I sent a buyer my tour link, and they asked why it isn’t on the Zillow listing.
Usually, when a buyer wants a closer look at a home, you send them to your listing page. The photos are there, the property details are there, and the 360 tour sits right next to them.
But buyers browse the portals too.
So the buyer opens your link, clicks through a few rooms, then goes back to the Zillow listing to compare. The tour isn’t there.
Now they’re asking you why your virtual tour is not showing on Zillow, and you start wondering whether something went wrong with the tour.
It’s easy to expect a simple rule here: if the tour is good and it’s in the MLS, Zillow will show it.
Is that how it works…?
Not for every tour, and not since October 2025.
That month, Zillow stopped showing an entire brand of tours on its listings, and the reason had nothing to do with how good those tours were. Where a tour appears depends on each portal’s rules and vendor deals, not on the tour itself.
That’s why we wrote this. We’ll explain where a tour on your own site does show, where it may not, and what you can say when a buyer or seller asks.
Before we start, one thing you should know. We, the RexTheme team, make WPVR, a WordPress tour plugin.
So we’ll be upfront: we’re not going to tell you our plugin will get your tour on Zillow. It won’t, and no tool can promise that. Our goal here is to help you give buyers and sellers an honest answer.
By the end of this guide, you’ll know:
- why Zillow shows some tours and not others
- where your tour will always show, no matter what Zillow decides
- what to check in your MLS before you paste a tour link
- what to say when a buyer or seller asks
Quick Answer
Why is my virtual tour not showing on Zillow, and where will buyers see it?
In the US, Zillow only displays tours from sources it accepts, and that list can change with business disputes: Matterport tours have been off Zillow since October 2025. A tour on your own website shows wherever you put the link, such as your site, emails, social posts and a QR code on the sign. For the Zillow listing itself, use Zillow 3D Home or another provider Zillow accepts, and check the live listing before you promise anything.
Why Does Zillow Show Some Tours And Not Others?
Before getting into what you can do, let’s look at how a tour ends up on Zillow in the first place.
There are usually two ways:
- You paste the tour link into your MLS’s virtual tour field, and the MLS sends the listing out to the portals.
- You add the tour link on the portal yourself.
Either way, the portal decides what it shows. And in October 2025, Zillow made a decision that affected a lot of agents.
On 20 October 2025, Zillow removed Matterport tours from Zillow and StreetEasy.
Matterport is owned by CoStar, and since then, both companies have told different stories.
| Who | What they say |
|---|---|
| Zillow | CoStar did not renew its Matterport API agreement with Zillow and changed its media licensing terms. Zillow says it needs clear, legally binding terms before displaying Matterport tours again (HousingWire, Zillow). |
| CoStar | Matterport customers own the tours they create and can publish them on any website, including Zillow (CoStar’s official statement). |
| HousingWire | In May 2026, the two companies were still disputing the issue. Zillow continued to reject Matterport tours while accepting tours from other providers and its own Zillow 3D Home (HousingWire). |
As you can see, nothing changed in the tours. The homes were the same, and so were the tours. Only Zillow’s decision about them changed, while other portals kept showing them.
So which tours does Zillow accept?
This is probably the next thing you want to know, and we’ll be honest: we couldn’t find a list published by Zillow itself.
When Zillow removed Matterport, Inman reported that it pointed agents to these instead:
- Zillow 3D Home
- Peek
- Skyward 360
- EyeSpy360
- The 3D App
- Giraffe360
Keep in mind that this is a snapshot from October 2025, not an official rule. It can change.
Also, even when Zillow accepts a tour, it may not show where you expect.
SmartMLS tells its members that a tour link sent from the MLS shows up in the Facts and features section of the Zillow listing, further down the page. And Zillow doesn’t show tours on land listings at all.
So trying to keep up with Zillow’s rules only helps so much. A more useful question is this: where will your tour show, no matter what Zillow decides?
Where Will Your Tour Always Show?
Let’s lay it out for a tour you host on your own website, as of 11 November 2026.
| Where the buyer looks | Does your tour show there? | Who decides |
|---|---|---|
| Your listing page | Yes, you embed it | You |
| Emails to buyers | Yes, as a link | You |
| Your social posts | Yes, as a link | You |
| QR code on the sign or flyer | Yes, if it points to your listing page | You |
| Your MLS virtual tour field | It depends. Many MLSs only allow unbranded links | Your MLS |
| Zillow | Only if Zillow accepts the source | Zillow |
| Other portals | It depends on each portal | Each portal |
Now look at the last column. For the first four rows, the answer is you. That’s the part you fully control, so it makes sense to set it up well.
A 2025 piece on NAR’s site makes the case for having your own website as the main place everything else points to.
For a tour, that comes down to four simple habits:
- Put the tour on the listing page, next to the photos and floor plan. Action: open the page on your phone and make sure the tour loads.
