By Tata Rossi 20 days ago, Apps and Software
ArchiCGI Services
Verdict: At $30 per image, ArchiCGI offers fast virtual staging once all details are finalized. However, some users find it challenging to obtain pricing information. To learn the cost of your project, request a quote on their website and wait for several days.
However, the biggest downside is that the company doesn’t offer editing services for real estate photography, limiting realtors from offering a complete package. Some users expressed disappointment with rushed orders that didn't meet expectations.
Additionally, the virtual staging may not always align with the property's size and lighting, resulting in unrealistic or mismatched outcomes.
The services of this agency are frequently used by real estate agents, marketers, photographers, and designers from all around the world. Sometimes they claim that images look as if were staged and enhanced by editors who don’t have any design experience.
Additionally, you might have to send your own furniture examples that will be used for virtual staging.
✖ Don’t provide clear photo requirements. If you decide to take advantage of their services, you’ll have to spend a lot of time and effort to simply send your photos since the website doesn’t provide clear specifications regarding the required image format, size, and other parameters.
✔ Comprehensive list of services. ArchiCGI offers a rundown of all the offered virtual staging services while going into detail on what each service entails. They also have a live chat feature, which allows you to learn even more about the desired service.
✖ Unrealistic result. ArchiCGI virtual staging services employ furniture and décor extracted from digital renders. This means that all used elements are generated with virtual staging software to convert design concepts into eye-catching and stylish staging projects that don't, however, have real-life counterparts.
✖ Small number of revisions. Such an approach will disappoint a lot of customers who might be interested in getting lots of edits without having to pay extra.
✖ Hard to find out the price. You’ll need to schedule a call with one of their managers. A company representative will cover their workflow and the files required for the project brief during the consultation. Afterward, you’ll be provided with a quote for your order and informed about the projected deadline.
Once all such details are sorted out, the team gets to work. You can either pre-pay for the entire order or choose the 50-50 system (before and after completion). Keep in mind, that the latter option is only offered for orders over $2,000.
A 3D floor plan service lets you present the structure and layout of a property while providing essential info about the offered space, functionality, and advantages.
The agency’s team uses specialized floor plan software to design 2D black-and-white floor plans that, however, often end up looking too basic.
✔ Provide realistic floor plans. In contrast to standard floor plans, 3D floor plans offer a more realistic depiction of a property. As such, you can enjoy an easily understandable presentation of the layout of a space to help potential clients determine if it matches their requirements.
✖ Issues with free corrections. This company claims that all corrections will be made for free. However, by corrections, they refer to edits that affect below 60% of the order workload. If the required adjustments go over that percentage, it will be considered a new order.
✔ Support is provided by human employees. Whenever you write in live chat, you’ll receive a response from a real person who will also help answer any extra questions you may have. Generally, the company’s support staff are proficient and helpful.
✖ Hard to understand the manager. The process of ordering a floor plan is rather confusing, which can also affect the turnaround time. Additionally, due to the small number of possible customization options, it’s nearly impossible to ensure the manager accounts for all the requirements you might have.
✖ Regular misunderstandings during the collaboration. Since the company’s main office is located in Scotland, most of its customers collaborate with them online. This isn’t always convenient since designers often don’t understand the finer details of a client’s order and make decisions according to their own tastes without consulting the client.
ArchiCGI currently employs over 500 CGI experts and promises a 1-week turnaround. By exploring a virtual tour of a house, the potential buyer can get an accurate impression of how it would feel to live there.
When done properly, virtual tours can feature accurate textiles, furniture, textures, colors, and even decorations.
✖ Unclear range of covered styles. ArchiCGI states they can work in a broad range of interior styles but don’t provide any specifics. If you don’t have an interior design background, it might be hard for you and their experts to find common ground.
Additionally, while the agency claims it will bring any idea you might have to life as long as you show some references, the reality is that the final product often doesn’t match the references, which can lead to a huge disappointment.
✔ Employ modern software. ArchiCHI relies exclusively on popular virtual tour software that supports a 360-degree workflow and scene selection based on images taken with 360-degree cameras. The software also comes with useful features like pan/tilt zoom, focus adjustment, manual distance, horizon line, and so on.
Additionally, the agency employs the best interior design software including AutoCAD LT, SketchUp Pro, Autodesk 3ds Max, TurboCAD, etc.
✖ Picture quality is dependent entirely on the users. ArchiCGI hasn’t established any quality requirements for its virtual tours, hence why the final projects can often look terrible.
✖ Shady pricing. The official site doesn’t feature any pricing information for this service. Even if you’d be willing to find out the price via email, you should know that they work only with business accounts.
✖ Don’t offer a mobile version. ArchiCGI can only be used via browser since the agency doesn’t have a real estate app for its services. If you prefer to do everything on the go, having to create an order on a PC can be a huge, time-consuming inconvenience.
The ArchiCGI renderings are created by 3D designers who use specialized PC software. Such a render can feature only the property itself or the surrounding area as well to make everything look more realistic.
Such services are in high demand among architectural firms, realtors, marketers involved in the real estate industry, etc.
✖ Weak render quality. ArchiCGI has a lot of experience doing virtual staging, but the quality of their renderings can still leave much to be desired. This can be explained by the fact that they might be using dated rendering software, or it could come down to the specific rendering artist who’s incapable of doing their job properly.
✔ Collaboration with a dedicated designer. The agency assigns a manager to your project who will work and communicate with you until it's completed. It’s easier to get your point across and receive the desired result.
The company also offers a convenient chat that allows you to avoid communicating via email.
