Rightmove vs Zoopla vs OnTheMarket: Which Property Portal Is Best?

Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket are the three best-known national property portals in Britain. Each gives buyers and tenants access to thousands of homes, but their audiences, features and property selections are not identical.

So, which one is best?

The honest answer is that it depends on what you are looking for. Rightmove has the largest overall audience, Zoopla combines property search with extensive homeowner and valuation tools, and OnTheMarket offers a growing selection that includes properties advertised there before—or instead of—its competitors.

For sellers and landlords, however, there is a more important point: a portal can provide visibility, but it cannot make an overpriced or poorly presented property attractive.

This guide compares the three main portals and explains why Emoov believes effective property marketing should not depend on one commercial website.

What do property portals actually do?

Property portals bring together listings supplied by estate agents, letting agents and new-homes developers. They allow applicants to search by location, price, number of bedrooms, property type and other criteria.

They are advertising platforms rather than estate agents. The portal displays the information it receives, but the agent and property owner remain responsible for matters such as:

• Setting the asking price or rent
• Choosing and ordering the photographs
• Providing an accurate description and material information
• Arranging viewings
• Responding to enquiries
• Qualifying buyers or tenants
• Negotiating offers
• Progressing the sale or tenancy

This distinction matters. A well-known portal can introduce an applicant to a property, but it cannot compensate for weak marketing or manage the transaction by itself.

Rightmove: the largest overall audience

Rightmove remains the biggest and most recognised UK property portal. Its scale and strong consumer awareness mean many people begin their property search there.

In its results for the first half of 2026, Rightmove reported that it accounted for a substantial majority of the time consumers spent on the leading portals. It also reported carrying around seven in ten vendor instructions.

These are impressive figures, and it would be misleading to suggest that Rightmove has no value.

However, seven in ten instructions is not the whole market. Some properties are advertised through agents that do not use Rightmove, some are released elsewhere first and others are sold through databases, local advertising or off-market campaigns.

Rightmove’s principal strengths

• The largest overall portal audience
• Very strong brand recognition
• Extensive national sales and rental stock
• Familiar search tools and property alerts
• Widely used asking-price and market information

What sellers should remember

High national traffic does not guarantee relevant interest in an individual property.

A home still has to appear within an applicant’s location, price and property-type searches—and then persuade that person to click, enquire and arrange a viewing.

Zoopla: an established property and homeowner platform

Zoopla is one of the UK’s leading property websites. Alongside sales and rental listings, it provides estimated values, sold-price information, property histories, affordability tools and local market data.

In May 2026, Zoopla reported that more than six million homeowners were using its service to track the value of their homes. That audience is particularly relevant because it includes people researching their present property and considering what they may buy, sell or let next.

Zoopla has also continued investing in its consumer experience and tools intended to connect motivated movers with agents and housebuilders.

Zoopla’s principal strengths

• A large, established national audience
• Strong property-value and market-research tools
• Millions of registered homeowners tracking their homes
• Sales, lettings and new-homes coverage
• Search alerts, maps and affordability information

What sellers should remember

Zoopla should not be treated as a minor substitute for another portal. It is a substantial property platform with an audience that extends beyond people conducting an immediate property search.

OnTheMarket: growing stock and early-release properties

OnTheMarket is a major UK portal backed by CoStar Group, an international property data and online marketplace business.

In July 2026, OnTheMarket reported that it had carried more available UK residential listings than Zoopla during the period measured from March to August 2026.

That comparison was published by OnTheMarket using third-party and internal data, but it demonstrates the scale the platform has achieved.

OnTheMarket also differentiates itself through its “Only With Us” listings. Participating agents can advertise properties there for at least 24 hours before releasing them to Rightmove or Zoopla.

Some agents choose to keep certain properties exclusive to OnTheMarket for longer or permanently. This means a buyer who searches only Rightmove can miss properties available on OnTheMarket.

OnTheMarket’s principal strengths

• Significant and growing UK residential stock
• Properties released before other portals
• Some genuinely exclusive listings
• Map-based searches and instant alerts
• Local market, sold-price and property-tracking tools

What sellers should remember

OnTheMarket is no longer a fringe entrant. It is a credible national portal receiving considerable investment and competing directly for both property stock and consumer attention.

Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket compared

The comparison shows why there is no universal winner. The portals overlap considerably, but none contains every home being sold or let in Britain.

Does more portal traffic automatically mean a faster sale?

No. A larger audience creates the potential for more exposure, but exposure is only the beginning of the process.

National traffic statistics include people searching in different parts of the country, at different prices and for different types of home. They also include homeowners checking values, casual browsers and people who are not ready to move.

For an individual seller, the important figures are:

1. How many relevant applicants see the listing?
2. How many open the full property details?
3. How many make a genuine enquiry?
4. How many arrange and attend a viewing?
5. How many are in a position to proceed?
6. Does the marketing ultimately produce a credible offer?

One proceedable buyer who wants the property is worth more than hundreds of casual views.

What matters more than the portal logo?

The asking price

Applicants normally search within defined price bands. If a home is priced above the range used by its most likely buyers, those buyers may never see it—regardless of the portal.

An unrealistic price can also cause a property to lose the valuable momentum that normally comes with a new listing.

The main photograph

The first photograph must compete with every comparable property in the search results. If it is dark, cluttered or poorly composed, applicants may scroll past without opening the advert.

The complete presentation

Strong supporting photographs, a useful floorplan, accurate key features and a clear description help applicants decide whether a home meets their needs.

The response to enquiries

Portal exposure has little value if enquiries are answered slowly or viewing requests are difficult to arrange. Effective marketing continues after an advert is published.

Feedback and adjustment

Agents and sellers need to monitor the quality of enquiries, viewing feedback and competing listings. If the response is weak, the price or presentation may need to change.

Why Emoov’s marketplace position has changed

Emoov was created to give property owners a more affordable and transparent alternative to traditional percentage-based estate agency.

Rightmove’s advertising costs have continued to rise. Including that cost within every package would ultimately mean passing it on to sellers and landlords, whether or not it delivered proportionate value for their particular property.

Emoov has therefore made the commercial decision to focus its standard portal marketing on Zoopla, OnTheMarket and Emoov.

This is not a claim that Rightmove has no value. It is a decision that Emoov’s affordable service should not be dictated by the pricing of one dominant advertising platform.

We believe our customers’ money is better focused on a rounded property campaign that combines:

• Credible national portal exposure
• Competitive, evidence-based pricing
• High-quality property presentation
• Clear and accurate information
• Direct delivery of enquiries
• Responsive human support
• Effective management of viewings, offers and progression

Our position is not that the portal is irrelevant. It is that the portal is only one part of the service.

Should buyers search all three portals?

Buyers and tenants who want the widest possible choice should use more than one portal. The property selections are not identical, and new listings do not necessarily appear on every platform at the same time.

Setting alerts on Zoopla and OnTheMarket, searching agent websites and registering directly with relevant agents can reveal homes that would be missed through a Rightmove-only search.

Serious applicants generally care more about finding the right property than remaining loyal to a particular website.

Which portal is best for sellers and landlords?

Rightmove is best known for overall audience scale. Zoopla is particularly strong for homeowner engagement and property research. OnTheMarket provides significant national stock together with early-release and exclusive opportunities.

But choosing an estate agent purely because of one portal badge overlooks the factors that determine whether exposure becomes a result.

Before instructing an agent, ask:

• Where will the property be advertised?
• How will the asking price or rent be established?
• Who will check the listing before it goes live?
• What standard of photography and floorplan will be provided?
• How quickly will enquiries be handled?
• How will applicants be qualified?
• What feedback will be provided?
• What support is available once an offer is accepted?
• What is included in the fee?

The final verdict

Rightmove is the largest UK property portal, but it is not the entire property market. Zoopla and OnTheMarket are both substantial, credible alternatives, and some properties appear on them before—or instead of—Rightmove.

There is therefore no single portal that every buyer, tenant, seller or landlord must use.

For property owners, the strongest campaign is one that reaches a credible audience and gives that audience a compelling reason to act. That means getting the price, presentation, promotion and response right.

At Emoov, we believe affordable property marketing should be judged by its quality, transparency and results—not simply by the presence of one portal logo.

Thinking of selling or letting? Explore Emoov’s current packages and discover how we combine national advertising through Zoopla, OnTheMarket and Emoov with the technology and human support needed to manage your move.