Despite high rents and low numbers of public transit riders, San Jose made Vocativ’s list of the “35 Best Cities for People 35 and Under.”

The city’s No. 26 ranking comes with the usual comparisons to San Francisco, which is much further up the list at No. 3. Many of these comparisons are favorable, however.

“Unfairly overlooked when it comes to California cities, San Jose is a terrific alternative for those who want to work in tech and find San Francisco too pretentious or expensive,” the vocativ.com write-up reads in part.

To compile the list–or “livability index,” as Vocativ calls it–the news website used open-source Internet data to measure vital statistics of the 100 most populous cities in America. While San Jose’s stats are at both ends of the spectrum–the city ranked 16th in overall appeal but 95th in demographics–Vocativ’s researchers acknowledge that it still needs to work on its public image.

“San Jose ain’t the coolest place around, but the Willow Glen and Santana Row neighborhoods offer walkability and cool shopping, respectively,” states the write-up.

Willow Glen’s walkability added to the city’s appeal rating, which also included the percentage of sunny days per year and the number of violent crimes per 100,000 people a city sees.

Shopping, cool or otherwise, wasn’t explicitly tracked in the index, although San Jose ranked 51st in entertainment and 22nd when it came to the cost of a night out. The former category arguably measures cities’ “coolness factor,” weighing the cost of an AMC movie ticket, the number of annual music festivals each stages and how many pro sports teams call each city home. The latter category is all about the Benjamins–or the Jacksons, as the case may be–as it takes into account the cost of a beer, an ounce of marijuana and dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.

San Jose may be a cheap date, but its residents make up for it in what they pay for housing. The city ranked 69th in that category, based on average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment, the cost of cleaning services and how much San Joseans shell out on average to maintain their wifi connections.

Still, as Vocativ points out, “though rent is expensive relative to the rest of the country, it’s a lot cheaper than in San Fran,” which came in at No. 99 in housing.

San Francisco’s demographics are arguably more favorable than San Jose’s for the 35-and-under crowd. The city by the bay ranked 49th in that category, which took into account U.S. Census data on the median age and ethnic diversity of the cities in the index, as well as the percentage of singles ages 18-35 and of LGBT individuals residing therein.

The lifestyle gap between North and South Bay residents is evidenced in how they choose to get around. San Francisco ranks 10th and San Jose 98th in that category, which includes the percentage of the population using public transit, cab fare for a 5-mile ride and the cost of a gallon of gas.

To check out the Livability Index in full, visit bit.ly/35list.