3D configuration has become a game-changing tool for eCommerce and construction businesses. This is because a 3D product configurator can help your customers visualize your customizable products in real time, making for a more trustworthy representation of what they'll be getting.

This is especially important when it comes to more impactful products that aren't as easy to replace or repurchase like it's nothing. Every transaction counts, of course, but bigger, long-term products like sheds, garages, or even homes are huge investments, and make a significant impact not just financially, but for your quality of life.

This is why something as important as a shed, garage, or tiny home has to be carefully considered—and 3D sales configurators can do that for you and your customers. Your customers can customize the product to look exactly how they want, while also providing pricing and quoting. This saves you as the business a ton of time as your models, and options are clearly communicated. The configurator does the heavy lifting, delivering automatic pricing estimates and quotes to your customers.

ShedPro is one of these configurator providers, and it is well-known in the shed, carport, and garage industry. They've been around since 2015, providing businesses with an online presence to cast a wider net for clients under their parent company, a marketing agency. In 2020, they officially launched as ShedPro to offer shed and carport businesses a savvy solution for product configuration, to help them quicken the sales, design, and quotation process in one go.

ShedPro has given businesses an opportunity to stand out in their field, but are there other configurator providers like them? Here we explore some ShedPro 3D configurator alternatives for anyone in the business of sheds, garages, carports, or even tiny homes, tiny houses on wheels, modular dwellings, and ADUs.

About ShedPro

Main features: Specializes in shed design, so they're optimized when it comes to the ins and outs of that industry—though some builders use it to design carports. Customizable pre-designed templates are also available, which is great for any customer who may be overwhelmed by too many options.

Which industry benefits the most: Sheds, carports, and barns

Pros

• It has pre-designed templates, which can make the design process easier for customers

• The interface is fully 3D

• Its dynamic pricing calculator is helpful and allows your customer to get an immediate quotation

• User-friendly, and the learning curve isn't steep at all

• Plenty of customization options for shed building

• Integrations with several websites

• Offers add-ons/upgrades

• Can view the design in augmented reality

Cons

• Limited to sheds, so may not be useful to industries that sell a wider range of products.

• Some sections in the configurator, like the colors sections, can be overwhelming. The user interface shows most options at once in a long dropdown menu making the configuration a less guided process.

• Load times can be long.

• Only limited options for configuring shed interiors. It can’t show more complex designs that include interior layouts, or even kitchen and bathrooms. These are designs that branch more into the tiny home/ADU space, which this configurator is not made for.

ShedPro has empowered businesses and their customers to create, customize, and design sheds that fit their aesthetic preferences and needs for years. They've been ensuring shed businesses have established online presences to help them optimize and convert for almost ten years under their prior parent company.

Sheds, barns, and garages are such a significant purchase and addition to any home, so it's important that your customers know what they're getting into. A 3D sales configurator, like the one ShedPro offers, makes this possible. Instead of relying on static 2D images and photos that may not necessarily represent the end product faithfully (which can cause trust issues), a 3D representation via a 3D model will better approximate what they'll get.

Photos can be manipulated or angled to make something look bigger or more spacious, which can be a disappointment for any customer hoping to make the space their own. With a 3D model, it's easy to see everything from every angle.

Not only that, but the dynamic pricing and quotation system makes the design and production systems more streamlined and quicker for businesses looking to increase conversions and sales exponentially. It's a jam-packed solution, especially if your customers are looking for the shed of their dreams.

If you are building storage sheds, that don’t have any complex interiors, Shed Pro is one of the best options out there.

6 Alternatives to ShedPro

Here are our top six picks for ShedPro alternatives.

Tiny Easy

Main features: Purpose-built for the tiny home industry to help tiny home builders market and sell more homes and streamline their production, design, and sales process. Its intuitive interface guides the user in the design and configuration process while keeping in the builder’s product range, so there's little to no room for confusion or error for maximum conversions.

Which industry benefits the most: Tiny homes, modular homes, ADUs, and tiny houses on wheels

Pros

• The interface is simple, clean, and sleek, and specifically built for configuring more complex models. Has interior and exterior design options, great for tiny homes, ADUs and more. Very intuitive as it guides the user from one decision to another. (for example, if you're choosing a skylight option, it moves the camera towards the roof to show you the skylight rather than leaving you to drag the model around to find it)

• They set up the configurator for you and guide you through the process step-by-step for a plug-and-play experience.

• Their team also develops a marketing implementation plan—they analyze your website and marketing channels to best implement it in your business for maximum ROI

• The base software is constantly updated and revisited, so the configurator keeps increasing its ROI over time.

• Options are displayed in a neat and orderly way without being overwhelming and avoid using drop-down menus.

• The model is fully 3D and even comes with intuitive waypoints so you can see what parts of the house would look like as if you were seeing it in person.

Cons

• It’s specifically made for the small home and tiny house industry. If you are specifically focused on storage sheds that don’t have any interior design, this configurator might not be the right option for you.

  
  

Tiny Easy's 3D sales configurator is tailor-made for the tiny home industry and streamlines most processes in your tiny home building business—from marketing to sales to design and even to the building process.

They also take care of constantly upgrading the software so that it's up-to-date, to avoid any bugs, improve over time, and increase the ROI. Software that runs smoothly makes for happy customers who can make their dream homes with ease.

