Palram vs Exaco Riga vs Janssens: Best Value All-In (2026)

At roughly 100 square feet, checked August 16, 2026, the three projects land $6,750 apart once the ground work is counted, and $6,050 apart on kit price alone. A Palram Canopia Glory 8x12 is a $3,750 to $7,400 DIY project. An Exaco Riga 3 is $8,800 to $10,800. A Janssens Junior Victorian 24 is $10,500 to $12,800, and that is before the $3,500 to $4,000 professional assembly that Janssens owners actually report paying.

That spread is not the interesting part. The interesting part is what each brand does not tell you, and the gaps do not line up the way the price does. Canopia publishes no snow load and no wind rating on its own Glory product page. Exaco publishes no wind or snow figure for any standard Riga, only for the XL with a $7,499 reinforcement kit bolted on. Janssens carries the only professionally certified rating in the comparison, on its Royal Victorian line and not the Junior, and it excludes the tempered glass from its warranty from the day you open the crate. And none of the three publishes a price for a replacement panel.

We don't sell greenhouses. We save you from buying the wrong one. Exaco sells both the Riga and the Janssens in the US, so it cannot be neutral between two of the three, and Canopia is not going to publish what its warranty is worth in year six. That is the whole reason this page exists.

If you have not settled glazing yet, read glass vs polycarbonate first. That single choice moves your budget and your light quality more than the brand name does.

Quick Answer: Which One Is the Better Value

How These Numbers Were Built, and When

Everything below was checked on August 16, 2026. Prices are US retail as published by the manufacturer or its US distributor on that date. Where a dealer price differs from the maker's own price list, both are shown.

• Kit prices: live product pages at exaco.com for the Riga and Junior Victorian, and three US dealer listings for the Palram Glory 8x12, which is not sold with a price on canopia.com.
• Base, vent, and parts prices: Exaco's 2026 retail price list, effective February 15, 2026, and Exaco's live accessories pages.
• Warranty terms: the three current warranty documents, read in full, not the badge on a dealer page.
• Vent counts: the manufacturer assembly manual for the Riga, the price list description for the Janssens, and dealer specification blocks for the Glory, where they disagree with canopia.com's own page.
• Weather ratings: the September 2022 Hollingsworth Pack structural certification letter for the Janssens Royal Victorian, Exaco's 2026 price list for the Riga XL reinforcement kits, and dealer specification blocks for the Glory. Neither Canopia nor Exaco publishes a figure for the standard lines, so where a number is dealer-written it says so in the table.
• Base, site prep, anchoring, and assembly labor: our own published planning ranges from the real cost of a greenhouse. These are ranges, not quotes for your yard.

We have not physically built any of these three greenhouses. We have not reviewed customer quotes for them. Where a figure comes from a single owner report rather than a published price, it is labeled as such in the table and again in the section below titled "What we could not verify".

The Master Comparison at Roughly 100 Square Feet

Three models, three footprints within six square feet of each other. This is the closest apples-to-apples the three line-ups allow.

Two things in that table are worth stopping on. The Riga 3 ships with one roof vent, confirmed both by Exaco's price list and by the Riga assembly manual, which states that the Riga 2s, 3 and 3s have one roof vent, the 4s and 4 have two, and the 5 has four. And the Junior Victorian 24 ships with no low-level intake at all, only two roof windows and a sliding door, which matters more than the vent count on a hot afternoon.

The Same Project, Priced Three Ways

Kit price, then everything that turns a kit into a greenhouse. The base, site prep, anchoring, and assembly lines are our published planning ranges from the real cost of a greenhouse, not contractor quotes for your property. The Palram vent line is a planning range too, scaled down from the $600 ceiling we publish for added vent area, because Canopia lists no Glory vent kit and no price for one. The Riga and Janssens vent lines are Exaco's actual part prices.

The gap between the cheapest honest Palram build and the cheapest honest Janssens build is $6,750 for three fewer square feet. You are not buying growing space with that money. You are buying a clear view, a certified structure, and a heavier frame, and those are legitimate things to want. Just know that is what the money bought.

The Riga's $1,299 factory foundation frame is the line most cross-shoppers miss, because both of the other two include a base frame in the box. It is not an accessory. It keeps the arched frame square and gives the structure a defined anchoring point, which is why owners treat it as mandatory.

Ventilation Is a Cost Line, Not a Feature Bullet

The horticultural guideline we use across this site, from ASABE engineering guidance, is total vent area of roughly 15 to 20 percent of floor area, inlet and outlet combined. On a 96 to 102 square foot greenhouse, that is 14 to 20 square feet of opening, split high and low so hot air leaves through the roof and cool air draws in below. The failure mode is in ventilation and overheating.

