What is Cesium used for?

Cesium is a 3D geospatial platform with an open source core and Cesium ion service for streaming 3D tiles, terrain and curated data. It is a good fit for building 3D globe views in a web app, streaming large 3D city or design models and visualizing space mission plans.

Yes. Cesium has a free plan, and paid plans start at $149 per month.

Is Cesium open source?

No. Cesium is proprietary (closed-source) software. In the Maps & Navigation category, open-source options include OpenStreetMap, Organic Maps and Dawarich.

What are some alternatives to Cesium?

Cesium competes with Mapbox, ArcGIS and Google Maps Platform.

Cesium: features, pricing and alternatives

About Cesium

Cesium is a platform for software that works with 3D geospatial data. It provides visualization, data pipelines, curated data and analytics, and it builds on open standards for data formats and open APIs for customization and integration. Its core is open source, which the company presents as a foundation for open and interoperable applications.

Its hosted service, Cesium ion, handles tiling and streaming of 3D tiles and terrain, and the JavaScript library CesiumJS displays the data in web applications. Recent news on the site includes technology previews for design model workflows, such as direct tiling support for common design formats and an Asset Elements API for querying model metadata, as well as a Vector Tiles preview connected to the 3D Tiles 2.0 standard. Cesium works with Bentley and is used for projects as varied as space mission planning. Pricing for Cesium ion is on the vendor's website.

Key features

3D Tiles streaming and terrain
CesiumJS library for web applications
Cesium ion hosting and tiling service
Support for common design model formats
Curated 3D geospatial data
Open standards and open APIs

Good fit for

→Building 3D globe views in a web app
→Streaming large 3D city or design models
→Visualizing space mission plans

Tags: 3d-geospatial; 3d-tiles; cesiumjs; gis; terrain; visualization; open-standards; maps

Cesium: questions and answers

What is Cesium used for?: Cesium is a 3D geospatial platform with an open source core and Cesium ion service for streaming 3D tiles, terrain and curated data. It is a good fit for building 3D globe views in a web app, streaming large 3D city or design models and visualizing space mission plans.
Is Cesium free?: Yes. Cesium has a free plan, and paid plans start at $149 per month.
Is Cesium open source?: No. Cesium is proprietary (closed-source) software. In the Maps & Navigation category, open-source options include OpenStreetMap, Organic Maps and Dawarich.
What are some alternatives to Cesium?: Cesium competes with Mapbox, ArcGIS and Google Maps Platform.