Looking for an Aryeo alternative?
Aryeo is a polished, Zillow-owned platform built US-first. Locium is independent, charges per delivery, and was built inside a working media company. Here is an honest, source-checked comparison.
Aryeo is one of the most established platforms in real estate media: strong order forms, a clean delivery experience, and, since Zillow Group acquired it in July 2023 for roughly $35M, the deepest Zillow integration on the market. It now sits inside Zillow’s ShowingTime+ family, with a free "Lite" tier built around delivering media into the Zillow pipeline.
That acquisition is exactly why many photographers started shopping for alternatives. Zillow is not a neutral party in real estate, and Aryeo’s paid tiers are priced by annual listing volume (100, 250 or 500 listings a year), so growing studios climb tiers while slow months still bill in full.
Locium takes the opposite position on both: it is independently built inside Patorama Studios (a working Australian media production company), and it has no monthly fee at all: you pay per delivered listing. Below is a feature-by-feature comparison based only on what Aryeo publishes; anything their site and help centre don’t document is marked "—" rather than guessed.
Choose Locium if…
- You want $0 monthly fees and would rather pay when you deliver a listing
- You run production seriously: editing pipelines, editor portals, raw file upsells
- You need drive-time scheduling and a map day planner with route optimisation
- You bill clients on retainers or pre-paid wallets, not just per order
- You are outside the US and need native Xero, AUD, GST, metric units and no Zillow dependency
- You would rather not run your business on a Zillow-owned platform
Aryeo may fit better if…
- Zillow Showcase, 3D Home and Media Advantage are core to your US business
- You want a free delivery-only tier (Aryeo Lite) with Zillow pipeline built in
- A branded App Store app matters to you (US$179/mo add-on)
- You rely on their public API + Zapier ecosystem today
Why media companies look for Aryeo alternatives
Zillow owns the platform
Acquired July 2023 (~$35M, per Zillow’s SEC filing) and folded into ShowingTime+. Your client list, order volumes and payments run through a company that competes in your industry, a concern photographers and industry press have raised publicly.
Monthly fees gated by annual volume
Pro tiers are US$49/99/179 per month for 100/250/500 listings per year. Grow past a cap and you move up a tier, or into "contact sales" Enterprise. Slow winter months still bill in full. Locium simply charges per delivered listing.
Production tooling not documented
No published production board, custom statuses, editor assignment or outsourced-editor portal. If editing workflow is half your business, Aryeo documents the delivery end, not the production end.
Scheduling = buffers, not routes
Aryeo documents static "smart buffers" between bookings and distance-based travel fees. No computed drive times, no map day planner, no route optimisation appear anywhere in their published docs.
US-first by design
The flagship features are Zillow features, which mean nothing outside the US. AUD billing, GST and local formats are not documented. Locium is built in Australia and serves media companies globally.
No retainers, raws or watermarking documented
Client retainer/subscription billing, raw photo upsells and watermark protection are not documented anywhere on Aryeo’s site or help centre. All three are built into Locium.
Locium vs Aryeo: feature by feature
✓ full~ partial / add-on✕ not available— not publicly documented
Pricing: Locium vs Aryeo
Locium
- $0 monthly fee, forever
- Pay per delivered listing (from $8 Starter / $12 Pro)
- Free signup, no credit card, unlimited team members
- No annual listing caps or volume tiers
- Locked-in rate, with no retroactive price rises
Aryeo
- Aryeo Lite: free, covering delivery pages and Zillow pipeline features only [1]
- Aryeo Pro: US$49/mo (100 listings/yr, 1 member) · US$99/mo (250, 3) · US$179/mo (500, 5) [2]
- Enterprise: custom pricing above 500 listings/yr [2]
- Add-ons: SMS US$19/mo · branded mobile app US$179/mo [2][9]
- No contracts; slow months still bill the full monthly fee [2]
Most people weighing up Aryeo are weighing it against the others too, not just against us. Here is how Aryeo compares to each of them, on the same public sources cited above.
Aryeo vs Spiro
The sharpest ownership and pricing contrast in the category: monthly tiers inside a Zillow-owned platform, against a flat US$5 per completed job from an independent operator.
- Price shape. Aryeo is US$49, US$99 or US$179 a month, gated to 100, 250 or 500 listings a year, so quiet months still bill in full. Spiro charges US$5 per completed job with no subscription at all — though it also bills that fee on deleted and duplicate listings.
- Who owns it. Zillow Group acquired Aryeo in July 2023 for roughly $35M and folded it into ShowingTime+. Spiro is independent, built by Todd Kivimaki out of WOW Video Tours, an Ohio media company running since 2004.
- Production. Spiro is the stronger of the two: a dedicated editor portal at editors.spiro.media with assignment queues. Aryeo documents the delivery end thoroughly, but no production board, custom statuses or outsourced-editor portal appear in its published docs.
- Booking. Aryeo’s order forms are one of its genuine strengths. Spiro’s own help centre states its order page cannot be embedded in your website, so clients get sent to a Spiro-hosted link.
- Reach. Aryeo’s flagship features are Zillow features, which do nothing outside the US. Spiro is USD-quoted and US-first, and documents no native Xero or QuickBooks by design.
Aryeo vs Tonomo
Two subscription platforms with capped listing volumes. The real questions are who owns the platform and whether you can try it without a sales call.
