ARCore Alternatives for Android, iPhone and Web AR

ARCore is Google's SDK for building augmented reality apps on Android, and it is very much alive. The ARCore release notes list version 1.56.0, with the Geospatial API, Streetscape Geometry, Scene Semantics and Depth API as recent headline features. Supported phones get it through Google Play Services for AR and need Android 7.0 or newer. It has an iOS SDK too, but only for cross-platform features such as Cloud Anchors and Geospatial; plane tracking on iPhone still comes from ARKit.

Developers look past ARCore when they need one codebase for both phone platforms, image or 3D-object tracking for industrial work, or web AR that runs without an app. Meta Spark is off the table, since its third-party effects stopped working on January 14, 2025. Niantic also ended 8th Wall platform access on February 28, 2026, though the engine itself lives on. If you came from Adobe's AR app, see our Adobe Aero alternatives for no-code tools.

Prices below are as of November 8, 2026. Our method is on How we review tools.

Quick comparison

Unity AR Foundation

AR Foundation is Unity's cross-platform AR layer. You write the app once, and provider plug-ins translate it to ARCore on Android and ARKit on iOS. The AR Foundation 6.2 manual also lists providers for visionOS, HoloLens 2 through OpenXR, Meta Quest and Android XR.

Google itself supports this route: ARCore Extensions for AR Foundation bring Geospatial and Cloud Anchors into Unity projects, with full AR Foundation 6 support since ARCore 1.48. Unity Personal is free up to $200,000 in revenue and funding.

Best for: Studios that need the same AR app on Android and iPhone, and maybe on a headset later.

Pricing:

• AR Foundation package: free
• Unity Personal: free up to $200,000 revenue and funding
• Unity Pro: $210 per seat per month, or from $2,310 per year

Watch out for:

• There is no web provider, so a browser AR experience needs a different tool.
• Features land in AR Foundation after the native SDKs, so the newest ARKit or ARCore capability may need native code first.

Official site: Unity AR Foundation. Our listing: Unity AR Foundation.

Apple ARKit

ARKit is ARCore's direct counterpart on Apple hardware, and it is free with Xcode. The ARKit documentation lists support from iOS and iPadOS 11 and visionOS 1, with world tracking, scene understanding, people occlusion, image and object detection, face and body tracking and location anchors.

On iPhone Pro and iPad Pro models with LiDAR, ARKit builds a live mesh of the room, which gives instant, stable placement that most Android phones cannot match. RealityKit and Reality Composer Pro handle rendering and scene building.

Best for: Teams building native AR for iPhone, iPad or Apple Vision Pro.

Pricing:

• Free, included with Xcode and Apple's SDKs
• Publishing on the App Store needs a paid Apple Developer Program membership

Watch out for:

• It is Apple only. An Android version of the same app means a second codebase on ARCore or a move to AR Foundation.

Official site: Apple ARKit.

Vuforia Engine

PTC's Vuforia Engine is built around targets: printed images, VuMarks, cylinders, and Model Targets that recognise a real machine from its CAD data. That makes it the standard for industrial AR such as service manuals overlaid on equipment, where ARCore's plane detection is not enough. Area Targets map whole rooms or factory floors.

The Vuforia Engine pricing page lists a free Basic plan and Premium and Enterprise plans on request. Cloud Image Recognition is billed separately; the page's example is a $99 monthly plan with 10,000 recognitions included and $0.01 for each extra one.

Best for: Industrial and enterprise apps that must recognise specific products, machines or rooms.

Pricing:

• Basic: free; enough for apps without Model or Area Targets
• Premium and Enterprise: contact PTC for pricing
• Cloud Image Recognition: example plan $99 a month with 10,000 recognitions, then $0.01 each

Watch out for:

• Apps that use Model Targets or Area Targets need a Premium or Enterprise plan, and neither has a public price.
• Cloud services are not available in China.

Official site: Vuforia Engine.

