List of Craigslist Personals Alternatives: Heres What Replaced The Casual Encounters Section Sex Classifieds
July 13, 2022
Craigslist Personals has been gone for years now, but the search for great personals alternatives continues. Plenty of websites have stepped up and now offer their own form of personals for casual encounters and sex classified ads. This article will list all of them along with descriptions, reviews, pros and cons, and the main features.
Best Craigslist Personals Alternatives and Online Personals:
With more than 80 million members, Adult Friend Finder is one of the world's biggest dating and hookup sites. Anyone over 18 can join and use the site to find dating partners and sex encounters. AFF has fewer bots and scammers than Craigslist because only paying members can interact. To join AFF and unlock all its features, consider one of the following membership plans:
1 month = $39.95
3 months = $26.95 ($80.85 total)
12 months = $19.95 ($239.95 total)
With your AFF membership, you'll be able to contact and interact with any member you fancy. You'll also get loads of other features not found on Craigslist, such as member's chat, blogs, erotic stories and model shows.
Some of the people who used to frequent the Craigslist Personals have since moved over to the sites' Activities section, though it's not geared toward relationships. Here, you'll see lots of call-outs for sporting events, book clubs and other lifestyle interests.
As of October 2020, the Activities section is barely active. (A search in the greater Portland area yields only six recent ads while the San Francisco Bay area has 19 posts). Occasional, a lonely guy will post an ad for a female activity partner. Mentions of sex are prohibited on Craigslist Activities and will get deleted. Your odds of finding a love connection here are nil.
Features
Localized search
Miles from Zip filter
Has Image check
Pros
Free
No clutter
Easy, anonymous
Cons
Little activity
Few love-seekers
Sex talk prohibited
3. BeNaughty - Casual Encounters Site Better than Craigslist Personals
BeNaughty is one of the more female-friendly dating sites with a favorable ratio for single men. The women here get to message men for free, which makes the entry price worthwhile. Unlike Craigslist, you don't have to click profile after profile to see photos of members who fit your search criteria. BeNaughty displays dozens of members at once, complete with Chat and Like buttons.
BeNaughty doesn't offer a free trial but you can test the site for three days for only $2.97. Or, you can take advantage of their discount packages:
1 month = $0.91/day
3 months = $0.51/day
6 months = $0.41/day
BeNaughty is not the most overtly sexual dating site but it's also not tame or vanilla. There is a flirty vibe to the profiles. If you give it time, you could find a dating or casual sex partner here.
Features
Profile thumb tables
Online Now, New Members tabs
Chat, Like buttons
Pros
Five free chats
Women message men for free
Discounts, bonuses
Cons
No free trial
Must sign up to browse
4. Ashley Madison - An Alternative that Blows Craigslist Personals Out the Water
Ashley Madison is the most notorious of all hookup sites. Long billed as a meetup site for wandering-eyed spouses, its members are mostly interested in casual encounters. Unlike Craigslist, most of the women here are genuinely down for hookups and sex, albeit discreetly (most of them are married, after all). Membership rates are as follows:
100 credits = $59.00 (59 cents per credit)
500 credits = $169.00 (34 cents per credit)
1,000 credits = $289.00 (29 cents per credit)
As an Ashley Madison member, you'll get to send and receive messages to your favorite matches. You can also send them virtual gifts. When you visit another town, use the sites' Traveling Man app to see which members are down for a hookup at the destination in question.
Features
Chat room
Traveling Man app
Virtual gifting
Pros
Pay with credits
Libertine, pro-sex community
Swinger-friendly
Cons
90% male
Purported fake female profiles
Iffy site security (past breaches)
5. Outpersonals - The Best Gay Personals Site for M4M
Outpersonals is a gay social site and online community with more than 250,000 members. Unlike other gay personals sites that emphasize the hookup factor, Outpersonals gives members a place to find others with common interests. The tone here is far classier and personable than Craigslist Personals.
To message other users and participate in Outpersonals' blogs and video chats, sign up for a Gold membership:
1 month = $29.96
3 months = $49.9612 ($16.65/mo)
12 months =? $119.96 ($10.00/mo)
For an additional amount, Outpersonals will let free members contact you.
Features
Video chat
Blogs
Wink/invitation functions
Pros
Community environment
Professional user-base
Interest groups
Cons
Long-term matchups rare
Server issues
6. Reddit R4R - The Subreddit Like Craigslist Personals
Reddit's R4R group is similar to the Craigslist Personals in that this too is a free dating forum within a larger site. Unlike Craigslist, subreddits are moderated. R4R has rules against spam and hate speech. All NSFW posts must be tagged as such. You cannot post personal info (phone number, email address) or exchange services for money or goods.
Though Reddit is all ages, this subreddit is strictly 18+. Launched in April 2010, R4R has 346k members as of October 2020. It's creators intended this place for people in search of dates, activity partners, soulmates and FWBs. Like Craigslist, unfortunately, R4R is plagued with spammers, bots, prostitutes and pimps. Locked threads are marked with a gold lock.
Features
Message feed
Sidebar links
Post flairs
Pros
NSFW posts allowed
FWB/hookup-positive
Free to join
Cons
Tons of locked posts
Flooded with spam
Connections rare
7. SeekingArrangement - The CL Personals Substitute With the Hottest Members
SeekingArrangement is a dating site designed for sugar babies and sugar daddies. This is nothing like Craigslist Personals, even if there were the occasional simps and gold diggers over there. If you're a sugar daddy (or mommy), the Premium membership fees are steep:
30 days = $89.95
90 days = $239.85 ($79.95/mo)
30 days (Diamond) = $249.95
As a Premium member, you'll get to unlock conversations, filter your inbox, hide your online status and boost your profile. A Diamond membership will raise your profile and boost your response rate. If you join as a sugar baby, you can get SA's cheaper Attractive membership:
30 days = $19.95
90 days = $44.85 ($14.95/mo)
You can also sign up for a free membership but you'll have to fill out two lengthy bios (400-character minimum). If you're a man, you're a sugar daddy by default. The lowest net-worth they'll let you choose from their mandatory pull-down is $100k.
