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The best dog crates for small apartments (2026)
By Chris Y. · One dog, one apartment, a tape measure and a chest girth chart
Image: Diggs
Buy the Diggs Evolv. It is the only crate here whose maker publishes a full exterior figure for every size — the Medium is 31.7 by 21.4 by 22.2 inches — and the only one that converts to an open pen and then collapses flat, which is the difference between a crate that owns a corner and a crate that borrows one.
A crate in a one-bedroom is a furniture decision before it is a training decision. The number that decides it is not the crate length printed on the box; it is the rectangle the crate occupies with its door open, in the only place the room has for it.
Three things separate the six crates below: what the maker publishes about the footprint, whether the door swings into the room or rolls up over the crate, and what the thing does on the days you need the floor back. Three of the six — two MidWest crates and the Petmate — publish nothing at all about width and height on their own product pages, and that is written into their rows.
How to shop for a dog crate for a small apartment
The footprint, not the crate length
Crates are named by length — a "36-inch" crate. The width is what a hallway or a bedroom wall actually rations, and it runs from 18 to 32 inches across this page for crates sold under nearly the same name.
Where the door goes when it is open
A hinged 36-inch door needs about two more feet of clear floor in front of it, every time. A roll-up door stows over the crate and needs none, which in a small room is worth more than any other feature on this page.
Interior inches, published by the maker
A dog needs to stand without ducking and turn without folding. Exterior dimensions include the frame, the pan lip and the door hardware, so an exterior figure overstates the space by two to three inches in each direction.
What it does when it is not in use
A wire crate folds to a few inches thick. A furniture crate never gets smaller and never will, which is the trade you make for a crate that can hold a lamp.
Whether the maker publishes anything at all
Two brands here name the crate by its length and publish no width or height on their own product page. That is a disclosure problem, and where it happens the row below says so rather than borrowing a number from somewhere else.
Best overall
Image: Diggs
Diggs Evolv Dog Crate
Expensive, and the only one that collapses
Model
Evolv Medium (MCC002A30A); five sizes from Small to Extra Large
Footprint
31.7 × 21.4
Dog size
30–50 lb
Doors
2 doors
Crate weight
29 lb
Reasons to buy
Diggs publishes exterior inches, crate weight and a dog-weight band for all five sizes, which no other brand on this page does
Converts to an open pen and then folds flat, so the crate stops being furniture on the days the room is needed for people
Diamond-shaped mesh and nylon-coated steel instead of the straight bars and welds that make a standard wire crate loud
Dual locks on each door, which Diggs describes as preventing the crate being opened from the inside
At 29 lb the Medium is heavy enough to stay put and light enough for one person to move to another room
Reasons to avoid
Costs about five times the wire crate below it, for a dog that may be crated for eight months of its life
Diggs lists the Extra Large as unavailable on its own store as of September 12, 2026, so the biggest size may mean waiting
The claim that matters is on Diggs' own page: the mesh is "designed to exacting standards to protect paws and jaws from injuries typically associated with wire crates". That is a real answer to a real failure mode, and no other maker here makes any safety claim about its bars at all.
The reason it wins a small-apartment guide rather than a crate guide is the collapse. A 31.7 by 21.4 inch rectangle is a lot of a small bedroom, and this is the only crate that gives it back in about a minute rather than requiring a friend with a van.
Not the right fit if you want the floor space for the least money — the MidWest iCrate costs a fraction of it and folds nearly as flat.
MidWest Homes for Pets iCrate, 36-inch Double Door
Cheap, everywhere, and vague about its own size
Model
36-inch double door; seven lengths from 18 to 48 inches
Footprint
36 × 23
Dog size
41–70 lb
Doors
2 doors
Included
Divider panel, leak-proof pan, roller feet
Reasons to buy
Seven lengths — 18, 22, 24, 30, 36, 42 and 48 inches — so a 12 lb dog and a 70 lb dog are both catered for in the same product line
The divider panel is in the box, so one crate covers a puppy at 15 lb and the same dog at 60 lb
Folds flat in seconds without tools, which matters more in a rental than in a house
Reasons to avoid
MidWest's own product page publishes no width or height for any size — the crate is named by length and nothing else, and the 36 × 23 inch figure above comes from the retail page for this model rather than from the maker
Two hinged doors mean two door arcs to plan around, and the 36-inch front door needs roughly two feet of clear floor
This is the crate most dogs in most apartments end up in, and it earns that on price and on the divider panel. One purchase covers the whole of a puppy's first year, and it folds to something you can slide behind a wardrobe.
