LoopNet - The biggest audience, priced on request
LoopNet is owned by CoStar, the commercial property data company, and describes itself as the world's number one commercial property marketplace. Its audience is genuinely large, including big corporate occupiers. Both owners and agents can advertise. It sells advertising in tiers (Gold, Platinum and Diamond ads, plus a subscription), with higher tiers placed higher in search and bundled with media such as photography, video and drone footage. It does not publish prices: you contact its sales team for a quote. A free basic listing is available on CoStar, the subscription database used by agents and investors, which is a different thing from a paid advert on the public LoopNet site.
LoopNet is at its strongest for larger, higher-value premises with a marketing budget behind them, where national and institutional reach matters.
NovaLoca - Built for agents
NovaLoca is a UK commercial property portal, established in 2007. Its advertising pages and sign-up are written for agents: an individual listing costs £75 plus VAT for six months or £130 plus VAT for a year, and subscriptions are offered for agents with six or more properties. Listings include tracked phone numbers, enquiry statistics and email alerts to occupiers who have registered a requirement (NovaLoca says over 40,000 have).
In some areas a council or similar body sponsors free basic listings. Basic listings do not show a logo, phone number, high-resolution photos, attachments or links, so tenants can only enquire by email. NovaLoca's pages do not say whether a private landlord can register an account, so if you are a landlord rather than an agent, ask them before you plan around it.
Zoopla - Through an agent only
Zoopla has commercial property sections for renting and buying, but its help centre is clear that it does not accept listings directly from private landlords. To list, you need to be registered with a Zoopla agent, and that applies to commercial property as well as homes. So Zoopla's reach is part of the agent route, in the same way as Rightmove Commercial: you pay for it through the agent's fee.
That makes Zoopla a sensible extra if you already use a letting agent. It is not something a landlord can sign up to on their own.
Boxpod - Listing direct
Boxpod is built for the landlord who wants to list their own unit. Plans start at £12 a month plus VAT for one listing (£25 for up to five, £45 for up to ten), with no commission when it lets and no long contract. The listing goes live in minutes, and tenant enquiries and phone calls come straight to you rather than through an intermediary.
The honest picture on reach: Boxpod's audience is smaller than LoopNet's international one, but it is a busy UK marketplace in its own right, with over 1,000,000 listing views and 4,000+ tenant enquiries and calls in August 2026 alone. It works best for the units small businesses look for in towns across the UK: industrial units and workshops, shops, storage and land. Offices in central London are better served by the bigger portals.
Which to use - And when to use more than one
The four sites are not really competing for the same job. The useful question is who can list and who the enquiries go to.
- Boxpod - you are a landlord with an ordinary unit, you are happy to answer enquiries yourself, and you want a published monthly price with nothing to pay when it lets.
- LoopNet - larger or high-value premises, a marketing budget, and a need for national or corporate reach.
- NovaLoca - you are an agent, or your unit is in an area where a council sponsors free basic listings.
- Zoopla - you already instruct a letting agent who lists there.
Nothing stops you combining them. A common pattern is to list direct on Boxpod and keep an agent instructed, who then puts the unit on the portals they use. If you do, check whether your agency agreement gives the agent sole letting rights (they are owed a fee whoever finds the tenant) or plain sole agency (you are free to find your own), and keep the details the same everywhere.