America’s 7 Best Rental Websites in 2023

About: Zillow was established in 2004 as one of the largest, map-based real estate marketplaces. Zillow is a popular real estate website that caters to home buyers, sellers, and renters.

For Renters:

• Renters will have the maximum options with genuine and numerous property listings.

For Landlords:

• Provides pricing ideas to assist property owners in evaluating the rents.
• It also offers property management tools to find the perfect renter for you.

Listing Categories: Home type, square footage, price, year built, beds, baths, amenities

Tools: Built-in tenant screening tool, rent collection, owner portal, pricing suggestions

Mobile App: Yes

Our Take: Zillow is the largest real estate website, offering its customers an on-demand experience for renting vacant properties. However, once your property is posted, expect unsolicited calls from agents.

» Zillow Reviews: The TRUTH about Zillow’s Free Listing 🚩

• Numerous property listings and a comparatively high site visitor volume
• Free syndicated postings on Trulia and HotPads partner sites
• Pricing ideas assist with evaluating rents
• Simple steps to execute the listing and rental processes
• After the first free listing, each additional listing costs the landlord $9.99 per week.
• Unwanted sales calls from listing agents
• Poor customer ratings and record-breaking blunders, as shown on Trustpilot

Zillow has a rating of 1.8 out of 5 stars rating on Trustpilot.

Zillow covers 90% of the USA housing market and is available nationwide.

About: Since its establishment in 1992, Apartments.com has grown to be the best service for both landlords and tenants. It is one of the top websites for finding a rental house.

For Renters:

• Offers walk-through video demos and extensive search features for tenants to find apartments near their desired location with ease.

For Landlords:

• Provides easy listing methods that will save time.
• Features a pay-to-apply system that improves the potential of genuine candidates.

Listing Categories: Price, square footage, beds, baths, affordability, lifestyle, amenities

Tools: Polygon and travel-time features, Commute planner, Tenant screening tool, Lease signing, Rent collection, tour scheduler, application submittals

Mobile App: Yes

Our Take: Apartments.com attracts more than 35 million prospective tenants per month, which will help landlords fill their vacant homes fast. However, it charges the listing fee to apply in mobile app from renters.

• Personalized community reviews
• Walk-through video demonstrations for renters
• Helping more than 100 million rentres to find the perfect home
• Mobile app with search and contact feature
• Comprehensive searching criteria: Search by more than just geography, for example, search “Pet-Friendly Apartments”
• Apartments.com charges the listing fee of $29.99 plus tax to apply in the mobile app for up to 10 applications in a 30-day period
• The app interface is less user-friendly than a website
• Works for rental properties only
• Missing community information like “crimes stats”

Apartments.com has 2.2/5 stars (123 reviews) on Sitejabber.

Apartments.com is available nationwide.

HotPads is part of the Zillow Group family of rental listing websites that include Zillow and Trulia. It offers users a wide range of search options in terms of neighborhoods, budgets, and apartment sizes.

For Renters:

• HotPads offers a “For You” section, which locates where you are and suggests properties in close proximity.

For Landlords:

• You can list a property using the Zillow Rental Manager to fill vacancies, screen tenants, and collect rent all in one place.
• You will get notifications to your phone with new listings.

Listing Categories: Price, square footage, beds, baths, affordability, lifestyle, amenities, pets

Tools: Travel-time features, 3D Tours, Commute time calculator, Tenant screening tool, Lease signing, Rent collection, Tour scheduler

Mobile App: Yes

Our Take: Hotpads has easy to use interface with very useful features for landlords and tenants. However, the listing fee is not mentioned on their website.

• Mobile app with search and contact feature
• Walk-through video demonstrations for renters
• Comprehensive searching criteria: Search by more than just geography, for example, search “Pet-Friendly Apartments”
• Works for rental properties only
• Poor Reviews

HotPads.com has 1.7 out of 5 stars ratings on Sitejabber.

HotPads has near nationwide coverage.

Avail is the best rental management platform with nationwide coverage.

Unlimited Plus Plan: Avail offers one free plan and one unlimited plus plan which will cost $5.00 per unit per month.

👉 Our Take: We recommend Avail.com for landlords as it offers the best features to manage their properties effectively.

