--- title: "AppFolio WordPress Plugin: Listings Pro | Kihan Marketing" description: "AppFolio Listings Pro puts your AppFolio listings on your WordPress site, no iframe: your brand, filters, a map and a page per unit. Ask about a license." url: https://kihanmarketing.com/property-management-marketing/appfolio-listings-pro/ published: 2026-09-30 updated: 2026-10-21 --- # AppFolio Listings Pro Your AppFolio listings, drawn by your own WordPress site AppFolio Listings Pro is the AppFolio WordPress plugin we wrote to put your listings on your own site. It's for property managers and communities that run AppFolio on WordPress. It reads your public listings on the server, with no iframe. Then it draws them as your cards, your filters, your map and a page for every unit. AppFolio stays the system of record. AppFolio's own listing page is close to fixed. Buttons, type, spacing, the shape of the card: you get what the platform ships. So does everyone else on it, which is why AppFolio sites tend to look alike. Framing that page in an iframe keeps it current. But what sits inside the frame is credited to AppFolio's domain, not yours. We built this AppFolio WordPress plugin for that gap, and it is now available to license. ## What it does It sits between your WordPress site and AppFolio. The plugin requests your public AppFolio listings on the server. It reads the listing data out of them: rent, beds, baths, photos, availability and the apply links. Then it draws the result as your site's own markup. - **Where it came from.** The AppFolio sites we build. The platform's listing page would not take the brand, so we wrote the plugin. - **What the build did, and what the plugin does.** A site build makes the property pages. The plugin's part is how the listings on them are drawn, so they look like your brand and not like the platform. - **The same family as our other tools.** The Kihan Indexer, Kihan Schema, the Kihan SEO plugin and the internal linker. Each one exists because a client job needed it. ## What changes on the page Before, a renter reads your listings inside AppFolio's frame, in AppFolio's fonts and layout. After, the same listings are part of your page, in your brand. Each unit links to a page on your own domain. Nothing changes in AppFolio. Units, rents, availability and photos keep coming from where they already come from. Nobody changes their workflow. When a unit leases, the listing leaves your site on the plugin's next fetch. ## What you control Six areas, all set from the plugin's own settings screens in WordPress. Code only comes into it if you want it to: a card template written in HTML, or a box of custom CSS. ## Where it runs It runs on [a Seattle property manager](https://kihanmarketing.com/projects/pacific-crest-real-estate/) and a Western Washington apartment management company, and on the community websites of both. It started on the first of those: a rebuild that took a five page AppFolio based site to more than 250 pages. Every managed property got a page of its own, with its live availability listing, amenities, features and photos. The CTAs and lead capture forms were rebuilt along the way. A property management company in Dayton and a [Tacoma](https://kihanmarketing.com/locations/tacoma/) property management and real estate company run AppFolio as well. For the Dayton company, the AppFolio work was the listing copy inside AppFolio. That's a different problem from how listings look, so it did not need the plugin. ## How it goes onto a site 1. **Install and activate.** Upload the plugin in WordPress and activate it like any other. 2. **Enter your license key.** Paste the key we issue into the plugin's License Key screen and validate it. Until it validates, the settings do not save and no listings load. 3. **Connect AppFolio.** Enter your AppFolio base address, the one your public listings page lives on. No API credentials are involved. 4. **Choose a template and colors.** Pick one of the three card templates or write your own. Set the primary and secondary colors. Then set how many columns show on desktop, tablet and phone. 5. **Place the shortcode.** `[app_all_listings]` on any page, or `[app_group_listings key="..."]` for a Property Group. Add `style="slider"` for a slider instead of a grid. 6. **Add the map if you want it.** Enter a Google Maps key with the Maps JavaScript API and the Geocoding API switched on. The "View with Map" button above the listings then opens the map. ## Built the way WordPress expects The parts that keep a site safe and quick are in the code, not left to the person installing it. - **Same-host fetching.** The plugin checks any listings address it is asked to fetch against the host of the AppFolio address you entered. If it points anywhere else, the fetch is refused. - **Nonces and capability checks.** The listing requests carry a WordPress nonce. Every settings screen needs an administrator's `manage_options` capability. - **Sanitized templates.** A custom card template is filtered through a `wp_kses` allowlist before it is saved. - **Parsed, not pattern matched.** Listing data is read from the structure of the page with PHP's DOMDocument and DOMXPath, not with regular expressions. - **A cache with a stale copy.** Fetched listings are cached for a number of minutes you set. While one fetch runs, other visitors get the last good copy instead of starting another. If AppFolio does not answer, that copy is served instead of an error. - **A capped crawl.