4 Best Real Estate Website Builders | Tried and Tested!

Thanks to website builders, anyone can now build a real estate website. Whether you’re talking to sellers and buyers, taking photos, giving tours, or preparing all the correct legal documents – modern website builders can handle a lot of the work.

We’ve tested the top website builders on the market to uncover the four best website builders for real estate. In this article, I’ll compare their standout features and offer advice so you can find the right option for your business.

Best Real Estate Website Builders: Comparison Table

If you’re short on time, you can compare our top real estate website builders in our table below:

What Is IDX?

The IDX, or Internet Data Exchange, is an online database that allows people to post property listings in their area, giving people knowledge of the currently available properties. All real estate websites, from small, local ones to large companies like Zillow, have to be connected to the IDX to show listings online.

As an agent or broker, you’ll have access to each property’s most up-to-date information. To add a property to the IDX, you’ll have to add and keep updating its listing. For your real estate website, you can add IDX integration to your site and let customers view local properties. It’s a vital tool for building not only trust but a sizable pool of customers for your real estate site.

Wix – For Extensive Real Estate Apps

Starting from: $17 per month billed annually: save 10% with code “TAKE10”Our testing found Wix to be the top choice real estate website builder. What makes it so easily recommendable to budding real estate moguls is its fantastic range of real estate features. From contact forms and virtual tours to interactive maps and lead generation, Wix provides you with every tool you could need for a real estate website.

What’s It Like To Use Wix?

When you first start with Wix, you’ll be asked whether you want to use a template or its ADI service, which can build you a custom site. Simply answer a few questions about your business and the AI website builder will do the rest – perfect for those who may be in a bit of a rush.

If you want to select your template, Wix has 12 real estate-specific templates to choose from. They’re all meticulously designed and can be customized as much as you like thanks to Wix’s easy-to-use editor. From here, you can simply drag and drop important features for real estate websites like contact forms and Google Maps integrations.

Features

While Wix’s available features are certainly useful, it is Wix’s app store where the true treasures lie. From mortgage and ROI calculators to IDX integration, Wix has several apps made specifically for real estate, giving you a level of support that would be hard to find anywhere else. However, it should be noted Wix’s IDX integration is not as seamless as Squarespace’s, and our testers have reported it sometimes being buggy.

While Wix certainly has you covered when running your real estate website, can it offer the same service in getting the word out about it? Yes, it can! We tested Wix SEO and found it offered a powerful yet beginner-friendly set of tools. Plus, integrations with Semrush and Microsoft Clarity make it a beast in visitor analytics.

On top of that, Wix offers real estate email templates through Mailchimp, letting you send out newsletters and capture forms to potential customers and let them schedule viewings.

What’s the Best Value Plan?

Wix’s pricing plans have different features but we’d recommend either the Light or Core plans for real estate agents. Wix offers four paid plans, plus a free plan:

• Free: free plan forever (with limitations such as ads)
• Light: $17/month
• Core: $29/month
• Business: $36/month
• Business Elite: $159/month

The free plan is a great way to test the water and start building your site, but with ads, no custom domain, and a 500MB storage limit, your site won’t inspire much confidence or trust. We recommend upgrading to the Core plan. This is ideal for businesses, whereas the Light plan is aimed at personal projects.

As you upgrade, you’ll also unlock more features, like extra video storage for virtual house viewings (this starts at one hour on the Core plan), and extra paid ad credit for landing local searches. And if you like discounts, you can get 10% off at the checkout using the code ‘TAKE10’.

Read our full Wix Review for more

Squarespace – For Unmatched Real Estate Templates

Starting from: $16 per month billed annually: Save 10% with code “WBE10”Squarespace is primarily known for its stunning templates and easy-to-use editor, letting even beginners design professional-standard websites. There are 11 real estate website templates available that are all outstanding in quality.

What’s It Like To Use Squarespace?

Once your template is chosen, you can begin editing your template with essential real estate features like contact forms and map navigation. Squarespace is the easiest builder to use in our research, earning 4.8 out of 5 for user experience. This is all thanks to the Fluid Engine, Squarespace’s unique editor which keeps your design intact no matter how many features you add. This means you can keep growing your site with new properties without the fear of ruining your design – Squarespace does truly make it that easy!

Features

Compared to Wix, Squarespace has fewer features directly for real estate built into the platform – but it does have an excellent scheduling integration app with Acuity. Design your scheduling page and create appointments for viewings – all from the Squarespace dashboard.

It is also easier to sign in to the IDX with Squarespace, and it has a full guide on how to do it. Instead of an app, users have to input custom code into a code block on their Squarespace site. While it sounds difficult, it’s just a simple copy and paste – but we understand that code in any scenario seems confusing to beginners.

Luckily, no code is required to access Squarespace’s SEO and marketing capabilities. Like the editor, Squarespace makes sure the process is as clear as possible, and you’ll have access to Mailchimp email marketing, pop-ups for reminding customers of new deals, and contact forms.

