5 things to look out for when choosing the best virtual tour software

1. 5 things to look out for when choosing the best virtual tour software When you are new to the virtual tour world, things can get pretty overwhelming very fast if you don’t know what to look for when choosing your tools. This includes the best virtual tour software. Which one do you choose? There’s so many! To help you make a decision, here’s the top 5 things to look at when choosing the best virtual tour software in 2021. 1. Support You would not think this to be number 1, but it is definitely way up there when making your decision on what virtual tour software to choose. The reason support is so important is because you need to be sure that when something breaks, or is unclear when using the software you get an almost immediate response from the developers or their team so you can continue with your day.

2. You don’t want to wait 24 hours before you get an answer, and you certainly don’t want to have to do an online search each time you need a quick answer to something. Ain’t nobody got time for that! So check: A. Have they got an online chat B. Can you call them (free if possible) C. Do they have an extensive knowledge-base or documentation on how to use the software D. Do they publish tutorials on Youtube 2. Features You need certain features for your virtual tour, the basic ones should include pop-ups, contact forms, hotspots, inserting video / images and ability to share your virtual tours online (embed codes, links, social media buttons, QR codes etc). Those features should be highlighted on the software’s website, or at least included in a free trial. Try them all out and make sure they work. The more features a software has, the more developed they will be. 3. Pricing Pricing is important, and of course we all want everything for free, but sometimes free isn’t always the best option! I would steer away from companies that offer the software for free, even if it is just a limited version. A free trial, yes of course this is great, but a completely free account is dangerous. Why? A. The company will have a lot of extra hosting costs and support time wasted to those free accounts, guess who is paying for that? B. With the added hosting costs and support time, the company will sooner or later get into trouble. Many will fold, as it is simply not sustainable in the long run. This means, even if you paid for your account, the company might one day just disappear and take your tours down with them!

3. C. A company that offers free account will have many users, this means their support system will be overwhelmed at times. As a paying user you need to make sure you get optimal support, this is not always the case with companies that offer free accounts. So be careful with companies that offer “Free” or “lifetime” subscriptions. Someone pays for this, and it is usually yours truly… 4. Cancellations What happens when you cancel your subscription? Do your tours disappear? Do they get deleted? Will you loose all your work? This is a very important question and you have to aks it before you start a subscription with anyone so you are happy with the way they work. For example, Kuula will switch off all your tour functionalities, making your tour completely unusable. Cloudpano and most other software throws your tours offline and some even delete them. My360 offers a “hosting only” option for 1$ per tour per year, which is very reasonable compared to hosting them on your own server. 5. Are they updating regularly? This one is hard to find out but check their social media pages, this is where they will usually announce new releases and feature releases. It is important to choose a software that updates once in a while. Not every week, but at least once per month or every 2 months they need to show they have improved on something. This means that new features will be added as they get invented, and your player will always look the best it could possibly look! There you have it… 5 things to look out for when choosing a good360º virtual tour software. Follow these 5 steps and you will be sure to choose the right one! Want my opinion? (I thought you’d never ask!) I use the My360 Virtual Tour Software for my tours. They check all these 5 boxes and then some, so if you don’t want to faff about with free trials, check this one out straight away, you won’t be disappointed!