Trying to find decent IDX plugins for WordPress isn’t easy. Sure, there are more options for agents than ever before, but they all seem to offer the same boring features. Worse, they all seem to look the same. That’s why we’re taking a deeper dive into our five favorite IDX plugins to see how they stack up in 2022.
We looked at cost, design, widgets, search features, and listing page extras. We also provide links to example websites using each plugin so you can see them in action.
Table of Contents
What Are WordPress IDX Plugins?
How We Ranked the Best WordPress Plugins of 2022
What Are WordPress IDX Plugins?
WordPress IDX plugins are software plugins that real estate agents and brokerages add to their websites to display automatically updated listings from their MLS using the IDX (Internet Data Exchange) protocol.
Important note: While many newer plugins do not use the IDX protocol to display automatically updated MLS listing feeds on agents’ websites, we include them here since most agents still refer to them as IDX plugins, and they offer the same basic functionality.
How We Ranked the Best WordPress IDX Plugins of 2022
While we could sit here and rattle on and on about the technical details of these plugins, we value your time (and your sanity), so we broke our rankings down into five categories we thought were most useful for agents:
Cost
While the monthly cost of IDX plugins seems to have settled at around $50 per month, affordability is still a huge factor for agents.
Look & Feel
This is our assessment of how these plugins look on a website. We scored each plugin’s look and feel on a scale of one through five.
Widgets & Shortcodes
Widgets and shortcodes allow agents to quickly and easily display MLS listings on their websites in different ways. Search boxes, map search, curated listings (e.g., listings below $500,000), and property carousels.
Search Features
Search features are what keep buyers on your website looking for homes. Some plugins offer only basic search features, while others offer more advanced features like polygon search or advanced search where users can draw a defined area on a map for very specific results.
Listing Page Extras
Keeping buyers searching for properties on your website sometimes requires extra goodies on listing pages. Walk score, social media sharing, and the ability to add to favorites are all examples of listing pages extras we looked at.
Best WordPress IDX Plugins 2022: How They Stack Up
| WordPress Plugin | Best Feature for Agents | |
|---|---|---|
| MLS Import | Best looking (with WPResidence WordPress theme) | |
| iHomefinder | Integrated CRM | |
| Realtyna | Real Estate Transaction System (RETs) and Virtual Office Website (VOW) integration | |
| Showcase IDX | Mobile polygon search | |
| IDX Broker | Full IDX websites |
MLS Import
If you just want an IDX plugin that looks great, MLS Import on the WPResidence theme is a solid choice. The styling is clean, modern, and to our eyes, at least, a bit more attractive than the other plugins we looked at. It also includes a Zillow-like half map search function but does not allow site visitors to draw a search area on the map. That said, it does lack many of the useful widgets that the other plugins have.
Important note: Your MLS must be RESO-ready in order to use MLS Import. You can check to see if your MLS is Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO)-ready on the RESO website.
Cost
- $42-$49 (monthly)
Fifty bucks a month seems to be the industry standard for IDX plugins these days, and MLS Import is right in that sweet spot. If you pay for the entire year upfront, you can get your monthly spend down to $42, which makes MLS Import the most affordable option on our list.
Look & Feel
- 4.8 (out of 5)
MLS Import pulls its styling from WordPress themes, so it will look fantastic if you use a good-looking theme like Houzes or WPResidence. This is entirely subjective, of course. We just thought that MLS Import had the best styling. Some agents might find it a bit too flashy, though. We especially liked the way the property pages featured a photo grid right at the top of the page:
Widgets & Shortcodes
- MLS Import lets agents customize the import settings for MLS listings. For example, they can import lists of specific properties by price or ZIP code. Agents can also manage which property fields to import.
Search Features
- MLS Import offers basic search features so buyers can search by price and home features. They do not offer polygon search.
Listing Page Extras
- MLS Import does not offer listing page extras like walk score.
Best Feature for Agents
While it does lack many of the features other IDX plugins offer, we thought the attractive design and layout of MLS Import was enough to include them on our list. If you don’t care about features and just want something that looks great right out of the box, MLS Import is a solid choice.