- Send it by email before you book a showing, especially to out-of-state buyers. Action: add the link to the reply you already send when someone asks about the home.
- Share the listing page on social, not just the tour link. Action: use the page URL in your posts, so buyers see the photos, details, and a way to reach you too.
- Point the QR code on your sign to the listing page. Action: scan it yourself before the sign goes up.
But there’s a limit to this. These four places mostly reach buyers who already know about you or the listing.
New buyers also discover homes through real estate portals. And getting your tour onto those portals is a different matter.
For most third-party tours, the link needs to go through the MLS first. The portal then decides how and where to display it.
What Does Your MLS Allow In The Virtual Tour Field?
You might think the easy fix is to paste your listing page into the MLS and let it go out to the portals.
In many cases, that won’t work.
Many MLSs require the public virtual tour field to hold an unbranded link. That means no agent name, no logo, no phone number, and no contact form. A tour page on your own website usually has all of those, so it doesn’t qualify.
How strict the rule is depends on your MLS. For example:
- NorthstarMLS allows up to two unbranded tours per listing.
- Doorify MLS doesn’t allow branding or links that send viewers away, and that includes branded QR codes.
- SmartMLS has a separate branded tour field for IDX sites.
Three MLSs, three different sets of rules. So we won’t guess what yours allows. You can start checking in about ten minutes.
Check 1: Find every field with “tour” in the name
Some MLSs have one public field. Others have separate branded and unbranded fields.
Action: write down the exact field names before you paste anything.
Check 2: Read your MLS’s virtual tour or branding rule
Search your MLS help center for “virtual tour” or “branding.”
Action: note what’s not allowed in the public field.
Check 3: Open your tour link in a private browser window
Look for your logo, phone number, contact form, promotional messages, or links to other pages. These may affect whether the tour qualifies as unbranded under your MLS rules.
Action: compare what you see with your MLS’s requirements before adding the link.
Check 4: Look at the live Zillow and Realtor.com pages yourself
Once the listing goes out, open it on both.
Action: note whether the tour shows and where on the page, before anyone asks you.
Photographers on Reddit report that the order of links in your tour fields can change what Zillow shows (one thread, another), so it’s worth testing.
One more thing to keep in mind: your own website never replaces the MLS.
NAR’s Clear Cooperation Policy requires REALTOR® MLS participants to submit a listing to the MLS within one business day of marketing it publicly.
So now you know more about this than most buyers and sellers ever will. The harder part is explaining it without sounding like you’re making excuses.
What Should You Say When A Buyer Or Seller Asks?
The simplest way to handle it is in three parts:
- Say what you know
- Say what depends on someone else
- Only promise what you’ve checked
Quick Answer
What do I tell a seller who wants their tour on Zillow?
Tell them it comes in two parts. The tour will be on your website, in your buyer emails and behind the QR code on the sign, because you control those.
Whether a tour appears on Zillow depends on which providers Zillow accepts, and that changed in October 2025. If Zillow matters to them, add a Zillow 3D Home tour for the portal and check the live listing.
Here’s how that can sound in a real conversation.
When a buyer asks:
“The full tour is on my site at this link. Zillow only displays certain third-party tours, so you won’t always see the tour there. But you can view the full walkthrough on my site. If the layout works for you, let’s book a time.”
When a seller asks:
“Your tour will be on my site, in the emails I send to interested buyers, and behind the QR code on your sign. I’ll also submit the tour through the MLS using the appropriate field. Each portal decides which tours it displays, so I’ll check your Zillow page after the listing goes live and tell you exactly what I see.”
Use your own words, of course. The idea is to answer the question, not blame anyone, and keep moving toward a showing.
Now, sellers do care about this.
In Zillow’s 2025 survey, 75% of sellers said they were more likely to hire an agent offering virtual tours and interactive floor plans.
That’s exactly why it’s tempting to say, “Yes, it’ll be on Zillow.”
And if a seller asks for a Zillow Showcase listing, they know that Showcase requires Zillow’s own 3D Home floor plan, so no outside tour will qualify.
So whatever the seller asks, keep one rule:
Do not promise a seller their tour will be on Zillow unless you have checked that week.
If you promise it and it doesn’t show up, the seller will remember your promise, not the dispute between two companies.
But this raises a fair question. If buyers look on Zillow, why bother with a tour that Zillow won’t show?
Does The Zillow Listing Still Matter?
Yes, a lot.
Some people in the business go further and say any other tour is pointless.
One real estate photographer said on Reddit that in their market, any tour other than Zillow’s own is “dead in the water.”
For the portal itself, that’s often right. NAR’s July 2026 guidance notes that in most transactions, a home goes on the MLS, gets sent to the portals and shows up on brokerage sites through IDX.
Sellers usually choose that route because it gives their property broad market exposure.
