Sites Like CraigsList Personal (2024) – Costs & Features

So in today’s article, we are going to explore sites that you can use as an alternative to Craigslist Personals and to an extent BackPage as well.

If you are from the United States, no doubt, you know that many people posted on the personals section of these websites looking for hookups (like BeNaughty or Ashley Madison).

They did this as an alternative to dating apps and hookup apps as a way to quickly find like-minded people in their areas for adult dating.

And many people used them, from swingers, those looking for kink and fetish partners, people wanting a one-night stand, sex workers, those into kinky sexting and other casual encounters and casual sex. 

I guess here and there you’d find people looking for long-term relationships as well (like eHarmony or Tinder).

But while most of these personal ads were above board, there were scammers too.

Not only that, but classified sites like this became targets of the criminal underworld, including those into both sex trafficking and more.

And for that reason, both Craigslist and Backpage personals ad sections were shut down.

So in this article, we will look at:

So let’s get the ball rolling.

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Switter

Ratings

• Signing up – 4/5
• Making contact – 3.5/5
• Profile quality – 3/5
• Overall quality – 3.5/5

Pros

• It’s free
• It works just like Twitter
• It’s pretty active

Cons

• No app

Demographics

So what is Switter?

Well, this is a website that’s clearly similar to Twitter based on the name alone.

But while Twitter doesn’t want anything to do with nudity and online sex, Switter is all for it. 

And of course, it can be used as a substitute for CraigsList personals otherwise we wouldn’t feature it here, now would we?

The thing is, Switter is pretty hush-hush. When you look at things like user base and overall numbers in that regard, it’s impossible to find anything online, even though I searched for hours.

Whether you can find like-minded people near you like you would on a dating website for casual dating is going to be pretty hit and miss depending on your location.

But if you are into online hookups, well, Switter can certainly help. 

Ease of Use “mobile and website”

At this point, you can only sign up for this social media classified website via your desktop browser.

There is no app for it yet.

To sign up, you will need to provide an email address, password, and username.

Verify your mail and the registration continues with a tutorial as to how this Craigslist alternative works. 

Once that’s done you are taken straight to the Switter homepage and yes, it looks pretty similar to Twitter.

You will notice three main viewing panels.

The one on the left includes your profile as well as the message area where you can type messages of up to 500 characters. 

You can even add pictures and videos or make a poll if you’d like. 

The middle panel is just like Twitter and you can view all other posts here.

Obviously, you need to find people to follow to have anything show up here.

The right panel includes various menus like favorites, bookmarks, direct messages, and settings.

There are also two other important menus: local and federated. 

Local is the most critical of these because it will show posts of people near your location.

Think of it as the closest thing to a Craigslist personals ad list. 

Of course, just like Twitter, you are going to find spammers and fake profiles here but it’s not too bad at all.

While Switter doesn’t have chat rooms. you can choose to follow people on your local feed and then send them a direct message. 

Other than that, pretty much every ad you will see will include the phone numbers, Snapchat, email addresses, and even YouTube channels.

Many of the people you will find on Switter are sex workers but not all. 

There are other running persona classified ads but you’ve got to search a little for them.

I guess it’s all about what you are looking for. 

And no, I didn’t find anyone wanting a serious relationship.

It was just hookups that’s all.

In terms of using the site, well you can follow users that you would like to.

If they have their DMs open, then you can send them messages.

Or just like Twitter, you can “sweet” them. 

Of course, if you do that, all the people who follow your account can see what you say, so bear that in mind.

And yes, be careful of scams because no doubt, some dubious people will use Switter to catch others. 

Switter Pricing

Not a cent!

Switter is totally free to use.

FAQ

Overall Rating

No doubt, for what it offers, this is an excellent substitute for Craigslist personals. 

Is it the best site to replace it?

Well, that’s up to you to decide.

It’s free and it has personal ads just like CL personals. 

It really is an alternative site you should probably try out to see if it works for you.

It scores 3.5 out of 5. 

Locanto

Ratings

• Signing up – 5/5
• Making contact – 4/5
• Profile quality – 3/5
• Overall quality – 4/5

Pros

• Localized personal ads
• It’s free

Cons

• Some spam advertising can be found here

Demographics

Locanto is one of those sites that’s perhaps the closest thing to Craigslist personals, more so than a dating site like Tinder might be. 