Example Website Using MLS Import: WPResidence
iHomefinder
While it may not look quite as good as MLS Import with some WordPress themes, iHomefinder makes up for it with a ton of useful features for agents. Features like polygon search and listing page goodies like walk score will help you keep buyers searching on your website instead of Zillow.
Cost
- Standard $49.95 per month, Premium $84.95 per month, Premium + CRM $129.95 per month
Are you beginning to notice a trend here? It feels like every single IDX plugin on the market charges $50 a month to get IDX onto your website. That means deciding who to go with really comes down to figuring out who has the features you want and how nice the search results and listings look out of the box. Customization is nice, but if it already looks great …
Look & Feel
- 4.8 (out of 5)
iHomefinder’s maps and listing pages look great and should work well with your theme right out of the box. Out of all the IDX plugins, I think iHomefinder has the best-looking maps and user experience (UX) design right out of the box. It just looks a little more professional and modern than the others.
Widgets & Shortcodes
- Yes
Quick search, universal search bar, search forms, featured listings, saved search, sold/pending, lead capture are included. You can learn more about iHomefinder’s widgets and shortcodes here.
Search Features
- Polygon search
Polygon search seems like it’s par for the course for IDX plugins these days, and iHomefinder is no exception.
Listing Page Extras
- Walk score, great schools, mortgage calculator, lead capture, sold listings, pending listings, pocket listings, market reports
iHomefinder offers good listing extras to keep your visitors on the page and emulate the Zillow experience.
Best Feature for Agents
iHomefinder offers an integrated customer relationship manager (CRM) for agents or teams who want to kill two birds with one stone.
Example Website Using iHomefinder: Naples Homes Now
Realtyna
Realtyna’s IDX plugin, which they call an “organic” IDX solution, is a part of their larger WPL platform that offers goodies like RETS (Real Estate Transaction System) and VOW (Virtual Office Website) solutions for real estate websites. The benefit of using Realtyna is that you can start small and build your site as you grow.
Cost
- $49-$79
Realtyna’s IDX plugin is priced like all the others, but they also offer “organic” IDX solutions. Instead of a monthly charge, they can put listings on your site using RETS and VOW for a one-time fee starting of around $1,500.
Look & Feel
- 4.6 (out of 5)
The plugin looks great right out of the box, but can also be customized easily through the WordPress back-end or CSS code.
Widgets & Shortcodes
- Yes
Realtyna offers some basic widgets and shortcodes for property carousels and search bars, but also lets you create your own custom shortcodes with their WPL Shortcode Wizard.
Search Features
- Customizable map, polygon search
Maps can be customized and users can draw a search area with a polygon tool.
Listing Page Extras
- Mapping, walk score, owner info, social media sharing, add to favorites, and downloadable PDF flyers
About what you’d expect here, but we liked the concept of being able to get a listing sheet as a PDF. Lots of buyers still like printouts!
Best Feature for Agents
The best feature offered by Realtyna has to be their available RETs and VOW integrations. That means slightly better performance and indexing by Google, and even better, a one-time fee instead of a monthly fee.
Example Website Using Realtyna: Harbourside Realty
Showcase IDX
A little pricier than other options but with a features list to back it up, Showcase IDX has grown into a serious contender for the best IDX solution for agents. One standout feature Showcase IDX offers that others don’t is polygon search on mobile devices.
Cost
- Essential $59.95 per month, Premium $99.95 per month
Look & Feel
- 4.5 (out of 5)
Map search, user experience (UX), and individual property listings all look great on Showcase IDX. They also offer the ability to tweak maps to make them look more appealing with the color scheme of your site—something most IDX plugins don’t offer.
Widgets & Shortcodes
- Yes
Showcase IDX has widgets and shortcodes that let you basically drag and drop elements like map search, listings by ZIP code, and so forth onto any page on your site.
Search Features
- Customizable maps, mobile polygon search
While polygon search is old news these days, Showcase IDX takes it a step further and offers polygon search on mobile. So—does it work? Yeah, it works. You can draw a search area onto the map quickly and easily. It also seems to be a little snappier than other polygon search tools.