So keep your portal listing strong:
- Use your best photos.
- Add an accurate floor plan.
- Add a tour Zillow accepts.
You don’t need to pay for that last one. Zillow says its 3D Home app is free, and those tours can be shared on the MLS, your website, and social media.
But here’s what that photographer’s point leaves out. The tour on Zillow and the tour on your own site do two different jobs:
| Tour on Zillow | Tour on your own listing page | |
|---|---|---|
| Its main job | Gives portal visitors an interactive way to explore the home | Gives visitors a detailed experience on your website |
| Who sees it | Anyone browsing the portal | Buyers you’ve talked to, emailed, or met at the sign |
| What’s around it | Zillow’s page, other listings | Your photos, your details, your contact form |
| Who controls it | Zillow | You |
So the answer usually isn’t one or the other. Use Zillow 3D Home for the Zillow listing, and keep any other tour for your own site and email.
My honest take
If most of your sellers’ buyers find homes on Zillow, I’d prioritize adding a Zillow 3D Home tour. That’s where those buyers are browsing, and Zillow gives its own 3D Home experience specialized exposure.
If you work with out-of-state buyers, or sell homes where the rooms are hard to picture from photos, a separate tour on your own listing page is worth having too. You can send that link to buyers before they book a visit.
And if you rarely see either, a Zillow 3D Home tour on its own may be all you need. That’s a perfectly good answer, and we’d rather you hear it from us.
If you regularly work with out-of-state buyers, we’ve put together a practical guide to help you figure out what to send them before booking a showing.
Read: My Out-of-State Buyer Can’t Picture How the Rooms Connect. What Do I Send Before We Book a Showing?
Where Does WPVR Fit?
If you want buyers to explore your property beyond the portals, you can host a separate 360° tour on your own listing page. WPVR is one option if your website runs on WordPress.
WPVR is a 360° virtual tour plugin for WordPress, for real estate, hospitality & agencies. The tour sits on your own WordPress site and shows on your listing pages.
We make no claim that it appears on Zillow or any other portal.
On WordPress.org, it’s rated 4.7 out of 5 from 133 reviews and has 10,000+ active installs.
What it does:
- Turns your 360 photos into a tour buyers can move through, room by room
- Lets you add hotspots that answer questions inside the tour
- Lets you embed tours on your website using a Gutenberg block or shortcode.
- Offers unlimited tours for free, with up to 5 scenes and 5 hotspots per scene.
What Pro adds: unlimited scenes, interactive floor plans, QR code sharing, and in-tour inquiry forms through the Fluent Forms add-on. Plans are on the pricing page.
What it doesn’t do:
- It doesn’t turn ordinary property photos into 360° images. You need 360° panoramic photos to create a panoramic tour.
- It isn’t a 3D scan or dollhouse-style model like Matterport.
- It doesn’t control whether Zillow, other portals, or your MLS display the tour.
If you’re comparing the cost with hiring a photographer or using a cloud platform, our 360 virtual tour cost breakdown for realtors goes through the numbers.
And our Matterport vs WPVR comparison covers the differences between a scanned tour and a 360 tour.
So, Where Can Buyers Actually See Your Tour?
Let’s go back to that buyer’s question for a second.
They weren’t really asking about Zillow. They were asking whether they can trust what they’re looking at.
And your answer can be short: here’s the tour, it’s current, and here’s where else you’ll find this home.
To sum it up:
- Zillow decides which tours it shows, and that changed in October 2025.
- Your listing page, your emails, your social posts, and your sign will always show your tour.
- Your MLS may need an unbranded link, so check its rules first.
- Give Zillow a tour it accepts, and keep your own tour for everywhere you control.
- Never promise Zillow placement without checking that week.
If you list outside the US, the same logic applies, but the rules on this page won’t match your portals, so check yours.
Veelgestelde vragen
Will Zillow show a tour hosted on my own website?
Don’t count on it. Zillow displays third-party tours submitted through the MLS Virtual Tour field, but it doesn’t guarantee that every website-hosted tour will be accepted or displayed. Check whether your provider is supported and whether your MLS allows the link. You can always share your own tour through your website, emails, and QR codes.
Is Zillow 3D Home free?
Yes. Zillow says its 3D Home app is free to use, with no tour creation, publishing or hosting fees. You or your photographer can capture the home using a supported smartphone or compatible 360° camera. If you buy a separate camera or hire a photographer, those costs are yours to consider.
Will Matterport tours come back to Zillow?
There’s no confirmed return date. Zillow says it needs clear, legally binding terms from CoStar before displaying Matterport tours again. CoStar and Matterport maintain that customers can publish their tours wherever they choose. As of our last check on 11 November 2026, we found no public confirmation that Matterport tours had returned to Zillow. Check Zillow’s latest announcement before advising a seller.
