Property Hive is a good fit for most UK estate and letting agents who want their own branded WordPress website, connected to the CRM they already use and to the property portals. It is less suited to agencies that want a website they never have to think about again, or that depend on a feed Property Hive doesn’t support yet.
Below we cover what Property Hive does, what it costs, where it falls short, and how we used it to bring three letting websites into one for West One Lettings.
What is Property Hive?
Property Hive is a WordPress plugin built for estate and letting agents. A plugin is an add-on that gives a WordPress website extra features. In this case, it lets your site store, search and display property listings and capture enquiries from them. It’s one of the tools we use when building websites for property businesses.
The easiest way to understand it is by where it sits:
- Your CRM, where your team manages properties day to day.
- Property Hive, which brings those properties onto your website.
- Your website, where buyers and tenants search and get in touch.
- The portals, such as Rightmove and Zoopla, which Property Hive can send your listings to.
Do you have to use Property Hive as your CRM?
No. Property Hive includes CRM features of its own for managing contacts, viewings, sales and tenancies, but you don’t have to use them. If your team already works in another estate agency CRM, Property Hive can import your properties from it, so each listing is entered once and appears everywhere it needs to. Changing your website doesn’t mean changing the software your team relies on.
What Property Hive can do for your website
The useful question isn’t how many features Property Hive has. It’s what each one saves you or wins you.
- Import listings from your CRM. At the time of writing, Property Hive’s importer supports more than 50 estate agency CRMs and feed formats. New, updated and withdrawn properties sync automatically, so nobody re-keys listings and old ones don’t linger online.
- Send listings to the portals. Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket and others can be fed from the same data that powers your website.
- Make search easier. Map view, draw-a-search (where visitors draw the area they want on a map) and searching within a set distance of a location.
- Keep buyers and tenants coming back. Shortlists, saved searches and property alerts.
- Shorten the step from browsing to viewing. Viewing requests from the property page, and enquiries that can be passed back into your CRM.
- Show what the area is like. Nearby schools, amenities, transport and sold prices through a Locrating integration, which needs its own subscription.
Property Hive’s list of integrations and partners shows the CRMs, portals and services it currently works with.
You won’t need all of this. A property website still succeeds or fails on the basics of a good website: clear search, good property pages, fast loading on a phone and an obvious way to get in touch. If your current site gets visits but not enough enquiries, those basics are usually the place to start, as we explain in why your website gets traffic but no enquiries.
How much does Property Hive cost?
The core Property Hive plugin is free. It covers property search, search results, property details pages, enquiry forms and calculators. Automated CRM imports, portal feeds and most of the features above sit in paid annual plans. Prices and plan contents change, so check Property Hive’s pricing page for what’s current.
In our experience, if you need portal feeds or features like map search and shortlists, the plan with all features included is usually the right choice. It avoids having to upgrade partway through a project.
The licence is only one part of the cost. Design, build, hosting and ongoing care make up the rest, and vary with what your agency needs. Our pricing calculator gives you an instant estimate for a new website.
Off-the-shelf theme or custom-built website?
Property Hive works with almost any WordPress theme, from ready-made property themes to page builders such as Elementor and Divi. It can also sit underneath a fully custom design, with its property templates rebuilt to match your brand.
An off-the-shelf theme makes sense if you have one office, one type of customer and a tight budget or timescale. A custom build makes sense if you serve more than one audience, have a strong brand to protect, or need property details and search journeys that a template can’t handle without compromise.
We build custom Property Hive websites. Property Hive is designed to be extended by developers through hooks, which are built-in points where a developer can add or change how the plugin behaves without editing the plugin itself. Where a build needs them, we use these to add the property details agents actually need, such as whether bills are included or how long a contract runs, and to carry that information through to Rightmove. You can see how we approach this on our website design page, and in our website case studies.
Where Property Hive has limits
Property Hive is a strong foundation, but it’s worth going in with clear expectations.
Not every feed is supported out of the box. When we built West One Lettings’ website, Property Hive didn’t offer a ready-made UniHomes feed. We said so early, looked at alternatives and built a practical workaround. That said, Property Hive’s team is communicative and adds integrations regularly, such as its recent guide to importing properties from Street CRM. If something you need is missing, it’s worth a conversation with them, or with us, before ruling it out.
Custom work needs a developer. The free plugin and a ready-made theme can get a simple site live. Tailored search, extra property fields or a design that’s genuinely yours all need development time.
It needs looking after. Like any WordPress plugin, Property Hive receives regular updates, paid licences renew each year, and imports and portal feeds are worth keeping an eye on so a failed sync doesn’t leave out-of-date listings online. We take care of this for clients through our monthly website support and maintenance plans.
How we used Property Hive for West One Lettings
West One Lettings had three separate websites: one for student accommodation, one for residential lettings and one for commercial property. Every listing change had to be entered by hand into their CRM, their website and Rightmove.
We built a single custom website on Property Hive, connected to their I Am Property CRM. Listings now flow from the CRM onto the website and on to Rightmove without anyone re-entering them. The homepage asks visitors whether they’re a student, a professional or a commercial tenant, then takes them into the right search: students see prices per person per week, professionals see monthly rent, and commercial properties filter by size and type.
The results:
- Three systems consolidated into one platform
- More than 180 enquiries handled since launch
- Only one post-launch fix needed in the first three months
Read the full West One Lettings case study.
Is Property Hive right for your estate agency?
Property Hive is likely to be a good fit if:
- You want a website that’s yours, built on WordPress, rather than a template supplied by your CRM provider.
- Your CRM is supported, or you’re open to a workaround if it isn’t.
- You want listings entered once and shown on your website and the portals automatically.
- You have someone, in-house or an agency, to keep the site and its feeds maintained.
Think twice if:
- You want a website you never need to touch again. Every Property Hive site needs updates and licence renewals.
- Your business depends on a feed Property Hive doesn’t support, and you can’t wait for it or work around it. Speak to Property Hive first, though.
- Your CRM provider already gives you a website you’re happy with. Switching may add cost for little gain.
If most of the first list sounds like your agency, Property Hive is a solid base for a website that works as hard as your team does.
Get a Property Hive website built with Arise
If you’re looking for a new estate agent website, take a look at our website design service or get an instant estimate from our pricing calculator. Already have a Property Hive site that needs looking after? Our support and maintenance plans cover updates, monitoring and ongoing improvements, and our SEO team can help more of your property pages get found. Or get in touch to talk it through.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, the core Property Hive plugin is free to download from WordPress.org and covers property search, property details pages, enquiry forms and calculators. Automated CRM imports, portal feeds and features such as map search and shortlists need a paid plan, so check Property Hive’s pricing page for current prices.
In most cases, yes. At the time of writing, Property Hive can import properties from more than 50 estate agency CRMs and feed formats, so you can keep your CRM and have listings appear on your website automatically. If yours isn’t supported, it’s worth asking Property Hive, as they add new integrations regularly.
Yes. Property Hive’s full feature plan includes feeds to UK portals including Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket, using the same property data that powers your website. That means each listing only needs entering once.
Not to get started, as the free plugin and a ready-made theme can get a simple property website live. For a custom design, extra property fields, more than one department or portal feeds that are set up and monitored properly, a developer is worth it. We build custom Property Hive websites and usually recommend the plan with all features included.
