Knowledge base · from our own projects
3D configurators
A 3D configurator lets a customer put a product together themselves and see the result straight away in photo quality. At THE REAL MAG. that costs from 5,000 euros one-off for the build plus 150 euros a month, with a first demo inside a week and a complete configurator in six to ten weeks.
A product configurator is not visual decoration. It is the moment a customer makes their choice, and the quality of that moment decides whether they buy or walk away. This page brings together what THE REAL MAG. has learned in practice about building, pricing and integrating them.
What these pages are about
THE REAL MAG. only writes here about work we carry out ourselves. Every price, lead time and technical specification in these articles comes from projects we have built or from our own published rates. Where a figure comes from a client, the source is stated.
The four questions that always come back
What does it cost. The answer depends less on the configurator itself than on your range. The build is a fixed amount, but the 3D models scale with the number of products, and that is the item that makes the difference between nine thousand and ninety thousand euros.
How long does it take. A first demo is standing within a week. A complete configurator takes six to ten weeks, and the delay is almost never in the building. It is in pinning down which combinations are possible and what they cost.
Build or buy. A standard platform is live sooner and cheaper at the start. The moment your product does not fit the template, image quality is a selling point, or you do not want to depend on a licence, it tips towards having one built.
Will it work on my customer's phone. That depends entirely on where the image is calculated. If that happens in the browser, the weakest device sets your maximum quality. If it happens on a server, the device only has to display an image.
What a configurator does not solve
A configurator makes visible what you sell; it does not work out what you sell. If it is not settled which combinations are possible and what they cost, you build that basis first. Companies that skip that step get stuck halfway and blame the technology.
To be honest about when it does not pay off. With a small, stable range without variants you will not earn a configurator back. Eight products that all look the same are cheaper to photograph than to model.