Best Software for Sharing Drone Maps and Site Data With Your Team (2026)

TL;DR: The best software for sharing drone maps with your team depends on how many colleagues only need to look. Birdi (birdi.io) puts drone, 360, design and document data in one map, with guests who use no seat. PIX4Dcloud includes unlimited users, Site Scan allows unlimited read-only users, and Propeller's platform fee includes 40 standard users.

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Key takeaways

• The question that matters is who needs a paid seat. Most colleagues only look at the map: the project manager before a site meeting, the estimator checking quantities, the executive before a board report.
• Included users vary widely. Birdi's Growth plan includes 5 users plus 50 guests who use no seat, PIX4Dcloud includes unlimited users on every plan, and Propeller's annual fee includes 40 standard users.
• A view-only role does not mean the same thing everywhere. On Propeller, a new user starts at "View only", which hides measurements, designs and reports. A DroneDeploy View Only member, by contrast, sees annotations but cannot change or export anything.
• Drone data is mostly for people who never fly. According to Associated Builders and Contractors, 80.8% of member firms that fly drones use them for site progress monitoring, and 77.5% for marketing and media.

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Why is sharing drone maps across a team harder than it should be?

Sharing drone maps is hard for three reasons. The files are huge, the formats need specialist software, and most of the people who need the map are not the people who fly or process it. An orthomosaic can run to gigabytes, a point cloud needs a 3D viewer, and nobody checking progress should need GIS training.

Think about who opens a progress map on a construction project in a normal month. The site engineer flew it. After that, the project manager needs it for the site meeting, the site manager checks what changed, and the estimator checks quantities. Meanwhile, the design manager compares it with the drawings, an executive wants a view before the board report, and marketing wants an image. On a mine, the surveyor, the planner, the geotechnical engineer and the finance team reconciling stockpiles all need the same survey.

Email breaks first. According to Google, Gmail's limit is 25 MB per message, and larger files turn into a Drive link. A Drive link to a GeoTIFF, though, only helps a colleague who has software to open it. So most teams move to a web platform, where the map opens in a browser and the platform handles the size.

The cost of getting this wrong is not only time. According to a 2021 study by Autodesk and FMI, "bad data", including data that is inaccessible or untimely, cost the global construction industry $1.85 trillion in 2020. A progress map that the project manager can't open on the morning of a site meeting is exactly that kind of data.

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What should you look for in software for sharing drone maps with your team?

Look at six things: who needs a paid seat, what a colleague without one can do, which roles exist, which data types sit in one view, how you keep sites or departments apart, and what administrators control. The first two decide the cost of sharing. The last one decides whether your IT team will accept it.

In practice, a team has three kinds of user. Makers fly, process, upload and measure, so they need a full user. Contributors check the map against the design, measure and comment. Viewers check progress, pull an image or download an export. Most teams have a few makers and many viewers, so the cost of sharing depends on what each platform charges for that last group.

The permission a viewer gets matters as much as the price. Some view-only roles show the map but hide measurements and designs. Others let a colleague measure, comment or download. For that reason, every entry below states the paid users first, then how a colleague without a paid seat gets in and what they can do.

Structure and control come next. A builder may keep each project apart, and a mining company each site. So check whether you can limit who sees what, and whether single sign-on (SSO) is available on the plan you would buy. This guide covers sharing inside your own organization. Delivering drone data to your own clients is a different job, with its own needs such as branding and client separation.

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The best software for sharing drone maps and site data with your team in 2026

Six platforms are worth comparing for sharing site data with a team: Birdi, PIX4Dcloud, Site Scan for ArcGIS, Propeller, DroneDeploy and GeoNadir. They are not ranked, because they differ most on how many colleagues a plan covers and what someone without a paid seat can do. Every fact below comes from each vendor's own documentation, checked in September 2026.

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1. Birdi

Best for: construction and mining teams where most of the people who need the site data never fly or process it.

Typical customer size / segment: construction and mining firms of roughly 30 to 500 staff.

Key strengths:

• One map for drone maps, point clouds, 360 photos, video, design files and PDFs, so nobody hunts through folders.
• Comments anywhere on the map, with @ tagging that notifies a colleague in the workspace straight away.
• DJI FlightHub 2 flight media syncs into a workspace automatically, on a FlightHub 2 Business plan or higher, so the pilot doesn't upload it by hand.

