The Great Home Makeover: AI Home Design vs. Virtual Staging AI—Which One Sparks Joy?

Gone are the days when virtual staging was seen as a gimmick that might deter buyers. With rising physical staging costs and major breakthroughs in virtual staging, more agents are embracing this powerful technology.

About a decade ago, virtual staging emerged as a faster, more affordable alternative to physical staging, though some agents were hesitant to switch. Now, thanks to AI integration, virtual staging is so efficient that agents no longer debate whether to use it—only which service to choose.

This blog aims to answer that very question and will pit Virtual Staging AI vs. AI HomeDesign to help you decide.

Virtual Staging AI vs. AI HomeDesign

So… Virtual Staging AI vs. AI HomeDesign: Both companies are real estate photo editing service providers that help real estate agents with various visual marketing and property listing needs. For this purpose, they both leverage the power of AI and thus, have much in common.

However, among all the commonalities, there are notable differences in pricing models, user interface, additional features, and complementary services that set them apart.

To begin with, let’s see how user-friendly each platform is.

Ease of use: AI virtual staging in action

Using both platforms is quite straightforward: The user uploads a photo, selects the room type, chooses a design style, and clicks ‘generate’ or ‘process photo.’

However, with AI HomeDesign, you need to create an account before using the service. In contrast, Virtual Staging AI allows you to generate photos without signing up, though an account is required if you wish to download the image without a watermark or unlock certain features.

Both services offer you a free trial. When using free credits on AI HomeDesign, users are free to fully explore all services, including AI virtual staging, and try out all available room types and design styles.

However, with Virtual Staging AI, free stagings are restricted to bedrooms and living rooms, as other room types are locked. So, if a user wants to see how Virtual Staging AI handles a home office or kids’ room, they’ve no other option but to purchase a plan first.

Turnaround: How much time do they take?

Virtual staging done by humans takes 1-2 hours per photo, but, thanks to the head-spinning power of AI, these two platforms do the job in less than 30 seconds! Yep, that’s about two sips of coffee or a few stretches behind the desk.

Not only that, they both generate not just one but three different results for every virtual staging request. So, as far as turnaround time is concerned, the two platforms are equally matched and highly reliable in delivering rapid results.

Pricing: Considering the necessary budget

Considering Virtual Staging AI vs. AI HomeDesign in terms of service prices, both platforms offer monthly and yearly subscription plans with the latter being more affordable.

Virtual Staging AI offers four different pricing plans from which the users can choose depending on their needs. These plans include:

• Basic;
• Standard;
• Professional; and,
• Enterprise.

Similarly, AI HomeDesign has four different pricing plans which are:

• Standard;
• Pro;
• Pro Plus; and,
• Enterprise.

Nevertheless, the difference in pricing becomes quite distinct when you consider the costs for each single virtually staged photo:

To stage one room using AI HomeDesign, one has to pay something around $0.24 – $2.50 depending on the chosen plan. Staging the very same room with Virtual Staging AI, however, will cost you anywhere around $0.46 – $4.17. That’s double the price offered by AI HomeDesign.

So, for active users like real estate agents who’ll be generating hundreds of photos in a year–including different rooms using various staging styles and from different angles–there is a tangible difference in choosing AI HomeDesign as the more affordable option. When talking budget-wise about Virtual Staging AI vs. AI HomeDesign, the latter offers a more cost-effective solution.

Consider both companies’ pricing plans below for yourself.

AI HomeDesign’s pricing plan vs Virtual Staging AI’s pricing plan

Styles and room types

Regarding room types, AI HomeDesign’s virtual staging gives you complete control over staging:

• living rooms;
• dining rooms;
• single bedrooms;
• double bedrooms;
• home offices;
• foyers; and,
• outdoor spaces.

Virtual Staging AI will allow users to stage:

• living rooms;
• dining rooms;
• bedrooms;
• bathrooms;
• kitchens;
• home offices;
• kids’ rooms; and,
• outdoor spaces.

Though staging kitchens and bathrooms are additional options in Virtual Staging AI, it’s important to note that, when listing a property, most agents typically tend to declutter rather than stage the bathrooms and kitchens. Contrary to living rooms and bedrooms, house buyers usually prefer to perceive the spaciousness of these two areas rather than their being filled with items.

As for staging kids’ rooms, AI HomeDesign offers that under the “AI Interior Design” section. So, except for the slight variation in how certain areas are categorized, there isn’t much difference between the two platforms regarding space types.

As for design styles, AI HomeDesign offers the following:

• Modern;
• contemporary;
• Scandinavian;
• industrial;
• farmhouse;
• Hampton; and,
• traditional.

Virtual staging AI claims–quite boldly, shall we say–to offer “+50 styles” but when you actually want to use their service, the design styles available are:

• standard;
• modern;
• Scandinavian;
• industrial;
• midcentury;
• luxury;
• costal; and,
• farmhouse.