✖ Price is determined by a broad range of factors. These are project complexity, the number of ordered renders, the requested architectural style, etc. The cost is also influenced by the number of hours it will take to complete your project.
✖ Discounts are only offered for extremely expensive orders. You can request a discount only if you’ve spent over $5,000 in a month.
✔ Free, unrestricted access to their huge collection of CG assets. The agency lets you take advantage of its library that contains more than collection 74,000 3D models of trendy furniture, appliances, decorations, plants, vehicles, and other objects. All assets represent actual products from real brands, making it easy to later bring your render to life.
✖ Lack of customization options. A lot of ArchiCGI reviews mention the agency’s inability to satisfy specific requests or edits requested for the final product.
✖ Long order turnaround. The agency will deliver the final renders within 1-2 weeks.
If you’re actively involved in real estate video marketing, you can benefit from the provided architectural animation services.
You can use them to showcase how different elements work in motion, present the property layout in detail, and engage the viewer in the scene, increasing your chances of converting them into a buyer.
✔ Convenient order placement process. To receive a 3D video, you have to provide basic information about your order that includes the property’s location, desired video length, resolution, etc. You can learn what kind of information you need to provide by downloading the company’s brief for animation services.
✖ Editing requires multiple days. According to user reviews, ArchiCGI experts take several days to finish working on an order. Moreover, there’s a moderate chance they’ll neglect to fulfill some of your requirements.
✖ Support isn’t provided 24/7. Online support is provided from 10 AM to 9 PM EET, UTC+2h. You can reach out to your assigned manager only during these hours, otherwise, you’ll simply have to write a message and wait for them to respond.
The official website doesn’t have a price list. If you want to receive it, you need to either fill out a form (provide your full name, business email, company size, and yearly budget) or contact them via chat (you’ll later receive a response from a manager).
A lot of users claim that the average cost of ArchiCGI’s virtual staging services comes down to $30 per image. Other related services can be as cheap as $4-15 while virtual renovation will send you back between $15 and $199 per photo.
Verdict: In contrast ArchiCGI, FixThePhoto offers all the relevant information about its services right on the official website to ensure potential clients don’t have any questions.
Placing an order for virtual staging or image editing is also incredibly easy. The agency's workflow is optimized to ensure you don't have to constantly go back and forth with the designers to receive the desired result.
You simply have to mark the required items in a form when creating your order, respond to a couple of questions from their manager, and receive the result the following day. FixThePhoto designers always meet deadlines and are ready to make any changes you need to ensure you’re satisfied with your order.
Verdict: As one of the main ArchiCGI competitors, WeEdit.Photos offer a wide range of services related to real estate and virtual staging including culling, object deletion, color correction, day-to-dusk transformation, and many others.
WeEdit.Photos employ managers with terrific communication skills. You start by registering an account and then sending your files to the company. We also suggest checking out their portfolio which features a detailed description of all the provided service types.
Verdict: Styldod provides an array of virtual staging, editing, and promotional video creation services. The latter is particularly noteworthy since most agencies don't offer such an option.
They provide 24/7 support but since all communication is done via email, you’ll have to wait for a response. In that sense, collaborating with ArchiCGI is more convenient.
Verdict: Homestyler is equipped with premade designs that streamline the virtual staging process. This platform also offers a convenient catalog of branded furniture that allows you to easily visualize a trendy interior.
Just like ArchiCGI, they don’t offer editing services and you’ll also have to pay an extra fee for renders, meaning their services can be rather pricey.
Verdict: VisualStager is superior to ArchiCGI in several aspects, particularly when it comes to virtual tours since they offer noticeably lower prices. It’s a good agency for real estate photographers and realtors who want to showcase the most appealing features of a property without getting hyper-realistic images.
Verdict: RoomSketcher mostly provides services related to designing floor plans, which is reflected in their software choices. ArchiCGI offers similar services only much broader in scope. The advantage of this agency is that it has its own mobile app, which can be conveniently used on the go.
Verdict: Omega Render offers real estate renders in either 2D or 3D format. They claim they can create all kinds of items from furniture and decorations to gadgets and medical equipment, as well as different types of produce.
However, just like ArchiCGI, this agency doesn’t offer photography and editing services. They also have a rather complex pricing policy, which makes it hard to calculate the cost of your project.
Verdict: PadStyler adopts a personalized approach to each client just like ArchiCGI. However, their real estate renders are more realistic, better match the customer’s requirements, and are more detailed.
Sadly, PadStyler is one of the most difficult ArchiCGI competitors to work with. They require you to send the interior photos and specify what kind of furniture needs to be used for styling. Additionally, their designers can fail to understand your requirements on their first try, which can lead to misunderstandings.
Verdict: This company boasts over 5 years of industry-relevant experience and its services are in constant high demand due to its long-standing partnership with VRX Media.
Unlike most competing agencies or ArchiCGI, VRX Staging doesn’t have a big selection of services. Moreover, they don’t offer a free trial option or discounts for large orders. They also don’t let you pick the specific furniture items that will be added to your real estate photos but only the overall style.
Verdict: Specializing in virtual staging, VirtualStagingSolutions excels at designing virtual spaces, performing digital renovations, and creating 3D renders and floor plans. If you're unhappy with the result, you can ask for 2 revisions or take advantage of the provided money-back guarantee.
That said, this agency is one of the most expensive ArchiCGI competitors out of all options featured in this review. They are great at quickly completing projects, as the turnaround is usually within 1-2 business days. The main downside is that you can only communicate with them during business hours.
