List of Sites That Replaced Craigslist Personals (Local Sex Classifieds)

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1. Adult Friend Finder (Best Adult Dating Site)
2. Alt.com
3. Out personals (Gay Dating)
4. Ashley Madison ( Sex Affair and Dating)
5. Passion (Sex Affair Site)
6. No String Attached
7. Adult Sex Finder (Adult Dating App)
8. Get it On
9. Cams (Adult Sex Chatting Online)
10. Horny Dating ( Personal Hookup and Dating)

Besides, personals ads are so dated! Craigslist Personals is dead, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other places to get your kicks online. Whether you want hookups, strippers, sexting… whatever.

Maybe it’s time to search for a modern site that offers personal ads, dating, and matching, and yes, the free or low-cost dating service that once attracted people to Craigslist.

In this discussion, we’re going to discuss 16 Craigslist Personals alternatives that have the best Craigslist-like features and a thriving community of users just like you.

Let’s go!

Who gets the top spot? Our research determined Adult Friend Finder was the top choice because it combined the best of all worlds.

The online dating and hookup site had a professional ads section, classified ads, personals, and chat, sex workers like webcam girls, social media, and a fetish search.

Still, these 16 Craigslist personals alternative sites are all featured in this guide!

1. Adult Friend Finder - Best casual encounters site overall

2. Ashley Madison - Good for men seeking women

3. Happn - Good for women seeking men

4. Adult Search - Find people stripping

5. DoubleList - Horniest platform

6. DoULike.com - Underrated dating app

7. Bedpage - Great hookup site

8. Seeking - Sugar daddies & sugar babies

9. ClassifiedAds - Missed connections personals site

10. Personals Oodle - Dating website aggregator

11. Switter - Best site to fight online sex trafficking

12. Locanto - Varied personals section

13. BoldPersonals - Threesomes, groups & many people

14. BeNaughty - Date like-minded kinksters

15. Grindr - Find gay sex right now

16. OutPersonals - Gay craigslist alternative website

Adult Friend Finder has always been the alternative option to Craigslist, and for many years, people preferred CL over AFF because of the cost.

However, Adult Friend Finder has retained its community for over 20 years and now counts over 106 million members.

The site offers everything from chat and dating, to webcam fun, fetish forums, a social network, and blogging. You can do everything that Craigslist offered, and yet isn’t a ghost town like Craigslist.

Adult Friend Finder is a thriving community where you can enjoy personal ads, searches, and a fun social aspect that other sites do not.

Pros

• Local matches, fetish search, chat, camgirls

• Free preview

• Great for swingers & orgies

• Many couples & singles

Cons

• High premium membership

Ashley Madison is our runner-up because of its 60 million members as well as the availability of the app/site all over the world. Craigslist was well known for having plenty of “married but looking” users and that’s precisely why Ashley Madison was created.

We don’t condone cheating, but AM is basically designed for that.

The site offers you total privacy and discretion, with the option to blur or mask your photos for protection. It’s actually a better Craigslist experience than the real Craigslist, given its extra community features, as well as its safeguards for users.

Pros

• Discreet married fun

• Blur or mask your photos

• Browse profiles for free

Cons

• More men than women on the site

Happn delivers the “Missed Connections” feature of Craigslist in a way that’s unique to the app experience. If you ever cross paths with a cute person but don’t get the chance to speak to them, you can just check the Happn app.

If you’re both members of Happn, you can leave each other messages and talk about what might have been. It’s cute.

Pros

• Like Craigslist’s “Missed Connections”

• Find stuff in common based on crossover locations

• Both users have to like each other to chat

Cons

• App-only

If you appreciated Craigslist’s organization, especially regarding the organization of states and cities, then you will feel right at home on AdultSearch.

You can search locally or even in big cities all over the world.

The company is actually lax compared to Craigslist and allows all sorts of adult ads, though it specifically says that it does not allow spam.

Pros

• Search all over the world & locally

• Cracking down on spam

Cons

• Just as seedy as CL, with limited moderation

DoubleList forces you to sign up immediately upon entering the site. But after that, it’s all the Craigslist action you remember, with sex hookup ads, easy posting, and casual encounters sections.

