OpenSpace records what a site looked like on a given date and lets anyone walk it in a browser. Polycam produces measurable geometry that opens in CAD and BIM software. They answer different questions, which is why a fair number of general contractors run both on the same project rather than choosing between them.
Reality capture means turning a physical space into digital data, whether that ends up as a 3D model, a set of 360 images or a point cloud, captured with a phone, a camera or a scanner instead of a tape measure.
Side by Side
What Each Tool Actually Captures
OpenSpace Capture turns 360 video into a navigable photo record. A field team member clips a 360 camera to their hard hat, picks either 360 photo or 360 video, selects the floor plan for that area, drops a pin to set their starting position and walks. What comes back is a series of timestamped images tied to locations on the plan, with AI-driven progress tags flagging what changed between walks.
Polycam captures geometry. A single session produces a mesh, a point cloud, and 2D and 3D floor plans you can measure and export into AutoCAD, Revit or another CAD and BIM tool. There is a 360 mode as well, which stitches a full panorama as you rotate the phone through a guided circle, though it is not built to auto-map a continuous walking path across a whole site. If mapped, site-wide 360 walkthroughs on a weekly cadence are the goal, that is OpenSpace's core use case rather than ours.
Virtual Walkthrough closes part of that gap from the other direction. It retraces your exact capture path and steps you through the original photographs, each positioned where it was taken and overlaid on the 3D capture. A mesh loses fine detail, so this exists to let you check the geometry against the source photography, reading a label, confirming a model number or tracing a thin conduit without going back to site. It sits on Business and Enterprise plans.
How Each One Fits Into a Site Visit
What a capture costs you depends on setup and attention rather than the walk itself. On both tools, a little planning separates a clean capture from a wasted one.
OpenSpace is designed to add as little as possible to a visit that was happening anyway. Upload the floor plan, pin where you are starting, then walk your normal route. They quote documenting 25,000 square feet in around ten minutes, with the 360 view ready roughly fifteen minutes later.
Polycam starts capturing immediately, with no plan to upload first. In Space and Floorplan modes your position is established during the scan itself, which is what lets the app stitch the capture together.
What you trade is pace. A deliberate walk around the perimeter at a measured speed gives the LiDAR sensor or the photogrammetry enough to build accurate geometry from. You are capturing dimensions rather than impressions, and that takes longer per square foot.
Both share the same way. An OpenSpace stakeholder clicks a link, walks the site in a browser with nothing installed, and compares the same location across dates. Polycam captures share as public or private links depending on plan, and the underlying model or point cloud can also be exported into other software rather than only viewed.
Where the Files Go Afterwards
Where the output can be used matters as much as how it looks, and this is the clearest difference between the two.
OpenSpace connects to the platforms rather than to the file. Their Procore integration runs two-way for Punch Items and Observations, with an embedded viewer inside Procore. Their Autodesk Construction Cloud integration covers BIM 360 and Autodesk Build, including model import and two-way issue sync. Field Notes captured on a walk can generate RFIs and Issues directly in those platforms without anyone retyping them.
Polycam connects to the software rather than to the platform. Mesh exports cover OBJ, FBX, GLTF, DAE, STL and USDZ. Point clouds export as PLY, LAS, PTS, XYZ and DXF, with geo-referenced LAS on Business and Enterprise. Those open in AutoCAD, Revit, Civil 3D, MicroStation and CloudCompare among others. There is no native two-way sync with Procore or Autodesk Construction Cloud, so the integration path runs through the file rather than a live connection.
That distinction decides more than it sounds like. If your team lives inside Procore and wants observations flowing back automatically, OpenSpace is built for it. If your deliverable is a drawing someone models against, a file is what you needed anyway.
What Each One Costs
The pricing models differ as much as the products.
Polycam prices per user. The free tier scans and shares links, Basic is $150 a year or $30 a month and unlocks twelve export formats, and Business is $400 a year per user, which is where floor plan downloads, the full export list and the Floorplan Editor sit. A 7-day Business trial covers testing it on a live job.
OpenSpace prices on annual construction volume rather than per seat, with a stated minimum of $10,000. In exchange, project members are unlimited, which matters on a job where forty people across trades all want to look at the same walk. Their Enterprise tier adds single sign-on for organisations running it across multiple teams.
Those shapes suit different situations. A five-person firm documenting existing conditions a few times a quarter will not reach the OpenSpace minimum in value. A contractor walking several large active sites every week will not notice it.
Choosing Between Them
Reach for Polycam when the floor plan needs to come out of the same capture rather than being drawn separately. Or when the deliverable has to open in AutoCAD or Revit, when you are recording existing conditions before a renovation and geometry matters more than a timeline, or when a small team needs to capture a site without an enterprise contract.
Reach for OpenSpace when you want frequent progress documentation across a large ongoing job without adding a task to anyone's day, when owners, architects and subs need to walk the site remotely without opening a 3D file, when you want their Progress Tracking product layered on the visual record, when your stack is already Procore or Autodesk Construction Cloud, or when you need a defensible timestamped record in case of a dispute.
Running both is common enough to be worth planning for rather than stumbling into. OpenSpace handles the weekly walk that keeps everyone current. Polycam handles the milestone captures where somebody needs to measure something, and the existing conditions work at the start of a job.
FAQ
Which is better for construction progress tracking? OpenSpace, which is built specifically for that pattern. A 360 camera on a hard hat records a normal site walk, the imagery pins itself to your floor plan, and AI tags flag what changed between visits. Polycam captures geometry rather than a progress timeline.
Which one gives me measurements? Polycam. Captures reach within half an inch on standard interiors, and the same session produces a measured 2D plan alongside the mesh and point cloud. OpenSpace produces a visual record rather than survey geometry.
Can either one export to Revit? Polycam exports LAS, which converts through Autodesk ReCap into an RCS or RCP file you link into Revit, and DXF for AutoCAD linework. OpenSpace integrates with Autodesk Construction Cloud including BIM 360 and Autodesk Build, with model import and two-way issue sync, which is a different kind of connection.
Do I need a 360 camera for OpenSpace? Their capture supports 360 cameras alongside smartphones, drones and laser scanners, so a 360 camera is the standard route rather than the only one. The hard hat mount is what makes the walk hands-free.
How much do they cost? Polycam runs from a free tier through Basic at $150 a year to Business at $400 a year per user. OpenSpace quotes on annual construction volume with a stated $10,000 minimum, and includes unlimited project members at any level.
Can I use both on the same project? Many general contractors do, and the split is usually frequency. OpenSpace covers the recurring walk that keeps stakeholders current, and Polycam covers the milestone captures and existing conditions work where somebody needs to measure or model against the result.
What is Virtual Walkthrough? A Polycam feature that retraces your capture path and places the original high-resolution photographs where you took them, overlaid on the 3D capture. It exists for verifying details a mesh loses, such as a label or a thin conduit, without returning to site. It sits on Business and Enterprise plans.
