LidarView vs WhiteboxTools
LidarView
lidarview.kitware.comWhiteboxTools
whiteboxgeo.comSide by side
| Figure | LidarView | WhiteboxTools |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $61.67/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 10 |
| Spec score · Point Cloud Software | 7.9 (#3) | 7.6 (#8) |
| Headquarters | Clifton Park, New York, USA | Guelph, Canada |
| Purpose | LidarView receives, records, visualizes, and processes 3D LiDAR data in real time. | Whitebox provides geospatial tools for terrain analysis, hydrology, LiDAR, remote sensing, and vector GIS. |
| Support | Users can seek help through the ParaView and LidarView Discourse forum or file an issue in the LidarView Git repository. | Entry includes best-effort community support, Standard includes a priority support queue during business hours, and Enterprise support is available by agreement. |
Plans
WhiteboxTools
- Whitebox Open Core (Python, R, QGIS)Free
- LiDAR & Forest Analytics — Entry$740 a year
- Environmental Risk & Compliance — Entry$890 a year
- Network Planning & Operations — Entry$995 a year
- LiDAR & Forest Analytics — Standard$1,270 a year
- Environmental Risk & Compliance — Standard$1,490 a year
- Network Planning & Operations — Standard$1,795 a year
- Environmental Risk & Compliance — EnterprisePriced on request
- LiDAR & Forest Analytics — EnterprisePriced on request
- Network Planning & Operations — EnterprisePriced on request
In their own words
LidarView
LidarView is a 3D LiDAR application for receiving, recording, visualizing, and processing sensor data in real time. It works with live streams and recorded PCAP files, displaying time-stamped returns as point clouds. Users can filter laser subsets, view multiple frames, apply 3D transforms, register point clouds, and classify points. Its SLAM tools reconstruct nearby environments and locate the sensor. The product page describes HPC support for AI-based scene classification, object tracking, and 3D reconstruction. Listed sensor interpreters cover Hesai, Leishen, Livox, Ouster, Robosense, and Velodyne; plugins can add interpreters when an open driver or packet specification is available. ROS2IO and PCL plugins are included. Built on ParaView, LidarView supports Python scripting and web visualization through trame. It supports E57 and LAS/LAZ data and is available for Linux and Windows. The software is open source under Apache 2.0 and costs nothing. Its documented sensor coverage does not span the whole market.
WhiteboxTools
WhiteboxTools is geospatial software for terrain analysis, hydrology, LiDAR, remote sensing, and vector GIS. Its Whitebox Next Gen library includes more than 700 tools, with open tools accessible through Python, R, and a QGIS plugin. Functions include terrain derivatives from digital elevation models, watershed delineation, flow routing, point-cloud classification, image analysis, change detection, and vector operations. It fits into QGIS, Python notebooks, R workflows, scripts, and local desktop processing. Listed formats range from GeoTIFF, Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF, LAS/LAZ, and COPC to GeoPackage, FlatGeobuf, GeoParquet, GeoJSON, and Shapefile. The maker says processing runs locally, which can support on-premises or offline workflows. Windows, macOS, and Linux are listed. The open core is free; paid Entry plans are $740 a year to $995 a year, and Standard plans are $1,270 a year to $1,795 a year. Pro EULA terms allow opting out of optional telemetry, but not license-validation reporting.