Comparison
Photo box or phone app: product photos for your online shop
If you put many products into your online shop, a phone app serves you better: an ordinary phone photo becomes a studio photo in seconds and goes straight into the shop. A photo box fits if you want to control every tiny detail of the image yourself or do not want any AI editing.
Samuel Welte, Software developer
Last updated:
Photo box and phone app compared
The figures in the table come from one project: SAMIS GmbH sells hats in its own online shop and had both routes on the table — the photo box as a quote including 360-degree software. The times are estimates, not timed.
| Criterion | Photo box | Phone app |
|---|---|---|
| Fits if | you want to control every tiny detail of the image yourself | you put many products into the shop |
| How the image is created | You take every photo yourself | An ordinary phone photo becomes a studio photo |
| Photos per hat at SAMIS | around 50 | four |
| Work afterwards at SAMIS | Stitch images together and enter them in Shopify | Images, texts and transfer to Shopify run automatically |
| Time per product at SAMIS (estimated) | around two hours | around ten minutes |
When is a photo box the better choice?
When every tiny detail of your product images has to be right and you want to control it yourself.
And when you do not want any AI editing. The phone app uses AI to turn the photo into a studio photo. Whoever does not want that is better off taking their own photos.
When is the phone app the better choice?
When you want finished studio photos in seconds that are transferred straight into the online shop.
That matters most when you put many products into the shop.
What is often underestimated?
With the photo box: how much work it is to take all the photos yourself.
With the phone app: how fast and how good AI already is today.
An example: SAMIS GmbH
SAMIS GmbH had a quote of around 30,000 euros for a photo box and 360-degree software on the table. That would have meant around 50 photos per hat. Plus stitching the images together and entering them in Shopify — an estimated two hours per product.
The business chose the app. Today four phone photos are enough, and about ten minutes later the product is ready for the shop. How that came about is told in the case study SAMIS GmbH.
A custom-built app instead of a €30,000 photo box: faster, simpler and far cheaper. Plus a working relationship that simply fits – fast, reliable, on equal terms.
Where does the phone app reach its limit?
The app by AlpenApps from Feldkirch in Vorarlberg takes the image editing off your hands. That is exactly its limit: whoever wants to control every tiny detail of the image themselves is better served by a photo box.
Our advice in one sentence
If you put many products into your online shop, the app makes it effortless.
Frequently asked questions
Good to know
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