Locanto claims over 1 million people have used their personal ads.

That’s a pretty impressive number, right?

In terms of gender ratio and user age ranges, well that information is just impossible to get.

Ease of Use “mobile and website”

To use Locanto, you will need to register as a user first.

That process is pretty simple.

In fact, far more simple than one would expect.

All you need to do is come up with a username and provide a valid email address.

I guess this isn’t a dating site, so that determines that the registration process doesn’t have to be too involved.

Once you have verified your email address, you are free to place your advert but you will need to provide a few more bits of information.

This includes:

• Nickname
• Full Name
• Password for the site

From there you are taken to your profile.

Now you can easily post ads, see ones you have favorited from other users, read messages you receive, see your followers and who you are following, upload a picture and fill in an About Yourself section.

Now let’s talk about the website itself.

It’s really well designed and looks pretty slick, which is nice.

You can easily pick your location from the home screen as well as seeing all the various ad categories the site caters towards. 

Of course one of them is the personals section.

Click on that to see thousands of personal adverts.

You will notice on the left-hand side of the screen, you can refine the various categories, which is useful.

Those that you will find here are:

• Long term relationship 
• Casual encounters

Both have LGBT options while the casual encounters section has multiple separate sections.

This includes:

• Fetish
• Transgender
• Virtual
• Couples
• Swingers

You can even adjust your searches.

For example, you can search for specific terms, ads with pictures only, and also age ranges.

It’s pretty nifty and like a dating site in many regards. 

When it comes to posting an ad, nothing could be easier. 

Locanto Pricing

While you can use Locanto for free, it does have a premium user account.

This adds the following features:

• Online status
• Premium label
• Notifications
• The chance to respond to reviews
• See who follows your accounts
• No ads

 And that just costs $2.95. 

Ultimately, it’s not really necessary to sign up for a premium account at all which essentially makes Locanto free to use. 

FAQ

Overall Rating

If you are looking for free personals like Craigslist and you aren’t interested in trying out a dating website, then Locanto has you covered.

I love the fact that registration is super fast and that you even have a profile that can receive messages.

It’s just such a simple system to use and it’s all-inclusive too.

Locanto is clearly popular with thousands and thousands of personal ads from locations all over the United States.

It scores a rating of 4 out of 5. 

No Strings Attached

Ratings

• Signing up – 4/5
• Making contact – 2.5/5
• Profile quality – 4/5
• Overall quality – 3.5/5

Pros

• Close to 2 million Americans have profiles on this site
• Pricing is well thought out

Cons

• It’s not the most well-designed website
• Membership is needed to message others

Demographics

Well, the name gives you an idea of what this website is all about, right?

Yep, this is for hookups and casual dating.

There is little chance of finding someone here who is looking to settle down.

Of the over 3 million users who have registered on No Strings Attached over half come from the United States.

Currently, around 20000 new members join the site as it continues to grow since its inception way back in 2006.

One negative, however, is an unbalanced gender ratio, well depending on your gender of course. 

It currently sits at about 2:1 in favor of males.

Around 30% of users are between the ages of 25-34 years old but the user base is well spread.

For example, 22% of users are 55 and older.

That’s a fair proportion for a group that’s usually the smallest on most dating sites.

Ease of Use “mobile and website”

Let’s examine the registration process for this site.

It’s kept pretty simple initially but once you’ve verified your email, you will need to set aside around 10 minutes to fill in parts of your profile.

This includes highlighting the types of hookup encounters you are looking for.

That’s the kind of information that’s useful to find on someone’s profile without having to ask them.

It helps you not waste time reaching out to a potential matchup who isn’t looking for the same thing you are. 

Overall the site is pretty simple to navigate but cluttered.

A lot is going on here in terms of advertising, menus, live streams, and more. 

It took me a while to acclimatize but it’s not a difficult site to figure out.

The menu system is bulky with nine different menus to help you navigate the site.

For me, that could easily be cut down but I can confirm that many of these menus give you access to live streams and videos.

Other menus, like seeing who has visited your profile could have been a secondary menu rather than a standalone one.

The most important menu, however, is the search menu.

It’s from here that you will launch your own searches for the best possible hookup. 