Niantic Spatial SDK

The Niantic Spatial SDK, or NSDK, is the successor to Lightship ARDK. Its main draw is the visual positioning system, which anchors content to places Niantic has scanned and mapped, such as landmarks, plazas and shopfronts. The current NSDK release is 4.1.0, and the NSDK documentation covers SDKs for Unity, Swift and Kotlin.

VPS use is paid in credits through Scaniverse plans. The free plan gives 20,000 credits a month, about 1,500 VPS queries. Plus costs $20 a month or $200 a year, and Pro $50 a month or $500 a year, with annual billing saving 17%.

Best for: Location-based games and city experiences that need precise anchoring at real-world spots.

Pricing:

• Free: $0, 20,000 credits a month (about 1,500 VPS queries)
• Plus: $20 per month or $200 per year
• Pro: $50 per month or $500 per year
• Enterprise: custom

Watch out for:

• The platform has been through heavy churn. Lightship.dev shut on February 27, 2026, Shared AR stopped on May 1, 2026, and remaining 3.x features end on February 28, 2027.

Official site: Niantic Spatial SDK.

Zapworks

Zappar's Zapworks builds AR that opens in a phone browser from a link or QR code, so users install nothing. It has a no-code Designer, the Mattercraft visual editor for richer scenes, and SDKs for three.js, A-Frame and Unity, with image, face and world tracking. After the hosted 8th Wall platform closed, it is one of the main commercial web AR platforms left.

The Zapworks pricing page lists Developer at $12.99 a month or $64.99 a year for non-commercial work, and Pro at $315 a month or $2,640 a year for commercial projects, with 12,000 views a year included. A 14-day trial covers every tool.

Best for: Agencies running AR packaging, print and retail campaigns that must work from a QR code.

Pricing:

• Developer: $12.99 per month or $64.99 per year, non-commercial
• Pro: $315 per month or $2,640 per year, 12,000 views a year
• Extra views: $30 per thousand
• Enterprise: custom, required above $10 million revenue or funding
• Prices exclude VAT and sales tax

Watch out for:

• View caps make popular campaigns expensive. Pro includes only 12,000 views a year before overage.

Official site: Zapworks. Our listing: Zapworks.

Lens Studio

Snap's Lens Studio is a free desktop editor for face and world AR effects that run in Snapchat and on Spectacles. With Camera Kit, the same lenses can run inside your own iOS, Android or web app, which makes it a shortcut for brand apps that need try-on or face effects.

The Lens Studio download page lists 5.24.1, released October 7, 2026, for Windows 11 and macOS 12 or later. For many creators it took over from Meta Spark after Meta shut its platform.

Best for: Brands and creators making face filters and try-on effects for social and in-app cameras.

Pricing:

• Lens Studio: free
• Camera Kit: Snap's SDK for running lenses in your own iOS, Android and web apps

Watch out for:

• Lens Studio 5.25 is the last release for Intel Macs; from 5.26 macOS builds need Apple silicon.
• Lenses are not general AR apps. Logic, size and features are bound to what Snapchat and Camera Kit support.

Official site: Lens Studio.

model-viewer

model-viewer is Google's open source web component for showing a 3D model on a web page, with an AR button that opens it in the room. On Android it uses WebXR or Scene Viewer, which run on ARCore, and on iPhone it hands off to Quick Look with an automatically generated USDZ file. One HTML tag replaces a native app for e-commerce product previews.

It is Apache 2.0 licensed, and version 4.4.0 was published on npm on October 9, 2026. The AR examples page shows wall placement and the HTTPS requirement for WebXR.

Best for: Online shops that want customers to place products in their room from the product page.

Pricing:

• Free, open source (Apache 2.0)

Watch out for:

• It places a model and lets the user move and scale it, and little else. Custom tracking, game logic or image targets are beyond it.

Official site: model-viewer.

How to choose

When to stay with ARCore

Stay with ARCore if your app is Android first, or if you need Google's Geospatial API and Streetscape Geometry, which use Street View data that no rival here offers at the same scale. It is free, and the same features reach Unity through ARCore Extensions. The supported devices list covers phones from most large Android makers, plus Android devices sold in China through local app stores.

Frequently asked questions