Bespoke vs Matterport vs Google: Which Virtual Tour is Right for You?
InsightsBespoke, Matterport or Google Street View: Which Virtual Tour Option is Right for You?
If you’re considering a virtual tour for your business, you’ll likely come across a few different options. Bespoke virtual tours, Matterport, and Google Street View tours. Each one offers a way to let people explore your space online, but they serve different purposes and come with different levels of customisation, control and visibility. So how do you know which is right for you? We’ve delved into each service, and outlined some points to consider.
Matterport: Fast, Unique, and Widely Recognised
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Matterport is a popular platform that creates clean, user-friendly 360 tours with a unique 3D view. It’s a great option for estate agents, developers and commercial spaces that need a high quality tour with a quick turnaround. The system automatically builds features like dollhouse views and floor plans, and its simple layout makes it easy for viewers to click through rooms and get a good sense of the space.
It’s also a convenient solution if you want something straightforward without too much hands-on input. However, Matterport tours are hosted on their platform, and while they look professional, you can’t fully customise the design or remove the Matterport branding. If branding and control are important to you, it might be worth looking at other options.
The size of your location also plays a big part in whether a Matterport tour is the right fit. Because Matterport works by scanning each room or area into one continuous 3D model, larger spaces can take much longer to capture. This not only increases the time needed on-site but also adds to the cost. Each scan point contributes to the overall size of the tour, and the more scan points you have, the more storage space it takes up on the Matterport hosting account.
Agencies that use Matterport pay monthly fees based on how many active tours or scan points they’re hosting, and these costs are usually passed on to the client. For properties that are large, complex, or made up of multiple separate buildings, a bespoke virtual tour may be a more efficient and cost-effective option. With a bespoke setup, each building or area can be managed individually, without being restricted by the limitations of one large continuous scan.
You also don’t have the ability to edit the imagery, other than applying blurring to areas you don’t want to be shown. If you have items you want removed, or blemishes to edit out, a Bespoke tour is a better fit, and gives a much higher quality end result in terms of the image quality and clarity.
Bespoke Virtual Tours: Tailored to Your Brand, & easily updatable when combined with our CMS
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Our bespoke virtual tour service gives you a huge amount of freedom and works well across small, medium and very large projects. We capture one or more 360 scenes in each area you’d like to showcase, then stitch these together into a fully interactive virtual experience. Each tour is custom built with navigation, branding and hotspot content tailored to your needs. It’s the flexibility, branding potential, analytics and accessibility features that truly set our bespoke tours apart from other options.
One of the biggest advantages is that we only need to shoot the areas you want to include. This gives you total control over what is shown and allows large or complex spaces to be captured quickly and efficiently. Each 360 scene takes just a few minutes to shoot, so we can cover big locations in a short time, with or without people in the frame depending on your preference. Navigation can be structured with menu based sections or simple on screen hotspot links for a walk through effect, particularly useful when scenes are close together.
Hotspots are fully customisable and can include a wide range of content such as text, images, galleries, video, sound, downloadable PDFs and links to external websites. If you’re using our virtual tour CMS, you’ll also have access to your own dashboard where you can update content, manage hotspots, adjust accessibility settings and view visitor analytics. This means your virtual tour stays fresh, relevant and easy to manage over time. We can also incorporate floor plans, illustrated maps or aerial 360 images to give your users even more context.
Every 360 scene we produce goes through a thorough editing process, from RAW photo processing and stitching to final image retouching. We often remove unwanted elements such as cars, scaffolding or skips to ensure your virtual tour presents each space at its best.
Our bespoke virtual tours are a popular choice for schools, hospitals and university campuses where large or multi site coverage is needed. But they’re also ideal for smaller spaces like restaurants, wedding venues and showrooms thanks to the wide range of options and content flexibility. Hosting is available with or without access to our CMS, giving you cost effective options depending on your needs.
So what are the downsides? The main difference is visual. Because bespoke virtual tours don’t use 3D scanning like the Matterport system, you won’t get the 3D model or dollhouse views that Matterport is known for. But for many of our clients, the increased control, creative freedom and long term value make bespoke the better fit overall.
Google Street View Tours: Boost Your Online Presence
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Google Street View tours are a different kind of virtual tour. They’re designed to link directly with your Google Business Profile and appear in Google Maps and local search results, although they can also be embedded on your website just like our other options. This makes them a powerful tool for boosting local visibility and giving potential customers an instant look inside your space directly from Google Search.
These tours are particularly well suited for restaurants, salons, shops, gyms and other customer-facing businesses that rely on local footfall or walk-in traffic. While they don’t offer the same level of interactivity or branding as a bespoke virtual tour, they are an effective and affordable way to increase your online exposure and build trust with your audience. Once published, your virtual tour is live on Google 24 hours a day, helping to drive clicks and visits without any ongoing effort.
The main drawback with Google Street View tours is their lack of branding and limited features. You cannot add interactive Hotspots, room labels or custom navigation. Users can only move through the tour using the on screen arrows that link each 360 scene. While this is usually fine for smaller venues, it can become awkward in larger spaces where the user has to manually click their way through every area without any signposting or guidance.
Image quality is also more basic compared to our other tour options. Because these tours are typically a lower cost service, the images receive less editing as standard. Things like tripod shadows, camera reflections and other blemishes are often left visible, although extra editing can be included if required at an additional cost.
So Which Tour Is Right for You?
If you’re after speed and simplicity, Matterport is a solid choice that looks great and is ideal for smaller locations that are self-contained. If brand presentation and flexibility are key, a bespoke tour is likely to be a better fit. And if local search visibility is your main goal, a Google Street View tour could be the way to go, or even a great addition alongside your main tour.
If cost is a key factor, Google Street View is definitely the most affordable option. It offers a simple way to get your business visible online without a large upfront spend. That said, both Matterport and our Bespoke virtual tour options offer far more in terms of interactivity, presentation and flexibility. While they are more expensive, they still represent exceptional value for money when you consider the quality, features and long term impact on engagement and marketing.
Every space is different, and every client has different goals. That’s why we offer all three options and can help you choose the one that makes the most sense for your business. If you’re not sure where to start, just get in touch and we’ll guide you through it.
