CarShots vs Motuva

Motuva is a self-serve AI car photo studio. Its website says Motuva is a trading name of MotorCut Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales. Your team shoots each car in the Motuva app for iPhone or Android, which walks them round the car in 17 named shots, or uploads photos in the web app. Motuva lifts the car out of the photo and sets it in a studio: a ready-made indoor studio or outdoor Scene on every plan, or a studio you build yourself on Pro and Ultra.

CarShots does the same core job on the phones your team already carries: a shot list with on-screen outlines for each exterior angle, in the browser or the CarShots iOS app, and every photo back on a clean backdrop in about 20 seconds. Try a photo of your own car to see the result.

Motuva sells a monthly image allowance, and its top plan is unlimited. So which one costs less depends on how many photos your lot shoots each month.

Only at high volume. CarShots covers 333 photos for $50, and each $10 top-up adds 67 more, so a lot that shoots up to about 600 photos a month pays less on CarShots than the $99 for Motuva Ultra. Past about 600 photos a month, every month, Ultra's flat price wins.

Count photos, not cars. If you plan on 20 to 30 photos a car, as our car photography cost guide suggests, the line sits at roughly 20 to 30 cars a month. If your volume swings with the season, the months you shoot less are where a per-photo plan saves money.

Motuva covers the plate with your logo, on a white, yellow or black plate, on every plan, and it has no blur option. CarShots doesn't blur or cover plates automatically; you hide a plate with a one-line photo edit, like "hide the license plate". You can also blur plates in any photo with the free license plate blur tool.

Motuva's library of ready-made indoor studios and outdoor Scenes is on every plan, Free included, and Pro and Ultra let you build and save your own studio. CarShots has 20 curated studio, showroom, outdoor and scenic backdrops; pick one and use it on every car so your listings match. For your own showroom or a branded background, email CarShots. Browse them on the car backgrounds page.

Motuva's plans cover its Studio, Scene and Cleanse photo products, and its pricing page lists no video or 360 spins. CarShots makes a 15-second 360° walkaround video with voiceover and music from the photos your team already shot, and the trial includes one. More on walkaround videos.

Motuva includes an API on Ultra and up, drawing on the same image allowance as its web and mobile apps, for dealers or vendors who want to build it into their own software. CarShots has no API. It sends photos and walkaround videos to your website or DMS with a CSV or XML inventory feed, or an SFTP upload, set up in CarShots settings, and you can download one photo or the whole car as a zip.