The flat-rate OptiSurface alternative
Try Geo-Surface first. Bring in the specialists when the field truly needs them.
Geo-Surface Pro lets you design full 3D landforming in your browser — flat $499/yr, locked while your membership stays active ($799/yr for new signups from Sept 1, 2026), unlimited acres, no per-acre fees. Pick your outlets, set a max cut, hit Solve, and check the finished surface for drainage. For many straightforward drainage-first fields, it is worth trying before commissioning a custom design. OptiSurface's public rate of about $9.90 an acre is different: it is presented as a full design service, with experienced designers preparing the surface, sending a preliminary design, taking your feedback, revising it, and supplying the final machine-control file. On a genuinely difficult field, that expert work may be very good value. Here is the honest comparison.
Where the line is: Geo-Surface Pro is a self-service design tool for drainage-first landforming, surface drainage and tile. OptiSurface is a specialist optimization and design service backed by experienced designers. Start with Geo-Surface when the field fits its drain-to-edge workflow; if the terrain or farming system demands deeper custom optimization, paying specialists to work through alternatives and revisions can be the right decision. Geo-Surface reads and writes AGS files, so that handoff remains practical. Plan and design from LiDAR; survey and grade with RTK when the job goes ahead.
- Flat US$499/yr
- No per-acre fees
- 3D landforming in your browser
Geo-Surface Pro
Flat membership: surface, tile & 3D landforming, in your browser
OptiSurface
Per-acre expert landforming design service
- Flat US$499/yr — unlimited fields, unlimited acres, unlimited designs. No per-acre fees, ever.
- Three jobs, one membership — surface drainage, tile drainage & 3D landforming from one boundary, plus culvert screening.
- Guaranteed drainage, minimal dirt — every acre sheds to your outlets, no ponding left, fill borrowed from nearby high ground, honest audited volumes.
- Machine-ready files, any workflow — AGS (OptiSurface / AGPS), Ditch Assist AGD with calibration benchmarks, CSV, TXT and dual-surface DXF (AGPS DirtPro, PipeFM, any CAD) — plus a standalone plan, quantities and PDF report.
Side by side
OptiSurface vs Geo-Surface Pro, line by line
Geo-Surface Pro is self-service software: one flat membership covering unlimited acres, with surface drainage, tile, 3D landforming and culvert screening in your browser. OptiSurface's per-acre offer is a specialist design service in which experienced designers prepare, review and revise the field design with you. That service matters when comparing the prices.
| What matters | Geo-Surface Pro In your browser — surface, tile & 3D landforming | OptiSurface Per-acre expert landforming design service |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model What you actually pay to run the design | Flat US$499/yr Unlimited fields, unlimited acres, unlimited designs. No per-acre fees, ever. Launch price until September 1, 2026; $799/yr for new signups after. | Around $9.90/ac for an expert design service The public workflow includes a preliminary design, your review and feedback, revisions until you are satisfied, and the final design control file. A US$297 minimum is stated; larger, simpler fields may qualify for a discount. A ~160-acre design at the standard rate is about $1,584. |
| Who does the design Whose hands are on the mouse | You do — start to finish Draw a boundary, pick outlets, set a max cut, solve, export. One flat fee covers every field you design. | Experienced designers do the specialist work You provide topographic data and instructions. Their design team prepares a preliminary design, you review it, and they revise it with your feedback before you buy the final control file. |
| Where it runs Install vs. open-and-go | Open a browser and design Any reasonably modern Windows PC or Mac — nothing to install, nothing to maintain, always the current version, unlimited acres. Chrome or Edge, and the landforming solve runs right there on your own machine. | A managed design-service workflow You send the field survey and requirements to the OptiSurface team, then review the designs they return. The service is the relevant comparison here, not whether you personally run its desktop software. |
| Elevation data to start What gets you to a first surface | Public LiDAR built in Pulls public US 3DEP & Canada HRDEM automatically — no survey just to plan. Or bring your own: GeoTIFF, RTK / XYZ / CSV points, or an OptiSurface AGS file. | Bring your own survey You supply survey-grade elevation — the right input for build-ready grading. |
| Drainage guarantee Does every acre actually shed? | Yes — verified on the finished surface (within the max cut you set; the app tells you if it can't get there) Pick your outlets, set a max cut, solve: every acre sheds to the outlets you picked, no ponding left, checked on the final surface. Fill is borrowed from nearby high ground, so most of the field stays untouched. | Specialist optimization plus experienced designers Built for complex custom grading, varied farming systems and whole-field optimization, with experienced agricultural designers working through the result. That combination is its core strength and can justify the per-acre price on challenging fields. |
| Material sourcing & topsoil How the dirt actually gets moved | Three borrow models to try Whole-field blade pass + nearby borrow, least-disturbance nearby borrow, or balanced nearby borrow — plus shallow planing (skim) and topsoil strip & return, each with its own machine file. Honest audited volumes, plus advanced haul optimization: haul-distance bands with volume per band and borrow/supply-zone planning. | Depends on the design Ask your OptiSurface rep what sourcing and topsoil handling the design you're buying includes. |
| What else it does Same membership, no extra charge | The full ag drainage workflow Surface drainage, tile design with auto & stepped pipe sizing, hydrology screening (ponding, flow paths, wetness), culvert & crossing screening, and client-ready PDF reports. | Landforming focus One job, done deeply — no tile design, no surface drainage layout, no hydrology or culvert screening. |
| Machine files & interop What you hand off — and to whom | One family of machine-ready files AGS (OptiSurface / AGPS-compatible), Ditch Assist AGD with on-map calibration benchmarks, CSV grid, TXT, dual-surface DXF (AGPS DirtPro, PipeFM, any CAD), shapefile and KML — plus a standalone plan, quantities and PDF report. And we import OptiSurface AGS too, so switching or collaborating is easy. | Build-ready grading surface Detailed grading outputs for the landforming stage — which Geo-Surface Pro can read and write via AGS. |
The honest line: try Geo-Surface Pro first when the field fits a drainage-first, drain-to-edge workflow and you are comfortable designing it yourself. If the field is unusually complex, the farming system needs deeper custom optimization, or you want experienced specialists to prepare and revise the design with you, OptiSurface's full-service package may be money well spent. Both support AGS handoffs. Plan and design from LiDAR; survey and grade with RTK when the job goes ahead. OptiSurface pricing and service terms can change, so confirm them directly before ordering.
