Alto is one of the most widely used estate agent CRMs in the UK. But market reach does not mean it is the right fit for every agency. Pricing increases, long contracts, the Zoopla ownership question, and feature gaps in areas like AI and compliance are pushing agents to evaluate alternatives. This guide compares every serious choice. Reapit, Dezrez, Street.co.uk, agentOS, Rex, 10ninety and Apex27. It also covers a build of your own, for an agency whose way of working fits no ready-made platform. If it is the big three you are weighing, see our Alto vs Reapit vs Street three-way.
Alto works well for many agencies. It offers per-branch flat pricing at £149 per month, full data migration included as standard, and six AI tools under the Alto Intelligence umbrella. It won the Kerfuffle No. 1 CRM Supplier award in 2024. For agencies that want an all-in-one platform with strong Zoopla integration, Alto is a reasonable choice.
But agents leave or consider leaving for four main reasons.
Alto typically operates on 24-month contracts. Users report price increases mid-contract, with some seeing rises of nearly £200 during a single term despite being told prices would remain fixed. Training costs are charged separately. One user says they asked to end the contract in December 2025. Alto did not answer, and then extended the contract to June 2027 without their agreement. These experiences, while not universal, are common enough to appear repeatedly in reviews.
Alto is owned by Houseful Limited (formerly ZPG), which is in turn owned by Silver Lake Partners. Houseful also owns Zoopla (the portal), Jupix (another CRM), Expert Agent (another CRM), Yourkeys (transaction management), and Hometrack (automated valuations). One company runs the portal where agents pay to list properties. The same company runs the CRM where agents manage the whole business. That includes leads, pipeline, pricing, stock levels and performance data.
This is not a hypothetical concern. It is a structural conflict of interest that industry observers have flagged repeatedly. Agents who use Alto are running their business on software owned by the same company they pay portal fees to. Whether that matters to you depends on your view of who should hold your data, and of who competes with you. Understand it before you sign a 24-month contract.
Alto has invested in AI through its Alto Intelligence suite (AI Listings, AI Analyst, Lettings Compliance Agent, AI Prospecting, AI Lead Flow, AI Verification). These are genuine features, not marketing fluff. However, Alto lacks AI photo editing (Street offers this) and out-of-hours AI call handling (Street offers this too). Users also say the platform does not bend enough for an unusual way of working. They say simple jobs, such as setting up a tenancy, need several tabs.
Alto support reviews are mixed. The platform won industry awards, but individual users report slow response times, a messy ticket system, and training limited to videos. Reports of support team redundancies after company restructuring have not helped confidence. Street, by contrast, claims a 30-second average support response time.
Our CRM comparison covers Reapit, Dezrez, Street and others. It looks at every main estate agent CRM, and not only at the choices next to Alto.
Best for: Multi-branch agencies, corporate groups, 5+ staff needing deep automation and reporting.
Reapit is the enterprise-tier platform for UK estate agency. Pricing is custom and per-user, with three tiers: Agency Edition (up to 5 users), Agency Edition Premium (5-20 users), and Enterprise (20+ users). No published pricing. The platform covers sales, lettings, and property management across multi-branch operations.
The Reapit Foundations app ecosystem is the key differentiator. It allows custom integrations with specialist tools for AML checking, conveyancing, e-signatures, and more. This open architecture means agencies can build workflows that match their exact processes rather than adapting to the CRM's assumptions.
The trade-offs are real. Per-user pricing makes Reapit expensive at scale. Key features like client accounting, the data warehouse, and Reapit Bookings are chargeable add-ons on lower tiers. Onboarding takes 4-6 weeks for Agency/Premium tiers and 10-12 weeks for Enterprise. Support is frequently criticised in reviews, and some users describe it as the "least intuitive" platform they have used.
Portal feeds: Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket.
Ownership: Independent (Accel-backed).
Best for: Agencies with significant lettings portfolios, or those willing to use Dezrez's conveyancing panel to offset CRM costs.
Dezrez operates an unusual model: reduced or free CRM access for agencies that direct conveyancing referrals through their panel. For agents willing to work within that arrangement, it substantially lowers the total cost of ownership. Standalone CRM pricing is not published but is estimated at £400-£1,500 per month depending on tier.
Three tiers are available: Pro Lite (3-user starter), Premium (the most popular, including Zapier integration and built-in conferencing), and Enterprise. The platform is cloud-based with an open API and customisable dashboards. A 50% setup fee discount has been available through Kerfuffle.
