BRCKS Site Tours vs Matterport: The Builder's Guide
Let's get one thing straight before any comparison table: Matterport and BRCKS Site Tours are not the same product. Matterport scans a building into a...
By BRCKS Team ·
Let's get one thing straight before any comparison table: Matterport and BRCKS Site Tours are not the same product. Matterport scans a building into a measurable 3D model — dollhouse view, floor plans, dimensions, BIM exports. BRCKS Site Tours turns a five-minute walk into a browsable 360° record of your site, inside your project management tool, where the things you spot become RFIs and variations.
The only reason to compare them is that construction teams buy both for the same job: show people the state of the site without another site visit. So this is a guide to choosing by job, not a takedown. If you need what Matterport does, buy Matterport — we'll be specific about when that's you. (Table version: BRCKS Site Tours vs Matterport.)
What each one actually is
Matterport is reality capture. You scan with stationary sweeps — LiDAR camera, 360 camera or phone — and the cloud reconstructs a navigable digital twin: dollhouse view, floor-plan view, in-viewer measurements (±0.2% with the Pro3 camera), point-cloud and BIM exports. It's the industry standard, now owned by CoStar, and "a Matterport" is a noun on commercial jobs.
BRCKS Site Tours is a visual site record. You press record on the camera kit, walk the site for up to five minutes, and upload one file. The pipeline automatically pulls the sharpest 4K frame every second and a half into a browsable 360° tour of up to 200 scenes. Your team steps through the walk, drops pins with threaded comments, and converts pins into RFIs or variations in one click. Tours share to the free client portal.
No 3D model. No measurements. No floor plans. Those aren't small print — they're the category difference.
Where Matterport is the right call
Say it plainly: if any of these describe your need, buy Matterport and don't look back.
- Dimensions and as-builts. Measuring from the model, recording services before the drywall goes on, scan-to-BIM, fit-out quotes from a scan. BRCKS has zero measurement capability and, with a moving-video capture model, never credibly will.
- Floor plans and handover packages. Matterport sells schematic floor plans, point-cloud exports and Revit-ready files per space. BRCKS exports nothing — tours live in BRCKS.
- Marketing-grade tours. A stationary HDR sweep beats a frame from a moving video — better dynamic range, no passers-by mid-stride. For sales and lettings imagery, Matterport wins.
- Contractual capture. If the main contractor or insurer specifies a Matterport, that's the end of the conversation, and its brand recognition is part of the product.
- Enterprise pipelines. Procore and Autodesk Construction Cloud integrations (on its Business plan), a public API and embeds. BRCKS tours have none of that.
Also worth knowing: for occasional scanning — a handful of models, phone capture — Matterport is cheaper than us. Its free tier and £12/month Starter plan have no BRCKS equivalent; our entry gate is a £999 kit.
Where the maths flips: weekly documentation
The picture changes when documentation becomes a routine rather than a milestone. Two forces do it.
Capture time. A typical floor takes 25–40 minutes of stationary sweeps with Matterport's fastest camera, plus cloud processing — and someone has to learn sweep spacing and cope with trades walking through mid-scan. A BRCKS tour is a five-minute walk at normal pace: press record, do your usual walk-round, upload. On a live site, that's the difference between a weekly record that happens and a scanning routine that quietly dies by week six.
Storage pricing. Matterport charges by active spaces — every scan you keep viewable counts against your plan's cap. Go over, and old scans must be archived; archived links go dead, and reactivations cost about £8.49 each beyond a small allowance. Weekly scanning is exactly the cadence this model punishes. BRCKS prices per upload per month; old tours stay viewable free, forever.
Here's the worked example — one builder, one site, a tour every week for a year (Matterport GBP prices from matterport.com/plans, July 2026):
| BRCKS Site Tours | Matterport (Pro3 camera) | Matterport (your own Insta360) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardware | £999 kit, camera included | £4,995 Pro3 | ~£420 Insta360 X5 |
| Subscription, year one | Tier 1, £999/yr (20 uploads/mo) | Professional-100, £2,424/yr | Professional-50, £1,296/yr |
| Year-one total | ~£2,000 | ~£7,400 | ~£1,700 |
| Every year after | £999 | £2,424 — or archive old scans | £1,296 |
Notice we've shown the configuration where Matterport is cheaper than us (your own 360 camera on a mid plan). What you get there is AI-inferred depth — a rough dollhouse, no survey-grade measurements, no BIM exports — captured sweep by sweep, with the active-space caps still applying. If that trade suits you, it's a fair route. The structural difference stands either way: Matterport charges for every scan you keep viewable; BRCKS doesn't.
The bit nobody else has: pins that become paperwork
A Matterport scan is an endpoint — you can annotate it with Mattertags, and then someone has to retype the finding into whatever system runs the job.
In a BRCKS tour, a pin is the start of the workflow. Spot exposed cabling in scene 34, drop a pin, and convert it to an RFI or a variation in one action. The pin tracks status (open → in review → resolved), the variation carries a link back to that exact 360° view, and when the client signs, the pin resolves itself. The observation, the question, the cost and the signature live in one thread — inside the same tool running your tasks, drawings and site diary.
For "what state was the site in on the 14th, and who dealt with that issue?" — the dispute-record question — a dated tour with pinned, actioned issues is precisely that record.
The honest recommendation
- Need dimensions, as-builts, BIM or marketing tours → Matterport. Genuinely.
- Need a weekly visual record your whole team and clients actually look at, with observations becoming RFIs and variations → BRCKS Site Tours.
- Big project, both jobs → use both, legitimately: milestone Matterport scans (pre-drywall, handover) with weekly BRCKS walks in between.
The best way to judge Site Tours is to walk one: there's a live 46-scene demo tour on the comparison page — no account needed. The kit is £999 with the camera included, ten video credits and the first month free; plans from £99 a month.
FAQ
Can I use my own Insta360 with Matterport instead of buying a Pro3? Yes — the X3 and X5 are supported from Matterport's Starter plan (£12/month). You'll get AI-inferred depth: a rough dollhouse, no survey-grade measurements or BIM exports, captured sweep by sweep with active-space caps. If you want a rough 3D model, it's a fair route; if you want a fast walk-record inside your project tool, that's Site Tours.
Does BRCKS do floor plans or measurements? No — none, and with a moving-video capture model it won't. If you need dimensions, as-builts or BIM, buy Matterport.
What happens to old tours in BRCKS? They stay viewable, free, forever — BRCKS charges per upload per month, not per stored tour. On Matterport, scans over your plan's active-space cap must be archived, archived links go dead, and reactivations cost around £8.49 each.
What's in the £999 kit? A 360° camera, quick-start guide, 10 video credits and the first month of Tier 1 free. Plans are £99/month for 20 uploads or £199/month unlimited.
Can clients view tours without a BRCKS account? Yes — tours share to the free client portal via email invite, opening at a start view you've set. There are no public embed links, though — Matterport wins on public sharing.
Is Matterport better for insurance or dispute evidence? For anything needing dimensions or a measurable record, yes. For "what state was the site in on the 14th and who dealt with it", a dated BRCKS tour with pinned, actioned issues is exactly that record.
How BRCKS can help
BRCKS is a UK-built construction platform that captures site activity through the tools your trades already use. Photos, updates and time on site flow in from WhatsApp, the site diary writes itself, and the office side — RFIs, variations, snagging, drawings and a free client portal — sits in one place. See what's inside on the BRCKS home page, or read the full breakdown of how it helps across your week.