Knowledge Base
Find answers to frequently asked questions about our services, products, and processes.
How much does it cost to hire a local professional to create a Matterport 3D tour?
Professional Matterport scanning typically costs $200–$500 per property, depending on square footage and your market. This usually includes the 3D scan, high-resolution still photography, drone aerial shots, and a measured 2D floor plan — essentially a complete media package. Pricing scales with property size: a 1,500 sq ft apartment sits at the lower end, while a 5,000+ sq ft luxury home may reach $500 or more.
How does Metareal Stage compare to Matterport for creating 3D dollhouse models?
Metareal Stage produces true 3D models at a much lower price point but requires more manual effort. Where Matterport's AI automatically reconstructs geometry, Metareal asks users to either manually stitch the 3D environment or pay platform artists for reconstruction. Measurement accuracy follows the same split: Matterport's built-in measurement tools are accurate to within 1% when captured with Pro-series hardware, while Metareal Stage's measurement tools depend on how carefully the environment was manually modeled. For contractors and architects needing reliable dimensions, Matterport's automated, Lidar-backed measurements are more consistently trustworthy. The visual output is comparable for most real estate purposes, but the workflow is fundamentally different, trading automation for affordability.
What is the exact difference in quality between Zillow 3D Home and a professional Matterport scan?
Zillow 3D Home uses smartphone cameras (including Lidar on iPhone Pro) to create tours that are good but noticeably lower fidelity than Matterport Pro scans. Matterport offers higher resolution imagery, more accurate geometry, precise measurements, automatic floor plans, and CAD/Revit export capabilities. Zillow's advantage is zero cost and instant syndication — for many listings, this outweighs the quality gap.
Is it technically possible to host a Matterport 3D tour entirely on my own private server?
Not with standard Matterport plans — tours are hosted on Matterport's cloud infrastructure as part of their SaaS model. However, Matterport does offer an on-premises solution for enterprise clients with strict data sovereignty requirements, and their SDK allows embedding tours within your own domain. For full self-hosting, alternatives like 3D Vista Pro or open-source frameworks like Pannellum give you complete server control.
How to automatically blur faces, reflections, and sensitive documents in a Matterport 3D scan?
Matterport includes automated face blurring in its processing pipeline. However, a critical vulnerability known as the "reflection risk" exists: while facial recognition algorithms blur faces and text in direct view, they frequently fail to detect and blur the same content reflected in mirrors, glass tables, window panes, and TV screens. A resident's face blurred in direct view can remain fully visible in a nearby mirror's reflection, along with any sensitive documents or screens reflected in glass surfaces throughout the property. Best practice: manually review the entire scan for reflective surfaces and either re-scan those areas with reflections covered, or use Matterport's editing tools to manually patch sensitive areas.