Craigslist is the premier site for people looking for a good deal. Unlike Amazon and eBay, its searches are refined to sellers in defined proximities--usually people who are looking for quick pick-ups. Craigslisters who check often enough are bound to find something awesome for cheap, which means that well-designed iPhone and iPad apps could be huge.
We set out to determine if an iOS app could top the Mobile Safari experience, and it was no surprise to find literally dozens of Craigslist apps for the iPhone and iPad. It’s as if developers realized that the infrastructure was already set up, and all they had to do was beautify the site. However, many of them missed that mark, and we ended up wading through a sea of glitchy, crippled versions of the popular site--or apps even less attractive than the infamously minimal website. Still, a few interesting options emerged, so let’s take a look at the best of the bunch.
When all is said and done, viewing the site in Mobile Safari works better than any current iPad app.
Craigsphone beefs up Craigslist’s attractiveness by utilizing drop-down messages, similar to Mail. On the browsing end, it’s quick and easy to navigate, but it doesn’t let you save searches or choose neighborhoods within districts (a deal-breaker for metropolitan deal-seekers). Posting is much more difficult than browsing, and Craigsphone is often unable to get your listing up at all, so if your main task is posting, you should look elsewhere.
CraigsPhone is able to use your current location and drop pins at postings around you, but frustratingly, only for postings in the housing categories.
CraigsFish is not the “elsewhere” frequent posters are looking for. It offers no way to log in to your Craigslist account, so it’s impossible to post anything at all from within the app. While it utilizes a similar drop-down menu as Craigsphone, it isn’t nearly as easy to navigate. After several updates, CraigsFish is now technically usable, but it remains glitchy and crashes often. At this point, stick with another app until the bugs are ironed out.
Frequent glitches and crashes make CraigsFish a complete mess.
Craigslist Pro proves that a bit of polish never hurts. It’s available on both the iPad and iPhone, but they’re different apps with vastly different interfaces. With the iPad version, the only real issue was the miniscule size of the text. Though most people won’t have a problem reading the smaller font, there’s no way to zoom in, so steer clear if needlessly small text ain’t your thing. With both the iPad and iPhone version, posting from within the app was a piece of cake. As an added bonus, both applications permit you to manage multiple accounts. All told, they’re easy to navigate and work well as a replacement for the site, but they aren’t must-own apps.
Craigslist Pro might be classy, but you're going to need to eat your carrots if you actually want to read posts.
CraigsPro+ is the best option for Craigslisting on an iPhone. It was made by the same development team as Craigslist Pro (IOCo), which is evident by its matching visual style. CraigsPro+ costs the same amount as its plus-less counterpart and boasts saved searches and tons of sorting options. But it also has a bit of added functionality: CraigsPro+ utilizes “agents” to filter your searches even when you’re not using the application. When something comes up that matches your specifications, it’ll send a push notification. The only problem with this ingenious feature is that you’re limited to 50 notifications, and when those run out, you’ll have to purchase more.
CraigsPro+'s ability to keep searching even when you're not using it is a killer feature... that's hindered a bit by restricting you to 50 "free" notifications. (You can buy more.)
Craigly adds interesting functionality as well--the ability to format listings in four different views. It also lets you customize searches by neighborhood, price, number of bedrooms, and more. After sending an email, it displays a nice subtlety overlooked by other apps: a box that tells you “message sent.” Regrettably, the interface is pretty clunky and could use a major cleanup. For instance, clicking on a posting displays it in a font so large even short posts will require scrolling.
Thought Craigly's format options utilizing the thumbnails are gorgeous, the text is just too large.
More than a handful of apps mimic Craigslist’s functionality and provide an almost-as-good-as-the-web experience. But they’re all really only getting it half-right, and there’s no reason to use an app that doesn’t improve upon a perfectly functional website. CraigsPro+ is the only app that made ‘listing significantly easier, but it’s iPhone-only. For now, iPad users are better off just using the site.
Craigsphone 2.0
COMPANY: Next Mobile Web
CONTACT: www.nextmobileweb.com
PRICE: Free
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPad
CraigsFish 1.2.1
COMPANY: AlterTap LLC
CONTACT: --
PRICE: Free
REQUIREMENTS: iPad
Craigslist Pro 1.0.2
COMPANY: I0Co
CONTACT: iTunes
PRICE: $0.99
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPad
CraigsPro+ 3.12
COMPANY: I0Co
CONTACT: www2.ladelo.com:8080/craigspro/
PRICE: $0.99
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone
Craigly 1.6
COMPANY: Mother Tucker LLC
CONTACT: mothertuckerllc.com
PRICE: $1.99
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPad
