f8 Virtual Staging vs PhotoUp: Which Service Is Best?

Gregory Gronbacher — Mon, 03 Oct 2022 01:00:00 +0000

f8 Virtual Staging vs PhotoUp
Our Conclusion – Which Is the Best Option?
Start Using PhotoUp’s Virtual Staging Today

Thinking about using f8’s virtual staging service to help market and sell your listings? Then read this comparison article first!

Virtual staging results in stunning, stylish real estate photos that help sell houses more quickly and for higher prices.

In this post, we will look at two virtual staging providers, f8 vs PhotoUp – and compare them to see which service is best.

f8 Virtual Staging vs PhotoUp

f8 Real Estate Media provides photography, videography, and advanced media and marketing services to the residential real estate industry.

Located in Los Altos, California, the company offers the following services:

Virtual staging
Photo editing
Floor plans
Property websites
3D tours
Property video tours and video editing
And do-it-yourself property brochures

Founded in 2012, PhotoUp offers a full range of virtual staging services (commercial and residential) to real estate sales professionals across the globe.

PhotoUp, with offices in the US and the Philippines, also offers:

Now that we’ve introduced these two companies, let’s compare them in terms of the following:

Account creation
Pricing
Design and style options
Production & turnaround time
And image quality

OK, so, let’s get our comparison of these two virtual staging providers underway.

1. Account Creation

Further, to order f8’s virtual staging services, you need to create an account. Their account set-up process was fairly easy.

Once your account is created, they then ask you to submit the listing information for the property that needs marketing services, in this case, virtual staging.

This step is a bit time-consuming and awkward, to be honest. Once your listing information is entered, you can then select the services you need.

Now, in comparison — to work with PhotoUp you create a free account, which was a simple and easy process, taking less than a minute, and PhotoUp doesn’t require any listing information.

2. Pricing

In the same fashion, let’s look at an overview of both companies pricing, starting with f8:

The real estate media firm, f8, offers various packages of bundled services starting around $175 and going up to $300 — it’s not clear if virtual staging is included in any of these
Virtual Staging — $35 per image
Sky replacement and twilight effects — $25 per image
Other photo editing services — $25 per image

Looking through their website, I didn’t find anything about discounts for bulk orders. They have an app as well, but they offer a 5% discount if you place your order online.

Unlike f8, PhotoUp uses a credit system to make payments and they do offer discounts for bulk buying of credits. Their standard plans are:

$1.15 per credit for subscription clients
$1.50 per credit for on-demand, pay-as-you-go clients

Here are their charges for virtual staging:

Single set – 20 credits/$20 per photo
Double set – 30 credits/$30 per photo

Which set your order qualifies for is determined by the number of design pieces and furniture as well as how many frames a single room or space requires.

Additionally, PhotoUp provides unlimited revisions for photo editing and 2 free revisions for virtual staging.

In contrast to PhotoUp, f8 doesn’t have a clearly stated revision policy, and the virtual staging page states that there are no revisions for edited images.

Next in our comparison, we examine both companies’ design and style options for their virtual staging services.

3. Design and Style Options

Another key point in this comparison is virtual staging design and style options.

f8 has a range of 6 design and style options, which include:

Contemporary
Modern
Urban
Country
Traditional
And Beach

This screenshot shows a sample of their different virtual staging styles:

PhotoUp offers a professional design library featuring popular 11 decor style options and 18 room types. Also, there are an additional 21 design accessories to choose from.

PhotoUp’s 11 virtual staging design styles include:

All right, we’re now more than halfway through our comparison. Next up, we examine production and turnaround times.

4. Production & Turnaround Time

Both companies aim for 24-hour turnaround times for most services, with virtual staging possibly requiring 48 hours.

f8’s website states that virtual staging orders placed by 5:00 pm Pacific time will be completed by 12 noon, Pacific time, the next day.

And PhotoUp has a similar turnaround time. They send you low-resolution proofs for your approval within 24 hours of your placing an order.

Once approved, they provide high-resolution, virtually staged images shortly thereafter, usually within just a few hours.

For the last part of our comparison — let’s take a look at the image quality of both companies.

5. Image Quality

Starting with PhotoUp, the company provides high-resolution examples of their virtual staging work — which look great.

PhotoUp Virtual Staging Examples

f8 Virtual Staging Example

Next, f8 provides one sample of their work, but that’s only one we could find.

In fact, it’s a bit surprising that they only feature one sample on the website. It makes you wonder about the quality of their virtual staging. We would like to see more, in other words…

With our comparison complete, let’s review our results to see which virtual staging service is the best option.

Our Conclusion – Which Is the Best Option?

To conclude, it appears that f8 and PhotoUp offer many of the same virtual staging features and services. Second, both services also offer similar turnaround times for their work.

Third, however, PhotoUp appears to have some definite advantages in terms of other considerations:

PhotoUp is less expensive than f8
It’s also easier to place an order with PhotoUp
The lack of high-resolution samples makes it difficult to assess the quality of f8’s virtual staging, while PhotoUp’s samples are stunning
Also, PhotoUp offers 11 design themes and 21 decor additions — f8 only has 6 themes available

Therefore, when we weigh these considerations, we think it’s clear that PhotoUp is the best option.

Start Using PhotoUp’s Virtual Staging Today

Before: Empty Room

After: Virtual Staging by PhotoUp

Start today and let PhotoUp’s affordable virtual staging services help make any space or room look amazing — these include:

Staging vacant rooms with popular design-styled furnishings
Easy decor updates and replacements
Decluttering and depersonalizing of rooms and spaces
Virtual updates, repairs, and remodeling
Also, sky replacement, window masking, and lawn greening
And much more!

As mentioned, PhotoUp also offers a broad range of real estate marketing services including:

So, sign up for a free PhotoUp account, and start using virtually staged images to sell your listings more quickly and for better prices.

In summary, this post compared f8’s virtual staging vs PhotoUp to see which is the best service. And based on our comparison, we conclude that PhotoUp is the better choice.

We hope this post helps you decide where to go for virtual staging services. If you found this post valuable, you’ll also want to check out the following, related resources:

Gregory Gronbacher

Real Estate Sales Agent / Professional Blogger

Gregory is a real estate sales agent and a state-certified instructor of real estate licensing and law. Originally from New York City, he's called Grand Rapids, Michigan home since 1995.

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