Product photo or 3D model? A cost comparison for small stores

If you want to show shoppers how a sofa or a rug would look in their home, there are essentially two ways. The first is an AI preview: the shopper uploads a photo of their room, and the AI takes the product from your store’s product photo and places it in that photo, matching the room’s perspective and light. The second is 3D/AR: a 3D model is prepared for each product, and the shopper places it in a live camera view on a compatible phone.

You’ll find a detailed comparison of how the two methods are used and where their limits lie in our guide to AI preview vs. 3D/AR. This article focuses on the question that matters most for a small store: what makes the cost grow?

With 3D/AR, most of the cost comes up front: every product needs a model, and often every color or fabric variant needs its own texture too. The model’s shape, dimensions and material have to be right; otherwise the shopper sees something that isn’t accurate. Prices vary a lot by provider and by how complex the product is, so we don’t quote figures here; multiplying your own quotes by your number of products and variants gives a fair first estimate.

For a small store, the real challenge is the sheer number. If you have a hundred products with three color options each, showing all of them in AR takes hundreds of models or textures. If your range changes every season, the work starts over every season, and a new product doesn’t appear in AR until its model has been made and checked.

An AI preview needs no preparation per product: HomeVisioner uses the product images already in your store. Every product that has an image and has the button turned on is ready for previews from day one, and adding a new product takes no extra work.

Instead, the cost depends on the monthly plan and on usage. On ikas, the free plan includes 20 visualizations a month. Starter includes 100 for €24.99 a month, Growth 300 for €74.99 and Pro 1000 for €199.99; Starter comes with a 14-day free trial. Plans are billed in euros, and the panel also shows the approximate amount in Turkish lira.

So the question isn’t “how many products do I have?” but “how many of my shoppers will create a preview each month?” You don’t have to guess: you can start on the free plan and choose a plan based on the first month’s actual number of visualizations.

Picture a small furniture store with a hundred products, each in three colors. For 3D/AR, you first have to decide which products to model, then get a quote for each model and check the models; shoppers see the first model only once that work is done. With an AI preview, the same store can turn the button on for every product, or only for the categories it chooses, on day one. If no more than 20 previews are created a month, the free plan is enough; for more, Starter offers 100 visualizations and a 14-day trial.

The requirements on the shopper’s side differ too. An AI preview needs only a room photo and a browser; there’s no app to download and no account to create, and the shopper can even upload the photo from work. AR needs an AR-capable phone, and the shopper has to be in the room where the product will go at that moment.

In an AI preview, the product photo takes the place of the 3D model, so its quality directly affects the result. The best results come from a photo that shows the whole product, uncropped, against a plain background. When a styled room shot is the main image, the AI first has to find the product inside another room, and the perspective can throw the proportions off.

On ikas, the preview uses the main image of the variant the shopper selected, or another variant’s image if that variant has none. If your variants have their own images, shoppers see the color they picked in their own room. Most stores don’t need a new shoot for this; making the existing plain product shot the main image is enough.

An AI preview doesn’t measure: scale and proportions are representative, and the result is a still image. 3D/AR offers true-to-scale placement if the model has the right dimensions, but it needs preparation for every product and a shopper who is in that room with a suitable phone.

Roughly: if your range is large or changes often, if color, pattern and appearance are what decides the sale, and if you want to start without a preparation period, an AI preview is the better fit. If you have a small number of expensive products where exact dimensions matter, and good 3D data is ready, consider 3D/AR. The two don’t rule each other out: the “Odanızda Görün” button (“See it in your room” in an English-language store) is a separate button on the product page and leaves your existing product media untouched. You’ll find examples for furniture stores on our page for furniture stores.