ARQR360 vs Shopify AR Apps: What a Rug Store Really Pays for AR

Picture a rug store owner in Manchester. She sells handwoven rugs online, and her reviews are warm. But every week a few rugs come back with the same complaint. The rug looked bigger in the photos. Or smaller. Or the pattern swallowed the room. For a rug, size is the whole product, and a photo cannot carry it.

AR fixes this. Her customer points a phone at their living room floor and sees the rug at true size before they buy. Two routes come up in every search: Shopify AR apps, and ARQR360. Here is a fair look at both, written for a rug store owner, not a developer.

What Shopify AR apps actually are

Shopify themes have supported 3D models for years. Modern themes show a 3D model in the product gallery, and phones open it in AR with one tap. The AR (Augmented Reality) viewer apps on the Shopify App Store add a nicer viewer, layout controls, and analytics. Public listings put their pricing around free to roughly $36 a month, depending on how many products you publish.

That part is cheap. The part that matters is what the apps do not do. They are viewers. You have to bring your own 3D models. Nobody in that chain makes them for you.

The hidden bill: who makes the models

This is where the comparison turns. A rug store with eighty rugs needs eighty true-to-size 3D models. Third-party roundups of Shopify 3D apps put commissioned models at $100 to $500 per product when made by a 3D artist. Even at the low end, eighty rugs means thousands of dollars and weeks of briefs, revisions, and follow-ups before the first AR (Augmented Reality) view ever loads.

It is honest work to hire it out. It is also a real cost line that never appears on the app pricing page. Compare the total, not the headline. We did the same maths for a small rug store in our pricing breakdown, and the models were the biggest number on the page.

Where the two differ

Price

With Shopify AR apps, you pay a small monthly subscription, plus the cost of every 3D model, which you commission separately. ARQR360 is one flat number: $249 one-time setup and $29 a month, with model building included. No per-model fees, no per-view fees. The first test model is free, so you can see your own rug in AR before you spend anything.

Who does the 3D modelling

This is the deciding question. With Shopify apps, you do it, or you hire someone who does. With ARQR360, we build the true-to-size models from your photos and real dimensions, bestsellers first, and new stock gets modelled the same way when your range changes. You never touch a 3D file.

True-to-size accuracy

A rug is a flat rectangle. If the model is 10% too big, it covers the wrong floor, and the customer learns to distrust the tool. Accuracy depends on whoever made the model. Ask any route how they verify scale against real dimensions. We measure each finished model against the official listed size before it goes live.

Setup effort

With Shopify apps, you install the app, add the viewer block to your theme, and upload the models you made. With ARQR360, the AR (Augmented Reality) view opens in the phone browser from a link or QR code. Nothing for the customer to install. You can print that QR code on a swing tag or a packing slip.

Which one fits your store

If you already have a catalogue of 3D models, or a designer on staff who makes them, a Shopify viewer app is a sensible buy. The subscription is small and the tooling is mature.

If you have no 3D models and no designer, the app subscription is not your project. Your project is getting eighty rugs modelled true to size. That is the part ARQR360 takes off your desk.

FAQ

Whichever side of that comparison you land on, the test that matters is the same: can your customer see the rug at true size on their own floor? Augmented reality for rug stores explains why size is the question that decides it.