- Price shape. Both meter by annual listings. Aryeo runs US$49/99/179 a month for 100/250/500 listings a year. Tonomo runs US$140 a month for 200 annual listings and one photographer, or US$250 for 425.
- Getting in. Aryeo publishes a free delivery-only Lite tier you can start on. Tonomo documents no self-serve trial — a booked demo is the published way in.
- Independence. Aryeo has been Zillow-owned since July 2023. Tonomo is an independent US company, founded in 2020 out of Beaverton, Oregon.
- Outside the US. Tonomo officially supports the US, Australia and New Zealand with local currency, metric units and a native Xero integration. Aryeo does not document AUD, GST or metric, and its Zillow features are US-only.
- Scheduling. Tonomo documents travel-time-aware slot recommendations using real-time traffic. Aryeo documents static smart buffers and distance-based travel fees — no computed drive times.
- Branding. Aryeo white-labels on its paid tiers. Tonomo keeps a “Powered by Tonomo” footer on the US$140 Starter plan; full white-label starts at US$250 a month.
Aryeo vs HDPhotoHub
Subscription against pay-per-delivery, and the clearest example of how differently the two models treat a slow month.
- Price shape. Aryeo bills monthly against an annual listing cap. HDPhotoHub’s Pay-As-You-Grow charges per delivery, from US$5, so a quiet month costs proportionally less.
- Marketing collateral. HDPhotoHub’s Full Delivery tier bundles property sites, vertical reels, flyers, social graphics and traffic reports. Aryeo delivers media well but does not bundle an equivalent kit.
- Scheduling. HDPhotoHub documents Smart Scheduling that weighs drive times, shoot durations and traffic. Aryeo documents static buffers and distance-based travel fees.
- Ownership. Aryeo is Zillow-owned and its headline features feed the Zillow pipeline. HDPhotoHub is independent and long-established with a large existing user base.
- Apps. Aryeo offers a branded App Store app as a US$179/month add-on. HDPhotoHub’s white-label client app is a one-time US$1,500 setup and needs a D-U-N-S number plus LLC or Corporation status. Both are ordering apps for agents, not shoot-day apps for photographers.
- Production. Neither documents a production board with custom statuses or an outsourced-editor portal. HDPhotoHub documents workflow tasks and post-sale automation; Aryeo documents the delivery end.
Built inside a working media company
Locium is built by Patorama Studios, a real estate media production company in Australia. We shoot, edit and deliver listings every day, and every feature exists because our own team needed it first. That is also why this page only claims what we can point to: our own product, and what Aryeo publishes publicly. Read the founder story →
Frequently asked questions
Is Aryeo free?
Aryeo Lite is free forever but covers delivery pages, the content dashboard and Zillow-pipeline features only. The full platform (scheduling, invoicing, payroll, reporting) is Aryeo Pro, priced at $49, $99 or $179 USD per month depending on your annual listing volume (100, 250 or 500 listings) and team size. Locium has no monthly fee at all: you pay per delivered listing.
Who owns Aryeo?
Zillow Group acquired Aryeo on 31 July 2023 for roughly $35M (disclosed in Zillow’s SEC 10-Q filing) and folded it into the ShowingTime+ family. The product is now deeply integrated with Zillow Showcase, 3D Home and Zillow Media Advantage.
Does Aryeo work outside the United States?
Aryeo is US-first. Its flagship features (Zillow Showcase, 3D Home delivery and Media Advantage) only apply to the US market, and we could not find any published support for AUD billing, GST or local formats. Locium is built in Australia with native Xero integration and serves media companies globally.
Does Aryeo have route optimisation or a day planner?
Not that Aryeo documents. Its scheduling page describes static "smart buffers" between bookings and per-distance travel fees, but no computed drive times, no map-based day planner and no route optimisation as of July 2026. Locium plans each shooter’s day on a map with real road routes and a one-tap route optimiser.
Why do photographers look for Aryeo alternatives?
The three reasons we hear most: the monthly fee is gated by annual listing volume so busy studios get pushed up tiers (and slow months still bill in full); Zillow’s ownership means a competitor-owned platform sits between you, your clients and your media; and production tooling like editing workflow, editor portals and raw file handling is not documented in the product.
Can I switch from Aryeo to Locium?
Yes. Sign up free (no card), import your clients and services, and run Locium in parallel until you’re confident. Since Locium has no monthly fee, running both during the transition costs you nothing extra. Email [email protected] and we’ll help with the migration ourselves.
Sources
- aryeo.com/pricing
- aryeo.com/pro-pricing
- aryeo.com/products/order-forms
- aryeo.com/products/scheduling
- Aryeo help: travel fees
- aryeo.com/products/download-center
- aryeo.com/products/orders
- aryeo.com/lite
- aryeo.com/products/branded-mobile-app
- Aryeo Go on the App Store
- Zillow press: Aryeo joins ShowingTime+
- Zillow Group SEC 10-Q (Aryeo acquisition)
- Aryeo support: custom domains
- Zapier: Aryeo integrations
- HomeJab: Zillow expansion concerns
Comparison verified against Aryeo's public website and documentation, July 2026. Features change. Spot something out of date? Email [email protected] and we'll fix it. Aryeo is a trademark of its respective owner and is not affiliated with Locium.
See it for yourself
Free to sign up, no credit card and no monthly fee. You pay when you deliver a listing.