** A large portfolio is read page by page, up to fifteen pages of listings per fetch. So one long list cannot run away with a page load. What it needs is short, and none of it is an AppFolio API credential. - A WordPress site, with the listings placed by shortcode. - AppFolio listings that are public, reached by their base address. - A license key from us. - For the map only, your own Google Maps key with the Maps JavaScript and Geocoding APIs. - The plugin itself, currently version `2.4.0`, written by Kihan Marketing. ## What it doesn't do Three things, stated plainly, so nobody licenses the wrong tool. - **It doesn't replace AppFolio or change your data.** AppFolio stays the system of record. The plugin reads what AppFolio already publishes and writes nothing back. - **It isn't the chat leasing tool.** That's a separate tool we built on the AppFolio API. It pulls neighborhoods, pricing, cities and areas, and shows real active listings with full detail. It belongs with our [websites for AppFolio managers](https://kihanmarketing.com/property-management-marketing/appfolio-property-management-websites/), not here. - **It doesn't decide rankings.** A page per unit makes each listing something that can be linked, shared and indexed. Whether it ranks depends on the rest of the site as well. Sometimes that means rebuilding the site around the listings. ## If this is the problem you have You'll usually know already. Someone has looked at your site, then at three other AppFolio sites, and noticed the buttons are identical. Or the listings page works, but it doesn't look like the brand the rest of the site paid to build. There's a second reason to care. A property management company gets judged by three groups: vendors, owners and residents. The listing display is written for renters. But an owner deciding who should run their building is looking at the same page. If you run AppFolio on WordPress, you can [ask about a license](https://kihanmarketing.com/contact/#topic-appfolio-listings-pro) for your own site. Would you rather know first what your AppFolio setup can and cannot change? That's part of a [marketing audit](https://kihanmarketing.com/marketing-audit/). Or start from the broader case for [property management marketing](https://kihanmarketing.com/property-management-marketing/) and work down. ## Questions about AppFolio Listings Pro The short answers, taken from what the plugin's own code actually does. ### Does it need an AppFolio API key? No AppFolio API key. It reads your public listings page, so the connection is one base address. The map needs your own Google Maps key. The plugin runs on the license key we issue. ### Will it work with our theme or page builder? It is placed with a shortcode, so it goes wherever WordPress accepts one. Its markup takes your theme's fonts, and its colors come from the plugin's settings. ### Do we need to write code? No. Templates, colors, columns, filters, sorting and the button labels are all settings. Code is there if you want it: a card template in HTML, or custom CSS. ### Will it help our listings in search? It gives every unit a page on your own domain, served as ordinary HTML. So each one can be linked, shared and indexed. It does not decide rankings; those depend on the rest of the site too. ### What happens when a unit leases? AppFolio stays the source. The plugin caches listings for the number of minutes you set, so the change shows on its next fetch. If AppFolio is briefly unreachable, the last good copy stays up. ### What is AppFolio used for? AppFolio is property management software, and it is the system of record for a management company. Unit records, rents, availability dates, photos and applications all live in AppFolio, and the leasing team works in it every day. AppFolio Listings Pro reads the public listings from AppFolio and shows them as part of your own WordPress site. ### How does AppFolio work with a WordPress site? A WordPress site works with AppFolio by linking to, framing, or reading the public listings page AppFolio publishes for your open units. That page sits at your AppFolio address. The AppFolio website editor gives little control over how those listings look. AppFolio Listings Pro reads the page on the server and draws each unit as your own markup. The three ways, side by side, are in our guide to [showing AppFolio listings on WordPress](https://kihanmarketing.com/guides/appfolio-listings-wordpress/). ### Where does AppFolio advertise our listings? AppFolio shows your open units on its public listings page, and the feed you send out reaches listing portals. Those portals then rank on your units in Google, often above your own site. AppFolio Listings Pro gives every unit a page on your own domain, so your site has something of its own to rank. ### Can we use it on our own site? Yes. AppFolio Listings Pro is available to license. [Ask about a license](https://kihanmarketing.com/contact/#topic-appfolio-listings-pro) and tell us about the site it would run on. ## Keep reading - [AppFolio Site Rebuilds](https://kihanmarketing.com/property-management-marketing/appfolio-property-management-websites/): Custom WordPress and Next.js sites for AppFolio managers, with a page for every property and AppFolio kept as the system of record. - [AppFolio Listings on WordPress](https://kihanmarketing.com/guides/appfolio-listings-wordpress/): AppFolio's embed, a listings plugin or a custom integration: three ways to put AppFolio listings on WordPress, compared. - [Property manager, Seattle](https://kihanmarketing.com/projects/pacific-crest-real-estate/): A five-page AppFolio site rebuilt to more than 250 pages, with a page for every managed property and AppFolio Listings Pro. - [PM Website Design](https://kihanmarketing.com/property-management-marketing/property-management-website-design/): Template sites from AppFolio, RentCafe and ShowMojo, rebuilt with a page for every managed property. - [Property Management Marketing](https://kihanmarketing.com/property-management-marketing/): Marketing for management companies: owner leads, renter search and rebuilt property management websites.