Your customers don't have to sit through consultation and design meetings, and still only have a guess at what their tiny home will look like. Instead, they'll know exactly what they're getting, at the click of a button, displayed directly in the configurator. A seamless tiny home design and sales process like this makes for happy customers who trust you and are willing to pay more!

Your customer can choose everything—from roofing to flooring, if they want a loft, their kitchen layout, you name it. This can be an empowering, engaging experience, and goes into all the details required to sell a small home. 

Idea Room

Main features: A slightly more advanced option compared to Shedpro while still maintaining a solid foothold in the shed and carport industry. Idea Room has been providing shed configurators for a long time, so they have built an impressive feature set specifically for selling sheds. It also focuses on other building options, making it more versatile than ShedPro.

Which industry benefits the most: Sheds, building materials, and carports

Pros

• Fully 3D

• Lots of features and options

• Has quotation at the ready 

• Has a save function

Cons

• Doesn't have an upgrades section like ShedPro

• User interface is slightly less modern than ShedPro, Tiny Easy, and other configurators making it feel a little dated

Idea Room is a great alternative to ShedPro with lots of quality features. Given that Idea Room and ShedPro are so similar, it might be worth it to evaluate this as one of your first competitor options. Despite the interface not being as sleek as ShedPro's, its option offerings and the fact that it's more flexible may be enticing to shed-building businesses.

Sheds3D

Main features: It has a great "details" area where you can find every measurement or detail you need to know about your build. It's easy to use and has a ton of templates to choose from.

Which industry benefits the most: Sheds

Pros

• Ton of options and templates

• Very user-friendly interface and easy to use

• 3D model rotates seamlessly

Cons

• Load time was sometimes long

• Seeing the interior was a little difficult

Sheds3D's user interface is very user-friendly, making it one of the easiest for customers to start with. Though figuring out how to see the interior was a little confusing, it's still a great option–-especially for customers who are detail-oriented and want to see a dedicated page that breaks down every detail of the shed—from measurements to colors, etc.

MyShed

Main features: Multiple templates that each have price points along the way. The model is fully 3D and moves smoothly so it's not hard to customize. They also have dynamic pricing.

Which industry benefits the most: Sheds

Pros

• They offer strategy and training for the configurator, so your business knows how to show your customer how to use it

• Fully 3D model that's easy to rotate and use

• Dynamic pricing

• Plenty of templates to choose from

Cons

• Interface could be more sleek, different buttons and CTAs litter the screen which can make it a little clunky and confusing

• Clicking on add-ons opens a whole new window instead of being integrated into another dropdown menu

MyShed is a good option, though their social presence is a little limited, making it hard to find any examples of their work. However, what's great is that they offer strategy sessions and training for their configurators so that you can teach your customers how to use the configurator and remove guesswork on either side.

Threekit

Main features: The rendering in their product configurator is quite realistic, although not fully 3D. Still, there are a lot of interactive features, such as augmented and virtual reality. Seamless integration with eCommerce platforms is also a plus.

Which industry benefits the most: A variety of eCommerce businesses, like automotive, furniture, and electronics

Pros

• Photorealistic renders are beautiful and high-definition, making for immersive displays

• Software integrates seamlessly with eCommerce sites 

• Each option is explored step by step, which makes the experience manageable and not too overwhelming

Cons

• Not purpose built for the shed industry.

• Not always 3D

• Loading time is quite long

Threekit is a broad configurator platform that can handle a variety of industries and is highly scalable for what your business might need. Though it's not purpose-built for sheds, they can still create them. While it's a good option, it may not have the focus you want as a builder to create sheds only, because it can take a bit more set-up, more maintenance, less targeted updates, and workarounds to get it most efficient for shed configuration.

Simplio3D

Main features: They have highly detailed 3D models. 

Which industry benefits the most: Variety (Equipment, sheds, furniture, fashion, etc.)

Pros

• Tons of very precise customization can be done, which is great for more detail-oriented customers

• Lots of great detail work

• Beautiful realistic 3D models

Cons

• Interface isn't the simplest and can sometimes be confusing

• Model doesn't rotate fully (underside of model can't be seen)

• Not purpose-built for the shed industry.

This product configurator is a great option for carports and basic sheds. It also integrates seamlessly with plenty of eCommerce platforms. It lets you customize even the finer details and panels of carports, down to certain panes and panels. However, note that the model doesn't always rotate fully, so the user experience can be less straightforward.

Verdict

If you're looking for the best alternative to ShedPro, it all depends on what you need and what industry your business is in. What you prioritize is important, as well. If you need more realistic representations, maybe Simplio3D is the best fit for you. If you need a more user-friendly interface, Sheds3D could be your solution. If you’re looking for a very similar alternative with slightly more features, IdeaRoom could be an option.

However, when it comes to creating tiny homes, tiny houses on wheels, modular dwellings, and ADUs, Tiny Easy is the all-in-one solution. If you're thinking of expanding your shed business by offering tiny homes—we've got you covered. Our configurator is purpose-built to create tiny homes in the easiest and most efficient way possible for both you and your customer.

If you want to learn more, give us a call or book a demo. We'd be happy to discuss your options with you!