Here is the honest state of the data: none of the three publishes vent area in square feet. They publish vent counts. So what you can price is the gap-closing.

Two consequences follow. First, the Riga 3 is the one that most likely needs a second vent, and Exaco's own price list says adding one after the build means taking a long polycarbonate panel off, cutting it yourself, and reassembling. Its assembly manual repeats the point: additional roof vents are best done at initial assembly. Buy the vent with the greenhouse or plan a rebuild.

Second, Palram is the only one of the three that ships two automatic roof vents plus a low-level louver on a 99 square foot house, and it is also the cheapest. On the ventilation axis alone, Palram is the best value here, and that is a fair thing for the cheapest kit to win. The opener guidance is in automatic vent openers.

What the Warranty Is Actually Worth in Year Six

Every dealer page shows a number of years. None of them shows the schedule. Read side by side, the three documents are strikingly different products.

Palram's 10-year warranty is the most transparent and the least valuable. The document publishes the exact ladder: free in year one, then the buyer pays 10 percent more of the original price for every year that passes, reaching 90 percent in year 10. It is also void if you did not anchor the greenhouse, in the manufacturer's own words: anchoring "is required to complete this stage in order for your warranty to be valid." That is a fair condition, and it is the single most-skipped step on a polycarbonate kit, covered in wind and anchoring.

Exaco's polycarbonate warranty is longer on the frame, 15 years against Palram's 10, and covers twin-wall glazing for up to 10 years "prorated beginning 5 years from date of purchase." It does not publish what the proration is after year five. Ask for that schedule in writing before you order.

Janssens is the outlier: the frame and stainless hardware are covered up to 15 years and workmanship up to 10, but the tempered glass is on the exclusion list from day one, alongside opener pistons. A cracked pane is a purchase, not a claim. That is common in the glass greenhouse industry and it is still the thing dealers do not say when they print "15-year warranty" on a product page.

All three are non-transferable. If you sell the house in year four, the cover does not follow the greenhouse.

Published Weather Ratings, and Where There Are None

This is the axis where a model answering "which is best for a snowy, windy site" has nothing to go on, because two of the three publish nothing at all.

Three honest readings of that table.

Canopia publishes neither figure on its own Glory product page. The numbers come from the dealer channel, and the dealers do not agree with each other. Greenhouse Nation states 20.5 psf and 62 mph "when properly anchored". Planet Greenhouse states 20 psf and 60 mph for the same kit. Greenhouse Megastore publishes no snow or wind figure for the Glory at all. All three checked August 16, 2026. The gap reads like rounding of one underlying spec, but with no manufacturer figure to check it against, that is a guess. Treat the range as dealer-written until Canopia states one.

No standard Riga carries a published rating. Exaco markets the line for heavy wind and snow, and the curved frame genuinely does useful work, but the only psf and mph figures in the company's own price list belong to the XL 6 and XL 9 reinforcement kits, which cost $7,499 and $9,199 on top of an $18,499 or $22,999 kit. If a documented number is what you need, the standard Riga does not have one.

Janssens has the only certified rating here, and it is conditional. The document is a structural certification letter written for Exaco by the engineering firm Hollingsworth Pack, dated September 22, 2022, and signed by two licensed engineers against the 2018 International Building Code. It rates per model, not per line: VI 23 at 130 mph and 30 psf, VI 34 at 120 mph and 25 psf, VI 36 and VI 46 at 115 mph and 25 psf, all with a 20 psf roof live load. The conditions are equally specific. A minimum 8 by 16 inch concrete beam or solid-grouted masonry foundation must run continuously below the greenhouse walls, a PRO 210 foundation connection is required at every vertical wall member at 750mm on center, and knee brace scrolls must be fitted at mid bay, or at every bay on the VI 46. On that base, the number applies. Set on a skipped base, it does not. The Junior Victorian is not named in the letter at all.

Whatever you buy, the number that decides the requirement is your address, not the brochure. Look up your ASCE 7 ground snow load and design wind speed and demand margin over it, using greenhouse snow load and wind and anchoring.

Replacement Parts: What Each Brand Actually Sells You

This is the axis that decides whether you own a greenhouse in year twelve or a frame with a hole in it. Checked August 16, 2026.

Exaco Riga. Parts run through Exaco in Austin, Texas, which handles the import, the damaged-freight process, and warranty claims for both the Riga and the Janssens. Openers, pistons, roof windows, shelving, exhaust fans, T-bolts and door extension kits are all listed with prices. Replacement polycarbonate panels are not listed for sale on the Riga accessories page. Owners report Exaco supplying panels directly, including a Maine owner whose deteriorating panels were replaced for the cost of shipping, but that is a seller-hosted account, not a published price.

