When comparing rentcafe.com vs Apartment List, the Slant community recommends rentcafe.com for most people. In the question“What are the best tools to find an apartment?” rentcafe.com is ranked 1st while Apartment List is ranked 2nd.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Shows average rent in an area
Pro Filter listings by price, amenities, and other criteria
Pro Clever systems for finding suitable apartments
Has a nice workflow that asks for budget, location, amenities etc requirements and then buckets all the possible options in really useful ways. For example it will show you all the options that meet every requirement, but also will show you options that are "cheaper but further away" etc.
Pro Has inbuilt tools to manage the process
After you've found suitable apartments you can create shortlists (love it, maybe, no) and even directly message the landlords in the platform.
Cons
Con Requires a signup to see results
When I tried this (March 2019), I wasn't able to see my results unless I gave them my email.