Roomster® 5M+Downloads

Review by eFreeware

Roomster is built for anyone whose housing search runs through other people: renters hunting for a room in a shared flat, newcomers moving to a city they don't know, students, and people with a spare room or sublet to fill. The pitch is straightforward. You search listings and roommate profiles, filter by what matters to you, message the people behind them, and arrange a viewing without leaving the app.

That combination is the reason to consider it over a general classifieds board. A classifieds site treats a room as a listing; Roomster treats it as a match between two people who have to share a kitchen. Since 2016 it has accumulated more than 5 million installs and sits at a 3.3 average from just over 36,000 ratings, which is worth keeping in mind as you weigh the marketing against the experience.

This review walks through the two main jobs the app does, the setup it asks of you, and the kind of user it fits. It's free to download, carries no ads, and offers in-app purchases.

Finding a room in a city you don't know

The core search covers rooms, apartments and co-living spaces across more than 190 countries, and the developer describes the pool as millions of listings. In practice that breadth is the app's strongest argument. If you're relocating for work or study and you have a target city but no network there, a searchable pool with filters for location, budget, amenities, lifestyle and move-in date gives you a starting point that doesn't depend on knowing someone who knows someone.

The filters matter more than the raw count. Budget and move-in date are the two constraints that kill most housing searches early, and being able to apply both before you spend an evening reading listings is the difference between browsing and searching. Lifestyle filters are the softer, more interesting half: they let you narrow toward people whose habits and routines resemble yours rather than simply toward a price range.

Alerts extend this past the first session. When a new room or roommate matches the criteria you set, the app notifies you, which suits a search that runs over weeks rather than an afternoon. Anyone who has watched a good room disappear while they were at work will understand why that matters.

Judging a roommate before you meet

A room can be photographed; a future housemate can't. Roomster's answer is the profile, which is where you describe your lifestyle, preferences and what you're looking for, and where you read the same from other people. Photos, habits and interests are all part of what you review before deciding whether to take things further. The quality of that information is the whole game here, and it depends on how much effort both sides put into filling it out.

Verification of this sort is never a guarantee, but it's a meaningful filter when you're deciding whether to reply to a stranger about a room in their home.

Messaging happens inside the app rather than by email, which keeps a search involving several conversations in one thread list instead of scattered across inboxes. From there you can schedule a viewing or keep talking to get a feel for the person. The app is the introduction; the viewing is still yours to judge.

Filling a spare room or sublet

The app works in both directions. You can post your own room, sublet or spare place with photos, a description and availability, and let people come to you. For anyone holding a lease with a room going empty, or leaving a flat mid-term and needing someone to take it over, that turns the search around: instead of filtering a market, you're publishing to one.

The same filters that help you search help the people looking at your listing, and the same in-app chat keeps the inquiries together. The developer's claim of reach across 190-plus countries is most useful in this direction, since a listing is only as good as the number of people who can see it.

The practical catch is that posting a listing doesn't remove the work of choosing. You still read profiles, message back and forth, and decide who you'd actually want sharing your space.

What setup looks like

Getting started follows the shape you'd expect. You create or update a profile covering your lifestyle, preferences and what you're after, then search for rooms or roommates using filters such as location, budget and move-in date. From a listing or profile you open a conversation in the app and arrange a viewing.

The profile is the part worth taking seriously. Since matching leans on the details you provide, a thin profile gives the app little to work with, and the same applies to the profiles you're reading.

The free download carries no ads, and in-app purchases are available if you want the advanced features the developer mentions.

Where Roomster fits and where it doesn't

Roomster suits the renter whose search involves sharing: a room in an occupied flat, a co-living space, a sublet, or a flatmate to split costs with. It also suits the person on the other side of that transaction, holding a room or a lease they need someone to take on. If your search is a city you know well, in a market where listings move through local networks, the app is one channel among several rather than the obvious first stop.

The 3.3 average across more than 36,000 ratings is the number I'd weigh most carefully. Broad reach and a large listing pool don't guarantee that any individual market is well covered, and a global app can feel sparse in a smaller city. Treat the app as a way to widen your search rather than as a replacement for the local routes you already have.

It's also a tool for people who will do the follow-through. The app introduces you to someone; it doesn't assess the flat, the lease or the person for you. Anyone expecting the matching to do the deciding will be disappointed, and anyone willing to message, ask questions and visit will get more out of it.

A practical first stop for shared living

Roomster earns a place in a housing search when sharing is part of the plan. The combination of a large international listing pool, filters that cover both the hard constraints and the personal ones, in-app messaging and the ability to post your own room covers the whole loop of finding a flatmate or a room. It's free to download, ad-free, and the developer's recent work suggests the app is being kept up rather than left alone.

The caveats are the ones that come with the category. Matching is only as good as the profiles on both sides, the 3.3 average suggests a mixed experience among the people who've rated it, and a global pool doesn't guarantee depth in every city. Go in ready to message, ask questions and visit in person, and the app does the job it's built for.

If your search runs through people rather than listings, this is a reasonable place to start.

What's new in version 1.1.118

This week, we fixed some important issues in the app besides other exciting upgrades. - A new email validation feature so users can validate emails easily and fix typos, - Enhanced security features for safer roommate matching - Bug fixes, stability improvements, and fewer crashes We are always working hard on improvements to make finding your next home even easier. Please continue to send your feedback to [email protected]. We appreciate it!