Comparison
Splats vs 360 photos. Two different products that look like the same thing.
Stitched 360 photos are the cheapest 3D-ish format on the market. Splats are a generation newer and structurally different. Here's what each one is, who should use which, and where they overlap.
| Feature | Gaussian splat | Stitched 360 photos |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer movement | Continuous walk through one connected space | Teleport between fixed scan points |
| View time per tour | 4–8 minutes typical | 60–90 seconds typical |
| Realism | Photoreal depth and parallax | Flat panoramic photos, no parallax |
| Drone exterior | Captured as a continuous walkable space | Single drone panorama, not navigable |
| File size | 200MB–1.5GB, streams progressively | 20–100MB total |
| Embed | iframe URL on Rightmove, Zoopla, your own site | Same iframe approach |
| Price (UK, residential) | £345–£495 typical | £150–£350 typical |
| Best for | Premium stock, anything above £500k | Volume listings, sub-£400k flats |
The structural difference
A walk vs a slideshow.
A 360 tour is a series of panoramic photos with hotspots that let buyers jump between them. The buyer is teleporting around the property. They never feel like they're moving through it.
A splat is one continuous walkable space. The buyer drifts forward through doorways, rotates to look at a fireplace, backs up to compare two corners of the same room. The geometry persists between viewpoints. The motion is smooth.
That structural difference is why view time per tour roughly triples when an agency moves from 360s to splats on a comparable property. Buyers are doing something that feels useful, not clicking through a slideshow.
When to keep 360s
Cheaper, simpler, still useful.
Stitched 360 photos are a third the cost of splat capture. For lower-price-point stock — flats under £400k, rental properties, high-volume new build sales suites — the marketing-spend-per-listing maths often points to 360s.
The format is also faster to deliver. Many photographers will turn around a stitched 360 within 24 hours with no overnight processing.
Most agencies we work with use stitched 360s for the bulk of their stock and reserve splat capture for premium listings where the format earns its cost back.
Common questions
Which one for which listing?
- Are stitched 360 tours dead?
- No. They're still the right answer for high-volume, lower-price-point listings where the maths of marketing spend per listing is tight. They just stopped being the right answer for premium stock once splats became widely available.
- Can I use both formats on different listings?
- Yes. Many of the agencies we work with use stitched 360s as their default for sub-£400k stock and add a splat capture only on premium listings. We help with the splats, your photographer continues to deliver the 360s.
- Why does view time per tour matter?
- Time on listing is one of the strongest predictors of viewing-booking conversion. Buyers who linger longer convert better. A splat keeps buyers engaged 3–5x longer than a stitched 360, which translates directly into more viewings booked.
- Do splats look better on phones than 360s?
- Yes, materially. 360 photos render fine on phones but the navigation feels clunky in a portrait-mode viewport. Splats handle phone screens with a continuous-walk paradigm that's much more thumb-friendly.
Want to test a splat tour against your existing 360s?
Send one address from your premium stock. We'll capture the splat, you embed both formats on the listing page, and watch which one buyers spend more time in.