Homebot by the numbers
More than 10 million homeowners get a Homebot digest through 50,000+ loan officers and agents.
Average open rate on the Home Digest
Average monthly engagement rate
Email deliverability
Starter plan, with 1 agent co-sponsorship included
Used by the top 1% of lenders at the industry's leading companies
Side-by-side
Zillow sells loan officers leads on a prepaid cost-per-lead basis and runs its own mortgage lender; Homebot charges a flat monthly subscription and works the borrowers you already have in your database.
Every cell is judged against Homebot's Starter loan officer plan and Zillow's published Connect, Zillow Home Loans and Zillow Pro terms. Pricing and features verified October 2026 from Zillow's public pages, press releases and SEC filings, and from Homebot's public pricing and help pages.
What you see
Zillow's client-activity tools, Zillow Pro and My Agent, are built for real estate agents. Homebot shows a loan officer every homeowner and buyer action in one feed and tells you when to reach out.
The Activity Feed shows who opened their digest, checked their equity, ran refi numbers or started searching for homes, across your whole database, the minute it happens.
Opportunity Lists sort your book into Ready for Refi, High Equity, Likely to Buy and Highly Engaged, and HomebotAI tells you who to contact today, why, and what to say.
Your name and a mortgage calculator on every listing, filters for assumables, seller concessions and monthly payment, saved searches with alerts, across the top 200 MLSs. Their search activity comes back to you, and Homebot does not sell their data.
Why loan officers look elsewhere
Loan officers choose Homebot over Zillow because Zillow runs its own mortgage lender and sells leads up front, while Homebot keeps the digest, the search and the buyer insights under your name.
Zillow's loan volume rose 94% year over year to $2.2B in one quarter, and its buyer hub ties a Zillow Home Loans pre-approval into the search. On Homebot, the search and the digest carry your name.
Zillow sells lender advertising per lead; lenders typically prepay to get in and prepay more to stay in. Zillow promises no minimum share of connections. Homebot is a flat $125 to $300 a month.
Homeowners dispute their Zestimate: 18 one-to-three-star reviews across Trustpilot and the App Store in two years say it runs low or swings without explanation. The Home Digest comes from you, and every time a homeowner checks their value or runs refi numbers, it shows in your Activity Feed.
How Homebot works
You give Homebot your book, Homebot enriches it, engages every homeowner on your behalf, and surfaces the insights. Here is what each step means for a loan officer.
Step 1
Load your past borrowers and prospects. Starter holds 100 clients and 100 prospects; Unlimited holds unlimited clients and prospects.
Book a demo →
Step 2
Every homeowner's record gains their current home value, equity and refinance scenarios, refreshed each month.
Book a demo →
Step 3
Each homeowner gets a monthly Home Digest from you, with a 75% average open rate, plus a home search co-branded with your agent partner.
Book a demo →
Step 4
A real-time Activity Feed shows who checked their equity, ran refi numbers or searched for homes. Opportunity Lists and HomebotAI tell you who to call today and why, and those insights belong to you alone.
Book a demo →
Pricing
Homebot loan officer plans are $125, $225 or $300 per month plus a $100 one-time setup, each with 1 agent co-sponsorship; Zillow sells lender leads prepaid, per lead, with no published price list.
Zillow alternatives
The best Zillow alternatives for a loan officer keep your borrowers engaged under your name; the Zillow alternative sites at the top of that search, Realtor.com, Redfin and Trulia, are consumer portals built for shoppers.
Realtor.com, Redfin and Trulia compete with Zillow for the same consumer traffic. Sending a borrower there moves them from one portal's brand to another's.
Follow Up Boss is Zillow's own CRM, from $69 per user per month. A CRM stores contacts; Homebot emails each one monthly, and integrates with Follow Up Boss.
View all our integrations →Homebot is a homeownership platform for client retention and referrals: a branded Home Digest and home search for your past clients.
Compare retention platforms →Questions loan officers ask
These are the questions loan officers type into Google and ChatGPT about alternatives to Zillow, answered from your seat.
For a loan officer, an alternative for Zillow is a platform that keeps your own borrowers engaged under your brand instead of sending them to a portal. Homebot sends every past client a monthly Home Digest with their value, equity and refinance scenarios, for a flat monthly price. For consumers, the alternatives are other portals like Realtor.com and Redfin.
Zillow's competitors for consumer traffic are the other portals, led by Realtor.com and Redfin. For loan officers, Zillow Home Loans is a competing lender; Zillow's own annual filing says it may be perceived as impinging on the business models of lenders. Homebot competes for the homeowner's attention after closing, under your name.
The best alternative to Zillow for a loan officer is one you own: a branded Home Digest and home search, plus a real-time view of what every borrower in your database is doing. Homebot's digest has a 75% average open rate, and its Activity Feed shows who checked their equity or ran refi numbers. Zillow alternative sites like Realtor.com and Redfin are consumer portals built for shoppers.
