The "best" provider depends entirely on the mission. You don't use a sniper rifle to clear a room. Similarly, you don't task a VHR satellite for a continental crop assessment.
How much detail can you see? (e.g., 30cm vs. 10m)
How often is a new image available? (e.g., daily vs. every 16 days)
How many bands of light are captured? (Crucial for agriculture, mineralogy)
Is there historical data to build a baseline?
Can you request a new image of a specific location on demand?
Open-access data suitable for large-scale or historical analysis, though they often have lower resolutions (10m–30m) and may require technical expertise for processing.
Extensive archive, free access, useful for NDVI, land cover, port activity, etc.
Complex for beginners, medium resolution only, no analytics tools built-in.
Great for crop health and historical trends. Not for high-res tasks like car counting.
Free multispectral and SAR data, easy-to-use visualization tools (EO Browser, Sentinel Playground).
Not suitable for high-res tasks like car counting (resolution 10m+).
Crop health (NDVI), ship detection, and oil inventory analysis (SAR shadow).
Free, research-grade archive ideal for crop and environmental trends.
Requires GIS skills, not beginner-friendly, limited built-in visualization.
Great for long-term crop and environmental trend analysis.
User-friendly interface, built-in NDVI tools, free preview of high-res imagery.
Free imagery limited to medium resolution. High-res requires purchase.
Crop health and stockpile monitoring with analytics.
Higher resolution than Sentinel-2 in India, browser access, no login needed.
India-focused, limited international coverage.
Retail and construction tracking in India due to resolution advantage.
Very high-resolution (VHR) imagery (0.3m–5m) and tasking capabilities, ideal for detailed analysis like car counting or construction progress tracking.
Industry-leading resolution, frequent updates, extensive archive, tasking available.
Expensive, licensing complexity, requires technical expertise.
Perfect for car counting, construction tracking, stockpile monitoring, oil inventory.
High-resolution optical and radar, strong SAR imagery for oil and port analysis.
Costly, complex order process, limited free samples.
Port monitoring, oil tank analysis (SAR), car counting with Pleiades.
High temporal frequency, great for change detection, daily coverage.
SkySat costly, PlanetScope too low-res for car counting.
Construction tracking and port activity monitoring. SkySat for car counting.
Near-real-time tasking, suitable for urgent monitoring needs.
Smaller archive, higher costs than open providers.
Time-sensitive car counting, port monitoring, construction tracking.
Very high resolution, rapid tasking and delivery, detailed imagery.
Premium pricing, requires technical handling for analysis.
Car counting, construction change detection, stockpile measurement.
Maxar, Airbus Pleiades, EUSI, BlackSky for VHR imagery. SkySat for budget-sensitive scenarios.
ISRO ResourceSat-2A (5.8m) for Indian regions. Sentinel-2 (10m) too coarse for accurate counting.
Sub-meter resolution is required for accurate car counting in parking lots and retail zones.
Maxar and Airbus (SAR + optical) for oil tanks and ports. PlanetScope for frequent crop monitoring.
Sentinel-1 SAR for oil and ports. Sentinel-2 and Landsat for NDVI and stockpile analytics.
SAR detects shadowing (tank fill levels), multispectral data calculates vegetation indices like NDVI.
Maxar, EUSI, BlackSky for VHR image updates. Planet SkySat for near-daily change tracking.
Sentinel-2 and Landsat for observing broader construction zones, limited spatial detail.
Frequent VHR data enables precise monitoring of construction site progress and material movement.
For a robust system:
For pricing details, contact paid providers directly (e.g., maxar.com, airbus.com) or check resellers like apollomapping.com. For free data, start with Sentinel Hub (sentinel-hub.com) or USGS EarthExplorer (earthexplorer.usgs.gov). If your project focuses on India, ISRO Bhuvan is a strong free option.