vsSculpty vs Polycam
Polycam captures things that exist by pointing a phone at them. Sculpty creates things that do not exist from a description. Framed that way the comparison almost resolves itself — but there is a real overlap worth being precise about.
For a faithful copy of a real object or room, scanning wins every time: a scan is a measurement and generation is a guess, and no prompt describes a specific chair as well as photographing it. Polycam's LiDAR capture and free tier make it the easy default there. Sculpty wins for anything imagined, and it also picks up where Polycam stops: scan meshes are dense and rarely production-ready, so Sculpty's remesh and retopology, AI retexturing and photoreal render studio are what turn a capture into a usable asset. Many people should be using both.
Sixteen rows, no cherry-picking.
| Feature | Sculpty | Polycam |
|---|---|---|
| Text to 3D | ✓ | — |
| Image to 3D | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multi-view to 3D | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multiple AI engines | ✓ | — |
| PBR textures | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI retexturing | ✓ | ◐ |
| Remesh / retopology | ✓ | ◐ |
| Photoreal render studio | ✓ | — |
| Explorable 3D worlds | ✓ | ◐ |
| GLB, STL, OBJ export | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free format converters | ✓ | ◐ |
| Browser 3D viewer | ✓ | ✓ |
| Order a 3D print | ✓ | — |
| Public API | — | ◐ |
| Auto-rigging / animation | — | — |
| Free plan or trial | ✓ | ✓ |
- Image to 3D — Photogrammetry from many photos of a real object — not single-image generation of an imagined one.
- Explorable 3D worlds — Scanned rooms and spaces, captured rather than generated.
Sculpty runs five engines, not one
Every engine answers the same prompt box. When one misreads what you asked for, switching costs a dropdown instead of another subscription.
What each one costs.
Polycam does not publish a self-serve price. Sculpty's plans as of 2026-07-26.
Both sides, fairly.
Sculpty- Five AI 3D engines in one studio — pick the best one per prompt instead of being locked to a single model
- The whole pipeline after generation: AI texturing, remesh and retopology, photoreal renders, explorable 3D worlds
- Export GLB, STL, OBJ, PLY and glTF, plus native FBX, USDZ and 3MF on Meshy generations
- Free format converters and a browser 3D viewer, no sign-up required
- Order a physical 3D print of any model without leaving the app
- Free plan to try every engine, then $14/mo
- No public API yet — Sculpty is a studio, not an engine you can call from your own code
- No auto-rigging or animation tooling
- Younger platform than the engines it runs, with a smaller community
- The most polished capture experience on a phone, with LiDAR support
- Captures spaces as well as objects
- AI material generator produces full PBR map sets from a prompt
- Free tier, with a large community and plenty of tutorials
- It can only reproduce things that exist — no invention from a prompt
- Scan meshes are dense and usually need retopology before production use
- No render studio, no generation engines, no print ordering
Frequently asked questions.
Can Sculpty scan a real object?+
Not from a walk-around capture — but its image-to-3D and multi-view studios reconstruct from 1–5 photographs, which is often enough for simple objects. For faithful capture of complex geometry, use a scanner.
Can I clean up a scan in Sculpty?+
Yes, and this is the natural pairing: import the exported mesh into Sculpty's remesh studio to reduce and retopologise it, retexture it, then render or print it.
Other comparisons.
Sculpty vs MeshySculpty vs 3D AI StudioSculpty vs KaedimSculpty vs Luma GenieSculpty vs Hi3DSculpty vs SloydSculpty vs CSMSculpty vs Alpha3DSculpty vs Masterpiece XSculpty vs SPAR3DSculpty vs SplineSculpty vs VizcomSculpty vs ZooSculpty vs Genie 3Sculpty vs Skybox AISculpty vs HunyuanWorldSculpty vs Substance 3DPolycam and Sculpty facts checked on 2026-07-26.
Five engines and the whole pipeline, free to start.
Generate with five AI 3D engines, then texture, remesh, render and order a print — in one studio. No credit card required.
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