Best Craigslist Classifieds Alternatives

Craigslist is without question the largest classifieds website on the planet. In the US, its competitors are nowhere near it when compared using any critical metric, especially with the shutdown of Backpage. However, CL doesn’t maintain this healthy lead universally. For example, Kijiji is more popular in Canada and Gumtree is #1 in the UK.

That said, the implication of Craigslist’s dominance in the American classifieds space (after making mincemeat of print classifieds) is that most of its competitors do not have an expansive reach across the US. In the big cities and metropolises, this may not be a dealbreaker, but elsewhere it can be a frustrating limitation. In any case, it is unavoidable and is something to keep in mind when surfing through Craigslist classifieds alternatives.

1. Classified Ads

The first thing you’d note on visiting Classified Ads is its rich color palette. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to CL’s mundane sea of black, white, and blue. The colors are easy on the eyes and you’d really find the site enjoyable to use.

CA supports the usual suspects—real estate, jobs, autos, general items for sale, services, and community. However, it also sports a dedicated pets category and a personals section. The latter is noteworthy as Craigslist has closed theirs, and the new FOSTA/SESTA law does spell doom for the section on classifieds websites in the US.

Compared to CL, search isn’t excellent. You don’t get the multiple parameters to better refine a search on real estate for example. But it tries to make up for it by making ads look a lot better for great viewing in contrast the wall of text you get with CL ads.

To wrap up, Classified Ads did try to make a push for mobile with an iOS app back in 2017, but it didn’t really catch on. Reach is decent in most locations in the US, and CA is also available in CA, UK, AU, Mexico, India, and the Caribbean. It doesn’t have much of a presence in Europe, the Middle East, or Africa; unlike CL.

2. eBay Classifieds/Kijiji/Gumtree

eBay is famous for its auctions (heck, when Omidyar founded the site, he called it AuctionWeb). However, eBay has grown to be a lot more than a site for auctions, it also offers “Buy It Now” shopping like Amazon, and has its tentacles in other verticals.

One such vertical is classifieds, eBay has built a mini-empire with brands they directly own under the eBay Classifieds Group subsidiary, such as the well-known Kijiji and Gumtree, and other classifieds sites where they own stakes such as Quikr (popular in India).

In the US however, eBay’s classifieds ambition has had to undergo several iterations. They made a heavy push with the Kijiji brand in 2007, then rebranded to eBay Classifieds in 2010. At some point, they jumped on the classifieds mobile app train with Close5. It showed huge promise but it wasn’t meant to be. eBay Classifieds was shut down in 2016 and Close5 in 2017.

Today, eBay has fully integrated classifieds listings in its main website, which might come as a surprise to some. It doesn’t appear as though they’d have another go at a standalone classifieds service in the US in light of their history. However, outside the US, they definitely are going strong.

3. Niche Listings

One of CL’s biggest draws is that it is one stop shop for classifieds in general. This is nice and convenient, but it also implies that there are niche classifieds sites that are just as great, if not better, but are more laser focused.

Niches have varying competitiveness and this would influence the number of classifieds/listing sites and marketplaces in the niche. That said, there are remarkable niche alternatives for most of the major categories on Craigslist—from real estate behemoths such as Zillow to local business directories such as Yelp.

For what it’s worth, some niches do have sub-niches with their respective listing sites. A good example is the jobs niche with industry-specific job listing sites.

4. OfferUp

As mobile slowly becomes the primary medium through which much of the population access the Internet, classified ads mobile apps are falling over each other to seize the opportunity. This is doubly so in the US where Craigslist has adamantly refused to modernize by introducing an app. Instead, they’ve stuck with making a mobile site version, which admittedly works since the site is lightweight and basic.

That notwithstanding, there is a market for classified mobile apps, and OfferUp is one of the major players in this space. Granted, OfferUp also operates a standard website, but they are popular for their easy to use app. Furthermore, it encourages transparency, such as optional third-party identity verification or linking to a Facebook account, to mitigate security concerns.

Download OfferUp on iTunes or Google Play.

5. Oodle

Oodle isn’t only a classified ad site, it tries to one-up CL by being a classifieds aggregator. In fact, it is the largest classifieds aggregator on the web. As a result, you get an extensive trove of ads from other major and local listing sites.

You’d need an account to post new ads (you may sign up with your Facebook account). It has an advanced search functionality like CL. However, unlike CL, it also has a Personals section.