There’s also a “connect now” feature to search for local users online. Unlike CL, the site has a chat option on-site.

Pros

• Easy to use, browsing and posting

• Caters to multiple genders and preferences

• Couples and groups

Cons

• Requires a phone number

• Lots of spammers

DoULike.com is the best Craigslist experience that’s exclusively made for a mobile phone or tablet. The operation is similar to Tinder but has a unique algorithm all its own.

You can also filter your searches and matches, search locally, or widen the search to big cities across the U.S.

Pros

• Algorithm matching

• 80% of profiles verified

• 3 million members

Cons

• More Tinder knockoff than Craigslist replacement

Bedpage is not only similar to Craigslist but even the abandoned site Backpage. With sections for adult jobs, dom/fetish, TS and strip clubs, it’s definitely Craigslist’s hornier cousin.

However, there are also platonic and business sections not adult-related, so it may appear a bit more innocent if it comes up on your search history.

“Oh, I was just doing business stuff.”

Pros

• Lots of sex, BDSM, adult jobs, strip clubs

• Search cities all over the world

• Sign in with Google (maybe not the best idea)

Cons

• No auto-matching

Seeking is designed primarily for Sugar Daddies (and Sugar Mamas) who want to give nice things to Sugar Babies in exchange for companionship.

“Companionship” often leads to other things, but everyone is different.

Unlike many other sugar dating platforms, Seeking caters to men and women, gay or straight, and even fetish matching like threesomes and the like.

If you’ve got money to bid on a date with a gorgeous sugar baby... go for it!

Pros

• Sugar matching, male or female

• 4-1 female to male ratio

• Bid on dates with sexy sugar babies

Cons

• Caters to very wealthy users

ClassifiedAds.com has the Craigslist layout going for it, with local business and community ads. You can also find personal ads for casual dating and LGBT dating too.

We love inclusivity!

The site even has Missed Connections, a staple of Craigslist, which refers to moments you might have had with a stranger that you never got to follow up on. Second chance, maybe?

Pros

• Missed Connections section like Craigslist

• Automatically searches by location

• Community features

Cons

• Lots of ads overwhelm the site

PersonalsOodle definitely feels like Craigslist 2.0, with its combination of photos, clickable ads, and a preview of the profile text on the first page.

The site actually directs users to other websites where these profiles originated from and a signup screen.

Ah.

So basically, PersonalsOodle is a sort of compiler of profiles across the web. It’s not as convenient as it sounds, but it has potential for sure.

Pros

• Photos on the front page

• Filter your local search or niche keyword

• Sort by date, location, or best match

Cons

• More aggregator than dating site • Lots of ads

Switter offers you something provocative for sure, with sex work friendly postings for camgirls, models and the like.

The site takes care of all its users and has a close-knit community of sex-positive users.

I mean, it’s basically Twitter for sex workers. Maybe “Switter” is a portmanteau of “Sex” and “Twitter”? The enigma continues.

Pros

• Sex-positive

• S376,000 members

• SPowered by Mastodon’s larger network

Cons

• No preview without registration

Locanto allows you to see U.S. classified ads, but only in major cities.

The free listing site offers all sorts of personal ads including long-term relationships, same-sex relationships, casual encounters, transgender dating, and more.

The keyword search tool is very handy if you’re looking for something niche or specific - just make sure you’re near a major US city!

Pros

• Community ads, personals, and services

• Follow users based on postings

• Search keyword niche or location

Cons

• No photos on the front page

BoldPersonals certainly gets bold with its diversity of personal ads, including casual dating, fetish and Dom/sub dating, LGBTQ dating, and threesomes.

You’re spoiled for choice.

Unlike other Craigslist imitators, BoldPersonals gets rid of the other community aspects and fast-forwards to the sex, as we all would prefer. There are also rants & raves and missed connections too.