As a regular user, you can include a few parameters in your search.

This includes

• Your preferred gender
• What their relationship status is 
• The kind of meetings they are interested in (virtual or face to face)
• Age range matchup returns should be
• Distance from your location

Advanced search filters are available to regular users and are a feature only for those prepared to take out membership on the site.

One of the weaknesses of the site wat the fact that you cannot view profiles of other users unless you are a member.

And messaging?

Well, you probably could guess that it’s a feature for members only as well.

While this does seem a little strange, the strong user base and fair pricing make No Strings Attached a worthwhile hookup site to try out. 

No Strings Attached Pricing

As a member of the site, we’ve seen that both profile viewing and sending messages to other users are only for members.

Should you take out a membership, you will also have access to advanced search options, get to see who has viewed your profile, watch webcams and videos, and more.

As for pricing and membership options, I think they’ve missed a trick on this site by not offering a trial membership.

That said, when compared to many other hookup sites, No Strings Attached isn’t that expensive.

Here’s what you can expect to pay:

• 1-month – $29.99
• 3-months – $59.95 ($19.99 per month)
• 12-months – $150 ($12.50 per month)

If you think the site can work for you, then the three-month package makes the most sense to me.

FAQ

Overall Rating

No Strings Attached isn’t a massive hookup site like Adult Friend Finder but it’s solid enough.

With a good, strong user base and competitive pricing when it comes to membership, it is easy to see why almost 2 million Americans use this site to find their hookups.

It scores a rating of 3.5 out of 5. 

Adult Friend Finder

Ratings

• Signing Up – 3.5/5
• Making Contact – 3/5
• Profile Quality – 4/5
• Overall Quality – 3.5/5

Pros

• It has a massive database of users
• Inclusive for all
• It’s a very active dating site

Cons

• Far more male users than female users (around 4:1)
• Messaging is for members only

Demographics

Adult Friend Finder is probably one of the biggest hookup sites on the planet.

In just the United States alone, it has over 50 million users.

So even if you aren’t living in a major city, the chances are you can find a hookup near your location if you try this website out. 

Ease of Use “mobile and website”

AFF is all about getting a potential user online… and quick.

To do that, the registration process is pretty streamlined and although you will fill in some parts of your profile, it really only takes around five minutes in total. 

Listen, Adult Friend Finder isn’t going to win any design awards, that’s for sure.

But it’s an efficient website that’s easy to use and gets results.

If it didn’t it really wouldn’t have such a massive user base, now would it. 

So how do you go about finding your matchups?

Well, of course, you can search for them using the search engine.

This is simple to use and allows you to adjust several different parameters to fine-tune your searches to bring in the matchups you want. 

But don’t forget, on the AFF homepage you will also be presented with potential matchups that the site suggests. 

These are based on your preferred gender, age-range and will be located near you.

They are more than worthy of your time.

Reaching out to them is going to need a membership to the site, however. 

Adult Friend Finder Pricing

While Adult Friend Finder is a bit more expensive than some other hookup dating sites, it does come with extras that they might not have.

Over and above the fact that you can message other users, taking our membership also allows you to use chat rooms, watch live streams and adult movies, and more.

Here’s a breakdown of membership costs on the site:

• 1-month: $39.99
• 3-month: $80.85 ($26.95 per month)
• 12-month: $239.40 ($19.95 per month)

Again, the three-month membership is your best bet here if you don’t mind paying a lump sum and you can justify the fact that you would use the site for that long. 

FAQ

Overall Rating

One of the top hookup sites on the planet, Adult Friend Finder makes the best Craigslist personal replacements.

The main reason is the fact that its massive user base.

You’ll find more users here looking to meet up so no matter where you live in the States, the chances are you can find someone, just like you would have on Craigslist.

For a rating, AFF scores 3.5 out of 5.

Conclusion

These are just some of the Craigslist personals alternatives for you to consider.

Alternative websites that are similar to Craigslist and BackPage alternatives as well include Oodle and Classifiedads.com

Other dating sites to consider are Grindr (for gay hookups), BeNaughty, and Ashley Madison.

But finding the best alternative?

Well, that’s really going to be up to the individual. 

Just know that there are Craigslist personals replacement sites out there or a dating site will do just as well for you too.