Zillow is worth it for a loan officer only if prepaid cost-per-lead advertising returns more than working your own database. Zillow sells lender advertising through Connect per lead, and lenders typically prepay to access consumers and prepay more to keep participating. Homebot is $125 to $300 a month with 1 agent co-sponsorship included.
Zillow is a hard place for a loan officer to build a relationship because Zillow also runs a mortgage lender. Its loan volume rose 94% year over year to $2.2B in one quarter, and its buyer hub ties a Zillow Home Loans pre-approval into the search. On Homebot, buyer insights belong to you alone, and Opportunity Lists tell you when a borrower is ready for a refi.
When your borrowers get preapproved through Zillow, they receive a Zillow Home Loans Verified Pre-approval that Zillow's buyer hub connects directly to the home search. If the buyer already has a loan officer, Zillow shows them in the hub too. Homebot keeps the search, the digest and the pre-approval conversation under your brand.
A mortgage estimate on any portal is a model; the number that closes is the one you quote. Zillow publishes a median error rate for its home value estimate, the Zestimate, of 1.8% for listed homes and 7.2% off market. Homebot's Home Digest shows value, equity and refinance scenarios monthly, from you, and the homeowner can adjust the value.
On Zillow, buyers find assumable mortgages by opening Filters, scrolling to the Keywords box, and typing "ASSUM"; Zillow's own guide names no dedicated assumable filter. Homebot Home Search has a built-in assumables filter and a curated gallery of assumable listings, inside a search branded to you and your agent partner, so your borrowers never need the trick.
Your book, your brand
Book a demo and see what your past clients would get every month under your name: the Home Digest, the home search, and the insights that come back to you.
Homebot by the numbers
More than 10 million homeowners get a Homebot digest through 50,000+ agents and loan officers.
Average open rate on the Home Digest
Average monthly engagement rate
More referrals from past clients on Homebot
Solo plan. $25/mo when co-sponsored by your lender
Used by the top 1% of real estate agents at the industry's leading companies
Side-by-side
Zillow Preferred (formerly Zillow Flex) takes 15% to 40% of your commission when a Zillow lead closes; Homebot charges a flat monthly subscription and works the clients you already have.
Every cell is judged against Homebot's Solo real estate agent plan and Zillow's published Zillow Preferred, Premier Agent and Zillow Pro terms. Pricing and features verified October 2026 from Zillow's public pricing pages, pricing sheet, press releases and SEC filings, and from Homebot's public pricing and help pages.
What you see
Zillow Pro shows you what invited contacts browse on Zillow. Homebot shows you how every past client engages with their home value, equity and selling potential, with no invitation for them to accept.
The Activity Feed shows who opened their digest, checked their home value, explored what they could sell for or asked for a CMA, across your whole book, the minute it happens.
Opportunity Lists and a Monday email flag the clients worth calling first, and Homebot emails you the moment a client asks for a CMA, lists their home or says they are thinking about selling.
Partner and Team plans add a branded search: your name on every listing, filters for assumables, seller concessions and monthly payment, and alerts on saved searches, across the top 200 MLSs. You see which buyers are most active, and Homebot does not sell their data.
Why agents look elsewhere
Real estate agents choose Homebot over Zillow leads because Zillow Preferred takes 15% to 40% of the commission on closed leads, while Homebot charges $50 a month to stay in front of every past client.
Zillow Preferred (formerly Zillow Flex) charges 15% to 40% of your side on buyer leads and 40% on seller leads everywhere, and the fee can change with 15 days notice. Agents weighing Zillow Flex alternatives start with that fee.
Across the Premier Agent App Store listing and Trustpilot, 16 one-to-three-star reviews in two years describe paying for leads with little return, and 9 describe leads that were fake or already represented. Homebot works the people who already chose you.
Zillow Pro shows what invited contacts browse on Zillow. Homebot shows how every past client engages with their home value, equity and selling potential, with no invitation for them to accept, and a 75% average open rate on the digest.
How Homebot works
You give Homebot your book, Homebot enriches it, engages every past client on your behalf, and surfaces the insights. Here is what each step means for a real estate agent.
Step 1
Load your past clients. Solo and Partner hold 250, Team holds 500 with 2 agent profiles, and extra clients are $10 per block of 100.
Book a demo →.png)
Step 2
Every past client's record gains their current home value, equity and refinance scenarios, refreshed each month.
Book a demo →
Step 3
Each client gets a monthly Home Digest from you, with a 75% average open rate, plus a branded Home Search on Partner and Team plans.
Book a demo →
Step 4
A real-time Activity Feed shows who checked their value, explored selling potential or asked for a CMA, Opportunity Lists tell you who to call first, and activity events flow back into Follow Up Boss.
Book a demo →.png)
Pricing
Homebot agent plans start at $50/mo, or $25/mo when a lender co-sponsors you; Zillow Preferred charges 15% to 40% of your commission every time a Zillow lead closes. The worked example below shows that fee in dollars.
