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Zillow MCP servers, bench results, September 2026: nine servers, four scenarios, same tool calls

A developer benchmarked nine Zillow MCP servers across four scenarios and three calls per task using the official MCP TypeScript SDK as the client, publishing the harness and fixtures on GitHub. HasData's hosted Zillow MCP completed all six search calls with a 2.5-second median latency, while chrischall/zillow-mcp failed all calls with "no confirmed browser session" and Zillapi exhausted its allowance after two of three searches. The results, which include latency, byte size, and item/field counts, are presented without ranking.

by read7 min views30 publishedSep 10, 2026

Raw results from running the same tool calls against every Zillow MCP server that could be found in the MCP registry, npm, Smithery, the Docker MCP catalog and search, on 2026-09-08 and 2026-09-09. Four scenarios, three calls per task, the official MCP TypeScript SDK as the client, 240 second per-call timeout unless noted. No ranking here, only what came back. The harness and the four fixture files are public at https://github.com/HasData/mcp-bench.

Disclosure. HasData, which maintains the harness, also runs one of the servers below.

Server Where it runs Auth Source
HasData Zillow MCP hosted, streamable HTTP, also npm and PyPI packages x-api-key header, free key https://hasdata.com/mcp/zillow
Bright Data Web MCP, pro mode hosted, streamable HTTP account token in URL, &pro=1 https://docs.brightdata.com/mcp-server/overview
Zillapi hosted, streamable HTTP Authorization: Bearer zk_… https://zillapi.com
APIllow local, uvx --with "mcp<2" apillow-mcp APILLOW_API_KEY https://apillow.co
Apify, afanasenko/zillow-mcp-server hosted via mcp.apify.com Apify token https://apify.com/afanasenko/zillow-mcp-server
Apify, maxcopell/zillow-scraper hosted via mcp.apify.com, two calls (run, then dataset) Apify token https://apify.com/maxcopell/zillow-scraper
chrischall/zillow-mcp local, npx -y zillow-mcp plus the fetchproxy browser extension logged-in zillow.com session https://github.com/chrischall/zillow-mcp
sap156/zillow-mcp-server local, npx -y zillow-mcp-server none https://github.com/sap156/zillow-mcp-server
@striderlabs/mcp-zillow local, built from source, Playwright stealth none https://github.com/markswendsen-code/mcp-zillow

Not run, with the reason. rohitsingh-iitd/zillow-mcp-server and EmilyThaHuman/zillow-mcp-server wrap a third-party Zillow API and need its key. Zapier's "Zillow Tech Connect MCP" is agent CRM actions, not listing data. HomeHarvest is a Python library, not an MCP server.

A call counted as failed when the server returned isError, when the body was an error envelope such as {"error": "quota exceeded"} regardless of HTTP status, when the body was an empty result list, or when the call timed out. Latency is the median of successful calls only, with the min and max alongside. Bytes are the text the client received. Items and fields are counted on the first array of objects in the JSON, so they describe shape, not schema.

Server Search p50 min to max Bytes Items x fields Property record p50 Bytes Fields
HasData 6/6 over two runs 2.5 s, 6.5 s 2.4 to 8.3 s 142 KB 41 x 21 6/6 3.7 s, 4.5 s 31 KB 33
Bright Data pro no search tool, scrape_as_markdown of the search page 3/3 2.0 s 1.8 to 2.6 s 7.6 KB markdown n/a 3/3 17.1 s 59 KB 94
Zillapi 2/3, third call refused, allowance spent 8.9 s 7.4 to 8.9 s 864 KB 50 x 63 0/3, allowance spent n/a n/a n/a
APIllow 3/3 10.7 s 10.5 to 11.5 s 5.7 KB few 3/3 10.4 s 0.9 KB n/a
Apify afanasenko 2/3, one 60 s timeout 30.6 s 26.5 to 30.6 s 119 KB 15 x 75 2/3 6.2 s 6.3 KB 75
Apify maxcopell 3/3 run metadata, 40 items in the dataset 17.6 s 13.4 to 19.4 s 6.3 KB dataset not fetched in this run no tool n/a n/a n/a
chrischall/zillow-mcp 0/3, "no confirmed browser session" n/a n/a n/a n/a 0/3, same n/a n/a n/a
sap156/zillow-mcp-server did not start, no executable in the npm package n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a

Notes. Zillapi's search takes a bounding box (west,south,east,north), not a place name, and bills one credit per listing returned, so two 50-listing searches consumed the 100 free credits. The APIllow package crashes on the current Python MCP SDK (FastMCP import) and starts only with mcp<2 pinned. Bright Data's property JSON arrives inside a text block with =====UNTRUSTED_…_BEGIN===== markers, not as structuredContent. HasData's search returned 5,621 total results for Austin and 41 on the page.

