3D Tour Hosting Cost Comparison

What are the three hosting pricing models?

Flat monthly subscription

A fixed monthly fee with a cap on how many tours can be live at once (Matterport). Your cost per tour drops the more tours you keep published — but only up to the plan's active-tour limit, after which you upgrade.

Per-project or credit-based (pay-as-you-go)

You pay per project — a flat per-project processing fee with no subscription (iGUIDE) or a credit you spend to activate and host a tour (Realsee). Cheap at low volume and predictable per job, but the cost scales linearly: it never drops with scale the way a subscription does.

All-inclusive subscription

Hosting is bundled into a single subscription that also covers the camera and processing, with unlimited tours (Giraffe360). No active-tour cap and no per-tour fee — but you're paying for the whole package, not hosting alone.

The active-space trap

The mistake that catches new photographers: assuming hosting cost is tied to how many tours you shoot. It's actually tied to how many you keep live. Shoot 25 tours in a year on a 25-active-tour plan and you're fine — but those tours don't expire. In year two you're shooting another 25 while the first 25 are still published, and you've either hit the cap, had to upgrade, or had to unpublish a paying client's tour.

Plan for it: decide up front whether tours have a hosting term (e.g. “hosted for 12 months, then archived or renewed”), or price an ongoing hosting line into recurring client billing. Either way, your hosting cost grows with your back catalog, not just your shoot count — model that in the calculator by setting your expected active-tour volume realistically.

Should you bill hosting to the client?

There's no single right answer — but there is a wrong one, which is not deciding at all. Three approaches:

Absorb it

You eat the hosting cost. Simplest for the client, but it's a permanent drag on your margin — and it's still a real cost that belongs in your basis even though the client never sees it.

Pass it through at cost

You bill the client exactly what hosting costs you. Transparent, fair, and keeps hosting from eroding your margin — the most common choice.

Mark it up

You bill hosting above cost — treating tour hosting as its own small revenue line. Common among Matterport Service Partners who manage hosting on behalf of clients as a service.

The WGAN 3D Tour Price Calculator supports all three — absorb, pass-through, and markup — and shows exactly how each one moves your price and margin.

Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to host a 3D virtual tour?

It depends on the platform. Matterport charges a flat monthly subscription with an active-tour cap. iGUIDE has no subscription at all — you pay a flat per-project processing fee (from $7.99 for iGUIDE Instant up to ~$48-66+ for drawn floor plans), and the tour is hosted on the iGUIDE portal. Realsee is credit-based — capture, upload and editing are free, but you buy credits to host tours, roughly $2.55 per credit, where one credit hosts one tour for one month. Giraffe360 bundles unlimited hosting into its all-inclusive camera subscription. The real cost per tour is exactly what the WGAN calculator computes.

What is an 'active space' limit?

An active space (or active tour) is a tour that's currently published and viewable. Most subscription plans cap how many you can have live at once — for example, 5, 25, or 100. Going over means upgrading your plan or unpublishing older tours. It's the single most overlooked hosting cost: your bill scales with how many tours stay live, not just how many you shoot.

Should I pass hosting costs on to my client?

That's your decision, and there are three common approaches: absorb it (you eat the cost), pass it through at cost, or mark it up. Many photographers pass hosting through or mark it up, since it's a recurring cost tied directly to that client's tour staying online. Whatever you choose, make sure hosting is in your cost basis — the WGAN calculator supports all three modes.

Which 3D tour platform has the cheapest hosting?

It depends entirely on your volume. Per-project and credit models — iGUIDE's per-project processing fee, Realsee credits — are cheap at low volume and scale linearly with each tour. A flat subscription like Matterport gets cheaper per tour the more tours you keep live, up to the plan's active-tour cap. Giraffe360's hosting is bundled into its all-in camera subscription. Run your actual expected volume through the calculator rather than comparing sticker prices.

Does hosting cost change how I should price a tour?

Yes. Hosting is a recurring cost that every tour has to help carry, so it belongs in your per-job cost basis — amortize the monthly fee across your expected monthly tour volume and add any per-tour fee. If hosting isn't in your cost basis, your real margin is lower than your quote suggests.