Dezrez is strong in lettings workflows, but pricing opacity is a weakness. Support response times have drawn criticism, and some users report data issues when migrating between Dezrez products.
Portal feeds: Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket.
Ownership: Independent.
Best for: Modern, tech-forward agencies that want AI across every workflow, from listing creation to out-of-hours lead capture.
Street is the most AI-integrated estate agent CRM in the UK market as of 2026. The AI features are substantive:
Pricing is reported at £149 per month with no setup fees and unlimited users. A new agency gets 50% off in its first 12 months. An agency with more than 2,500 properties gets up to 50% off for volume.
Street won the Kerfuffle Overall EA Supplier award in both 2025 and 2026, and Best CRM at the ESTAS 2025. The claimed 30-second average support response time is a notable differentiator.
The weaknesses: Street does not offer full data migration (Alto does include this as standard). The platform lacks the depth required for complex multi-branch operations, and it is a relatively newer entrant compared to Reapit or Dezrez.
Portal feeds: Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket.
Ownership: Independent.
For more on how portal feeds work and what they cost, see our guide on Rightmove and Zoopla integration for estate agent software.
Best for: Lettings-focused agencies that need strong property management and an open API for PropTech integrations.
Formerly known as LetMC, agentOS is purpose-built for lettings and property management. The Virtual/Startup tier starts at £130 per month for one user and one branch. The Professional tier is required for multi-branch operations. Add-ons like agentWatch (automated prospecting) cost £40 per month per postcode area.
The open API is the standout feature, allowing connections to a wide range of PropTech tools. Records are customisable, and the platform handles the full lettings lifecycle from tenant onboarding to maintenance coordination.
The downside: agentOS is less suited for sales-focused agencies. If your business is primarily residential sales with light lettings, this is probably not the right platform.
Portal feeds: Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket.
Ownership: Independent (StarBerry group).
Best for: Agencies wanting a modern, international platform with strong mobile capabilities and a fresh interface.
Rex originated in Australia and has expanded into the UK market. Custom pricing across three tiers (Starter, Professional, Enterprise). The platform covers sales, rentals, property management, marketing, and websites in a single system.
The mobile app is a strength, and Rex offers solid automation features for repetitive tasks. The modern interface is noticeably cleaner than some legacy UK platforms.
The risk: Rex's Australian origin means UK-specific compliance features (deposit protection, gas safety, Right to Rent) may lag behind UK-native platforms. Its UK market presence is still smaller than established competitors, which could affect the availability of UK-focused integrations and support knowledge.
Portal feeds: Rightmove, Zoopla, OnTheMarket (via portal integration setup).
Ownership: Independent (Australian).
Best for: Startups and small agencies with fewer than 100 active properties who want clear, published pricing with no lock-in.
10ninety is the only platform here that publishes its full price. It is £70 a month for up to 100 active properties. Each 100 properties after that cost £35 a month more. Setup costs £100. No charge per user. No minimum contract. E-signatures are available at £10 per month for 20 documents. The Client Hub add-on costs £30 per month.
Cloud-based, covering sales and lettings, with social media marketing tools included. 10ninety is the easiest platform to start with, and its costs are the clearest in the market. That suits a new agent, or one with a small number of properties.
The limitation: feature depth is not comparable to enterprise platforms. Complex multi-branch operations or advanced lettings workflows will outgrow this platform.
Portal feeds: Rightmove, Zoopla, PrimeLocation, OnTheMarket.
Ownership: Independent.
Best for: Boutique and independent agencies wanting the lowest per-user price with no long-term commitment.
Apex27 charges £35 per user per month (ex. VAT) on a 30-day rolling contract. No setup fees. A free 30-day trial requires no credit card. A free website and client portal are included. Integrations cover Acaboom, Credas, Signable, AplyiD, DocuSign, Agency Express, and ValPal.
For a two-person agency, that is £70 per month total with the ability to cancel at any time. The 30-day rolling contract is the shortest commitment in this comparison.
The trade-off: Apex27 has a smaller ecosystem than Alto or Reapit, and may lack depth for complex lettings or property management workflows.
Portal feeds: Major portals supported.
Ownership: Independent.
Jupix and Expert Agent are on many lists of choices next to Alto. There is a problem. The same parent company owns all three. All three are Houseful brands, which means switching from Alto to Jupix or Expert Agent does not address the Zoopla ownership concern.
Jupix is a solid platform for small agencies, but Zoopla has been actively encouraging Jupix users to migrate to Alto since 2022. This raises questions about Jupix's long-term priority within the group. One user who switched from Jupix to Alto described it as "the most tedious and useless system."