Common questions about OptiSurface pricing and alternatives
How much does OptiSurface cost per acre?
Is Geo-Surface Pro a good OptiSurface alternative?
Is Geo-Surface Pro landforming or land-leveling software like OptiSurface?
Can I open my OptiSurface files in Geo-Surface Pro?
Does Geo-Surface Pro do more than landforming?
Ready to see the difference on your own field? Unlimited acres, no per-acre fees, ever. Get Pro — US$499/yr Try the live demo — no signup
Which one, when
Start with Geo-Surface Pro — bring in OptiSurface when the field calls for specialist design
Geo-Surface Pro is self-service software for drainage-first, drain-to-edge landforming: you work in the browser, test the field yourself, and use one flat membership across unlimited acres. OptiSurface is different. Its published workflow is a full design service in which experienced designers review your topographic data, prepare a preliminary design, take your feedback, revise it, and deliver the final control file. That specialist input can be good value on a genuinely complex field. For a straightforward field that fits Geo-Surface's workflow, it is still worth trying Geo-Surface first.
Start here
Use Geo-Surface Pro
For drainage-first landforming you want to design and evaluate yourself, plus the wider drainage workflow, at one flat price.
- You want flat pricing across unlimited acres — one membership, every field, no per-acre fees.
- You need drainage guaranteed — pick outlets, set a max cut, solve; every acre sheds, no ponding left, verified on the finished surface.
- You want to move minimal dirt — fill borrowed from nearby high ground, plus shallow-planing and topsoil strip-&-return modes.
- You want advanced haul optimization — haul-distance bands with volume per band, plus borrow and supply-zone planning.
- The work is also surface or tile drainage, or culvert screening — same membership, no extra charge.
- You need it to fit any workflow — a standalone plan and PDF report, plus machine-ready AGS (OptiSurface / AGPS), Ditch Assist AGD with benchmarks, CSV, TXT and DXF; if your grade-control system reads any of them, the design drops right in.
Go deeper
Use OptiSurface
When the field or farming system needs specialist optimization and you want experienced designers to prepare and refine the design with you.
- The field is genuinely complex or needs custom grading beyond a drainage-first solve.
- You want a full design service, not just software: preliminary design, review, feedback, and revisions.
- You value input from experienced landforming designers on a difficult or high-stakes project.
- You already run an OptiSurface workflow — bring the surface in and out of Geo-Surface Pro via AGS.
OptiSurface is a separate service from a separate company. Its per-acre price includes expert design work, so it is not a direct apples-to-apples software-price comparison. For a challenging field, that service may be money well spent.
From boundary to graded field
Design & guarantee drainage from LiDAR or survey
Geo-Surface Pro
Export the machine file — AGD + benchmarks, or AGS
Geo-Surface Pro
Tie in on site — RTK benchmarks
Surveyor / RTK
Grade & install in-cab
Ditch Assist (RTK grade control)
Design from LiDAR; tie in with RTK on site before you grade. If the field fits a drainage-first workflow and you are comfortable designing it yourself, try Geo-Surface Pro first. Ditch Assist can put the result on the ground at install, and GIS4AG builds both. If the field needs specialist optimization or expert design input, OptiSurface may be the better fit; Geo-Surface Pro reads and writes AGS files for a straightforward handoff.
Start with your own field
Try Geo-Surface first. See whether the field needs a specialist design
Draw a boundary, pull available public LiDAR or bring your own survey, and test a drainage-first 3D landforming design in your browser. If the field fits, one Geo-Surface Pro membership covers every field you design. If it proves genuinely complex or you want an experienced designer to manage the work, OptiSurface's full-service approach may be worth the per-acre cost.
Lock in $499/yr before September 1, 2026
Geo-Surface Pro is $499/yr — the launch price — until September 1, 2026. After that it's $799/yr for new signups. Sign up before September 1, 2026 and your renewal stays locked at $499/yr for as long as your membership stays active — and every new feature we ship is included, forever, at that price.
- Flat membership
- No per-acre fees
- 3D landforming in your browser
- 30-day money-back guarantee
$499/yr locked while your membership stays active ($799/yr for new signups from Sept 1, 2026) · unlimited acres, no per-acre fees, ever · 30-day money-back guarantee. Prefer to look first? Open the free Viewer.