Paid users: 5 on Growth; Ultimate is sized by quote.

Access for people outside the paid team: colleagues join as guests, who view every map in a workspace and download outputs without using a seat (50 on Growth). A public map link needs no login.

Roles and admin: four roles, from organization admin to guest, and separate workspaces per department or site that share one plan's seats and storage. SSO through SAML or OIDC is available on Ultimate, at an added monthly cost.

Data types in one view: drone maps, point clouds, 3D Tiles, 360 photos, video, design files and PDFs.

Processing: cloud.

Watch-outs: it suits teams sharing site data widely, not a GIS analyst who needs a full desktop GIS. Analysts keep ArcGIS Pro or QGIS and bring their outputs in.

Pricing: Growth $287 a month billed annually; Ultimate by quote. Checked September 21, 2026.

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2. PIX4Dcloud

Best for: survey and engineering teams that process in Pix4D and want the whole company able to open the results.

Typical customer size / segment: individuals to small and medium teams on Starter and Pro, by Pix4D's own plan descriptions, and large teams on Enterprise.

Key strengths:

• Unlimited users on every plan, "included at no extra charge".
• Share links that let a colleague view and measure without an account.
• Site progress tracking and DXF and IFC design overlays on Pro.

Paid users: unlimited on every plan.

Access for people outside the paid team: "view and measure only" links open without logging in, and measurements made through them are discarded on refresh. "Edit and save" links keep annotations.

Roles and admin: team access control and SSO are listed on Enterprise.

Data types in one view: maps, elevation models, point clouds, meshes, and DXF and IFC overlays. 360 panoramas are not a supported input.

Processing: cloud, on credits, with desktop processing in PIX4Dmatic.

Watch-outs: it shares photogrammetry outputs rather than a whole project's documents, photos and walkthroughs. Finer control over who sees which project sits on Enterprise.

Pricing: Starter $1,290 and Pro $4,490 a year; Enterprise by quote. Checked September 21, 2026.

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3. Site Scan for ArcGIS (Esri)

Best for: organizations that already run ArcGIS and want drone data shared through it.

Typical customer size / segment: agencies, utilities, and engineering and construction firms with an ArcGIS organization.

Key strengths:

• Unlimited read-only users that don't count against licenses.
• Drone outputs land where the GIS team already works.

Paid users: licensed users, which Esri counts as Access and Operator licenses, by quote.

Access for people outside the paid team: Esri says every Site Scan organization "can invite an unlimited number of Read-Only users", who do not use a license. Outputs can also be shared as ArcGIS web maps and layers.

Roles and admin: Administrator, Full-Access and Read-Only roles, with sign-in through the organization's ArcGIS Online account. ArcGIS administrators can restrict who shares content publicly.

Data types in one view: orthos, meshes and point clouds, alongside everything else in ArcGIS.

Processing: cloud, or desktop in ArcGIS Drone2Map.

Watch-outs: everyone signs in with an ArcGIS Online account from the organization, so for a team without ArcGIS it adds a second platform to learn.

Pricing: by quote from Esri.

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4. Propeller

Best for: earthworks, mining and quarry teams that want to set exactly what each colleague can see and do.

Typical customer size / segment: contractors, mines and quarries. Its annual platform fee is sized for a site team rather than a single pilot.

Key strengths:

• Stackable permissions per site, granted to a person or to a whole team.
• One invite link can carry a chosen permission level.

Paid users: 40 standard users and unlimited sites in the annual platform fee, with more users added at renewal after the first year.

Access for people outside the paid team: colleagues are invited by link or email and start at "View only", which shows the map but "cannot see measurements, designs, or reports." Inspect, Measure and Export can be added one by one.

Roles and admin: anyone with Manage Access sets permissions per site, per person or per team. Colleagues can also request access, which an admin approves.

Data types in one view: surveys, point clouds, designs, KML and 360 photos.

Processing: cloud.

Watch-outs: a colleague who needs measurements needs more than the default view, and there is no public price.

Pricing: by quote. Checked September 21, 2026.

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5. DroneDeploy

Best for: construction teams that want capture, 360 walks and links into Procore and Autodesk in one platform.

Typical customer size / segment: from single pilots to large general contractors.

