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Comparison of AR Development Software Tools for HMDs
Comparison of AR Development Software Tools for HMDs
Connor Flick - Updated 3/10/2025
Overview
Overview
With the explosion and decline in hype for AR within the past few years, several new tools now exist to facilitate AR development. Head mounted devices (HMDs) also have seen progress, as several devices, particularly the Meta Quest 3, now have high-fidelity full-color "passthrough" modes that allow AR content. This page aims to give an overview of some of the most prominent options for developing AR apps and tools for HMDs, paying particular attention to data visualization, collaboration, and features "out-of-the-box."
Topline
Topline
The primary differences between tools depend on development depth, deployment time, and interactivity.
For just creating a visualization that someone can see in AR, Bezi allows for the easiest development and deployment experience, although Flow Immersive may be useful for some specialized data visualizations with useful quality-of-life features. These tools have minimal to no interactivity available, and work best for prototypes. To make a stand-alone app, Unity works well for those familiar with game development and 3D environments, while Vizard will work better for people more attuned to scripting and IDEs. Unity provides more documentation than Vizard, although both are useful for developing more complex and interactive tools. Both have varying levels of support and depth depending on the HMD, but the on-ramp to using either tool for development and deployment is significant. For an intermediate option, Needle, Niantic, and WebXR frameworks each provide different features that may be useful depending on intent. Needle is more useful for static views and collaboration, while Niantic's use of location services and WebXR's extensive tooling both provide variety of options. These tools might also integrate with others like Unity, and deployment may be quicker than a stand-alone app.
Game development engine with extensible support for HMDs
What this does well:
Prominent game engine and development tool with extensive official and unofficial documentation
MIxed reality toolkit and OpenXR are great primary plugins for AR, covers most use cases
Interactivity with objects is a primary feature, not just a visualization tool
Free plugins exist for facilitating networking at small scales
Extensive offering of libraries, tools, plugins
Can create arbitrary scripts
Free tool!
What this doesn't do as well
Steep learning curve, Unity is a large tool that must be made larger to work well with AR
Often requires significant amount of development, testing to function
HMD deployment is a multi-step process, requires direct link
Plugins can have compatibility, versioning issues 🙁
Requires development steps to get nearly anything running
In-progress API for creating XR web apps; many options available for developing directly with this.
Compiled list of WebXR frameworks!
What this does well:
Frameworks like A-frame allow solutions with minimal code
Deploying a project takes very little overhead – same as a website
Most solutions just use some HTML and JavaScript to run!
Works with Quest 3 and other modern headsets out of the box
Integrates well with other plugins and frameworks made available with web tools
Many tools available to allow development, including Unity
Has support on Safari and Chrome on computers and mobile devices
What this doesn't do as well
Less fine-grained support for controls, interactivity
WebXR API and most frameworks have less documentation than Unity
Frameworks may have varying levels of support for AR
Wide array in how tools are able to work together, if at all
Requires browser navigation on many headsets, which may be challenging
Little to no collaboration support
No built-in visualization tools
Stand-alone platform for data visualization on Quest and Vive HMDs
What this does well:
App that runs natively on headsets
Targeted specifically to data presentations
Requires no code to start using or creating for
Free to use
Collaboration and presentation tools built in
Several interactivity features
Provides both AR and VR modes
What this doesn't do as well
Not free to create presentations in!
Requires downloading a separate app to use on each headset
Presentations often get in the way of viewing data
Data presentations often rudimentary, non-complex
Currently in early, beta development stages
No development, extensibility tools
Integrative platform for launching 3D web apps, focusing on XR
What this does well:
Integrates with other options: Unity, Blender, WebXR
Has networking and collaboration support out of the box
3D animation tools, physics, lighting, particle effects
Free tool!
Web-focused, fast deployment of projects
Has native cloud tools for deployment
Allows scripting, integration with other JS frameworks
Extensive documentation
What this doesn't do as well
Heavy code focus, requires development
Requires payment for team usage
No self-hosting for free
Much more complex than other frameworks to setup, get started
Only basic interactions made available
No out of box support for data visualization
Development platform for WebXR-based webapps, focused on gaming and marketing services
What this does well:
WebXR allows for faster deployment
In-browser studio allows for no/low-code solutions
Can target projects based on a user’s location
Provides public hosting to developers
Built in tools for physics, interactivity
Can sync edits and test outcomes in-browser
What this doesn't do as well
Many features (face tracking, hand tracking) are not free
Requires typescript development for more advanced features
Documentation is very limited beyond basic API calls
Focused primarily on mobile development
Studio is currently in beta, likely to change significantly
Very few out of the box assets
No self-hosting for free
Academic-focused local development software for VR research
What this does well:
Extensive toolkit for user data collection
In-depth documentation and tutorials
Supports desktop and headset use for testing
Highly customizable, editable
Clean IDE and organized workspace
What this doesn't do as well
Extremely code-forward – Python
No visual output during development, requires running and testing manually
Deployment is complex, complicated for Quest 3
Many options available that are niche are deprecated, occasionally cluttering tools
Focused much more on VR applications than AR
Collaboration tools are not free
3D design tool focused on collaborative development, AR deployment
What this does well:
Visual, minimal code platform
Models and assets easy to select and use quickly
Allows basic interactions, prototyping
No deployment steps required for any platform
Integrates with Figma
Almost all features are free to use
What this doesn't do as well
Constrained platform, doesn’t integrate with other development flows
Highly focused on prototyping – not good for standalone apps
Performance is often low, especially when using larger or highly-detailed models
Simple modelling tools provided
Documentation is somewhat limited
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