Not the right fit if the crate has to live in the living room where people can see it — the New Age Pet InnPlace is a side table with a dog in it.
New Age Pet ECOFLEX InnPlace Dog Crate & End Table, Small
A real side table that a small dog sleeps in
Model
EHHC40x Small; four sizes, four colors in the line
Footprint
23.8 × 18.2
Dog size
Up to 20 lb
Doors
1 door
Warranty
10-year limited
Reasons to buy
New Age Pet publishes the interior — 21 by 15.4 by 18 inches — and the door opening at 11 by 16 inches, which is the pair of figures that decides whether a 20 lb dog fits through and turns around inside
ECOFLEX is a composite of recycled polymers and reclaimed wood fiber that the maker describes as impervious to moisture and odor, so a puppy accident does not end the furniture
A 10-year limited manufacturer warranty, which is longer than most dogs spend being crated
Reasons to avoid
Up to 20 lb is a real ceiling on the Small, and the three larger sizes get expensive quickly
It never folds, never shrinks, and weighs enough that moving it is a two-handed job
The InnPlace is the answer to the specific problem this site exists for — a crate in a 700-square-foot flat is visible from everywhere, and a wire box in the corner reads as a kennel no matter what you drape over it. This one reads as furniture because it is furniture, with a solid top and a 10-year warranty.
Read the interior figure, not the exterior one. Twenty-one inches of internal length is a small dog's crate and nothing more; a beagle needs the Medium and a labrador is not in this product at all.
Not the right fit if your dog is over 20 lb and you still want wood — the Horizon is the same material in three larger sizes.
MidWest Homes for Pets Ovation Single Door, 36-inch
The door rolls up instead of swinging out
Model
Ovation single door, 36-inch; five lengths from 24 to 48 inches
Footprint
37.25 × 23
Dog size
41–70 lb
Doors
1 up-and-away
Included
Divider panel, leak-proof pan, carrying handle
Reasons to buy
The patented Up and Away door is a garage-style roll-up that stows over the crate, which MidWest describes as eliminating the need for the extra space a swing-out hinged door requires
That is roughly two square feet of floor you keep, permanently, in the one spot where a crate is usually hardest to place
Same divider panel, leak-proof pan and folding frame as the cheaper iCrate, so nothing is given up to get the door
Reasons to avoid
Costs roughly two-thirds more than the iCrate of the same length for what is, mechanically, one door
MidWest publishes no width or height for the Ovation either; the figure above is from the retail page for the 36-inch model
This is the crate for the wall you cannot give up. In a corridor-shaped bedroom the door arc is the whole problem, and a roll-up door is the only mechanical answer to it on this page.
Not the right fit if budget decides it — the iCrate is the same crate with a hinged door for much less money.
Wood, a long-side door, and no published weight limit
Model
EHDHZ64 Medium; three sizes, two colors
Footprint
31.97 × 23.07
Dog size
Not published
Doors
1 long-side
Warranty
10-year limited
Reasons to buy
The door sits on the long side rather than the end, so the crate can stand flat against a wall and still open into the room
Twenty-nine inches of interior length and 23.6 inches of interior height, published by the maker, which is a genuinely roomy medium crate
Same ECOFLEX composite and 10-year warranty as the InnPlace, with stainless steel spindles rather than painted bar
Priced the same across all three sizes on New Age Pet's own store, so the Large and X-Large cost no more than the Medium
Reasons to avoid
New Age Pet publishes no recommended dog weight for the Horizon at all, in any size — you are sizing on interior inches alone
Furniture-weight, so it goes where it goes and stays there
The Horizon is the crate to buy when a medium dog has to live in a room people sit in. The long-side door is the detail that earns it — the InnPlace and every wire crate here open off the end, which forces the crate to stand proud of the wall.