Key strengths:

• Projects shared member by member, so each colleague sees only the maps shared with them.
• Sharing from the web app and the mobile app.
• Integrations with Procore, Autodesk Build, BIM 360, Esri, SharePoint and Box.

Paid users: team plans are sized by quote; the individual Flight & Analysis plan is a single admin user license.

Access for people outside the paid team: every paid plan can share a view-only link to one map date, with no login. However, inviting a colleague without a paid subscription into a project needs an Enterprise organization.

Roles and admin: Admin, Edit and View Only. A View Only member sees the map, 3D model and existing annotations but cannot change, upload or export anything. DroneDeploy says Enterprise customers "can enable SSO and role-based access controls."

Data types in one view: maps, 3D models, panoramas, 360 walks and BIM overlays.

Processing: cloud.

Watch-outs: organization user management is for Organization Admins and Enterprise account holders, and team prices are not published.

Pricing: team plans by quote; Flight & Analysis $4,188 a year for one user. Checked September 21, 2026.

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6. GeoNadir

Best for: environmental and rehabilitation teams sharing drone and satellite evidence across an organization.

Typical customer size / segment: individuals and small teams on self-serve plans, with custom plans for mining and large environmental teams.

Key strengths:

• Drone and satellite imagery together, with change over time.
• Volumes, heights, change detection and NDVI on Professional.

Paid users: up to 5 on Professional.

Access for people outside the paid team: unlimited guests on Professional, and projects can be shared for viewing and commenting.

Roles and admin: each project is shared for viewing and commenting or, as a separate option, for editing. Custom plans cover larger teams.

Data types in one view: drone and satellite imagery.

Processing: cloud.

Watch-outs: it is built around environmental change and compliance evidence, not construction progress or design overlays.

Pricing: free Essentials plan; Professional $84 a month (USD). Checked September 21, 2026.

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What about tools built for one operator or another job?

Three tools that appear in searches for drone map sharing are built for other needs. WebODM Lightning is low-cost processing for individual pilots, Nova serves public safety teams, and Equator helps civil teams source existing site data. Each can be the right answer, but for a different reader than a construction or mining team sharing its own site data.

• WebODM Lightning: cloud processing "for drone pilots", from $24 a month billed yearly, with share links to maps and 3D models. Pay-as-you-go projects use temporary storage, which WebODM cut from 14 to 10 days in June 2026.
• Nova (MapNova): drone mapping built for fire, rescue and law enforcement teams, with orthomosaics and real-time sharing for incidents.
• Equator: mapping and design software with built-in datasets such as lidar, contours and parcels, used by civil engineers and architects to find site data before anything is flown.

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How should you share site data with each person on the team?

Match the access to the job. Give a full seat to whoever flies, processes or measures, and a role with comments to those who check the map against the design. Everyone who only needs to see progress can use a guest or view-only role. Send the file itself to anyone who works in their own GIS or CAD software.

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For teams that work across several sites or departments, one workspace or project per site keeps access simple, because each person sees only what they need. For a short walkthrough in Birdi, watch the video on sharing maps.

Check where the project team already works, too. If it lives in Procore or Autodesk Build, DroneDeploy and Propeller both document integrations with them, and that can matter more than any viewer feature.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I share a drone map with my team?

Process or upload the map in a web platform, then invite colleagues with the role they need. Birdi adds colleagues as users or seat-free guests, PIX4Dcloud includes unlimited users, Propeller invites by link or email with chosen permissions, and DroneDeploy shares projects member by member. For a formal record, export a PDF report too.

Does everyone on the team need a paid seat to view drone maps?

No, on most platforms. Birdi's guests view and download without using a seat, PIX4Dcloud includes unlimited users on every plan, and Site Scan allows unlimited read-only users. DroneDeploy needs an Enterprise organization to invite someone without a paid subscription. Check what the free role can do, since some hide measurements or exports.

How do I share an orthomosaic that is too big to email?

Use a web platform or a download link rather than an attachment. Gmail's limit is 25 MB per message, while orthomosaics often run to gigabytes. A platform such as Birdi, PIX4Dcloud or DroneDeploy lets colleagues view the map in a browser, and the GeoTIFF can still be offered as a download for the GIS team.

Can a view-only user measure on a drone map?

It depends on the platform and the role. PIX4Dcloud's "view and measure only" links let anyone measure, though the measurements are discarded on refresh. Propeller's default "View only" hides measurements until the Measure permission is added, and a DroneDeploy View Only member cannot make changes. Check this on the exact plan before rolling a platform out.

