When you commission a virtual tour, the upfront cost is only part of the picture. Depending on which format you choose, you may also be paying an annual hosting fee to keep the tour live. This post explains how virtual tour hosting works, what you'll pay, and how to avoid a situation where your tour disappears because a subscription lapses.
01Why Hosting Fees Exist
A virtual tour isn't just a video file you can store anywhere. It's an interactive application that needs to be served from a server, processed in real time as viewers navigate through it, and kept accessible via a stable URL that you can embed on your website and share with clients.
Most virtual tour platforms charge for this hosting as an ongoing subscription. The most prominent example is Matterport, which requires an active subscription to keep tours live. If you stop paying, your tours go offline.
02Matterport's Hosting Model
Matterport operates on a subscription model. When you commission a Matterport scan through me, the first 12 months of hosting are included in the price. After that, keeping your tour live costs £99 per year. If you stop paying, the tour goes offline — so for businesses that want a permanent tour, this ongoing cost is worth factoring into your decision.
What this means in practice: a Matterport tour of your hotel, care home, or business premises will cost you not just the upfront scan fee, but an ongoing annual subscription to keep it live. Over three years, that subscription can exceed the original cost of the scan.
For a property that sells quickly, this rarely matters. The tour is live for a few months, the property sells, and the subscription lapses without consequence. But for a business that wants a permanent virtual tour of its premises as a long-term marketing asset, the Matterport subscription model is a significant consideration.
03The Bespoke Alternative: No Ongoing Fees
A bespoke 360° tour is built differently. Rather than being hosted on Matterport's platform, the tour files are hosted independently. I can host the tour for you as part of the package, with a one-off setup fee and no annual charges. Alternatively, if you have your own web hosting, the tour can be delivered as files you host yourself.
The result is a tour that is genuinely yours. There's no subscription to manage, no risk of the tour going offline if you forget to renew, and no dependency on a third-party platform's pricing decisions.
The upfront cost of a bespoke tour is typically higher than a Matterport scan of equivalent size. But over a two to three year period, the total cost is usually lower once Matterport's hosting fees are factored in.
04Google Street View: No Fees at All
Google Street View has no hosting fees of any kind. The tour is published to Google Maps and your Google Business Profile, and Google hosts it indefinitely at no cost. You pay once for the photography and publication, and the tour stays live as long as your Google Business Profile exists.
The trade-off is that you have no control over the hosting environment. The tour lives on Google's platform, not yours, and you can't embed it on your own website in the same way as a Matterport or bespoke tour (though an iframe embed is possible).
05A Practical Comparison
| Format | Upfront cost | Annual hosting fee | Total cost over 3 years (example) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matterport | £249–£549 | £99/yr (after yr 1) | ~£447–£747 |
| Bespoke 360° | £449+ | £0 | £449+ |
| Google Street View | £269–£549 | £0 | £269–£549 |
Figures are illustrative. See the pricing page for current rates.
06What to Ask Before Booking
Before commissioning any virtual tour, ask these questions:
Are there ongoing hosting fees, and if so, what happens to my tour if I stop paying? Who owns the tour files? Can I move the tour to different hosting if I want to? Is the hosting fee fixed, or can the platform change its pricing?
For Matterport, the answers are: yes there are fees, the tour goes offline if you stop paying, Matterport owns the hosting environment, and the pricing is set by Matterport and has changed in the past.
For a bespoke 360° tour from me, the answers are: no ongoing fees, the tour stays live indefinitely, you own the files, and there's nothing to change.
07The Right Choice Depends on Your Use Case
If you're marketing a property for sale, Matterport is usually the right choice. The tour will be live for a few months at most, and the hosting cost is negligible in that context. The 3D dollhouse view and floor plan are genuinely useful for property buyers.
If you're a business that wants a permanent virtual tour of your premises, a bespoke 360° tour is almost always the better long-term investment. You pay more upfront, but you own it outright and there's nothing more to pay.
If your priority is Google Maps visibility, Google Street View has no fees at all and is the most affordable entry point.
To discuss which format suits your situation, call me on 07545 450543 or email hello@propertyphotoguy.co.uk.
