Matterport vs Zillow 3D Tours for Houston Listings (2026)

Agent Guides

For years the advice was easy: Matterport was the premium tour, and it showed up everywhere, Zillow included. That changed in late 2025. If you’re still ordering Matterport because you expect it on Zillow, you’re paying more for a tour most Zillow shoppers will never see. Here’s where each tour shows up now, what each costs, and how to load either one into HAR without a fine.

What changed: Zillow dropped Matterport

CoStar, the company behind Homes.com, closed its purchase of Matterport in 2025. On October 20, 2025, Zillow removed Matterport tours from Zillow and StreetEasy. Zillow says CoStar declined to renew its Matterport API agreement and restricted how the tours can be used. CoStar says its terms didn’t change and that Matterport customers can share their tours anywhere. Whoever is right, the result for agents is the same: as of October 2026, Matterport tours don’t appear on Zillow listings.

Matterport itself still works fine. It shows on HAR.com, Homes.com, Realtor.com, your website, in emails and on any site that accepts a tour link. It just isn’t on Zillow.

In May 2026, Matterport sent Zillow a signed statement promising CoStar wouldn’t sue over displayed tours. Zillow says it wants a binding agreement from CoStar first, and the tours remain off Zillow. HousingWire reported the update on May 27, 2026.

Side by side

What HAR’s tour field accepts

HAR doesn’t name approved brands. It sets rules for the link, and both tours can meet them. Under Rule 1.25.2, a virtual tour in the MLS must:

• Focus on the subject property (1.25.2(a)).
• Link only to pages describing the listed property, with no contact information or promotion of other services (1.25.2(b)).
• Be hosted online where any MLS participant can open it by clicking the link (1.25.2(c)).
• Carry no contact information: no names, phone numbers, emails, website addresses, agent photos or logos, in the tour or its audio. The listing firm’s name is the one exception (1.25.2(d)).
• Be yours to share. By submitting the tour, you tell HAR you have the legal right to display it and that HAR can redistribute the link (1.25.2(e)).

HAR’s Top MLS Rules sheet lists a $100 fine for contact information in a virtual tour and notes that links to galleries or other websites are prohibited. The MLS-only web hyperlink field is a different field with its own rules (1.25.3). Don’t park a tour there, because members are the only ones who see it.

In practice:

• Matterport: use the unbranded link, which ends in &mls=1. It hides the agent details and contact panel. The branded link is for your own marketing.
• Zillow 3D Home: every tour includes an unbranded link made for the MLS. Use that, not a link to the Zillow listing page.
• Homes.com membership tours: Matterport tours supplied through a Homes.com membership carry agent and office branding. At least one large MLS (Realcomp in Michigan) stopped accepting Homes.com tour links in 2026 for that reason. HAR hasn’t published a similar notice, but branded tours run into Rule 1.25.2(d) either way.

Rule 1.25.2(e) is also where ownership matters. You need the right to put the tour in the MLS, and HAR gets a license to redistribute it (Rule 11). If a photographer made the tour, that right should be in writing (see who owns your listing photos in Texas).

Cost: what you pay and why

Zillow 3D Home is free software, and Zillow charges no hosting fees. That doesn’t make a professional tour free: you’re paying for a 360 camera, a careful scan of every room, and the interactive floor plan, which needs a compatible 360 camera. Matterport costs more because the scanning takes longer and the photographer pays a monthly subscription to host every active tour.

PRO360 Photos prices by home size. Every Matterport tour includes 3 months of hosting. Every Zillow 3D tour includes an interactive floor plan:

Listing Pro includes your choice of a walkthrough video or a Zillow 3D tour, and Signature Premium includes the Zillow 3D tour.

Hosting: how long the tour stays live

• Zillow 3D Home: no hosting fee and no published expiration date. A tour can be made private, unpublished or deleted from the Zillow account that holds it.
• Matterport: PRO360 includes 3 months of hosting in the tour price. Contact Mario before the included period ends if you need the tour to stay live longer. A tour is live only while its space is active on a paid Matterport account. When the account owner archives it or stops paying, the link stops working, including the one sitting in your HAR listing.

With PRO360, 3 months of Matterport hosting are included. If you need longer hosting, contact Mario before that period ends. A listing that sits for 90 days, or gets relisted, needs the tour working the whole time.

Zillow placement: what you actually get

Zillow says listings with a 3D Home tour get prioritized placement on Zillow and Trulia, plus special search tags, filters and buyer emails, and that listings with an interactive floor plan are prioritized in search results. Zillow’s own data from November 2021 to January 2022 found listings with a 3D Home tour got 43% more views and 55% more saves. Those are Zillow’s numbers about Zillow’s product and they’re a few years old, so treat them as direction, not a promise.

Two points that trip people up:

• Zillow Showcase is separate. It’s a paid Zillow listing program bought through a brokerage. A 3D Home tour on its own doesn’t turn a listing into a Showcase listing.
• The tour has to be published to the right address. A Zillow 3D tour displays on the listing once it’s published to that property. Check the live listing the day you get the link.

Which one should you order?

• Most Houston listings: Zillow 3D Home. It shows where buyers search, works in the HAR tour field, and costs less.
• Luxury, large or unusual floor plans: add Matterport. The dollhouse view explains layout and flow better than anything else, and it plays well on HAR.com, your website and in emails to out-of-town buyers.
• Relocation buyers: both. Remote buyers lean hardest on tours, and you want one on every site they use.
• Skip Matterport alone if Zillow exposure is the main reason you’re buying a tour.

How PRO360 Photos delivers 3D tours

• Built in the platforms’ own software. You get the same links and options Matterport and Zillow provide.
• Matterport includes 3 months of hosting, the unbranded MLS link for HAR and a branded link for your marketing.
• Zillow 3D includes an interactive floor plan that connects the layout to the room panoramas, displays on your Zillow listing and comes with a separate share link you can use anywhere.
• Delivered in 2 to 5 days, with every order including a written license to market the property on the MLS, listing sites, your website, social media and print.

Explore our 3D tour services and live examples, compare packages, read the HAR listing media rules, or book a shoot.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• HousingWire: Zillow and CoStar continue to spar over Matterport 3D tours (May 27, 2026)

• HAR MLS Rules and Regulations, dated June 8, 2026 (Rules 1.25.2, 1.25.3, 11)
• Real Estate News: Zillow pulls Matterport tours from listings, blames CoStar (October 20, 2025)
• HousingWire: Zillow removes Matterport tours amid CoStar API dispute
• Zillow 3D Home FAQ (cost, hosting, unbranded MLS link, where tours display)
• Zillow: 3D Home best practices (placement claims, views and saves data)
• Realcomp: Matterport Tours, Important Update (February 2026)