Host your virtual tour on your own server: ZIP export

When choosing a virtual tour platform, people focus on the obvious: the quality of the 360° panoramas, 3D tours, hotspots. One important feature almost always goes unnoticed: the ability to download a finished tour and host it on your own server.

Many platforms do not allow this. The tour lives only in the provider's cloud: when the subscription ends, the link dies. For a "show it once and forget it" client, that is acceptable. For a developer, an archviz studio or a corporate client, it means permanent dependence on an outside provider.

In this article we look at what ZIP export of a virtual tour gives you, and in which scenarios it turns from a nice extra into a key requirement.

What ZIP export is

In VPano, any finished tour can be delivered as a ZIP archive (on request, a one-time USD 250 per tour; an active plan is required). Inside is a set of HTML files and assets (images, models, scripts), which is all the tour needs to run on its own.

What you need to run it:

• any web server (Apache, Nginx, IIS or static hosting such as S3 or Cloudflare Pages);
• no Node.js, no database and no platform account required;
• you can even open index.html locally and the tour will run in your browser.

In effect, it is a complete standalone product. The platform is there for creating and editing. Once exported, the tour is yours.

Six scenarios where it becomes critical

1. A developer who doesn't want to depend on a service

A typical situation: a developer launches sales of a new building, creates 3D tours of the apartments and puts the links on the website and in ads. A year later sales have closed, the platform's pricing has changed, the dashboard has been redesigned, and links start breaking.

ZIP export solves this. The tour is downloaded, uploaded to the developer's website and lives at a direct URL such as residential-complex.example.com/tour/, with no ties to third-party servers. It works as long as the developer's website does.

2. An archviz studio hands over a finished product

Archviz clients often want to "take the finished work": renderings, animations, and now tours too. If the tour lives only on a platform, the studio either has to include the subscription in the project price (and maintain it for years) or explain to the client that the subscription is theirs.

A ZIP archive lets you hand over the tour like any other project file. A clean deal: the work is done, the file is delivered, no dependencies.

3. Corporate presentations on offline devices

A booth at a real estate fair. A presentation laptop in an agency office. A kiosk in a showroom. The internet connection may be weak, may drop out or may not exist at all.

A tour from a ZIP archive opens locally. Copy the folder to the device and it runs without a network.

4. Corporate intranets and restricted sites

Some properties should never appear on the public internet: service areas, secured premises, internal company offices. Hosting such a tour on a platform means the data sits on an external server.

ZIP export lets you host the tour inside the corporate network: a server at intranet.example.com, access via VPN, no external dependencies.

5. Archiving a project

Temporary museum exhibitions, trade shows, seasonal installations: these exist physically for a couple of months and then disappear. A tour of them remains a valuable historical record.

A downloaded ZIP archive lasts. Ten years from now you can open it in the browser of the day and see something that no longer exists.

6. White label without compromise

With branding enabled, the platform removes its logo from the tour interface. But the URL still contains the service's domain. For large clients who sell under their own brand, that can be irritating.

With ZIP export, the tour lives on your domain. URL, favicon, meta tags: everything is yours. The platform is no longer a visible part of the product.

Why this feature is rare

The economics of many virtual tour platforms rest on subscriptions and control. If users can download a finished tour and leave at any time, retention drops. It is simpler to close this door and keep the client dependent.

VPano follows a different logic: the creation tool is valuable in itself, and the subscription is justified by the editor and the platform features (statistics, branding, collaboration). A finished tour is the result of your work, and that result should belong to you.

It is an unusual approach in the industry, and it matters most to the professional market: developers, archviz studios and corporate clients.

How to get a ZIP export in VPano

The process is simple:

1. Create a tour in the VPano editor (360° panoramas or a 3D tour from renderings).
2. Set up branding, hotspots and viewpoints.
3. Ask us for a ZIP export of the tour. It costs a one-time USD 250 per tour and requires an active VPano plan.
4. You receive the complete tour as a ZIP archive.
5. Unpack the archive on your server or locally.
6. The tour runs on its own.

There is no time limit on using a downloaded archive. Even if your subscription ends, exported tours keep working on your side. ZIP export is available on request for a one-time USD 250 per complete tour, in addition to an active plan. Request a ZIP export.

Conclusion

ZIP export is not "just another button". It is a fundamental way to regain control over a finished product.

• For developers: independence from external services and long-lived links.
• For archviz studios: a clean handover of the finished tour to the client.
• For corporate use: closed networks, offline devices, archives.
• For white label: full control over URL and domain.

If you work professionally with 3D tours and virtual viewings, this feature is worth it.

Request a ZIP export · Create your first tour