Janssens. Same parts desk, same state. Glass-side parts are priced generously: an additional roof window with glass is $419, a standard automatic opener $95, a heavy-duty opener $169, a spindle opener $149, an extra louvre window $524, a louvre automatic opener $119, a clear Lexan louvre winter cover $99, and a factory-assembled fly screen $195. A replacement pane is not on the list. One owner reported paying roughly $150 for a spontaneously shattered tempered pane in November 2023. That is one report, not a price list entry.

Palram Canopia. Canopia's own greenhouse accessories page lists vent kits for the Harmony, Mythos, Hybrid, Snap and Grow and Sun Room lines, plus automatic openers, shelf kits, a shade cloth kit and plant hangers. It shows no prices at all, no anchoring kit, no replacement panels, and no vent kit for the Glory line. US parts go through Palram Americas in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. If a Glory panel cracks in year seven, there is no published price for what the replacement costs or how long it takes.

The practical rule: before you order any of the three, get the replacement panel price and lead time in writing. None of the three publishes it, so the only version that exists is the one you ask for. That question belongs on the same email as the deposit terms, along with the rest of the greenhouse buying guide pre-signing list.

One Thing That Moved Since January

Exaco raised prices on the Belgian-made Janssens line during 2026 while holding the German-made Riga steady. Against its own January 2026 printed price list, checked against live product pages on August 16, 2026:

If you are working from a downloaded price list or a dealer's cached page, check the live figure before you budget. The VI46 alone moved $2,000.

Dealer spread matters just as much on the Palram side. The same Glory 8x12 was listed at $3,549, $4,349 and $5,184 at three US retailers on the same day, a $1,635 spread. Two of the three catalog it under Palram's part number HG5612. The third lists it as HG-PAGL-12 and sells it as Glory Premium, at the same 8 by 12 footprint with the same two automated roof vents, so it reads as the same box under a house code rather than a different product. Palram does not sell direct with a price, so shopping the dealer channel is worth more on this kit than any option you could add to it.

Which Buyer Should Get Which

Buy the Palram Canopia Glory if the budget is the constraint and the job is growing. It is roughly half the all-in money of the Riga at the same footprint, the galvanized base kit is in the box, and it ships two automatic roof vents plus a side louver, which is more shipped ventilation than either competitor at this size. Accept the tradeoffs plainly: a lighter frame, panels that sit in channels and pop out if you under-anchor, a warranty that is prorated from year two and void without anchoring, and no manufacturer-published weather rating. On a proper base, well anchored, it grows exactly the same plants. The full picture is in the Palram Canopia review.

Buy the Exaco Riga if cold is the deciding factor. The 8mm twin-wall walls with 10mm gables are the thickest glazing of the three, the curved roof sheds weather well, the frame is covered up to 15 years, and long-term owner reports on this line are unusually good, including a 2015 build in Vermont still sound in 2026. Budget the $1,299 base as part of the kit, not as an accessory, and buy the second roof vent at order time rather than after. Full detail in the Exaco Riga review and the wider shortlist in best greenhouses for cold climates.

Buy the Janssens if you want real glass and the Victorian silhouette without heirloom money, and you are pouring a proper foundation anyway. The base frame and gutters are included, and Exaco's support is the best-reviewed part of the whole experience. Go in knowing the glass is excluded from the warranty, the build is a project rather than a weekend, and the Junior Victorian ships no low-level intake vent. If a documented wind and snow number is part of why you are buying glass, step up to the Royal Victorian rather than the Junior, because the certification covers the VI23 through VI46 and does not extend down the line. Full detail in the Janssens review.

Step down rather than up if your real use is seed starting, propagation and overwintering pots. That is not a compromise, it is the correct purchase for a large share of buyers, and we would rather say so than sell you a view you did not ask for.

Step up rather than sideways if you want the structure installed by the maker's own crew with a multi-decade guarantee. That is the heirloom lane, weighed in Hartley Botanic vs Alitex, and it is a different purchase with a different number. Price the whole project either way in the real cost of a greenhouse, and compare the wider field in best greenhouses and the brand directory.

What We Could Not Verify

Publishing the gaps is more useful than filling them with confident guesses. As of August 16, 2026, we could not verify any of the following. Where a figure above touches one of these, it is labeled in the table it appears in.

