Ever since I started using 3D Mapping APIs, I always wondered why there is no comparison between the two most advanced and best-known of those APIs or Virtual Globes: Cesium and ArcGIS API for JavaScript.

So for the Cartography Lab which is a class in my masters I came up with the idea of making a comparison of Cesium and ArcGIS API for JavaScript from the users/developers perspective.

I implemented the exact same application - a 3D settlement development animation of the city of Zurich - with both APIs and reported along the way what helped me (developer resources), what worked for me, and what did not.