So, when it comes to staging styles regarding Virtual Staging AI vs. AI HomeDesign, both platforms share four styles, with each offering a few unique ones: Standard, midcentury, luxury, and coastal for Virtual Staging AI, and contemporary, traditional, and Hampton for AI HomeDesign.

Photo quality: How well do they fare?

Another key consideration for agents is how well each tool furnishes a space. To assess this, we staged a few rooms using both platforms to see if the results met the expectations. To avoid any bias, we used Virtual Staging AI’s gallery to find the original photos, which include a variety of staged and unstaged rooms.

To compare the output image quality of Virtual Staging AI vs. AI HomeDesign, we selected three room types: A living room, a bedroom, and a dining room. We then staged them using AI HomeDesign and Virtual Staging AI.

Scroll below to see the results.

living room

One of the main concerns real estate agents have when using AI virtual staging tools is ensuring the dimensions are accurate. As shown here, both AI HomeDesign and Virtual Staging AI demonstrate a good understanding of room dimensions and select appropriately sized furniture.

Additionally, in both cases, no extra fixtures were added nor the available ones were removed. Moreover, the view beyond the windows remained unchanged.

The only issue with the photo generated by Virtual Staging AI is that the carpet pattern appears on the lounge chair to the left.

bedroom

Next is a bedroom designed once by Virtual Staging AI and again by AI Homedesign. Coming up with favorable results, both tools have done a good job of staging this space as well. Nightstands, dressers, rugs, and the artwork are all in the right place, contributing to a nice charming decor.

dining room

Down below is a dining room staged in a traditional style using both platforms.

AI HomeDesign’s virtual staging service managed to come up with another satisfactory image. The image produced by Virtual Staging AI, though, has a few minor issues. For example, the number of chairs placed on either side of the table is not equal, and one on the right seems to be missing a backrest.

In such cases, generating a few more samples might resolve the problem, but when dealing with low-quality photos, rooms with unusual layouts, or a persisting generation error, human intervention could be the solution.

In such cases, you can easily rely on AI HomeDesign’s Human Virtual Staging service, which takes a little more time but is bound to deliver %100, perfectly accurate results.

Complementary services: What else is in the box?

Agents and other real estate players take and stage property photos to use on online multiple listing services (MLS), where house hunters search for homes. The intention behind standard AI virtual staging services, thus, is to create MLS-ready photos in one click.

However, a perfect virtual staging platform is one that also helps agents with other tasks such as:

• decluttering a space;
• enhancing the quality of their photos;
• removing an object from a staged photo; and,
• replacing one item with another.

In some of the examples provided above, removing one item or replacing it with another would add to the overall look and charm of the place. That’s why, apart from virtual staging, AI HomeDesign offers the following complementary services to ensure that agents have everything they need.

• AI item removal;
• AI photo enhancement;
• AI furniture restyle; and,
• AI day-to-dusk.

In contrast, the only other service offered by Virtual Staging AI is furniture removal.

AI Photo Editing Toolbox: Which One Offers a More Complete Package?

While Virtual Staging AI does a good job of furnishing empty spaces, compared to AI HomeDesign, it lags behind in certain aspects. As we just mentioned, Virtual Staging AI doesn’t offer other necessary services such as AI day-to-dusk, AI photo enhancement, or furniture restyle. What’s missing most in Virtual Staging AI is item-by-item item removal, which is an essential feature for creating MLS-ready photos.

What’s more, in cases where photos originally have low quality or certain items in a photo are misplaced, Virtual Staging AI can’t be of much use to agents. AI HomeDesign, however, has a team of professional virtual stagers available to help agents with those pesky, persistent errors or modifications where automated tools fall short.

Lastly, AI HomeDesign is much more affordable, and this goes beyond the $0.22 price difference of a single photo. For large-scale projects, where agents or photographers need to edit hundreds of photos and the costs can painfully add up, using AI HomeDesign’s virtual staging service will make a dramatic difference.

Imagine an agent using AI HomeDesign to enhance the quality of a photo, stage a space, remove a few items, and finally restyle the furniture all within the same image. Technically, they’d be using four different services, but in practice, they’ll only pay for one.

The reason is that, unlike Virtual Staging AI and similar tools, AI HomeDesign charges per photo, not per service. So, no matter how many services the user applies to a single photo, they’ll only use one single credit and nothing more! Now that’s a sweet deal you can’t pass…

Virtual Staging AI vs. AI Homedesign: Which Is It Then?

Perfect AI virtual staging requires using the perfect service provider that has a rich database and is well-trained for all room types and design styles. Moreover, such a tool must have complementary features that are very often needed when virtually staging a space. Finally, a reliable AI service provider must have a robust support system; a group of professionals who could assist agents with staging unique spaces or poorly captured photos.

While Virtual Staging AI seems to meet the first criteria, it falls short in the second and third. It lacks the complementary features needed for fine-tuning images and doesn’t offer the professional support required for more complex projects or low-quality photos.