• No Hidden Fees: The application fee covers the cost of the screening tools, so you won’t have to pay anything additional.
• Screening Report: Avail provides the best screening reports to help you choose the ideal tenant.
• Free Syndication: Avail offers free syndicated listings on ten additional websites for maximum exposure.
• Avail Landlord Software: This software helps landlords to find tenants, view credit history, sign leases, and collect rent from any device.
• Screening Reports: It provides eviction checks, worldwide criminal background checks, credit histories, and best screening reports.
• Transparent System: Avail offers a transparent system for you to track property repairs and rent credits.
• Social Media Sharing: It offers social media listings that are easy to share.

• Additional Charges: Avail provides a credit history, nationwide criminal background, and eviction checks for $30 each, or you can buy them as a bundle for $55.
• Short Listing Inventory: Avail has fewer features for the landlord to highlight their property. It has a minimum list of search filters that applicants may use to search for a property.
• No Mobile App: Avail does not provide any mobile application to users.
• Tenants Pay a High Fee: Renters have to pay $2.50 for every bank transfer if the landlord utilizes the free plan. Also, renters are responsible for the screening report fees.

Avail has a rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot.

About: Craigslist is a popular classifieds website with an astounding 50 million monthly visitors. In markets where Craigslist is popular, you may gain decent property exposure.

For Renters:

• Renters may easily browse nearby homes because Craigslist automatically picks a location based on the renter’s location when they visit the website.

For Landlords:

• It has more than 50 million visitors per month, so landlords can fill their vacant properties fast.

Listing Categories: Square footage, price, beds, baths, availability

Tools: None

Mobile App: Yes

Our Take: Because of the traffic, scammers may use this site to post fake ads or listings. However, Craiglist has updated its policies to avoid rental scams. So, landlords need to do a couple of extra steps for listing vacancies.

» Craigslist Reviews: Read our blog to know more about Craigslist!

• Best for low-baller investors
• It has several property listings and a site with comparatively strong traffic
• The site is simple to use and navigate
• Finding qualified applicants in a vast application pool is challenging
• Scammers can quickly take control of listings
• Contacting customer support is difficult

Craigslist has a rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars (756 reviews) on Sitejabber.

Craigslist covers 70+ countries across the globe.

About: Zumper is an excellent rental website and has an average of 7 million monthly users. It is becoming more popular with its faster and more organized end-to-end services.

For Renters:

• Provides an easy interface for renters to browse properties, apply and lease the perfect home they want.

For Landlords:

• It has an Instarent feature that allows landlords to fill their vacant homes within 24 hours, but it is available in only 10 cities.

Mobile App: Yes

👉 Our Take: Zumper offers the best services from touring to lease signing and a user-friendly interface. It also provides free renter screening and collects rent online without hidden fees.

• Instarent feature for landlords to fill vacancies within 24 hours (available in 10 cities)
• Landlords can tag homes by neighborhood to narrow down search results
• Listing will be syndicated on Facebook Marketplace for free
• As compared to other rental websites, Zumper receives only 15 million visitors per month
• Zumper has very poor customer reviews
• Listing Categories: Rooms, price, property type, neighborhood, amenities
• Tools: Instarent, Credit report, background check, eviction history, lease signing, rent collection

Zumper has a rating of 1.7 out of 5 stars ratings on Trustpilot.

Zumper is available nationwide.

Rentometer offers detailed rental comparisons nationwide.

Search Features:

• The results of a property search include a comprehensive analysis of important parameters such as average rent, median rent, 25th and 75th percentile rents, a map view, sample size, and sample radius.
• You can narrow your search by listing age, radius, distance, and building type.

Subscription Rate:

• The cost of a subscription ranges from $29 per month for basic service to $199 per year for extra features.
• All Pro subscriptions come with Excel and PDF reports, three-year trend and moving average charts, average rent by bedroom charts, an interactive map with street view, year built, tax and last sale data, and three-year trend and moving average charts.

Our Take: Rentometer gives considerably higher quality, depth, and range of information when exploring cost comparables to other rental listing sites.

• Rent comparisons feature available
• You can try it free for seven days
• No mobile app
• Fee for most higher-end services

Rentometer has 2.8 out of 5 stars ratings on Google.

Has near nationwide coverage.