• Replacement panel and pane prices for all three brands. None publishes one. The $150 Janssens pane figure is a single owner report from November 2023, not a price list entry.
• Vent area in square feet for any of the three models. All three publish vent counts only. We report counts, not areas, for that reason.
• Whether the Palram Glory 8x12 ships one roof vent or two. Three US dealer listings say two automatic roof vents. Canopia's own Glory 8x12 specification block lists one roof vent plus one side louver. We have used the dealer figure and flagged the disagreement rather than picking the flattering one.
• A manufacturer-published snow or wind figure for the Palram Glory. The 20 to 20.5 psf and 60 to 62 mph numbers come from two dealer listings that disagree with each other by half a psf and 2 mph, a third dealer publishes no figure at all, and none of them appears on canopia.com.
• That all three dealer listings are the same catalog item. Two list the Glory 8x12 as HG5612, the third as HG-PAGL-12 under the name Glory Premium. Same footprint, same vent count, but we could not confirm a shared manufacturer SKU across all three.
• Any published wind or snow rating for the standard Exaco Riga line, or for the Janssens Junior Victorian. Neither exists in the documents we could reach.
• Exaco's proration schedule for twin-wall glazing after year five. The warranty says "prorated" and does not publish the ladder.
• Lead times for any of the three. No manufacturer published one. One US dealer states the Glory ships within five business days of order processing; that is a dealer commitment, not a factory lead time.
• Professional assembly pricing for Palram or Riga. Neither publishes an installer program. The $3,500 to $4,000 Janssens figure comes from owner reports in 2025 and 2026 on the larger Royal Victorian, not the Junior.
• Shipping weights for the Palram Glory and the Riga 3. Only the Janssens weight (1,120 lb on one pallet plus two long boxes) is published.

We have not built, tested or measured any of these three greenhouses, and we have not reviewed customer quotes for them. Every figure above comes from a manufacturer document, a distributor page, a dealer listing, or a dated owner report, and each is labeled.

Frequently Asked Questions

Anyone have experience with a brand or a model they'd recommend?

For roughly $10,000 all-in at about 100 square feet, the three most credible answers in the US market are these. A Palram Canopia Glory 8x12 if the money matters most, at $3,750 to $7,400 all-in DIY. An Exaco Riga 3 if you garden somewhere genuinely cold, at $8,800 to $10,800 all-in with its $1,299 factory base. A Janssens Junior Victorian 24 if you want real tempered glass, at $10,500 to $12,800 all-in DIY. All three are supported in the US, all three need a level prepared base you build yourself, and none of the three warranties transfers when you sell the house.

Does anybody have any information regarding the longevity of their poly carbonate panels?

The documented positions differ. Exaco warrants standard Riga twin-wall glazing for up to 10 years, prorated beginning at year five, and owner reports reach 10 to 11 years with panels still in good condition, including a 2015 Riga XL in Vermont reported sound in May 2026. Palram warrants the Glory for 10 years, but the schedule means a claim in year six costs you half the part's original price and a claim in year 10 costs you 90 percent, plus removal, refitting and freight, which the document never covers. Plan on polycarbonate as a decade-plus component that yellows slowly under UV, not a permanent one, and note that neither brand publishes what a replacement panel costs.

Did you get the automatic openers?

On all three at this size, yes, they are already in the box, which is unusual and worth knowing. The Palram Glory 8x12 ships two automatic roof vent openers per dealer listings, the Riga 3 ships one, and the Janssens Junior Victorian 24 ships two. The question that actually matters is whether that is enough vent area. The horticultural guideline is 15 to 20 percent of floor area, which is 14 to 20 square feet on these models, and none of the three publishes its vent area. Adding one later costs $359 on a Riga plus cutting and refitting a roof panel, $419 plus a $95 opener on a Janssens, and an unpublished amount on a Glory.

Which one handles snow and wind best?

On documented figures rather than marketing, the Janssens Royal Victorian is the only one of the three carrying a professionally certified rating: a September 2022 engineer's letter puts the VI 23 at 130 mph and 30 psf, the VI 34 at 120 mph and 25 psf, and the VI 36 and VI 46 at 115 mph and 25 psf, all conditional on a continuous 8 by 16 inch concrete or grouted masonry perimeter foundation with PRO 210 connections every 750mm and knee brace scrolls fitted. The Junior Victorian is not named in that letter. Palram Glory numbers are dealer-written and inconsistent: one dealer states 20.5 psf and 62 mph, another 20 psf and 60 mph, a third nothing at all, and Canopia publishes neither figure on its own product page. No standard Exaco Riga carries a published figure at all, and the only Riga numbers Exaco prints, 135 mph wind burst and 64 lb per square foot, apply to the XL 6 and XL 9 with a reinforcement kit that costs $7,499 or $9,199. Look up your own ASCE 7 figures and demand margin over them.

