Houzz was founded as an online platform in February 2009 by Adi Tatarko and her husband Alon Cohen, in response to the challenges they faced with their own home remodeling project.

[3] Cohen coded the initial website himself, and they asked a few Bay Area architects to upload their portfolios, to give home renovators ideas for their projects.

[7] In January 2014, Houzz announced that it had opened offices and hired local managers in the UK, Germany and Australia to accelerate its global expansion; 35% of the company's site traffic already came from outside the U.S.[8] In February, Houzz launched Site Designer, a free website building and publishing tool for home professionals.

[10] It was reported that the Houzz database contained millions of images of home interiors and exteriors.

[13][14] In August, Houzz made its first acquisition, acquiring gardening and home advice site GardenWeb from NBCUniversal.

Furniture and decor that looks similar to the six million products on the Houzz Marketplace is then surfaced for users to browse (and hopefully buy).

[23] With the launch of iOS 11 from Apple in September, Houzz introduced an upgraded version of its 3D AR tool within its app for iPhone and iPad, with 500,000 products available to view.

[27] In April 2020, the company launched Houzz Pro software to help home professionals run their businesses.

[28] The company's HouzzTV video series shows homeowners' projects being implemented with the help of design professionals.