Drone ROI, quantified: Compare DJI and non-DJI costs instantly with the Aerotas LiDAR ROI Calculator.
Anyone who works in the commercial drone industry knows that DJI is the market leader. At the same time, there is real pressure not to use DJI hardware. Geopolitics, a healthy desire for competition, and complex contractual rules from public agencies and private customers all push buyers to look elsewhere.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: no true peer competitor exists today. Dollar for dollar, DJI remains the best overall platform for most commercial applications. There is no close second. This post explains why, how to think about the current regulatory environment, and what that means for surveyors, civil engineers, or really anyone who cares about safety, turnaround time, and profit.
Drones are complex systems. Picking the “best” drone is nuanced.
Drones are not single products; they are systems. Airframes, propulsion, flight controllers, navigation, obstacle sensing, radios, payload interfaces, imaging sensors, LiDAR, GNSS, batteries, thermal management, and a stack of software must work together under changing conditions. If any single component is weak, the whole system performs badly.
Different buyers weigh trade‑offs differently. Some will chase a single spec like sensor resolution and accept shortcomings in autopilot logic, safety systems, flight efficiency, durability, or integration. Our view at Aerotas is holistic. We evaluate on:
Sensor capabilities: final data quality from cameras, LiDAR, and GNSS, not just the spec sheet.
System reliability: safety, predictable behavior, and resistance to data‑ruining glitches.
Ease of use: consistent results across teams with varied training levels.
Total cost of ownership (TCO): hardware + training + flight time + re‑flight risk + processing time + support.
There is no single best drone for everyone, but a balanced system beats point solutions in real business conditions.
We help companies optimize their drone survey programs. Talk with us to review your hardware and for procurement assistance.
DJI makes the best all‑around commercial drones
Pound for pound and dollar for dollar, nothing else combines flight performance, navigation, payload integration, software quality, safety features, and pilot experience at the same level. Quite simply, there is no other company that comes close. Yes, you can find a single component or technical specification that is “better” than DJI on paper. But in real projects, overall system performance wins, and DJI just makes the best overall hardware.
To be completely clear, we are a proudly American company. We are not sponsored by DJI. We would strongly prefer a domestic option that matches or beats DJI on quality and price. But today there isn’t one. The United States does have world‑class military drones, but those platforms are expensive and optimized for missions that do not translate to commercial applications.
In the field, a few of DJI’s strengths show up over and over: mature flight platforms and navigation that maintain solid RTK/PPK and link performance; a native payload ecosystem for camera and LiDAR that is genuinely field‑proven and reliable; software that defaults to safe automation and efficient mission planning; and a massive variety of safety and quality of life features that cut re‑flights and downtime.
But more than anything else, DJI drones are simply far cheaper and far easier to use than any comparable drone. For example, the most common lidar surveying drone in the market is the DJI M350 with an L2 lidar sensor, which costs about $45,000 all-in. An American made drone and sensor with comparable specifications might be an Inspired Flight IF800 or a Freefly Alta X, mounted with a GeoCue TrueView 515. Those systems would easily cost in excess of $100,000.
But the biggest advantage in real business applications is DJI's ease of use. Simply operating non-DJI systems as a pilot requires weeks of training, and require a much greater degree of education and safety training to operate safely and reliably. Yes, they can do the job and get good data, but the cost of specialized skilled labor and training required to operate them typically exceeds the already high costs of the system itself.
By comparison, DJI drones can typically be operated by much more entry level employees with a minimal amount of training. I say "operated" and not "piloted" because DJI drones are effectively autonomous and don't require any true piloting skill. This keeps mission costs far lower, and reliability far higher. This is why people who own DJI drones fly them far more often that their non-DJI counterparts.
The Regulations - DJI is not under a federal “ban”, but the full picture is complicated
U.S.–China tensions are real, and policies evolve, but two points are critical for commercial operators:
There is no current federal law that bans the use of already‑owned DJI drones in civil Part 107 operations. Past proposals focused on restricting federal procurement or future purchases, not criminalizing use of legally purchased equipment.
The FAA has authority over the National Airspace System. States and localities influence procurement and how their contractors operate through contracts and funding. Many agencies restrict DJI by buying policy, not by airspace regulation.
What this means in practice:
On publicly funded work, many owners and primes insert procurement clauses that bar DJI hardware. If you want that business, you will need a non‑DJI drone that satisfies the spec, and you should price the added cost, training, and schedule risk accordingly. In the private sector, DJI is typically permitted; operations still sit under FAA rules for airspace, while access and conduct on the ground must follow standard property permissions and any local restrictions.
Some businesses we have seen try to get around DJI restrictions by flying DJI drones, and then just selling the data after it has been fully processed, without telling the companies exactly how their data was collected, and many businesses are willing to look the other way to get a better price. At Aerotas, we think playing these games is ugly, and it is not how we work. Honesty and transparency are baked into the culture of our organization at every level, and we will always comply with rules honestly and fairly, even if we disagree with them. But we will always be honest with our customers. If restrictions are making us charge higher prices for the same product and we think there is a better way, we will say it. Just like we are saying it here.
Using non‑DJI systems costs more
Cost is not just the drone’s sticker price. It is training, flight time, re‑flight risk, data processing time, spare parts, and downtime. Complex or brittle systems get flown less, which raises cost per use, which further reduces use. That negative feedback loop kills ROI.
Sample ROI scenarios (illustrative; adjust the calculator to your reality):
With a standard ~$45,000 total cost DJI L2 system, you can expect approximately $23,000 in gross profit per year.
With a more complicated $100,000 system, you would be likely to LOSE almost $6,000 per year if you use it the exact same amount, and if you wind up using it less, which is likely, then you would lose $26,000 per year.
Sample ROI with a DJI L2 system
Sample ROI with a $100,000 system
Why does the gap widen in the field? Well, longer training curves and higher pilot error rates drive up the cost of qualified labor, and can cause re‑flights. When it takes more time in the field, then the drone becomes applicable to less projects. Weaker integration means more time merging logs, EXIF, and trajectories. Thinner support and parts pipelines stretch downtime. Processing pipelines need more manual QA to hit survey‑grade tolerances.
Run the numbers yourself to see. Small differences in labor costs, overall system usage, setup time, re‑flight probability, and processing minutes dominate the total cost of ownership.
Want to pressure‑test your numbers? Try our LiDAR ROI calculator and share your inputs with us.
If you run a business, you should probably be flying a DJI drone
If you care about safety, profit, reliability, turnaround time, scalability, and operational efficiency, DJI is the clear rational choice for most commercial surveying and mapping use cases today. The only rational reason to not fly a DJI drone in the current environment is if you or your customer's policies explicitly ban them. And if that is the case, be ready for higher prices, more compromises, and the same quality data.
Drone systems are complex. And data processing is even more complex. Aerotas has helped U.S. surveying and engineering firms stand up effective drone programs for 11 years. We can help you select the right platform and build a workflow that pays.
Ready to learn more about how Aerotas can help you build and improve your company's drone program? Schedule a call with our experts now!