Why It Matters
If you own rental property, Apartments.com is likely where your next tenant will start their search. The platform draws more than 30 million unique monthly visitors and syndicates listings to a network that includes Apartmentlist, ForRent, and WestsideRentals. For landlords, the basic listing is free and reaches a large audience. Paid ILS (Internet Listing Service) packages — ranging from roughly $50 to $500 per month depending on market, unit count, and tier — add priority placement, enhanced photos, virtual tour slots, and lead-management tools. For investors managing even a handful of units, understanding how to use Apartments.com effectively is a practical skill that directly affects vacancy rate and revenue.
At a Glance
- Owner: CoStar Group (acquired 2014); publicly traded (CSGP)
- Monthly traffic: 30+ million unique visitors (2024 estimate)
- Listing tiers: Free basic; paid packages from ~$50–$500/month per property
- Syndication network: Includes Apartmentlist, ForRent, WestsideRentals, and more
- Best for: Mid-sized to large landlords (5+ units) in urban and suburban markets
- Key competitors: Zillow Rentals, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Zumper
How It Works
How the platform operates for landlords. Creating a free listing on Apartments.com requires a CoStar account and basic property details: address, unit count, rent, amenities, and at least one photo. Free listings appear in search results but receive lower placement than paid subscribers and show a standard contact form. Leads arrive via email or the listing portal. For small landlords with one or two units in less competitive markets, free listings often generate enough traffic to fill a vacancy within two to four weeks. The platform verifies listings to reduce fraud, which is a meaningful advantage over Craigslist.
Paid ILS packages and what they actually buy. CoStar's paid tiers for Apartments.com typically fall into three buckets. The entry tier ($50–$150/month) upgrades placement within search results and enables enhanced photography display. Mid-tier packages ($150–$300/month) add featured placement, virtual tour hosting, and access to renter analytics showing how many people viewed and saved a listing. Premium packages ($300–$500+/month) include top-of-search placement, lead management dashboards, and syndication priority across the CoStar network. Pricing is negotiated by market — a premium listing in Phoenix will cost differently than the same tier in rural Ohio — and CoStar's sales team actively contacts landlords managing 10+ units to discuss subscription pricing. The ROI case is straightforward: if paid promotion reduces a vacancy by one week in a unit renting for $1,400/month, the breakeven on a $300/month listing package is roughly ten days.
How Apartments.com compares to alternatives. Zillow Rentals reaches a similar audience through Zillow's home-search brand familiarity, and its free tier is more functional than Apartments.com's (Zillow includes a rental application and screening integration at no extra cost for basic listings). Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace cost nothing but attract a higher volume of unqualified leads and require more manual screening effort. Zumper and Apartment List are growing alternatives with apartment-focused audiences but smaller traffic footprints than Apartments.com. The practical approach for most landlords is to start with Apartments.com's free listing and add Zillow Rentals simultaneously — both are free at the baseline. Layer in paid promotion on Apartments.com if the market is competitive or if a unit has been sitting vacant longer than two weeks.
Real-World Example
Ingrid owns a 6-unit building in Columbus, Ohio. When one of her two-bedroom units turned over, she listed it for free on Apartments.com and Zillow Rentals the same day. Within five days she had received eleven inquiries through Apartments.com and seven through Zillow. After screening, she had three qualified applicants and filled the vacancy in fourteen days at $1,250/month.
Six months later, a one-bedroom opened in a slower leasing period — February. The free listing sat for three weeks with only four inquiries, none of which passed her income verification requirements. She upgraded to an Apartments.com mid-tier package at $180/month, which moved her listing into featured placement. Within nine days she had eight new leads, two qualified applicants, and filled the unit. The one-month cost of the paid listing was $180. The cost of an additional week of vacancy at $1,050/month would have been $263. She cancelled the paid package after placing the tenant.
Pros & Cons
- Largest audience of any rental listing platform in the US — 30+ million monthly visitors reduces time-to-fill compared to smaller platforms
- Free basic tier is functional and reaches a real audience, making it a zero-cost starting point for any landlord
- Verified listings reduce fraudulent inquiries and low-quality leads compared to Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace
- Paid tiers offer a clear ROI calculation: one week of reduced vacancy typically pays for a month of promotion
- Syndication network extends a single listing's reach to multiple third-party rental sites automatically
- Paid packages can be expensive relative to value in slower markets or small towns where organic traffic is sufficient
- CoStar's sales team is persistent — landlords managing multiple units should expect regular upgrade calls and email campaigns
- Free listings receive significantly lower placement than paid ones in competitive urban markets, limiting organic reach when it matters most
- Lead quality varies widely; Apartments.com does not screen inquiries for income or creditworthiness before forwarding them to landlords
- Annual contracts are common at the paid tiers — breaking mid-term is difficult and sometimes penalized
Watch Out
Evaluate your market before paying. The ROI of a paid Apartments.com listing depends entirely on your local rental demand. In tight markets (sub-3% vacancy rate), free listings often fill units fast enough that promotion adds little value. In softer markets or during off-peak leasing seasons (October through February), paid placement can meaningfully shorten vacancy. Run the math before committing: multiply your monthly rent by the fraction of a month you expect to shave off vacancy. If that number exceeds the monthly package cost, the promotion pays for itself.
Understand syndication overlap. Apartments.com syndicates to a network of partner sites, which sounds like a multiplier effect — but Zillow Rentals, Craigslist, and Facebook Marketplace are not part of that network. Listing on Apartments.com does not replace the need to post separately on Zillow. Many landlords assume their CoStar listing reaches everywhere; it does not. A multi-platform strategy (Apartments.com + Zillow + one free local platform) consistently outperforms any single-platform approach at the free tier.
Tenant screening is separate. Apartments.com funnels inquiries to a property manager or landlord but does not conduct credit checks, background checks, or income verification as part of its standard listing service. Paid tiers offer some lead-management tools, but screening remains the landlord's responsibility. Every lead that arrives through the portal still needs to go through your screening criteria before you schedule a showing — skipping this step because the platform is "verified" is a common and costly mistake.
Ask an Investor
The Takeaway
Apartments.com is the highest-traffic rental listing platform in the US, and its free tier is a mandatory starting point for any landlord filling a vacancy. Paid packages ($50–$500/month) make financial sense when the cost of additional vacancy days exceeds the promotion cost — which is often true in competitive markets or slow leasing seasons. Use it alongside Zillow Rentals for maximum free coverage, upgrade to paid when the math supports it, and always run your own tenant screening regardless of where a lead originates.