This is an example built from public averages; your fee depends on your ZIP code and the sale price. Take the national median existing-home price of $429,100 and an average buyer-agent commission of 2.42%, for a buyer-side commission of $10,384. Zillow Preferred's published fee chart then takes:
| Market group (examples) | Fee rate at $429,100 | Fee to Zillow | You keep |
|---|---|---|---|
| Group 1 (Houston, Chicago) | 40% | $4,154 | $6,231 |
| Group 2 (Phoenix, Dallas, Atlanta, Tampa) | 40% | $4,154 | $6,231 |
| Group 3 (Denver, New York, Austin) | 35% | $3,634 | $6,750 |
| Group 4 (Seattle, Boston) | 30% | $3,115 | $7,269 |
| Group 5 (San Francisco, San Jose) | 25% | $2,596 | $7,788 |
On the listing side it is 40% in every market, so $4,000 of every $10,000 you earn on a Zillow seller lead. A first year of Homebot Solo is $650, and one Group 3 buyer-side fee is 5.6 times that. Zillow sells you a new lead; Homebot keeps the clients you already have.
Example inputs: NAR median existing-home price for August and Redfin's average buyer-agent commission for the most recent quarter published, applied to Zillow's published Preferred pricing sheet. Verified October 2026.
Zillow alternatives
The best Zillow alternatives for a real estate agent keep your past clients coming back to you; the Zillow alternative sites at the top of that search, Realtor.com, Redfin and Trulia, are consumer portals built for shoppers.
Realtor.com, Redfin and Trulia compete with Zillow for the same consumer traffic. Sending a buyer there moves them from one portal's brand to another's.
Follow Up Boss is Zillow's own CRM, from $69 per user per month with no contracts. A CRM stores contacts; Homebot emails each one monthly, and integrates with Follow Up Boss.
View all our integrations →Homebot is a homeownership platform for client retention and referrals: a branded Home Digest and Home Search for your past clients.
Compare retention platforms →Questions agents ask
These are the questions agents type into Google and ChatGPT about alternatives to Zillow, answered from your seat.
For a real estate agent, the best alternative to Zillow leads is a platform that keeps your own past clients engaged under your brand for a flat monthly price. Homebot sends every past client a monthly Home Digest, starts at $50/mo, and lists no fee on closed deals. For consumers, the alternatives are other portals like Realtor.com and Redfin.
Zillow's competitors for consumer traffic are the other portals, led by Realtor.com and Redfin. For real estate agents, Zillow Pro competes with retention platforms like Homebot, since both work past clients and sphere contacts. The difference is what you see: Zillow Pro shows what invited contacts browse on Zillow, and Homebot shows how every past client engages with their home value and equity, with no invite.
The best Zillow alternatives for real estate agents are tools that keep past clients coming back to you, because repeat and referral business costs a flat fee instead of a share of your commission. Past clients on Homebot send 5x more referrals, and you see who is checking their value or asking for a CMA. Realtor.com, Redfin and Trulia are consumer portals built for shoppers.
Zillow Preferred (formerly Zillow Flex) costs 15% to 40% of your side of the commission on buyer leads that close, and 40% on seller leads in every market. Premier Agent market-based pricing is a monthly subscription where connections are shared in proportion to the advertising you buy in a ZIP code. Zillow promises no minimum share of leads on either.
Zillow leads are worth it only when the closings they produce are worth more than the fee. Sixteen one-to-three-star reviews across the Premier Agent App Store listing and Trustpilot describe paying for Zillow leads with little or no return. Agents looking for alternatives to Zillow leads use Homebot to stay in front of clients who already know them.
Zillow Flex is now Zillow Preferred, an invite-only program that takes 15% to 40% of your commission when a lead closes, generally within two years. Zillow Flex alternatives for real estate agents who want a predictable cost are flat subscriptions like Homebot, which starts at $50/mo and lists no fee on closed deals.
Homebot builds the lender partnership into the subscription: every loan officer plan includes 1 agent co-sponsorship with co-branded digests and home search, and agents on the Partner plan pay $25/mo when a lender co-sponsors them. If you are looking for a lender inside Zillow, the lender Zillow integrates into its own home search is Zillow Home Loans.
The best Zillow alternative app for your buyers is one that carries your name. Homebot gives your clients a branded Home Search and mobile app on the Partner and Team plans, with push notifications when their home value or purchasing power changes, so the midnight search happens under your brand and shows up in your Activity Feed.
The best Zillow alternative for finding homes, from your seat, is a search you give clients yourself. Homebot Home Search filters by monthly payment, price, home type and square footage, narrows to assumable mortgages, seller concessions and listings likely to negotiate, and puts your name on every listing. You see which buyers are active and what they look at.
Your clients, your brand
Book a demo and see what your past clients would get every month under your name: the Home Digest, the Home Search, and the referrals that follow.
