Both sit in the same field on a portal listing and both get called a virtual tour in conversation, which is why agents end up buying one when they wanted the other. The difference is control. A video is watched on the maker’s route at the maker’s pace; a 360 tour is explored on the viewer’s.
What a video walkthrough is good at
Atmosphere, sequence and pace. A well-shot walkthrough conveys how a property feels to move through, and it carries a voiceover or music, which a 360 tour does not. For a property whose appeal is the flow between spaces, or a garden, video is genuinely the better artefact.
It also travels well on social media, where a 360 tour link is just a link. If the goal is a reel rather than a listing asset, video wins by default.
What a 360 tour is good at
Layout, scale and the questions buyers actually ask on the phone. How the kitchen relates to the garden, whether the second bedroom takes a double, what you see from the window. A viewer can turn round and look, which is the whole point and is exactly what video cannot do.
It also filters the viewing list, because a buyer who has walked the property online withdraws before the appointment rather than on the doorstep. That effect and the published figures are covered here.
The portal difference that catches people out
On Zoopla, a video has to come from a supported player, historically Vimeo, YouTube, Audio Agent, Vistabee, Vieweet or Property Tours. A video hosted anywhere else may simply not render. A hosted 360 tour is a web page rather than a video file, so no player list applies to it.
On Rightmove, a YouTube or Vimeo URL embeds in the page while any other secure link opens in a pop-up window. Rightmove and Zoopla are covered separately.
Cost, honestly
A produced video walkthrough and a booked 360 capture cost broadly the same, because both are somebody attending the property. That is roughly £250 upwards per instruction, and both are therefore rationed to the listings that justify it.
The routes that do not need a visit change that arithmetic. Spatia builds a 360 tour from the photographs already taken for the listing, at £62 to £99 per listing with hosting included, which is what makes it viable on every property rather than on the pick of them. The full cost comparison is here.
The short answer
- Unusual layout, remote buyers, or a competitive postcode: 360 tour.
- Character property where the feel is the selling point: video, or both.
- Social media as the goal: video.
- Every listing rather than the best few: whichever does not require a site visit, because that is the only constraint that decides coverage.