What’s the Best Value Plan?

Along with a free 14-day trial, there are four paid Squarespace pricing plans:

• Basic – $16 per month
• Core – $23 per month
• Plus – $39 per month
• Advanced – $99 per month

While it doesn’t have a free plan like Wix, the 14-day free trial is enough for you to build your site and really nail down the design before you upgrade – which we recommend the $23 per month Core plan for. The Basic plan is lacking a lot of the most important features for a real estate website, like pop-ups and – most importantly – IDX compatibility.

If you like deals, you can also use our exclusive discount code ‘WBE10’ at checkout for 10% off.

Read our Squarespace Review for more

GoDaddy – For Marketing Your Real Estate Properties

Starting from: $9.99 per month billed annually GoDaddy is not the most feature-loaded builder for real estate websites, nor are its templates the most stunning. However, it earns a place on this list due to its great value for money and helpful marketing and SEO integrations – making it ideal for the start-up real estate business that needs a lot of attention quickly but not exceeding budget.

What’s It Like To Use GoDaddy?

Like Wix, GoDaddy has an AI website builder known as ADI. When you start your GoDaddy site, you’ll be automatically sent to the ADI over templates, and by simply describing your website in the setup process, the ADI does the rest. These auto-generated sites are of great quality, and our testers remarked that the design was never repeated, even with the same description.

If you prefer templates, GoDaddy has 10 real estate-specific to choose from. These templates come with unique features perfect for any real estate website, such as image carousels to highlight your properties and integrated Zillow reviews.

GoDaddy has no IDX-specific app, but like Squarespace, there’s a step-by-step guide to adding it to your website by creating an account with IDXBroker.com

Features

Besides the industry-specific templates, GoDaddy is a bit thin when it comes to features directly for real estate websites. You can create contact forms and schedule viewings, but there are no virtual tours and no app store to cover the gaps.

However, what GoDaddy does do well is increase your website’s voice thanks to its easily accessible marketing tools – relying on social media, newsletter sign-ups, and on-site chat boxes to help nurture your leads.

On all the plans you’ll get to create Facebook and Instagram ad campaigns for your site, plus there’s GoDaddy Airo, which uses AI to help small businesses get their footing – a more modern approach than classic email marketing, and one more inline with modern customer behavior.

What’s the Best Value Plan?

GoDaddy pricing is split into three plans, plus a free one:

• Free plan – free forever (with limitations)
• Basic – $9.99 per month (billed annually)
• Premium – $14.99 per month (billed annually)
• Commerce – $20.99 per month (billed annually)

Like Wix, GoDaddy has a free plan that you can use forever if you want. However, it shares similar limitations such as ads, no custom domain, and no SEO tools.

If you want your real estate website to be taken seriously, we recommend starting with the Premium plan as it comes with better booking options and a huge boost on your monthly marketing email limit, which is another great way to promote your listings. It’s also the best value builder on this list, giving you real estate-specific features like IDX integration for nearly half the cost of Wix and Shopify.

Read our full GoDaddy Review for more.

Shopify – For Virtual Reality Tools In Real Estate

Starting from: $29 per month billed annually

Free for 3 days, then $1 for the first monthShopify is an ecommerce platform, meaning it’s designed primarily to sell items online. Most real estate requires an offline element, but frequently more and more real estate sites are dedicated to being entirely online.

What’s It Like To Use Shopify?

Shopify itself doesn’t have any real estate features, but it does have a large third-party app store, meaning you can integrate contact forms, lead generation, and IDX into your website. However, like Squarespace, you’ll need to use a bit of code to get it in.

Additionally, Shopify has the largest range of 3D and AR apps for virtual tours, meaning online customers can still view your properties from the comfort of their homes. They’re proven to be effective too, as a study found virtual tours increased the likelihood of a sale by 130% among 18 to 34-year-olds.

Many of these apps are free to install, but be careful, as some can have subscription fees or one-off payments of up to $150 or more. It differs case-by-case, so you’ll have to read reviews and do some of your own research, which can be time-consuming and not very consumer-friendly.

Payments sadly extend to templates too, with Shopify being the only builder on this list that makes you pay – sometimes up to $350. There are 13 free themes, but unfortunately, none of them are real estate-themed. In fact, none of Shopify’s themes are for real estate businesses. The closest we could find was for home and decor, so you’ll have to spend some time with Shopify’s editor in order to adjust it to your needs.

While you have to rely on third-party apps for a lot of functions, Shopify still has some good in-built functionality – especially for lead generation – such as:

• Email marketing (for keeping leads engaged)
• A members area (just note that it’s not password protected)
• Contact and appointment forms (for gathering leads)

While these aren’t designed specifically for real estate, you’re able to customize them easily enough and create marketing funnels for keeping leads engaged with your new properties.

What’s the Best Value Plan?

