BrokerBay is bought at the brokerage or board level and rolled out to everyone underneath. Showing Bell is bought by one agent for one listing, and it works the same whether your brokerage has heard of it or not.
BrokerBay is a capable showing and office-management platform, and in markets where the board or the brokerage has deployed it, agents generally like it. It is sold to organizations: the brokerage or the MLS signs, IT configures, and the individual agent inherits whatever was decided.
That is the right model if you are a brokerage. It is an awkward model if you are one listing agent who wants showing requests to stop coming through your phone this month.
| BrokerBay | Showing Bell | |
|---|---|---|
| Who buys it | Brokerage, board, or MLS | One agent, directly |
| Time to first showing link | A rollout | A few minutes |
| Seller approval | Agent-centric workflow | Seller approves from a text |
| Automatic seller chasing | Varies by configuration | Built in at 4 and 8 hours |
| MLS integration required | Central to the product | None |
| Brokerage-wide reporting | Yes | No |
| Land, commercial, pre-MLS | Secondary cases | Same as any listing |
| Short-term rental calendars | Not a supported case | Airbnb and VRBO iCal sync |
| Entry price | Organizational contract | $9.99 a month |
Comparisons reflect each product’s publicly described model as of August 2026. Products change. Check the vendor directly before deciding, and treat any competitor page, including this one, as an interested party.
Getting a brokerage-level platform in place means a decision that is not yours, a rollout timeline, and training for people who did not ask for it. If your brokerage already runs BrokerBay, that work is done and you should use it.
Showing Bell is a card and an email address. You create a listing, you get a link, and you are running showings through it the same afternoon. Nobody else at your office needs to know or agree.
Brokerage platforms tend to be built around the agent and the office. The seller is a notification recipient rather than the person making the call.
Showing Bell inverts that. The seller is the approver by default, they do it from a text message, and the reminder ladder chases them at four hours and eight rather than leaving the request to rot. Your role is to be told what happened.
Land, commercial, and pre-MLS new construction sit outside the assumptions of most MLS-integrated systems. Showing Bell has no MLS dependency, so what the property is does not change how it gets scheduled. Access instructions are free text, which covers a gate, a keypad, a job-site trailer, or a lockbox equally well.
BrokerBay is a broader product. It handles office operations, brokerage-wide reporting, roster management, and MLS-integrated listing data that populates itself. If you need visibility across dozens of agents, or your board already pays for it, Showing Bell is not a replacement for that and is not trying to be.
Showing Bell does showings for the listings you personally carry. That is the whole scope.
Usually only for the listings that fit it badly. Agents in that situation tend to use Showing Bell for land, vacation rentals with live booking calendars, and pre-MLS new construction, and leave everything else where it is. If all your listings are standard MLS residential, stay where you are.
That is between you and your brokerage, but nothing about Showing Bell touches brokerage systems, the MLS, or your office roster. It is a scheduling link for listings you already have.
Yes. The $39 plan covers ten active listings and the $89 plan covers thirty, and approval can route to a team notification list instead of the seller when that fits the listing better.
Thirty days free, no contract, and nothing to uninstall if it is not for you.
Solo plans start at $9.99 a month. No contracts. Cancel anytime.