The thing nobody mentions is the condensation. Every morning for the first month, you will wipe down the inside of that glass or polycarbonate like it owes you money, and then one day you stop noticing because you have learned to crack the vents the night before. That gap between buying a greenhouse and actually running one well is where most people quietly give up, usually around February, usually muttering about tomatoes that never showed up.
Give it a year or two and you will see exactly what you paid for. A cheap aluminum frame with plastic clips holding the panels in will rattle in a strong wind, the clips will go brittle and snap, and you will spend a Saturday on your knees reglazing a panel that a decent frame would have held without a fight. A well built one uses a thicker gauge frame, properly sealed glazing bars, and a base that actually bolts down rather than just sitting there hoping for the best, which matters more than it sounds once you have had one lift half off its footing in a storm. Look at how the door hangs too. A door that drags or needs lifting to close is going to annoy you every single day you use it, and you will use it most days from spring through fall. Glass holds heat better and looks sharper, but it is unforgiving if a branch comes down on it. Polycarbonate forgives a lot more and insulates better through a cold snap, which in a lot of climates is the difference between seedlings that make it to May and ones that do not.
On delivery day, check the frame for any twist before you let anyone leave, because a warped frame means every pane after it fights to sit straight, and check that every panel actually clicks or seats properly rather than just leaning in close enough to look finished. Ask about the base kit too. A lot of them are sold separately, and finding that out after the frame is half built is its own special kind of bad afternoon. Sitting close to a wooden fence line is fine if the wood is treated, but up against anything that holds damp, or tucked under a tree that drops sap and leaves onto the roof all autumn, you are signing up for algae on the glazing and shade exactly when your plants need the opposite. Give it clear sky above and a flat, solid base below, and it will outlast several of your gardening phases, which, speaking from experience, come and go more than you'd like to admit.
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