Is the Riga worth almost twice the Palram?

If your winters are hard, plausibly yes, and if they are not, probably not. The Riga buys thicker glazing (8mm twin-wall walls with 10mm gables, against Palram's 10mm), a curved frame that sheds weather better, a frame warranty of up to 15 years against 10, and a US parts desk that owners rate well. The honest counterweight is that the Riga 3 kit plus its mandatory $1,299 base is $8,198 before you touch the ground, ships one roof vent to the Glory's two, and carries no published snow or wind rating. In a mild climate with a well-built base, the Palram does the same growing for roughly half the project cost.

Can anyone speak to if they think Hartley is worth the huge cost difference compared to a like sized Janssen brand greenhouse?

They are different purchases, not better and worse versions of one. A Janssens Junior Victorian 24 is a $9,599 kit you assemble on a base you build, with the glass excluded from its warranty and a non-transferable 15-year frame term. A Hartley Botanic is a hand-built bespoke glasshouse installed by the maker's crew, priced per project rather than per model, with a roughly 30-year structural guarantee. You are paying for hand-building, installation and a multi-decade guarantee, not for better growing. The comparison at the top of the market is in Hartley Botanic vs Alitex.

Does any of the three include the base?

Two of the three include a base frame in the box and none of them includes the ground it sits on. The Palram Glory 8x12 includes a galvanized steel base kit, the Janssens Junior Victorian includes a large bottom frame with gutters and downspouts, and the Exaco Riga charges $1,299 for its factory foundation frame on the Riga 3. All three still need a level, drained, square prepared base underneath, from gravel and timber at $1 to $3 per square foot in materials to a slab at $3 to $6 per square foot. Canopia states it plainly: the greenhouses do not come with a floor or base. The options are in the foundation and base guide.

What does a broken panel cost to replace on each?

Nobody publishes it, which is the finding. Exaco's Riga accessories page lists openers, pistons, roof windows, shelving and fans with prices but no replacement polycarbonate panels. Exaco's Janssens parts list prices roof windows, louvres, openers and screens but no replacement pane; one owner reported roughly $150 for a shattered pane in November 2023. Canopia's accessories page shows no prices at all and no replacement panels, with US parts handled by Palram Americas in Kutztown, Pennsylvania. Get the panel price and the lead time in writing before you order, on the same email as your deposit terms.

Sources

• Exaco 2026 retail price list, effective February 15, 2026: Riga and Janssens model prices, foundation frame prices, vent and opener part prices, and the Riga XL reinforcement kit ratings
• Exaco Riga product page, live model prices and floor areas checked August 16, 2026
• Exaco Riga accessories page, parts and prices, and the absence of replacement panels
• Exaco Riga assembly manual, roof vent count by model and what adding a vent later involves
• Exaco Junior Victorian product page, live Junior Victorian prices and specifications checked August 16, 2026
• Exaco Royal Victorian product page, live Royal Victorian prices checked August 16, 2026. It states only that Exaco holds "general structural certifications for most of our regularly stocked models" and publishes no figures
• Helios Victorian greenhouses structural certification letter, Hollingsworth Pack for Exaco Trading Co., September 22, 2022: the per-model wind and snow figures for VI 23 through VI 46 against the 2018 IBC, plus the foundation, PRO 210 anchor and knee brace conditions. Exaco's own copy at exaco.com returned 404 on August 16, 2026, so the archived copy is cited
• Exaco limited product warranty, polycarbonate greenhouses, July 2024: frame, twin-wall and triple-wall terms, proration, exclusions and non-transferability
• Exaco limited product warranty, glass greenhouses, July 2024: tempered glass exclusion, frame and workmanship terms, snow clearing duty
• Palram Canopia 10 year limited warranty, the full proration schedule, force majeure exclusions, non-transferability and the anchoring condition
• Canopia by Palram Glory 8 ft x 12 ft product page, floor area, glazing, vent specification and the absence of any snow or wind figure
• Canopia by Palram greenhouse accessories, the accessory range, with no prices and no replacement panels
• Greenhouse Nation: Canopia Glory 8x12, dealer price, vent count and the 20.5 psf and 62 mph figures
• Planet Greenhouse: Palram Glory 8 x 12, dealer price, shipping window, SKU HG5612, and the lower 20 psf and 60 MPH figures
• Greenhouse Megastore: Palram Canopia Glory, dealer price, vent count, the house SKU HG-PAGL-12, and the absence of any snow or wind figure
• Palram Americas contact, the US parts and support channel for Canopia products
• ASABE EP406.4: Heating, Ventilating and Cooling Greenhouses, the 15 to 20 percent vent area guideline