IDX lets your website show listings that are not yours, under the MLS's rules: objective filters only, refreshed at least every three days, withheld listings and addresses kept off, each listing's source shown, confidential fields never displayed. A plugin or a platform delivers the feed; the rules decide what you may do with it.
This guide is part of our real estate marketing cluster. What the site costs is in real estate website cost; what it should contain is in real estate website design; how buyers find it is in real estate SEO.
What IDX is
IDX, Internet Data Exchange, is the arrangement under which participants in a Multiple Listing Service authorize one another to display their listings on the internet. NAR's IDX policy (Handbook on Multiple Listing Policy; the PDF we read is dated 28 August 2014 with sections amended May 2012) frames it as a participant's right, under the MLS's rules, to download and display other participants' listings, from which no listing may be excluded except those for which a participant has withheld consent or the seller has prohibited internet display. The MLS provides the data; the participant's website displays it; a plugin or platform does the technical work in between.
What the MLS feed contains
The feed is the MLS's listing data in the fields the MLS allows for public display: price, address (unless withheld), photographs, description, size, rooms, status and the listing broker. It does not include the confidential fields meant for cooperating brokers; NAR's policy notes that MLSs may prohibit display of fields such as showing instructions and may prohibit display of expired, withdrawn, pending or sold listings. Your MLS's own IDX rules, which sit under the national policy, say exactly which fields and statuses your site may show and what disclaimers it must carry.
The NAR rules an IDX website must follow
Six rules from the NAR policy and the REALTOR Code that decide what your site may do with the feed:
- No cherry-picking except by objective criteria. Participants may select the IDX listings they display based only on objective criteria such as property type or location, never on the listing firm or its level of service, and the selection must be made independently by each participant.
- Refresh at least every three days. Participants must refresh all MLS downloads and the displays fed by them not less frequently than every three days; most feeds now update far more often, and buyers expect it.
- Withheld listings and addresses stay off. Listings for which consent is withheld or the seller has prohibited internet display are excluded, and addresses of sellers who have directed their brokers to withhold them shall not be accessible via IDX.
- Show the source. The policy's recommended MLS rules include requiring participants to display the source from which each listing was obtained and to identify the source of other data clearly.
- No confidential fields. Compensation offered to other participants, showing instructions and similar fields are for cooperating brokers, not consumers.
- Your own obligations still apply. The REALTOR Code's Standard of Practice 12-5 requires the firm name in advertising, and SoP 12-10 extends the true-picture duty to internet content, images, URLs and domain names. An IDX page is advertising.
Canada: CREA's DDF
In Canada the equivalent is CREA's REALTOR.ca Data Distribution Facility (DDF Policy and Rules, January 2024), described as a permission-based data distribution facility that distributes participating members' listing content to several channels: the National Shared Pool, through which participants contribute their listings and receive a feed of all other participants' listings for their own sites; the Member Website Feed, which supplies a participant's own or their brokerage's listings; a National Franchisor Pool and Franchisor Direct Feed; Real Estate Advertising Websites; and Partner Websites. Brokerages choose whether to participate and set permissions for their salespeople, who participate with the brokerage's permission; the listing content consists only of the fields the boards provide for display on REALTOR.ca or a subset CREA sets. A Canadian agent's "IDX site" is a DDF site, and the plugin or platform must support the DDF feed and its display rules.
Plugin or platform
An IDX plugin sits on a site you own, usually WordPress, and pulls the feed into listing pages on your domain. A platform bundles the site, the feed, a CRM and lead tools for a monthly fee, on the vendor's system. The plugin suits an agent or brokerage that wants to own the asset and rank in search; the platform suits a team that wants everything connected in days. Our guide to real estate website cost guide sets the two side by side with prices; the table below gives what to check in either.
What to check in an IDX plugin or platform
Seven checks, in the order to make them:
- Your MLS or board is supported, with the feed type it uses, and the vendor handles the MLS's approval and disclaimers.
- Indexable listing pages on your own domain, with a sitemap, so listing pages can appear in search rather than living in an iframe search engines cannot read. One vendor's published plans list indexable listing URLs and XML sitemaps as features, which is the point to check.
- Refresh frequency well inside the three-day rule, with status changes (pending, sold) reflected as your MLS allows.
- Rule handling built in: withheld listings and addresses excluded, source attribution and disclaimers displayed, confidential fields never shown.
- Lead capture with consent: forced registration is a choice, not a default, and every captured contact records its consent for later email or text follow-up under CAN-SPAM, the TCPA rules and CASL.
- Speed on phones: listing pages are image-heavy; test a listing page on a phone before you sign.
- Portability: what you keep if you leave, including your domain, your content and your leads.
What IDX costs, as published
Two vendors publish prices plainly, read on 8 November 2026 and named as examples, not a ranking. Showcase IDX, a WordPress plugin, lists Essentials at $94.95 a month with two seats and feeds for more than 600 MLSs, and Premium at $124.95 a month with five seats, indexable XML sitemaps and pagination for search engines. Real Geeks, a platform, lists $399 a month plus a $500 setup fee with IDX feeds at $10 per MLS board per month. Several other vendors' pricing pages did not load when we checked, so they are not quoted. Your MLS may charge its own data access fee, and a site on several boards pays per board.
How to choose
Seven steps:
- Decide ownership first: a plugin on your WordPress site, or a platform. The rest follows.
- List your boards and confirm each is supported and approved.
- Insist on indexable pages if search matters to you; it is the difference between a listings tool and a marketing asset.
- Read your MLS's IDX rules and ask the vendor how each is enforced in the product.
- Decide the registration rule for your market, and set consent capture for every lead.
- Test a listing page on a phone and time it.
- Get the exit terms in writing before the first payment.
Common IDX mistakes
The faults we see most on IDX sites:
- Listings in an iframe. The pages cannot rank, so the site is a brochure with a search box.
- Filtering by firm. Showing only your brokerage's listings through IDX breaks the objective-criteria rule; use your own feed for that.
- Stale statuses. A sold home still showing as active is both a rule breach and a wasted inquiry.
- Missing attribution and disclaimers. The MLS's required source lines and disclaimers are not optional decoration.
- Forced registration with no consent record. Leads you cannot lawfully follow up are not leads.
- No brokerage name. SoP 12-5 applies to IDX pages as to any advertising.
Conclusion
An IDX website for realtors is a site that displays other brokers' listings under the MLS participants' permission: NAR's IDX policy in the USA, CREA's DDF in Canada. The rules decide what the site may do with the feed (objective filters, three-day refresh, withheld listings off, source shown, confidential fields hidden) and the REALTOR Code decides how it advertises (firm name, true picture). Choose a plugin or platform for indexable pages, your boards, rule handling, consent-based lead capture, speed and portability, and read your own MLS's rules before you sign.
PromotEdge International is an international strategy, technology, marketing and design company, and our delivery team is in India. Our WordPress and web design teams build real estate sites with IDX configured to your MLS's rules, and our real estate marketing team brings the buyers and sellers to them. This guide is general information, not legal advice; your MLS's rules and the rules of your state or province decide what applies to you.
Facts we rely on: see our company facts for what we state about ourselves and where each fact comes from.