Ivy is closed to new members — where interior designers are going instead
Ivy's pricing page now redirects to Houzz Pro and migration is one-way. The realistic alternatives, with Houzz Pro's $249 price checked 2026-08-01.
By Idan Mann, founder of NYA
The short answer
Ivy is closed to new members — its pricing page now redirects to Houzz Pro, and migration is one-way. Designers replacing it are choosing between NYA (flat $49–$299 per firm), DesignFiles from $55/mo, Programa at $71 + $31/seat, and Studio Designer for accounting depth, with each vendor's published price verified on its own page.
All competitor prices on this page were taken from the vendor's own pricing page on August 1, 2026 and are linked at the bottom. Prices change — tell us if you spot one that has.
Ivy is no longer taking new members, and its pricing URL now redirects to Houzz Pro. If you are an existing Ivy user, the important detail is that moving to Houzz Pro is described as one-way — you cannot go back.
What actually happened to Ivy
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| February 6, 2018 | Houzz acquires Ivy (then IvyMark), a business-management platform used by roughly 2,400 design firms at the time. The price was reported at $30–40 million and never officially confirmed. |
| 2020 | Houzz launches Houzz Pro and begins folding Ivy's feature set into it, alongside tools for contractors, builders and remodelers. |
| After the launch | Ivy stops taking new members and stops receiving feature updates. Existing members are offered a migration Houzz says takes about ten minutes. |
| July 30, 2026 | Houzz's Ivy pages are still live, still closed to new members, and still describe the move to Houzz Pro as permanent. |
Houzz's migration page is specific about the mechanics. The move takes about ten minutes, and email lists, products, services, projects and documents transfer. Two things do not survive it: vendor logins, which you have to retrieve from each vendor yourself, and the Ivy account itself — once you move, Houzz closes it automatically.
“If you decide [to] make the move to Houzz Pro, you will not be able to go back to Ivy.”
What ex-Ivy designers say they miss
Ask designers who ran their firms on Ivy and the same theme comes up: Ivy was built for exactly one trade. Proposals, purchase orders and invoicing were shaped around how an interior design studio actually bills, where Houzz Pro serves designers, general contractors, builders and remodelers from the same product and reads as less industry-specific. One designer's software round-up describes Ivy as "a platform that designers loved" — past tense doing a lot of work — and reports that the community was not happy to lose it.
The second theme is a perceived conflict of interest in the marketplace model: Houzz Pro can surface shoppable products from Houzz's own marketplace to clients viewing boards, which some designers read as the platform competing for the product sale they used to make themselves. In fairness, the migration was not all loss — Houzz Pro added mood boards and 3D floor plans that Ivy never had. Whether that trade was worth it is precisely the decision this page is for.
The terms where the migration lands you
- Published Pro price. Houzz lists Pro at $249/month after the 30-day trial; Custom still routes buyers to a demo.
- $60 per additional user per month, from Houzz's own pricing table, with one seat included on the Pro tier.
- A 12-month minimum contract, stated on Houzz Pro's free-trial page — which also notes the trial auto-continues into a paid package unless you cancel first.
- No Ivy-specific discount. The migration page offers dedicated support and a ten-minute transfer, but publishes no special pricing for ex-Ivy members.
The alternatives
| Software | 1 seat | 3 seats | 5 seats | Billing model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NYA | $49 | $129 | $129 | Flat per firm |
| DesignFiles (Full Service) | $75 | $135 | $195 | $75 + $30/user |
| Programa (Pro, annual) | $71 | $133 | $195 | $71 + $31/seat |
| Studio Designer (Essentials, annual) | $69 | $207 | $345 | Per user |
| Studio Designer (Premier, annual) | $109 | $327 | $545 | Per user |
| Gather (Spec Pro) | $199 | $277 | $355 | $199 + $39/seat |
| Houzz Pro | $249 | $369 | $489 | $249 + $60/user |
- NYA — closest to Ivy's original premise: built only for design studios, flat at $49 solo and $129 for up to five seats, published pricing, no minimum term. No built-in accounting; it pairs with QuickBooks.
- DesignFiles — from $55/mo plus $30 a user. The pick if your work leans e-design packages and client-facing boards.
- Programa — $71/mo plus $31 a seat. Strong FF&E schedules, sourcing and studio workflow; per-seat billing is the trade-off.
- Gather — from $99/mo plus $39 a seat. The deepest specification tooling on this list, priced for procurement-heavy teams.
- Houzz Pro itself — the honest case for accepting the migration is lead generation from Houzz's consumer side plus the mood boards and 3D floor plans Ivy lacked. If that is your case, go in with the 12-month term and seat pricing above in writing.
If the appeal of Ivy was that it was built for small design businesses rather than construction firms, the flat-priced options are the closest in spirit. NYA is $49 solo and $129 for up to five seats, with published pricing and no minimum term.
Common questions
- Is Ivy still available?
- Not for new users. Houzz's own comparison page, checked 2026-07-30, states that feature updates and new memberships are no longer offered at Ivy. Existing members can still use it, but the product is frozen, and Houzz's published path forward is a one-way migration to Houzz Pro.
- What replaced Ivy for interior designers?
- Houzz Pro. Houzz acquired Ivy in February 2018 and launched Houzz Pro in 2020, folding Ivy's business-management features into a broader platform that also serves contractors and builders. Designers who want something closer to Ivy's design-studio focus tend to look at flat-priced tools like NYA or design-specific platforms like DesignFiles and Programa instead.
- Can I go back to Ivy after moving to Houzz Pro?
- No. Houzz's migration page states your Ivy account is closed automatically once you move, and its comparison page says you will not be able to go back. That is why exporting your client records, invoices and files before accepting the migration matters so much.
- How much does Houzz Pro cost for ex-Ivy users?
- Houzz Pro is $249/month after a 30-day trial for Pro, with one seat included and extra users at $60/month. Custom remains quote-only, and Houzz's trial page states a 12-month minimum contract. The Ivy migration page offers dedicated transfer support but no ex-Ivy discount. Checked 2026-08-01.