Abstract The bidirectional scattering-surface reflectance distribution function (BSSRDF) describes the radiance originated by the volume scattering and the surface reflectance of any position on the surface of a sample, when it is directionally irradiated at any other position. The present state of the technology for appearance rendering requires a more detailed physical description of translucent objects by traceable measurements of the BSSRDF. This work presents two primary facilities developed for traceable BSSRDF measurements by different measuring approaches. Their results on the same translucent samples have been compared and the achieved BSSRDF scale has been transferred to a commercial measuring system. This study highlights the problems of the different measuring instrument designs and provides the scientific community with more knowledge on the measurement of the BSSRDF, which will be crucial for future works on material appearance.