To set up a client portal for your drone business, create a free DataDelivery™ account, upload your captured imagery, let the platform process it into deliverables (orthomosaics, point clouds, DSM/DTM, contours), then share the generated link with your client. The client opens an interactive viewer in their browser — no account, no login, no software. The free tier gets you a working portal in minutes.
This is a practical, step-by-step tutorial for commercial drone pilots and service providers. By the end you'll have a live, shareable, no-login client portal you can hand to a real client. We'll also cover when to upgrade for white-label custom domains so the portal lives at your brand.
Before you start: what you'll need
- Captured drone imagery from a site flight (or sample data to test with).
- A device with a browser — setup is entirely web-based.
- About 10–15 minutes for your first portal, mostly processing time.
That's it. There's no GIS software to license, no local processing rig, and no plugin to install. If you don't fly every job yourself, note that DataDelivery™ also offers optional nationwide, FAA-licensed turnkey capture — but for this tutorial we'll assume you have your own imagery.
Step 1: Create your free DataDelivery™ account
Head to the DataDelivery™ hub and sign up for the free tier. The free plan is a genuine working portal, not a locked demo — you can upload, process, and share real client deliverables on it.
Paid plans run $9.99–$199.99/mo when you need more volume or white-label features (more on that at Step 5), but you don't need them to get your first client portal live. Starting free is the right move while you learn the workflow.
Step 2: Create a job and upload your imagery
Inside your account, create a new job for the site you flew. Give it a clear name your client will recognize (the project or property name works well).
Then upload your captured imagery to the job. A few practical tips:
- Upload the full image set from the flight — the platform needs the overlapping photos to build accurate orthomosaics and point clouds.
- Keep one job per site so deliverables and any repeat captures stay organized.
- Larger sets take longer to upload and process — start the upload and let it run.
The upload is the only part that depends on your file sizes and connection. Once it's going, you can move on.
Step 3: Process into deliverables
Once your imagery is uploaded, run processing. DataDelivery™ turns the raw photos into the deliverables that make up a professional portal:
- Orthomosaic — the stitched, georeferenced top-down site map.
- Point cloud — a 3D representation of the site.
- DSM/DTM — digital surface and terrain elevation models.
- Contours — contour lines generated from the elevation data.
- Stockpile volumes — cut/fill and volume figures for aggregate, earthwork, and mining sites.
You don't have to generate every product for every job — match the deliverables to what the client needs. A real estate client may only want the orthomosaic and panoramas; an earthwork client will want point clouds, contours, and stockpile volumes.
Processing runs on the platform, so you're not tying up your own machine. When it finishes, your deliverables are ready to view and share.
Step 4: Review and annotate
Before you share, open the deliverables yourself in the viewer. This is your quality check and your chance to add value:
- Pan and zoom the orthomosaic to confirm the stitch looks clean.
- Check the point cloud and panoramas load correctly.
- Add annotations to mark defects, features, boundaries of interest, or anything you want to call out for the client.
- Drop a sample measurement to confirm the measurement tools behave as expected — clients will use these themselves.
Annotations are where you turn a raw map into a guided deliverable. A few well-placed markups show the client you analyzed the site, not just flew it.
Step 5: Share the no-login link with your client
This is the step that makes the whole portal worth it. Generate the shareable link for the job and send it to your client.
When they click it, the client opens an interactive viewer in their browser with:
- The orthomosaic they can pan, zoom, and measure
- The point cloud they can navigate in 3D
- 360° panoramas they can scrub
- Time-series comparisons across repeat captures
- Your annotations and their own measurements
The critical detail: no login. The client does not create an account, set a password, or install anything. They click and view. And because there's no account wall, they can forward that same link to colleagues, project owners, and stakeholders who also don't need to sign up. This is what separates a no-login client portal from tools that force every viewer to register — see the full comparison in the drone client portal guide.
Upgrade callout — white-label custom domain. On paid plans, you can serve the portal from your own domain, like
portal.yourcompany.com, instead of a generic platform URL. Your clients see your brand on the deliverable, which makes a solo operator or small team look like a company that built its own delivery platform. It's the single highest-impact upgrade for client trust and stickiness. Learn how it works in white-label drone client portal.
Step 6: Set expectations and reuse the workflow
Two finishing touches that make you look professional:
Set output expectations. Tell clients plainly that DataDelivery™ outputs are excellent for visualization, progress tracking, rough volumes, inspection, and stakeholder communication — but they are not survey-grade and shouldn't be used for engineering, legal, or boundary decisions. Saying this upfront builds trust.
Reuse the workflow. Now that one portal is live, every future job is the same five steps: create job → upload → process → review/annotate → share link. For recurring sites, keep uploading new captures to build a time-series the client can scrub through over months.
Quick setup recap
- Create a free account at the DataDelivery™ hub.
- Create a job and upload your captured imagery.
- Process into orthomosaics, point clouds, DSM/DTM, contours, and stockpile volumes.
- Review and annotate the deliverables.
- Share the no-login link — client views in-browser, no account.
- Upgrade to white-label when you want the portal on your own domain.
Troubleshooting and tips for your first portal
A few things that smooth out the first run:
- Upload the complete image set. Orthomosaics and point clouds rely on overlapping photos. A partial set produces gaps or a poor stitch. If a deliverable looks wrong, an incomplete upload is the most common cause.
- Match deliverables to the client. Don't generate every product reflexively. A real estate client wants the orthomosaic and panoramas; an earthwork client wants point clouds, contours, and stockpile volumes. Generating only what's needed keeps the portal focused and processing faster.
- Test the link yourself first. Before sending, open the share link in a private/incognito window. That simulates the client's no-login experience exactly and confirms everything loads without your session.
- Name jobs for the client, not for you. "Maple Street Development — May Capture" reads better in a forwarded link than "job_0427_v2."
- For recurring sites, keep one job. Add each new capture to the same job to build a time-series the client can scrub through over weeks or months.
How this compares to your current delivery
If you're currently emailing files, using Dropbox, or sending WeTransfer links, the portal workflow above replaces all of it — and gives the client something they can actually interact with instead of a file they can't open. For a method-by-method comparison, see how to share drone data with clients.
Start your portal
A working, no-login client portal is genuinely a few minutes away on the free tier. Build one, send yourself the link, and experience the client side — then start using it on real jobs.
Get started at the DataDelivery™ hub.