been seeing ads for a few of these platforms that connect drone pilots to clients, Dronebase and a couple others whose names i cant remember right now. the idea seems nice on paper but i always get suspicious when there's a middleman involved taking a cut. curious if anyone has actually used them consistently and whether the jobs are decent or if its mostly low budget stuff that isnt worth showing up for.

i tried signing up for one of them a while back but i dont think i ever completed the onboarding or whatever. probably should revisit but wanted to get some real opinions first before i invest time into it.

used Dronebase for maybe 8 months a couple years ago. the pay per mission was pretty low, like you're not getting rich off it, but when i was starting out it was actually useful just to get reps in and build a portfolio. i think i was making somewhere around 70-150 a mission depending on the job type and that was before their cut. the real estate ones in particular felt underpaid for the effort once you factor in drive time. that said i got way more comfortable talking to clients and showing up professional which translated to better private work later on so maybe it was worth it as a learning thing.

i dont use them anymore, just not worth it at this point when i can book direct, but i wouldnt tell someone new to skip them entirely. just go in knowing what it actually pays and dont expect it to be your main income.

the cut these platforms take is pretty steep from what i understand, and yeah a lot of the jobs skew toward clients who are price shopping rather than ones who value quality. if youre trying to position yourself as a higher end operator i think youre better off networking locally and building relationships with real estate agencies, construction project managers, that kind of thing. takes longer but the clients are stickier. the marketplace stuff kind of commoditizes your work in a way that makes it hard to ever charge what your time is actually worth