Listing Page Extras
- MLS info, recent activity, private commenting and sharing, market snapshot, walk score, bike score, and local demographics
Showcase IDX really shines when it comes to all the extra goodies they pack into their listing pages. Every IDX plugin gives you MLS info, but they take it a step further with walk score, bike score (!), and other goodies that are genuinely useful for buyers and part of the reason they like using the portals in the first place.
Best Feature for Agents
Showcase IDX offers the ability to use polygon area search on mobile, something no other plugins offer. While this might be cumbersome and not very useful on phones, it’s a great feature to have for the increasing number of people using tablets to search for homes.
Example Website Using Showcase IDX: Knox Opens Doors
IDX Broker
IDX Broker offers an IDX plugin for WordPress called IMPress along with their standard IDX platform. That said, since the difference between a plugin and a platform is almost entirely semantic for most real estate agents, we’ll talk about their entire platform here.
Even better, if you don’t want to go through the hassle of building a WordPress website, IDX Broker will give you a full IDX website ready to go for an affordable price.
Cost
- Lite $50 per month, Platinum $80 per month
IDX Broker is competitive with other IDX plugins and platforms, which is no surprise since the competition in this space is fierce.
Look & Feel
- 4.8 (out of 5)
The IDX search bar, listing results pages, and listing pages all look pretty good. You can customize them a bit to match your theme as well.
Widgets & Shortcodes
- Yes
IDX Broker offers lots of widgets and shortcodes you can add to any page or post on your WordPress site. You get showcase widgets, listing carousels, omnibar search, city links, and so on.
Search Features
- Polygon search, radius search
You can let your site visitors draw a search area to pinpoint specific areas.
Listing Page Extras
- Market reports (including sold data), open house, PDF flyers, and refinement search
IDX Broker has some goodies besides IDX to offer your site visitors. Market reports with sold data are the most useful.
Best Feature for Agents
IDX Broker offers affordable full IDX websites if you don’t want to go through the hassle of building your own.
Example Website Using IDX Broker: PPI Realty
WordPress IDX Plugins in 2022: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly
Although IDX plugins have come a long way over the last few years, there are still some limitations that make them tricky for many agents to use successfully. Limited customization options, new technology from RESO (Real Estate Standards Organization) may be making IDX obsolete, and affordable all-in-one website builders all might disrupt the IDX plugin market sooner rather than later.
We will of course keep you updated on how this technology keeps changing, but for now, here is our overview of IDX Plugins for 2022. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
The Good
Today’s WordPress IDX plugins no longer rely on sketchy iframes in order to serve up MLS listing information on your WordPress website. While many IDX providers tout the search engine optimization (SEO) benefits of this, in reality, it just works better all around.
Today’s IDX plugins are also far more stable, and offer far more features than the old-school IDX plugins of just a few years ago. They load faster, work better on mobile, and offer advanced search features and listing extras like walk scores and school data so that they convincingly emulate the home search experience your buyer would have on a site like Zillow.
The Bad
Customizing your IDX plugin is still something that requires technical expertise. That means agents who cannot dig into code will have limited options for customizing their IDX feeds on their websites.
The Ugly
But the biggest problem by far, even with this current crop of IDX plugins with all the bells and whistles, is the price. No, $50 a month is not exactly going to break the bank for most agents or teams, but it comes with the same glaring disadvantages that renting a home does. You pay rent forever and you walk away with nothing.
The alternatives have always been tempting but generally reserved for the ultra-tech-savvy agents or those with deep enough pockets to hire a web developer. But that’s not exactly true anymore. For example, Realtyna offers their WPL plugin that allows agents and teams the ability to choose a monthly plan with a simple IDX plugin, or opt for a more sophisticated standard called RETS (Real Estate Transaction Standard)—and offers the missing link the other can’t: a one-time fee.
That’s right, you only pay once to have the WPL and RETS plugins installed on your website, and you get a direct MLS feed to your website for life. It’s not exactly cheap, though. Plans start at $1,149, but that comes with installation, and well, you end up owning it for life.
You can also easily scale their platform as your team grows. For example, you can add the VOW standard, which offers your visitors sold listing data and more, albeit with some restrictions from your MLS, of course. What’s an MLS without restrictions though, right?
Over to You
Which WordPress IDX plugin do you use on your website? Love it? Hate it? Let us know in the comments or join our Facebook Mastermind Group here.
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