Zillow is an American proptech marketplace founded in 2006 by former Microsoft executives Lloyd Frink and Rich Barton.

Zillow is the most popular real estate website in the United States with the company offering an on-demand experience for the buying, selling, renting, and financing of properties.
The platform averaged 211 million monthly active users in Q1 2022 with revenue of $4.3 billion and 135 million homes in its database.
While many consider Zillow to be the Google of real estate, it does have some seasoned competitors in what is still an evolving industry.
Realtor.com
Realtor.com is owned by News Corp subsidiary Move and is based in Santa Clara, California.
The service is the second most visited in the United States after Zillow with the company hitting 100 million monthly active users for the first time in 2021.
Realtor.com is not as robust as Zillow, but it does show the most recent information about homes for sale and explains how certain features impact the sale price such as the presence of a pool or garage.
Users also have the option to chat with an actual real estate professional via text if they so desire.
Opendoor

Opendoor is a San Francisco-headquartered company that buys and sells residential properties.
In essence, the company makes a cash offer on a home, makes repairs if necessary, and then relists the home on the Opendoor platform.
Opendoor is live in more than 50 markets across the United States such as Boston, Albuquerque, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston, Miami, and Nashville.
The company’s platform is popular and well-received, with a homeowner requesting an offer from Opendoor every 60 seconds on average.
Redfin

Founded in Seattle in 2004, Redfin is a full-service brokerage company whose business model is to undercut the competition.
Redfinโs map-centric platform allows users to search properties according to various metrics such as square footage, home appreciation, homeowners association fees, and even details about the sewerage system.
Unique to Redfin is a team of real estate agents whose compensation depends on the reviews they receive from customers.
The company employs more than 6,000 people and serves over 100 markets in the U.S.
HomeLight
HomeLight is a real estate company that liaises with a network of 28,000 brokers in multiple markets to which they refer customers.
To that end, HomeLight analyzes millions of real estate transactions to identify the best agents who sell homes quickly and for a more attractive price.
The company also offers free access to an extensive network of pre-approved cash buyers to make the process of selling a home easier.
HomeLight supports more than $1 billion in real estate transactions on its platform every year with over 1.234 million happy customers to date.
Homesnap
Homesnap is similar to Realtor.com in that it provides an intuitive, map-based search function with detailed, real-time information about various properties.
However, what sets this company apart from other Zillow competitors is its mobile app.
With this app, users can share homes with family, friends, and agents โ even if they are not on the Homesnap platform.
It also shows the property value of homes, condos, and apartments that are not currently on the market.
For houses that are on the market, users can take a photo with their smartphone and Homesnap will pull up the pertinent listing information.
Key takeaways:
- Zillow is an American proptech marketplace that was founded in 2006 by former Microsoft executives Lloyd Frink and Rich Barton. Realtor.com is perhaps its largest competitor in terms of traffic, but the platform has a less robust feature set.
- Opendoor is a competitor with the most comparable business model and is available in over 50 major markets in the United States. Redfin’s full-service brokerage model also rates a mention and is established in over 100 such markets.
- Other Zillow competitors include HomeLight and Homesnap, with the latter known for its intuitive and useful mobile app.
Read Next: Zillow Business Model.
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