Guide
What does a drone virtual tour cost in 2026?
Two separate lines, and they get confused all the time: the drone pilot's fee and the hosting subscription. This guide costs both and explains what moves them.
“What does a virtual tour cost?” is a question containing two questions, which is why it never gets answered well.
There is the capture on one side - somebody comes to fly, photograph and build the tour - and the hosting on the other, the subscription that keeps it online and serves it to visitors. Two quote lines, two orders of magnitude, two different logics. This guide handles them separately.
The capture: what a drone pilot invoices
That is the main line, by a distance. It pays for skilled time: recce, flight permissions, travel, shooting, stitching, building the tour.
Capture, standard project
€900 to €2,000
Six to twelve viewpoints on a campsite, a nine-hole golf course or an estate, with the tour built. It is the heaviest line of the quote, and the one that varies most.
The ranges below match what is practised in Europe for a complete aerial virtual tour, delivered online.
| Project size | Viewpoints | Price range (excl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Starter - one compact site | 3 to 5 | €400 to €900 |
| Standard - campsite, 9-hole golf course, estate | 6 to 12 | €900 to €2,000 |
| Extended - 18-hole course, large resort, ski area | 15 to 30 | €2,000 to €5,000 |
| Multi-site or multi-season | variable | on quote, often an annual retainer |
Those are observed orders of magnitude, not a tariff. A €600 quote and a €1,800 quote for “the same campsite” can both be honest - the next section explains why.
The six factors that move a quote
The number of viewpoints. The first factor, and the most linear. Every point adds flight, stitching and build time. An extra viewpoint rarely costs less than €80 and rarely more than €200.
The extent and accessibility of the site. A compact campsite is wrapped up in a morning. An 18-hole golf course means moving from hole to hole, sometimes by buggy, in the gaps between tee times. Time on site easily doubles.
Permissions. Flying over a site open to the public, near an aerodrome or in restricted airspace takes paperwork. Depending on the case that runs from an online notification to an authorisation with several weeks of lead time - and that time gets invoiced. The rules that apply in Europe are in our guide on flying over a venue.
The requirement to fly with nobody about. Flying without the public means coming early, out of season, or on a closing day. That constraint is the first lever in a negotiation: a pilot who is flexible on timing costs less than a flight pinned to your diary.
The weather. A grey sky ruins an aerial tour. Serious providers plan a reschedule window, which ties up time. It is also why you should be wary of a quote promising a firm date in any season.
The editorial content. Placing the points on the map is quick; writing the cards for each zone, preparing the booking links, setting the trade navigation takes another day. Some quotes include it, some do not.
The hosting: the platform subscription
A tour online is not a file dropped on a server. Panoramas have to be cut into tiles, served from a network close to the visitor, measured and protected. That is what the subscription covers.
Market orders of magnitude run from free, for a single demonstration tour, to a few tens of euros a month for professional use. The UK survey quoted above puts custom-hosted tours in the same bracket, at £15 to £100 or more a month depending on the features.
At Moorea, the public grid runs from €0 to €39 excl. VAT a month depending on your brand and volume needs: no view counter, no bandwidth cap, and no tour expires.
Who pays for what, in practice
Three arrangements exist, and the third is the one we recommend.
The contractor hosts everything. Simple at the start, expensive later: the venue owns nothing, and the day the relationship ends, the tour ends too.
The venue handles everything. It takes the subscription and pays for the capture separately. Very healthy, but it needs somebody comfortable with the tool.
The workspace in the client’s name, produced by the drone pilot. The venue takes the subscription in its own name; the pilot works inside it and stays credited on the tour. That is the arrangement that survives time best - and it costs no more than the others.
The arrangement that survives time
The drone pilot
Once
invoices the capture - recce, flight, stitching, build - and stays credited on the tour
The venue
Every month
the subscription is in its name: the tour belongs to it and outlives the relationship
The total budget, in one example
A three-star campsite, eight viewpoints, one morning flight out of season, zone cards and booking links included.
| Line | Rhythm | Amount (excl. VAT) |
|---|---|---|
| Drone pilot’s capture | once | €1,200 to €1,600 |
| Hosting | per month | €9 to €39, or €90 to €390 a year (two months free) |
| First year, all in | around €1,400 to €2,000 |
And if you are the drone pilot
This guide also helps you place yourself. Two pieces of advice from conversations in the field.
The guide to selling virtual tours sets out the model in full.
Développeur et télépilote de drone. Construit Moorea au sein d’Elvn Studio.
A place worth showing from above?
The free plan is enough to publish a first tour and show it around.