It’s not often that an app based on a website is better than the actual website itself, but in the case of craigslist.org, its design is so spartan that almost any wrapper provides a better interface. The CraigsPro iPhone app is a vast improvement over the craigslist website and provides the customizations and features that makes “craigslisting” more efficient and enjoyable.
For those who are not familiar with craiglist.org, it is a website for listing classified ads, personals, jobs, and discussions. The CraigsPro app gives you the content of the craigslist website minus the discussion forums. This app focuses more on the craigslist marketplace.
When you do a search for an item or topic of interest, you will see a listing of matching search results. Instead of the minimalist and 1990s-style layout of the craigslist search results, this app presents the results in a more useful format with price very clearly labeled, a summary of the ad details, location information in a consistent location, and a small thumbnail photo of the item.
The format is similar to the search results on eBay, but with an even more aesthetically pleasing presentation. If you tap on an item, you’ll see the full details and the contact information of the seller. When you go back to the list, your position is retained and you’ll see a green checkmark on your item to signify that you have already browsed it. Items can also be bookmarked as a favorite so that you can quickly go back to it and even add notes to it.
For situations where there are many items and you want to browse more quickly, CraigsPro provides a view called Photo Wall which cuts out many details and shows up to nine items with their thumbnail photos. Nine items doesn’t sound like much, but on a small screen this is invaluable.
Searches can also be saved. This saves you some time in typing, but also acts as a way to keep track of the items that you search often. The app can also execute your searches while it is closed and alert you to new listings that match your search criteria. This is not a trivial feature to implement, so the developers charge for the notifications. You are given 50 free notifications and when they run out you can buy more notifications from within the app. This can run out quickly as notifications can come several times a day for each of your saved searches. Notifications are not instantaneous either so you may miss out on items that are highly coveted.
CraigsPro also makes it easier to list items for sale. You are required to establish an account on the craigslist website beforehand though, but that makes managing your postings easier and any serious craigslister would do that anyway. The main advantage with this app is that you can upload your pictures directly from your iPhone instead of having to download them and then manually upload them. That’s a huge timesaver if you have many items to list and photograph.
There are still some bugs in the app, but updates come out fairly frequently and the developers are focused on details that make craigslisting easier. Some of those features were not covered in this article.
The version reviewed in this article is CraigsPro+, which sells for $1.99 and is ideal for daily users and addicts. There is a version of CraigsPro without the plus which sells for $0.99, and there is a free version that shows ads.
[etRating value=“ 4”]