Expert Agent has 2,500+ branches and over 20 years in the market. It offers free unlimited live online training, which is a genuine advantage. But the same ownership dynamics apply.
If your reason for leaving Alto is the Zoopla ownership structure, neither Jupix nor Expert Agent solves that problem.
Connect with us about estate agent software · · Replies within 24 hours
| Platform | Published price | Pricing model | Contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alto | £149/month | Per-branch, flat fee | 24 months (reported) |
| Reapit | Quote only | Per-user, tiered | Custom |
| Dezrez | Quote only (est. £400-£1,500/month) | Tiered packages | Custom |
| Street | £149/month (reported) | Flat fee, unlimited users | Custom (startup discount available) |
| agentOS | From £130/month | Per-branch | Custom |
| Rex | Quote only | Agency size-based tiers | Custom |
| 10ninety | £70/month (up to 100 properties) | Per-property band | No minimum contract |
| Apex27 | £35/user/month | Per-user | 30-day rolling |
One of the first questions agents ask when considering a switch: will my portal feeds still work? The answer, for every platform in this comparison, is yes. All major UK estate agent CRM platforms support feeds to Rightmove, Zoopla, and OnTheMarket.
| Platform | Rightmove | Zoopla | OnTheMarket |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alto | Yes | Yes (native) | Yes |
| Reapit | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Dezrez | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Street | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| agentOS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Rex | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 10ninety | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Apex27 | Yes | Yes | Yes |
The nuance is in the switchover process. Portal feeds are tied to your software provider's data feed agreement, not to your agency directly. When you switch CRM, your new provider sets up a new feed and the old one is deactivated. During this transition (typically 1-5 business days), your listings remain live on the portals, but updates may be delayed. Plan the switchover for a quiet period if possible.
Our guide to Rightmove and Zoopla integration for estate agent software explains how the Rightmove RTDF and Zoopla feeds work.
Migration is the part that stops most agencies from switching, even when they want to. The concerns are legitimate, but manageable if you plan for them.
Alto allows data export, but the format and completeness vary. Contact records, property data, and transaction history should be exportable. However, document attachments, email threads, and activity logs may not transfer cleanly into every new platform. Before signing with any new provider, ask them specifically: "What data can you import from Alto, and what will we lose?"
Your new CRM provider will set up fresh portal feeds with Rightmove, Zoopla, and OnTheMarket. This is a standard process that every provider in this comparison handles regularly. The typical timeline is 1-5 business days. Your listings remain live during the transition, but you may experience a brief gap in update capability.
Budget for a 2-4 week transition period where productivity dips. Staff need to learn the new system while maintaining service levels. Most providers offer onboarding support. Street claims to get agencies live quickly; Reapit's enterprise onboarding takes 10-12 weeks. Factor the onboarding timeline into your switching decision.
Here is a real timeline, from the decision to full use of the new platform. Most agencies need 4 to 8 weeks. A large multi-branch agency on Reapit Enterprise needs longer. Start the process at least 3 months before your Alto contract renewal date to avoid being auto-renewed.
For agencies with complex sales workflows, our article on sales progression software covers how chain management tools differ across platforms.
Read the list again and one thing repeats. Every platform holds your data in its own form, and you get it back only as an export.
That is what makes the price rise safe for the vendor. The cost to leave is high, so the price can go up each year and most agents stay. It is also why a 24-month contract is normal.
We build the other way. Each agency owns its own system, its own data and the machine it runs on. Every one of those systems sits on one shared foundation, so each agency pays only for what is its own. Property, tenancy, applicant and offer mean the same thing across all of them, so a move is a move, and not a rebuild.
We explain how that changes the market in what does an interoperable software market look like. We set out the real cost in what does it cost to own and run your own systems.
Every platform in this comparison makes assumptions about how an estate agency works. For most agencies, those assumptions are close enough. But some agencies have workflows that do not fit neatly into any off-the-shelf CRM:
A system of your own is built around the way you already work. You do not change the way you work to fit the software. Over three to five years that can cost less than a platform you must work around every day.
If you want to see what the bespoke route actually looks like, ESRE's live estate agent demo opens without a login. Sign in as a negotiator and progress a sale through the chain view, or as a vendor and see what the client side shows. It is a working system, not a screenshot.
The first build costs more than a monthly subscription. The cost after that is lower. You do not pay for parts you never use. You are also not held back by parts the vendor has not built.
The right choice depends on your agency type, size, and priorities:
Connect with us about estate agent software · · Replies within 24 hours