Item: Vuforia Engine
Rating: 8
Author: Eduardo Arroyo

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I used it for some AR promos for a client, they wanted a presentation to show off their company (which is a multimedia company), and so I decided to create an interactive app with AR using Unity and Vuforia Engine. The app was simple but impressive: when opening the camera and using a target (their business card), a character appeared on top of that doing some animations leading to a bigger animation showing their company name.

Pros and Cons

AR SDK integration with Unity engine
AR performance in mobile
Great documentation and examples

Performance when using unity (the device heats up).
Image marker works fine but surface detection tends to fail still.
Even though there's a free plan, there are many alternatives now where they cost less or they're even free.

Most Important Features

The tracking images (target), is the most used feature for presenting AR.
The integration with Unity

Return on Investment

I've used the free version only, the client is responsible for paying the premium version if needed; so the ROI has been for the actual development.

Key Insights

Do you think Vuforia Engine delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Vuforia Engine's feature set?

Yes

Did Vuforia Engine live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Vuforia Engine go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Vuforia Engine again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Definetely when needing an image target based AR experience, I'd go with Vuforia Engine, the implementation is pretty straightforward (at least when using UNITY SDK), it is well documented and there are plenty of examples to start with. I wouldn't recommend it yet for tracking objects or environments if it is for commercial purposes, because it tends to fail from time to time from my experience.

Vuforia Engine is a perfect fit for basic AR solutions

Overall Satisfaction with Vuforia Engine