Pros

• Kink searches, threesomes & BDSM

• Photos/headlines on front page

• Leave comments on profiles

Cons

• Some empty niche pages due to lack of postings

BeNaughty is all about flirty singles and getting the custom dating experience you want. You can feel free to be super erotic in your ads here - that’s the whole point.

Whether you want a soul mate or an FWB, or even a specific body type, the site offers searches, chat rooms, LGBT dating, senior dating, ethnicity search, and round-the-world personal ads.

Pros

• Search by sexual preference & body type

• Easy to use the website & mobile app

• Dating blog and advice section

Cons

• Spammy

• Limited free preview

Grindr is already the top free app for gay casual sex, and it also has options for bisexual, trans, and queer people looking for a date.

This app is the #1 gay hookup app for a reason!

Grindr Unlimited offers a no-limits plan as far as swiping goes. Find dates based on those closest to your location, share photos, chat, and filter your search wherever you are in the world.

Pros

• LGBTQ matching

• Find guys closest to you

• Free version is pretty good

Cons

• Location searching requires premium account

OutPersonals focuses on the gay community all across the United States. With over 300,000 members, it’s one of the more successful new dating websites.

Like Craigslist, which always had an active gay community, the site offers ads, photos, email, and free registration. However, it also offers extra perks like video profiles and online chat.

Pros

• Over 300,000 users & member blogs

• Video profiles, chat, email

• Search as individual, couple, or group

Cons

• Relatively small community

What happened to Craigslist personals? More importantly, why did people like it and where is the “new Craigslist” with all the sex and dating that you’re looking for?

Let’s talk about our post-Craigslist dilemma.

You may know the story. Craigslist originally had personal ads but was so bombarded with prostitutes that it removed the listings entirely.

The site would later attempt to bring back some of that action with “Missed Connections” and “Activity Partners” but as most Craigslist users will tell you, the place is dead.

Sad.

Nowadays, the only thing you’re going to find on the site are spambots, weird horny people, and the occasional human being (that doesn’t like you very much).

That’s hardly inviting, considering the thriving community you can find elsewhere on some of these dating sites and hookup apps!

The bigger issue is what about Craigslist worked and where can we find it today. Craigslist was popular because:

1. It was free

2. It used the same old-fashioned “personals ads” approach

3. It was local - usually the same town or city

4. It was mostly anonymous

5. It was simple!

The good news is that many sites give you the same features, but with a brand new look.

While many sites try to mimic the minimalist Craigslist layout, we’re more interested in the community aspect.

Our research showed that Adult Friend Finder and Ashley Madison had the most active communities, the most sex, and the most anonymous communication.

One of Craigslist’s worst mistakes was having no particular filter (besides community members flagging posts they didn’t like). Having no rules allowed spambots, prostitutes, and creeps to overtake the site, chasing off the quality singles that might have been interested in posting.

Not cool.

Modern dating sites disqualify spammy profiles and try to keep everyone honest. Badly worded profiles, politically incorrect profiles, and anything that reflects poorly on the whole site will be filtered out.

Still have questions about using dating sites? We have all your top questions answered.

Some websites require a phone number, but not all of them. A lot of the dating apps and hookup sites will just require your credit card if there’s a premium paid-for service.

Oddly enough, Craigslist now requires a phone number when posting an ad - even if you are shouting out to a ghost town.

No one’s claiming that Ashley Madison and AFF are free of all fake profiles. There probably are some there, since these are the most popular dating sites in the world. Assume that there will be a small number of fakes popping up every now and then.

You can avoid fakes by blocking them, ignoring their spam comments, and reporting suspicious profiles to the dating app staff. Also use common sense, be cautious, and try a reverse image search or look people up on social media.

Never share personal information. Stick to your user name and proceed cautiously. As you gain trust with new friends, keep your family and friends in the loop. Meet in a public place when you decide to go out for the first time and tell someone where you’re going.

It’s perfectly reasonable to run a criminal record search and or sex offender search on anyone you’re considering dating, especially if you have loved ones to protect.

We determined Adult Friend Finder had the largest following, the most unique features, and the friendliest community for newcomers. It’s great if you’re into hookups, sex parties, threesomes, and a whole range of wild stuff.