I would still want a weight figure. The interior is generous enough that a 45 lb dog is plausible on inches alone, but a maker that prints a 10-year warranty and no holding weight is asking the buyer to guess about the one thing that matters.
Not the right fit if you need it out of the way some days — the Evolv is the only crate here that collapses.
Ultra Vari Kennel 28-inch (21551); six sizes from 21 to 48 inches
Footprint
Not published
Dog size
Not published
Doors
1 squeeze-latch
Interior
24.25 × 18.25 × 19.5 in
Reasons to buy
Petmate publishes interior dimensions for all six sizes and nothing else, which is the opposite of everyone else here and far more useful
Solid plastic walls with metal side vents make the darkest, quietest crate on this page, which is what an anxious dog in a noisy building needs
An interior floor moat keeps a dog out of anything spilled, and the shell hoses down in a way fabric and wire never do
Tie-down strap holes and a shell that Petmate says meets most air travel requirements, so the apartment crate is also the crate that flies
Reasons to avoid
Petmate publishes no exterior footprint and no dog-weight band for any size, so the outside rectangle has to be measured at the retailer
Only the 21-inch and 28-inch sizes include a handle; every larger size does not
Two-piece plastic shells are bulky to store — this is the least storable crate here
A plastic kennel is an unfashionable answer that suits a specific dog — one that settles better in the dark and startles at everything passing the window. The 28-inch gives a small-to-medium dog 24.25 inches of interior length in a shell that muffles a corridor.
Not the right fit if you want something that looks intentional in a living room — the InnPlace and Horizon are furniture.
Every dimension on this page is quoted from the manufacturer's own published product page or spec sheet, on September 12, 2026, and each source is linked at the bottom. Where a maker publishes nothing — MidWest for width and height, New Age Pet for the Horizon's weight band, Petmate for exterior size — the row says "Not published" rather than borrowing a figure from a retailer and presenting it as the maker's.
Two figures on this page do come from a retail page rather than the maker, and both are marked in the pick that uses them. Every retail link was opened and checked for a live buy box on the same date; two crates that were shortlisted were dropped for failing that check and are named in the rejects below.
The verdict
Best overall: the Diggs Evolv, because it is the only crate here that publishes a complete size table and the only one that collapses when the room needs the floor. That combination is what a small apartment actually asks for.
Best for the least money: the MidWest iCrate, which covers a puppy and an adult dog out of one box and folds flat, and which I would buy without hesitation if the crate lives somewhere nobody sits. Best if the crate is visible: the New Age Pet InnPlace for a small dog or the Horizon for a medium one. And if the room has exactly one wall for a crate, the Ovation's roll-up door is worth its premium over the iCrate on its own.
Measure the dog nose to tail base and add about 4 inches, then measure floor to the top of the head sitting and add about 3 inches, and buy the smallest crate whose interior beats both. Interior is the word that matters — the Petmate 28-inch has a 24.25 inch interior, roughly four inches less than its name suggests.
How much floor does a crate really take?
The crate plus its open door. A 36-inch wire crate with a hinged front door needs about 36 by 23 inches for the crate and roughly two more feet in front of it, so the honest figure is closer to 36 by 47 inches. The Ovation's roll-up door removes the second number entirely.
Is a furniture crate worth two to five times a wire crate?
If the crate has to stand in the room you entertain in, probably. The New Age Pet crates add a solid usable top and a 10-year limited warranty; a wire crate adds a divider panel and folds to a few inches thick. They are answers to different constraints, not the same crate at two prices.
Which crate is quietest for an apartment?
The plastic Ultra Vari Kennel, because solid walls and a single latch have nothing to rattle. A wire crate with a plastic pan is the noisiest; the Evolv's nylon-coated mesh sits between the two.
Also considered
Richell Wooden End Table Crate — The medium had no buy box at Amazon on September 12, 2026, and richellusa.com has no cart of its own — only a "Where to Buy" page. Richell publishes excellent figures (31.1 × 25 × 24 inches exterior, a 21 × 18.6 inch door opening, up to 44 lb) and none of that helps if it cannot be bought today.
Frisco heavy-duty crates — Chewy's house brand has no manufacturer page publishing interior dimensions, and Chewy returns an automated-access error to every request, so no figure on it can be checked against a maker.