Shopify offers four main premium plans:

• Basic Shopify – $29 per month
• Shopify – $79 per month
• Advanced Shopify – $299 per month
• Shopify Plus – $2,300 per month

The bad news is, in our testing, we found Shopify to be the worst value real estate builder. It’s pretty expensive and includes transaction fees, along with high pricing for themes that aren’t specifically designed for the real estate industry.

There is a 3-day free trial if you’re unsure, plus the first month for only $1. If you plan on being completely online with your real estate business, then its app store could prove incredibly useful. We recommend the Basic Shopify plan, as it sets you up with everything you need to add the necessary features and themes – but remember some of these will cost you as well.

Read our full Shopify Review for more

How To Choose a Real Estate Website Builder?

Real estate websites differ from regular online businesses because many parts of the process, including the final sale, are done offline. Instead, the primary focus of your real estate website should be to present your properties in the best way possible, enticing and converting customers into taking those next, real-world steps.

When doing our own independent research, we were able to identify some of the key features every real estate website needs in order to become a success:

• IDX – Your real estate website has to, in some way, be connected to the IDX and other property listings in order to build trust, not only amongst customers but also other real estate businesses. There’s a code of conduct, and not being on the IDX breaks it.
• Lead generation – From emails to contact forms to ad campaigns, you need to get into contact with potential customers regularly, turning online interest into real-world action.
• Image galleries – Being online, the best way to show off your real estate is through plenty of images and image galleries, showcasing the best of your properties.
• Virtual tours – Virtual tours are the next step in online real estate, whether through video or 3D apps, by letting customers view the house from the comfort of their own home.
• Storage – Images, videos, virtual tours. All of this requires quite a lot of storage on your website.

How We Test

At Website Builder Expert, we only use the most up-to-date information on all our builders, collected by our wonderful in-house research team and updated weekly, to bring you the best quality and most reliable website-building articles on the web.

For this list, as well as applying our rigorous research methodology, we wanted to accurately reflect what real estate professionals want from a website. Through our own hands-on research, we found the factors that would be most important and adjusted the weighting of our research categories.

So now, when you see a builder score on this list, you can trust its validity to not only our own methodology but to real estate websites in particular. Let’s see the weightings in action:

• Design flexibility – 35%
• Website features – 30%
• User experience – 13%
• Help and support – 12%
• Sales features – 10%
• Value for money – 5%
• Customer score – 5%

Best Real Estate Website Builders: Summary

As you’ve seen, each platform brings something a little different to the table. Our research into the best real estate website builder highlights Wix as the number one choice thanks to its easy-to-use and customizable templates, great SEO tools, and the best features.

By now, you can feel confident choosing the one that’s right for you, your homeowners, and potential buyers. Now all that’s left to do is to go and build your real estate website!

Written By

Samuel Jagger

Hi, I’m Sam:

Samuel Jagger is a Senior Writer at Website Builder Expert, specializing in AI integration and web design theory. He has created editorial content for the publication since 2022 and has covered topics ranging from website design, ecommerce, digital marketing, and more. He’s written articles for apps like UXPin on web design in the modern age, as well as answered over 100 user comments on the site. Sam has also created his own websites, such as this Strikingly demo you can view here. He also writes and stars in the official WBE TikToks, sharing helpful website tips and commenting on the latest in website design news.

Previously, Samuel worked as a Freelance Blog Writer for The MIZU Hub and as a Digital Content Creator for Europa Music Management, working with musical artists like Purple Disco Machine, David Penn, and Monolink. Samuel has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing and a Bachelor of Arts in Film Practices from Newcastle University, where he graduated with honors and distinction.

Samuel is passionate about writing, visual media, and the creative arts. He is always looking for new avenues to funnel his creativity and align his skills with projects that interest him. You can find him and keep up to date with what he’s up to on his LinkedIn.

More about

Reviewed By

Natasha Willett Lead Researcher

Natasha brings her expert credentials – a BSc, Ma, and MMRS – to Website Builder Expert. Natasha has qualifications in Advanced Statistical Analysis, MRS certificate in Market Research, Brand, Finding the Story in the Data, and Big Data: Measuring and Predicting Human Behaviour. These have allowed her to carefully analyze over 64 providers across website builders, ecommerce web builders, and hosting.

Natasha began building websites when studying sports science, originally using Weebly to create websites to help students learn in a more interactive way. During her first week at Website Builder Expert, she realized that website builders would become important in giving business owners full control over their websites. She began creating a rigorous methodology of research that centered around testing providers and products against a large set of mixed criteria turned into quantitative findings, comparing value for money, design, ease of use, and more. All to provide the most honest and objective insights rather than just looking at their claimed features.

In five years at Website Builder Expert, Natasha has attended multiple expos in her field, including ESOMAR, MRS, eCommerce Expo, Ad World, Digital Customer Engagement Summit, and IMRG, just to name a few. Natasha has also worked alongside website builders directly to share her research with them, so that they might improve their products for users.

She’s clocked an impressive 9,600 hours of product research and testing, pulling data from multiple sources and providing the Website Builder Expert team with the scores and product details they need to give you the best recommendations to succeed online.

More about