ShowingTime is the default in most markets because the MLS hands it to you. Showing Bell is the opposite arrangement: you buy it, you configure it, and your showing data stays between you and your seller.
ShowingTime has been the category standard for years and it is genuinely good at what it was built for: coordinating a high volume of lockbox showings on MLS-listed residential homes, with a call center behind it. Zillow Group acquired it in 2021, and it reaches most agents through an MLS or association subscription rather than a direct purchase.
That distribution model is the thing worth thinking about. It shapes who the product answers to, what happens to the data, and what occurs when the listing is not a standard MLS house.
| ShowingTime | Showing Bell | |
|---|---|---|
| How you get it | Usually through your MLS or association | You buy it directly, from $9.99 a month |
| Who sets the rules | MLS and platform defaults | You, per listing |
| Seller approval | Typically app or portal login | Approve or decline from a text message |
| Buyer agent account | Generally expected | None. They open a link |
| MLS integration required | Central to the product | None |
| Land and vacant parcels | Built around lockbox residential | Same as any other listing |
| Short-term rental calendars | Not a supported case | Airbnb and VRBO iCal sync |
| Unrepresented buyer capture | Not the purpose | Books direct, with contact details |
| Who owns the showing data | Platform owned by Zillow Group | You and your seller |
| Appointment call center | Yes | No |
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.
When your MLS provides the showing platform, the configuration belongs to the MLS. Rules, defaults, and what integrates with what are set above you. When the platform is owned by a portal that also runs a consumer-facing marketplace, your showing activity becomes part of a data set that serves the portal’s business as well as yours.
Showing Bell has no marketplace, no lead resale, and no consumer portal. There is nothing else in the business model for your data to feed. The showing record exists so you and your seller can see it.
Most showing platforms ask the seller to install an app or sign into a portal to approve a showing. In practice a meaningful share of sellers never complete that step, and the agent ends up approving on their behalf. You are back in the middle, which is the exact job you were trying to hand off.
Showing Bell sends the seller a text and an email with an approve button and a decline button. There is no account, no password, and nothing to install. That single decision drives most of the difference in how the two products feel day to day.
Lockbox-and-MLS systems assume a residential property with a front door and a supra box on it. Land, commercial, new construction before the MLS entry, pocket listings, and anything with a locked gate tend to fall outside that assumption.
Showing Bell has no MLS dependency and no lockbox requirement. A parcel of bare ground gets a scheduling link on the same terms as a three-bedroom. The access instructions are a free-text field released only after approval, which covers a gate code as easily as a lockbox code.
If a listing is still renting nightly on Airbnb or VRBO, its availability changes without anyone telling the showing platform. Showing Bell reads the property’s iCal feed directly, blocks booked nights, and opens the checkout evening once the cleaning window has passed. As far as we know that is not something the mainstream showing platforms do at all.
Being straight about this matters more than winning the comparison. ShowingTime has a staffed appointment center that will answer the phone for you, deep MLS integrations that pull listing data automatically, and an install base so large that most buyer agents in your market already know the workflow. If those three things are what you are buying, it is the better fit and you should keep it.
Showing Bell has no call center. Listing details are entered by you. And the buyer agent on the other end is meeting the link for the first time, though nothing is required of them beyond filling out a form.
Yes, and a lot of agents start that way. Because Showing Bell does not touch your MLS, running it on one or two listings changes nothing about how the rest of your business works. Most people try it on a listing that fits badly in their MLS system, usually land or a vacation rental, then expand from there.
The link asks them for what they would have told you on the phone: name, brokerage, contact details, and the time they want. Nothing to install and no account to make. The friction is lower than a phone call, which is why it tends to go over fine once they use it once.
Neither. It is an independent product built by working listing agents in Idaho. There is no marketplace attached to it and no lead resale business behind it.
Showing Bell is $9.99 a month for one active listing, $39 for ten, and $89 for thirty, with every feature on every plan and a 30-day free trial. ShowingTime pricing generally arrives bundled into an MLS or association fee, so a direct comparison depends on what your MLS charges you.
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.