How do I control who on the team sees which site?

Give each site, project or department its own space, and add people to the ones they need. Birdi uses separate workspaces under one organization, Propeller sets permissions per site and per team, and DroneDeploy shows members only the projects shared with them. Where IT requires single sign-on, check which plan includes it.

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About the author

This guide was written by the Birdi team. Birdi (birdi.io) is a geospatial AI workspace that construction and mining teams use to share drone, 360 and design data with the people who need it. We checked every sharing rule against the vendor's own documentation on September 21 and 22, 2026, and each source is listed below.

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Related reading

• Managing site data across teams: how construction teams keep site data in one place as more people need it.
• Shared site data across teams: how survey, engineering and operations teams can work from the same site data.
• Site data for non-technical teams: how to make geospatial data usable by people who never open GIS software.
• GIS for mining teams: using site data on a mine without a GIS specialist on staff.
• Drone mapping software for teams: the wider comparison of team platforms, beyond sharing.

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Sources

Industry and reference

1. Associated Builders and Contractors. "ABC Report: 36% of Contractor Members Utilize Drones on Jobsites." August 17, 2026. https://www.abc.org/News-Media/News-Releases/abc-report-36-of-contractor-members-utilize-drones-on-jobsites
2. Autodesk and FMI. "Study from Autodesk and FMI Finds Better Data Strategies Could Save the Global Construction Industry $1.85 Trillion." September 14, 2021. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/study-from-autodesk-and-fmi-finds-better-data-strategies-could-save-the-global-construction-industry-1-85-trillion-301376278.html
3. Google. "Attachment size limits." Gmail Help. Checked September 21, 2026. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/6584

Platforms

1. Pix4D. "PIX4Dcloud" and "PIX4Dcloud pricing"; Support, "Share functionality" and "Best practices and capabilities for PIX4Dcloud." Checked September 21, 2026. https://www.pix4d.com/product/pix4dcloud · https://www.pix4d.com/pricing/pix4dcloud · https://support.pix4d.com/hc/en-us/articles/360044557751 · /14988429657117
2. Esri. "Site Scan for ArcGIS"; "Add and manage team members"; ArcGIS Online Help, "Share items"; Esri Support, article 000027846. Checked September 21, 2026. https://www.esri.com/en-us/arcgis/products/arcgis-reality/products/site-scan-for-arcgis · https://doc.arcgis.com/en/site-scan/latest/get-started/manage-team-members.htm · https://doc.arcgis.com/en/arcgis-online/share-maps/share-items.htm
3. Propeller Help Center. "How To Share and Manage Access To a Site" (July 9, 2026); "Managing user access and permissions" and "What is a Standard or Oversized Dataset?" (February 24, 2026). https://help.propelleraero.com/hc/en-us/articles/19384064976407 · /19383185320599 · /19383374221207
4. DroneDeploy Help Center. "Data Sharing" (May 26, 2026); "Add and Manage Members in Your Organization" (March 12, 2026); "Sharing maps with organization members" (December 15, 2025). DroneDeploy, "Pricing," checked September 21, 2026. https://help.dronedeploy.com/hc/en-us/articles/1500004862021 · /1500004964442 · /1500004964522 · https://www.dronedeploy.com/pricing
5. GeoNadir. Home page and "Pricing." Checked September 21, 2026. https://geonadir.com/pricing/
6. WebODM Lightning. Home page and "Pricing." Checked September 21, 2026. https://webodm.net · https://webodm.net/pricing
7. Nova. Home page. Checked September 21, 2026. https://www.mapnova.com/
8. Equator. Home page. Checked September 21, 2026. https://equatorstudios.com/

Birdi

1. Birdi. "Pricing." Checked September 21, 2026. https://www.birdi.io/pricing
2. Birdi Help Center. "How do I share a map with a user?"; "How to update a user role and permissions"; "How to create, customize and manage your workspaces"; "How to access Single Sign-On (SSO) for Birdi"; "How to use Birdi's map commenting tool"; "How to connect DJI FlightHub 2 to Birdi." Checked September 22, 2026. https://help.birdi.io/en/articles/6113402 · /11091551 · /11091547 · /15218574 · /12103987 · /15884230