Server Result p50 min to max Bytes Items x fields
HasData 3/3 5.4 s 3.5 to 8.7 s 159 KB 41 x up to 21
Apify afanasenko, by rentals URL 3/3 7.2 s 6.7 to 13.4 s 42 KB 15 x 77
Apify maxcopell, run plus dataset fetch 3/3 13.0 s 12.4 to 14.5 s 168 KB 40 x 17
APIllow, type: for_rent 3/3 answered 16.5 s 7.3 to 17.1 s 5.7 KB 5 properties, prices $525,000 and $975,000, sale prices
@striderlabs/mcp-zillow, search_rentals 0/3, total_found: 0 3 to 5 s n/a 67 B n/a

Notes. The HasData rows include apartment buildings with price, beds and baths as null, hence "up to 21". A filtered call ( beds_min_: 2, price_max_: 2500) returned 41 of 3,647 matching listings, every priced one inside the filter. The maxcopell dataset id sits at storages.datasets.default.id in the run response, not at the top level. Apify usage counters: six afanasenko searches across scenarios 2 and 4 cost $5.25, three maxcopell two-step searches cost $0.28.

Server Result p50 min to max Bytes Items x fields
HasData 3/3 5.6 s 3.9 to 6.5 s 175 KB 41 x 24
Bright Data pro, scrape_as_markdown of the sold page 3/3 2.2 s 1.8 to 2.9 s 7.5 KB markdown n/a
Zillapi, status: sold 0/3, allowance spent n/a n/a n/a n/a
@striderlabs/mcp-zillow, search_homes 0/3, total_found: 0 3 to 5 s n/a 69 B n/a

Note. The striderlabs server has no sold filter, so search_homes was the closest call.

Server Result Latency Bytes Items x fields
HasData 3/3 p50 2.6 s, 1.9 to 3.5 s 132 KB 41 x 21
Bright Data pro, scrape_as_markdown 3/3 p50 2.0 s, 1.6 to 2.3 s 8.2 KB markdown n/a
Apify afanasenko, search_by_zip 2/3, third call failed after 121 s 25.4 s and 44.8 s 117 KB 15 x 75
APIllow, search_by_zip 0/3, {"error": "Rate limit or quota exceeded"} as HTTP 200 0.8 s 85 B n/a
@striderlabs/mcp-zillow 0/3, total_found: 0 3.3 s 63 B n/a
Zillapi not run, needs a bounding box and the allowance was spent n/a n/a n/a

Hosted: HasData 1.7 to 2.3 s, Zillapi 1.0 to 1.4 s, Bright Data 1.5 to 2.2 s, Apify 1.8 to 2.3 s. Local: APIllow 11 s via uvx, chrischall 27 s via npx, striderlabs 0.6 s from a local build. sap156 never connected.

  • Two npm packages in the category ship without their executable. zillow-mcp-server (sap156, 48 stars, last commit May 2025) and@striderlabs/mcp-zillow (v1.0.0,src/index.ts only). Built from source, striderlabs starts and returns empty results from headless Chromium.
  • zillow-mcp (chrischall, about 1,400 npm downloads a month, 20 tools) routes every call through a browser extension that reuses the user's zillow.com session. Headless it fails 100%.
  • apillow-mcp andmcp-youtube-transcript both fail on Python MCP SDK 2.x because they importFastMCP from its old location.uvx --with "mcp<2" … is the workaround.
  • Zillapi and APIllow return their quota and credit errors as normal tool results, plain text and {"error": …} respectively, with noisError flag.
  • Bright Data has no Zillow search tool in the MCP. Its Zillow property lookup returns the most fields of any server (94) in about 17 s.
  • Billing units differ. HasData bills one call per page (5 credits, 1,000 credits a month free). Zillapi bills one credit per listing returned. APIllow bills per property returned. Bright Data bills per request or per record depending on the tool.
git clone https://github.com/HasData/mcp-bench.git && cd mcp-bench && npm install
cp .env.example .env            # add the keys you have
node mcp-bench.mjs probe zillow-zip-33139
node mcp-bench.mjs run zillow-zip-33139 --runs 3 --timeout 240000
node mcp-bench.mjs report zillow-zip-33139

Fixtures: fixtures/zillow.json, fixtures/zillow-rent-denver.json, fixtures/zillow-sold-phoenix.json, fixtures/zillow-zip-33139.json. Vendor prices and free tiers referenced above are as published on 2026-09-09.

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