Craigslist used to have a personals section, which was popular for hookups and casual encounters. However, after an anti-trafficking bill was passed by the US Congress, they shut it down. Why? Because the new law made sites used by traffickers partially responsible if something happened to their users.
Classified sites like Craigslist offering ads for casual encounters and personals at large are often unable to police their sites. Even if they do, it’s sometimes impossible for them to know if a user has malicious intent. As such, they decided to close down the Craigslist personals section and focus on their other sections.
For everyone legally using a popular site like Craigslist for personal ads, this was obviously a setback. Thankfully, there are new craigslist personals alternatives for casual encounters. Below you find a list of craigslist dating hookup sites and classified ads places, as well as other websites where you find something similar to Craigslist personal ads.
Known as a giant in the adult dating niche, AdultFriendFinder is a worthy replacement for Craigslist. With over 100M members worldwide you won’t be lonely for long.
While many sites focusing on casual encounters keep it to that and only that, Adult Friend Finder offers a global community for those looking to get naughty. Here you will find, in addition to the traditional “create a profile and search and find other members” an active community of people who post status updates, blogs, livestreams, partake in group chats, and so forth.
Craigslist’s personal ads were a lot more traditional in nature than what AdultFriendFinder is (an ad’s an ad—it’s keeping it simple), but if you enjoy adult dating, this is a great Craigslist replacement.
You can join as a single person, a couple, or a group. What’s more, all genders are welcome, as are all sexual orientations.
Ashley Madison was the first (well-known) site for those discreetly looking for extra-martial affairs. Today, they also offer a home to a lot of those in the polyamorous community, as well as anyone looking for a fling. Still, the main focus of the site has remained “discreet affairs.” And it’s a pretty big site with over 17M members in the United States alone.
Unlike certain sites, such as AdultFriendFinder, where some people are only looking for online interaction, Ashley Madison is very much about people actually hooking up in real life. You can even set up planned trips in your calendar so as to meet people where you’re going.
Seeking Arrangement is a site for sugar daddies and sugar mommas looking for sugar babies. This could be for long-term relationships, hookups, friendship, and so forth. You stipulate the terms. The important part is that you state those terms up front—Seeking Arrangement promotes transparent dealings when looking for a partner of any kind.
On Seeking Arrangement you can get verified—including a criminal background check and checks for domestic violence claims. So if you want to stay safe, then this is the place to be. Of course, you have to look out for the verified badges—not all members are verified. When you sign up your profile first needs to be approved, on the other hand.
You will find over 10M members worldwide at Seeking Arrangement, so there’s no shortage of members! Bear in mind that this is a site where looks or money matter—you generally need one or the other. It’s an interesting replacement for Craigslist if you’re looking for a sugar daddy/momma and sugar baby arrangement though and one of the best sites on the market.
Alt is a site for the alternative sex community, if you so like. The site focuses on BDSM and welcomes both new and experienced members. Some are into other fetishes than BDSM, so if that’s you, have a look around the site to see if you can find likeminded members.
Not only does Alt have about 80k active members every week, it also supplies you with lots of tools to get to know them. The profile can be filled in as detailed as you like—including what kinks you have, how experienced you are and so forth. There is a “purity” meter showing how naughty or pure you are! You can also see a compatibility chart when viewing another profile.
You can sign up as a person, couple, or group.
Amongst Craigslist personals alternatives, the profiles on Alt are certainly worth mentioning. They are a lot more detailed and the site can be incredibly fun to use for those looking for casual encounters and kinky sex.
OutPersonals is not a site with classified ads, like the Craigslist personals, but rather a gay dating site for the LGBT+ community. It’s mainly a site for casual encounters, as opposed to relationships.
OutPersonals only has about 300k members with a couple of hundred members active at any one point. If looking for a replacement for Craigslist, you might be disappointed as the community is small. However, it seems decently active.
You can create a profile (which will be reviewed by staff from our understanding), upload photos, voice notes and videos, make contact by searching for members and sending winks and messages. There’s the opportunity to do video chatting on the site.
Oodle has, as of today, over 18,000 personals listed on their site. However, that’s not to say that there are a lot of new posts every day. The site is significantly smaller than Craigslist, but if you’re looking for something similar to Craigslist personals, you’re in luck. The look and feel is very similar.
Oodle, is, as mentioned, a classified ads site so if that’s the vibe you’re looking for, then it’s a perfect replacement for Craigslist. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for security, or privacy, Oodle isn’t great. Ads aren’t vetted and plenty of scammers and spammers have been reported to use the site.
Gumtree is yet another classified ads site. It’s massive in the UK, Australia and South Africa and its popularity is growing elsewhere. However, if you’re looking for Craigslist style personals ads, you won’t find them here. So if looking for casual encounters, this site is a no go. If, on the other hand, you want to meet people for language swaps and the likes, Gumtree offers a community section for this.
Compared to Craigslist, Gumtree’s design is positively outstanding. While Craigslist certainly offers a “no fluff” experience, Gumtree has been updated to the 21st century, while Craigslist still looks like it’s always done. Which, possibly, forms part of its charm.
Locanto is a reasonable sized new craigslist personals alternative site which, unlike some other such sites, lists the cities it’s currently active in. This is helpful, as other sites just cater to the US, but your ad might be the only one in your state…
Locanto is very much like Craigslist in that anyone can post an ad. Here the focus is on casual encounters for the most part. Looking at the ads, some seem genuine, others don’t. Use your judgment.
Locanto like so many other classified ads sites has some horrible reviews as there are always some scammers and spammers using the site. Still, Craigslist and Gumtree have the best reviews of the classified ads site on this list.
Reddit is another new craigslist personals alternative site, as well as a forum where people can start various threads (and now livestreams) to discuss specific topics. With 52M daily users, there’s no shortage of people here.
The Dirty Redditor is one thread on Reddit where you can find other users looking for chats and hookups. As Reddit has a lot of users and this particular thread has 500k members, there’s a lot of activity. If you want to meet someone eager to chat, this is a good place to go. Many are also looking for casual encounters but, of course, finding someone in your area might be a bit more difficult—depending on where you are.
If you’ve never used Reddit for casual encounters before, it can be a fun thread to check out.
Hoobly is another classified ads site, so if you’re looking for Craigslist personals that are similar in style, then have a look.
Again, as with most classified ads sites, there are spammers and scammers using Hoobly. On the other hand, it also has a lot of happy customers. Most sites like these use algorithms to try to prevent scammers, but unless they are in direct contact with and vet them all, it’s not possible to catch everyone. Also worth noting is that the algorithms sometimes prevent legit ads from being posted.
If looking for traditional personals, use Hoobly, but tread carefully.