Field guide6 min readSeptember 16, 2026
Virtual try-on on Shopify: what you get per dollar.
Every try-on app meters by volume — but a try-on is one image at some apps and two at others. Cost per try-on and cost per image for four apps, including where Garu is the expensive choice.
Try-on apps are priced by how many renders your shoppers generate, so the list price on the App Store tells you little. The useful comparison is what a render costs and what the app does with it. Competitor numbers below are from their public Shopify listings, checked on August 15, 2026; Garu’s are our own current plans.
We make Garu. On entry price we are the most expensive option on this page by a wide margin, and the table says so.
| App | Plan | Try-ons / month | ≈ per try-on | Views per try-on | ≈ per image | Sizing included |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GenLook | $19.99 | 100 | $0.20 | 1 (front) | $0.20 | No |
| GenLook | $99 | 1,000 | $0.10 | 1 (front) | $0.10 | No |
| Antla | $19.99 | 100 | $0.20 | 1 (front) | $0.20 | Chart display |
| Antla | $199.99 | 2,000 | $0.10 | 1 (front) | $0.10 | Chart display |
| Garu Starter | $199 | 800 | $0.25 | 2 (front + back) | $0.13 | Yes, per garment |
| Garu Growth | $399 | 2,500 | $0.16 | 2 (front + back) | $0.08 | Yes, per garment |
Count images, not try-ons
Every app on this page meters by try-on, but a try-on is not the same unit everywhere. GenLook and Antla return one front-facing image. A Garu try-on returns two, front and back, because fit reads differently from behind — drape, seat and hem are where surprises hide.
Garu Plus adds a full 360° rotation on top of that. Divide by images and the ranking moves. Garu Growth is $0.16 a try-on but $0.08 an image, against $0.10 at GenLook’s and Antla’s top plans. At Starter, Garu is $0.13 an image, still close to the cheap tier. The headline price says Garu is 60% more expensive; the per-image price says it is about 20% cheaper at volume.
Two caveats, so this stays honest. Entry plans are not close — $19.99 for 100 try-ons is a fraction of Garu’s $199, whatever you divide by, and if you are testing whether try-on moves your numbers at all you should test it there. And a back view only counts if it is worth having; run one of your own garments through and look at the seat and hem before you take the extra image as value.
The size recommendation, the fit note and the per-product analytics are not in either price. Whether those are worth anything depends on one number you already have: what a size-related return costs you. For most apparel stores it is 20 to 30% of the order. One prevented return pays for hundreds of renders at any price on this page.
Three things the per-render price doesn’t show
- Overage. Some apps bill per render past the quota ($0.10 to $0.17 at GenLook). Garu bills overage at the next plan’s rate and warns at 80% and 100%.
- Free tiers. Garu’s 25 try-ons a month is ongoing; Antla’s free option is a 7-day trial; GenLook’s 10 a month is ongoing.
- Annual pricing. Garu’s annual plans work out to $139 and $279 a month.
The decision rule
Estimate product-page sessions on the ten pages you would enable, assume a fraction of them try on, and price both a cheap render and a render with a size answer against your return rate on those pages. That arithmetic, not the App Store price, is the comparison.