Table of Contents
- Comparing Planomatic’s Virtual Staging vs PhotoUp
- Our Results – Which Is Best?
- Partner With PhotoUp for Outstanding Virtual Staging
Virtual staging has become a widely-used real estate marketing solution. It’s an effective and affordable marketing tool – 85% of staged properties sell for the asking price or above.
And there are many virtual staging services to choose from. Therefore, deciding which virtual staging provider to work with can be challenging.
So, to make your decision process easier, we’ve compared two services – Planomatic virtual staging vs PhotoUp – to see which is best.
Comparing Planomatic’s Virtual Staging vs PhotoUp
Planomatic is a real estate marketing company based in Denver, Colorado, and founded in 2005 by a small group of real estate photographers and sales professionals.
They primarily aim their services at property management companies, rental communities, homeowners selling their homes without an agent, and independent sales agents.
In terms of services, they offer a basic range of marketing options, including:
- Real estate photography and photo editing
- Zillow 3D property tours
- Floor plans
- And marketing support systems for property management companies
Our second company is PhotoUp, an industry-leading, global real estate marketing company in business for over 10 years.
Their team includes world-class virtual staging editors and designers in the Philippines and their customer service group in the US.
Offering a full range of marketing solutions, PhotoUp’s services include virtual staging as well as the following:
- Real estate photo editing
- Single property websites
- Real estate photographer websites
- Property flyers
- Video editing
- Virtual Assistants
- House portraits
- And more!
Okay, with those introductions now done, let’s move on to our comparison. We’ve explored both virtual staging services with the following items in mind:
- Creating an account
- Turnaround time
- Pricing plans and options
- The range of design styles
- And the quality of the results
Now, let’s start our review and comparison!
1. Creating an Account
Planomatic asks you to sign up before you can order their services. The registration process is simple. Just enter your name and email, and telephone.
However, the results of signing up were unexpected. You don’t get access to purchase any services. What you do get is endless emails from their customer support staff asking to talk about your marketing needs.
In comparison, PhotoUp offers free account set-up, which is easy and fast, taking around a minute to get started. Once you open the account, you can purchase any services you need.
PhotoUp does have robust customer support that is happy to help, but you don’t have to clear any pre-screening hurdles as you do with Planomatic.
Our next review item is both services’ turnaround times.
2. Turnaround Time
Regarding turnaround times, again, there are a few notable differences between these two companies.
Planomatic’s site appears not to provide a turnaround time for their virtual staging service. However, they do provide that information for standard photo editing, which is 2.5 days.
There isn’t any information about the possibility of rush orders, either.
PhotoUp delivers its virtual staging in 48 hours, and sometimes quicker. You‘ll receive low-resolution proofs back for your review the next day. Once approved, PhotoUp provides high-resolution images within just a few hours.
Next, let’s compare both companies regarding pricing plans and options.
Fast & Affordable
Virtual Staging Service
Interiors. Landscapes. Commercial. Virtually transform any space.
3. Pricing Plans and Options
Unfortunately, Planomatic is one of those companies that try to hide their pricing information.
There isn’t any easy-to-find pricing list for their various services. However, if you search Google for Planomatic’s pricing information, you’ll learn the following:
- Virtual staging costs $99 per image
- But they seem to run sales now and then at $49.50 per image
In contrast, PhotoUp doesn’t hide its pricing. They use an easy-to-understand credit system to make payments and offer discounts for bulk buying of credits.
Their standard pricing plans are:
- $1.15 per credit for subscription clients
- $1.50 per credit for on-demand, pay-as-you-go clients
Going further, PhotoUp’s prices for virtual staging are as follows:
- Single set – 20 credits per photo
- Double set – 30 credits per photo
Sets are determined by the number of design pieces and furniture and how many frames a single room or space requires.
Our next item for comparison is design style options for virtual staging.
4. The Range of Design Styles
Once again, Planomatic hides its virtual staging information. To find design style options, I had to scan through their blog posts and then click 4 additional links to finally see that they offer the following:
- 9 design style options
- 10 room types
- And around 5 single items decor pieces
In comparison, PhotoUp offers a design library featuring 11 decor style options and 18 room types. There are also 21 design accessories to choose from.
Featuring decor choices popular with today’s buyers, PhotoUp’s 11 interior design styles include:
- Mid-Century Modern
- Scandinavian
- Coastal
- Farmhouse
- Modern
- American
- Industrial
- Hamptons
- Luxury
- Southwestern
- And Commercial
We’re almost done with our comparison. Last, we’ll compare the quality of the virtual staging results.
5. Quality of Results
Both companies offer examples of their virtual staging. Again, there are some apparent differences between the two providers.
Planomatic Virtual Staging Example
For instance, Planomatic makes it hard to find their virtual staging samples. There are also these issues to note:
- Most of their virtual staging was fine, but several images looked fake and poorly staged
- Only a few images were visually appealing, and the rest were bland and uninspiring
- Also, there was no information about custom branding
PhotoUp Virtual Staging Example
PhotoUp’s virtual staging samples were stunning. Here are a few other observations:
- The virtually staged photos were realistic and well done
- Each image featured appealing, well-decorated spaces and rooms
- Additionally, there was abundant information on branding and custom work
All right, now it’s time to review the results of our comparison of these two virtual staging providers.
Our Results – Which Is the Best?
Both companies offer quality real estate marketing services.
However, in our review of Planomatic’s virtual staging services, some significant issues should be noted, including the following:
- Planomatic doesn’t allow you to explore or order services until you talk with one of their marketing representatives
- Planomatic hides pricing and service information making it hard to see if you want to work with them in the first place
- In fact, they don’t feature virtual staging as one of their services. It’s mentioned several pages into their advanced photo editing section
In comparison, PhotoUp has several advantages, including the following:
- Easy account setup and instant access to all their services
- Clear and easy-to-find information on pricing – they have nothing to hide
- And crisp, realistic virtual staging examples
But there are other important considerations, too, especially the following:
- PhotoUp is much less expensive – around $20 an image compared to Planomatic’s $99 per image
- You’ll get your images faster with PhotoUp – 48 hours versus Planomatic’s 2.5 days
- And you have more design choices with PhotoUp than with Planomatic
Therefore, when we finish analyzing our results — we think PhotoUp is the best choice for virtual staging.
Fast & Affordable
Virtual Staging Service
Interiors. Landscapes. Commercial. Virtually transform any space.
Partner With PhotoUp for Outstanding Virtual Staging
PhotoUp’s virtual staging service is easy to use, affordable, and outstanding. Their team can help with all your real estate virtual staging needs.
Their virtual staging services include:
- Photo-realistic staging of empty or outdated rooms
- Repairs, remodeling, and renovations
- Object removal, decluttering, and depersonalizing of rooms
- Virtual landscaping
- Sky replacements
- Grass greening
- And more.
Using PhotoUp’s virtual staging is easy and quick – sign up for a free PhotoUp account, upload your images, add instructions (optional), and download your virtually staged photos in less than 48 hours.
And PhotoUp does much more than just virtual staging, their services also include:
- Real estate photo editing
- Single property websites
- Real estate photographer websites
- Property flyers
- Video editing
- Virtual Assistants
- House portraits
- And more!
So, take the next step, improve your marketing, and grow your business.
Sign up for a free account with PhotoUp and let us help you impress your clients and sell your listings faster and for higher prices.
We hope you enjoyed this post – Planomatic virtual staging vs PhotoUp: which is best? Also, before you go, you may want to check out the following related resources:
