For many, many years, Craigslist has been the best and easiest website for finding a free table to pick up or scoring an apartment in your choice neighborhood.
However, nowadays there are plenty of other free online services that do just as good of a job.
This website is mostly dedicated to selling on Craigslist, but I have to be realistic and admit that there are other great places to buy and sell your stuff.
Other options mostly have a more attractive interface & not as many spam posts, too.
They may not have the huge number of listings or comfort of using Craigslist, or even the option to pay with Bitcoin (just be very careful if using that option!).
But other classified kind of sites do provide a fresh audience and additional options not offered on other websites and apps.
Check Out These Craigslist Alternatives
So if you’re just looking for a used laptop to buy or want to post an ad both online and in print, here are the best choices for Craigslist alternatives for online classified ads.
Facebook Marketplace
Facebook Marketplace has actually been around for a long time. However, the giant social media company relaunched the feature late in the year 2016.
Obviously, you will have to have a Facebook profile and account to use it, but it lets buyers & sellers interact in the Marketplace through their Facebook profiles.
This helps add a name — and usually a face — to the listing, a little different from the “anonymous” Craigslist format. Facebook Marketplace is available through the Facebook app, too.
Just pick your personal filter options and then search in your local Marketplace up to 100 miles from your current location. It is also a popular place for advertising rental properties, so check it out if you’re looking for a new place to live.
Letgo
Letgo is arguably one of the best user-friendly classifieds websites I’ve seen, and the mobile app — available on both iPhone and Android devices — is pretty straightforward and easy to use.
Different from some other choices out there online, you will unfortunately have to have an account to use Letgo.
After you’ve logged in or signed up, you can easily snap a pic of the item(s) you want to sell and set your price (or you can use the “negotiable” option).
Similarly, you can shop for stuff available on the site or app with its most basic search tool & filtering options.
OfferUp
Similar to Letgo, OfferUp is sort of new and has a really nice app available for both iPhone and Android phones.
One of my favorite features is the “haggle” option. For buyers, this lets you try to negotiate a lower price with the seller.
Also, you can keep an eye on specific items with the convenient “watch” feature. If an item hasn’t been sold after a few days, you might be more confident asking the seller to lower their price for the item you want to buy.
OfferUp also allows people to rate each other using a simple 5-star system, enabling people to buy & sell online more confidently.
Etsy
Etsy has come a long way since it was founded in 2005. Originally envisioned as an online marketplace for crafters and hobbyists, Etsy has since grown into a sprawling market for all types of goods, including home goods, toys, clothing, vintage items (items must be over 20 years old), antiques, original artwork and materials for crafting projects.
Sellers pay just 20 cents per listing to list their items on the site, with a 6.5% transaction fee taken from the sale price. For shoppers looking to purchase items from this convenient ecommerce site, Etsy’s easy-to-use search options and checkout tools make purchasing quick and easy.
Poshmark
As a way to both reduce environmental waste and update their wardrobe affordably, people are turning to Poshmark for buying and selling used clothes & accessories. From Nike, Calvin Klein, Coach, Chanel and more – the app has hundreds of popular brands for sale. With over 80 million community members across three countries (U.S., Canada and Australia) and close to 200 million items available in total – you’ll never run out of things to buy or sell!
Posting an item only takes a few minutes – simply upload an image with the price that you’d like the product to be listed at. Poshmark also makes it incredibly easy for sellers by offering free addressed labels too! No need to even leave the house – just select which option best fits your shipping needs; either having it picked up for free or dropping it off at a USPS mailbox.
Locanto
Locanto is sort of a copy of Craigslist but with a much better and modern interface.
The search options should be very familiar to veteran Craigslist users. But on Locanto, they have nice menus, search bars, and buttons that make the whole buying and selling experience much more enjoyable than Craigslist’s small outdated text.
You can search by product, your state, your city, popular hashtags, and more. You can also set search alerts for items you really want to find and buy.
Also, the “Post Free Ad” choice is simple and easy to use if you want to create an account or log in with your Google account. Similar to Craigslist, there are a lot of options to find everything from jobs & events to personals and homes and apartments.
Remember DVDs and books? You can also find those on Locanto, too.
Mercari
If you’re mostly wanting to buy & sell stuff, then Mercari is a product listing app that lets you ditch all the unnecessary extra stuff and focus more on buying and selling.
The features and design of the app — and the website — are amazing.
And Mercari makes things a lot easier with a fast shipping system that expands the amount of potential customers you can reach.
Yes, unfortunately, they have a 10% selling fee. But the extra functions they offer makes their website worthwhile to use.
On the buyers’ side, it is a nice place to find cheap used tech items, discounted clothes, and many other things for sale.
Recycler
Recycler is interesting. It lets people create “ads” for their products & list them at different prices. Active across the U.S., you can put the city or town of your choice and then specify the distance you want to search.
These types of choices make Recycler.com very simple to use. Quickly, you can navigate through a lot of clear categories and sub-categories to find what you want.
It’s also easy to set price ranges, or just search by a major city if you prefer to do that. A lot of businesses and companies will advertise their used products on the website, too.
With each ad, you can pick to either save or — with registered users — immediately contact the ad owner to get more info.
I also like that the site design lets you move through ads very fast when you’re searching for the right product.
Also, Recycler.com pairs with a network of print publications spread throughout the United States, which allows you to place the same ad online as in their print circulation.
Their list of publications is somewhat limited, but ad exposure for your products is still ad exposure.
Use the Best Alternative Craigslist Sites
There are many alternatives to Craigslist, depending on your needs. If you are looking for a more organized platform, try Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist itself. If you are looking for a more niche audience, try Etsy or Letgo. If you are looking for a more local audience, try OfferUp. Whatever your needs, there is likely an online selling platform that will fit them.
Know of other lesser known sites or your favorite online selling app or website? Let me know in the comments below!
Awesome recommendations!
OfferUp is pretty cool and easy to use.
I sold a lot of stuff with Facebook. Mostly old baby toys and clothes.