding on the link | Not documented as of 7 November 2026. | Your logo and colors from the $49 plan up. |
| Organized by | Sites on a map, with surveys on a timeline and workspaces inside each site. | Physical sites on a map, each holding dated collections. Every capture is anchored to the place and the day. |
| Integrations and API | Push files to Trimble Connect, Procore, Autodesk BIM 360, Aconex, OneDrive and Autodesk Build, plus HCSS. A public API on their Scale tier. | None of those. API access is on request on Enterprise. |
| Where data is stored | Metadata in the US. Uploads are processed in Australia, then stored in the data center fastest for you, from a list of ten countries. Choosing a specific country is a Scale tier option. | Files are stored in one of eight regions chosen at signup, on every plan: Australia, US East, US West, UK, Europe, Canada, Japan and Singapore. The application database is a single central instance. |
| Price | No platform prices published as of 7 November 2026. An annual platform fee plus processing credit or unlimited packs. AeroPoints are priced on their site. | Published: free plan, then $49 and $199 a month in USD. |
| How you start | A 14-day free trial with no credit card, or a demo with sales. | Free plan, sign up yourself, no credit card. Paid plans bought online. |
Sources for the Propeller column: propelleraero.com, including the platform and AeroPoints pages, and their help center at help.propelleraero.com, read 7 November 2026. Some features, such as 360 walkthroughs and the API, are paid add-ons or Scale tier options on their side. Prices and plan limits change. Check theirs with them before deciding.
Which one fits your work
Keep Propeller if
- You own or run the site, and the survey feeds decisions about your own earthworks.
- You need stockpile volumes, cut/fill or progress against a design surface.
- You want drone processing, ground control and PPK from one supplier.
- Your site team lives in the data every week, on desktop and on the mobile app.
- You push survey files into Procore, Trimble Connect or Autodesk as routine.
Pick Swyvl if
- You are the surveyor or drone operator, delivering to many clients.
- Your jobs end with several file types: orthomosaics, point clouds, 360s, drawings, video.
- You already process in Pix4D, Metashape, DJI Terra or similar.
- Each client should open their delivery in a browser without an account or a seat.
- The link has to still work when they come back in two years.
- Your logo on the link matters and you want to see who opened it.
- You need to choose the country your files sit in, on any plan.
- You are one person, or a small team, and want a price on the website.
They are not mutually exclusive. A contractor can run its earthworks in Propeller while the survey firm it hires delivers scans, 360s and drawings to it, and to everyone else, through Swyvl.
Questions people ask about both
Can Swyvl calculate stockpile volumes?
No. Swyvl has point, distance, area and height measurement in every 3D and map viewer, on share links too, but no volume or cut/fill tool. Volume measurement is on our roadmap and has not shipped. If volumes are why you are looking, Propeller does them today. What Swyvl measures.
Does Swyvl process drone photos?
No. Swyvl opens what your processing software exported: orthomosaics, DEMs, point clouds, 3D models and the rest. Propeller processes raw photogrammetry and LiDAR data itself and says results arrive within 24 hours.
What does Propeller cost?
They do not publish platform prices. As of 7 November 2026 their help center describes an annual platform fee that includes 40 users, 4 TB of storage and unlimited sites, with processing bought as credit packs or unlimited packs. AeroPoints are listed at $1,000 USD each. Swyvl publishes its prices: free, $49 and $199 a month.
Can I share a survey with someone outside my company?
On both. Propeller invites people to a site by email or invite link with view-only access by default, and Crew links open on any device for DXF layers, PDF overlays and volume measurements, expiring after 14 days unless you change it. Swyvl share links open in any browser with no account, carry your logo on paid plans and do not expire.
Does Propeller handle 360° photos?
Yes. Their Media tab recognizes 360 images on upload and pins photos to the map, and a paid 360 walkthrough add-on captures with an Insta360 X5 or X6 and the Propeller mobile app. Swyvl opens 360° photos and 360° video from any camera, connects them into a walkthrough on the map, and extracts the 360s stored inside E57 scans.
Where is the data stored?
Swyvl stores your files in one of eight regions you choose at signup, on every plan. Propeller's help center says metadata sits in the US, uploads are processed in Australia, and geospatial data is stored in the data center fastest for you, with a specific country selectable on their Scale tier. If residency decides your purchase, ask both for the details in writing.
Send one link with the whole delivery on it
Upload last month's job, orthomosaic, scan, 360s and report, and see what your client opens. Free plan covers 5 GB, no credit card.