For obvious reasons, SeekingArrangement has garnered lots of female interest. Despite its reputation as a simp-fest, members of the PUA community (John Anthony, Bradicus) have gamed the site and scored without spending a dime on these women.
Features
Thumbnail rows (new, online, college members)
Interests tab
Messages inbox/archive
Pros
Rich guys (sugar daddys)
Attractive young women (sugar babies)
Easy to game (according to PUAs)
Cons
Expensive Premium memberships
Lengthy signup process
Primarily for gold diggers and simps
8. Alt.com - BDSM Dating Site Raunchier than Craigslist Personals
Alt-com is a dating and hookup site geared for people into the fetish and BDSM lifestyles. Unlike Craigslist, which attracted everything from predators to squares, the Alt.com crowd is specifically into things like latex, whips, heels and other kinky stuff. The site has a Facebook-like layout, complete with user thumbnails, message feeds, site tabs and sidebar filters. Membership rates are a follows:
1 month (Silvers) = $19.95
3 months (Silver) = $35.97 ($11.99/mo)
12 months (Silver) = $99.97 ($8.33/mo)
1 month (Gold) = $29.95
3 months (Gold) = $59.97 ($19.99/mo)
12 months (Gold) = $149.97 ($12.50/mo)
With a Silver membership, you can send/receive messages, access the videos and use the blogs and groups. As a Gold member, you can add extra-large photos to your profile and access the ICQ, AIM, YIM and MSN ID's of members in your network. Gold members also show up at the top in searches.
Features
Location-based chat rooms
Kinky member videos
Silver and Gold membership tiers
Pros
Libertine/adventurous community
Sex/kink-positive
Savings on three and 12-month plans
Cons
80% male
Cam thots
9. Locanto - New Craigslist with Better Design and Features
Like Craigslist, Locanto is a classifieds site with numerous categories, including personals. Locanto started in Germany in 2006 but has since spread worldwide. Each major U.S. city has its own Locanto, which allows you to narrow your search for potential dating partners. Since it's a? classifieds site, Locanto is free to use.
Locanto sports a more professional design than Craigslist. When you click to respond to a message, you'll get a popup with safety tips, similar-interest links, a location map and a picture of the poster. You can sign up through your Google account and share Locanto posts on Twitter and Facebook.
As with the Craigslist Personals, Locanto's personals section is flooded with spam and scammers. A quick browse of the personals reveals lots of prostitutes and links to porn sites. While Locanto does maintain a blog for safe trading, nothing seems to be done to keep the personals clean. Despite (or maybe because of) this, the U.S. Locanto personals are popular among users in India.
Features
Follow User option
Social media share buttons
Safety tips
Pros
Free
Heavily trafficked
Uncensored
Cons
Spam-infested
Bots
Prostitutes
10. Doublelist - An Attempt to Replace CL Personals that Failed
Doublelist may look like craigslist personals, but don't let that fool you, the site is a ghost town. Like the now-defunct Craigslist Personals, Doublelist does get lots of escort spam and troll posts. People have even posted warning ads about being stood up by Doublelist users. Beware of blue-highlighted sponsored links, as these lead to third-party cam sites.
Doublelist has a shorter signup protocol than most dating sites. However, they do require a phone number to verify that you're not a bot.
Fetlife is a social media site for people involved in the fetish lifestyle. It's not a dating site but it does offer a community atmosphere. Fetlife sports a micro-blogging-style layout with a Tumblr-like posting feed and a Pinterest-style wall of captioned photographs and replies. Aside from the anything goes vibe, this is nothing like Craigslist Personals.
On the Explore page, you'll see tables of posts that you can filter by theme (friends, kinky, popular, pervy, etc.) If you're looking for a hookup, join Fetlife's Partner Finder group. You can also hit people up in your main feed but your odds would be the same as Instagram. To use the site without restrictions, become a supporter with one of the following plans:
6 months = $30 ($5/mo)
12 months = $60 ($5/mo)
24 months = $120 ($5/mo)
As a Fetlife supporter, you'll be able to perv all the videos and photos you like. You'll also get to perv backward through prior posts of the members in your friend feed.
Switter is a social media site that mimics the tweet-deck format of Twitter, hence the rhyming name. On Switter, the tweets are called toots. It's not a dating site but it does have an adult-oriented anything goes vibe. Switter is connected to Mastodon, a decentralized rival of Facebook.
The people on Switter mostly fall into two categories: sex workers and their fans. A lot of toots are advertisements for erotic services. Some of the accounts are run by cam sites and escort agencies. Despite the Twitter-like format, Switter is everything that Craigslist Personals became in its final years, a prostitute directory.
Unlike Craigslist, Switter has taken steps to rid its platform of fake ads and spam. As of October 2020, Switter has 339.6k users. Though it's not a dating site, there is nothing to stop you from tooting for hookups. As with Twitter and Craigslist, Switter is free.
Features
Tweet-deck (for toots)
Profile directory
Follow, re-toot, star buttons
Pros
Free to use
Uncensored
Sex-positive
Cons
Primarily for erotic entertainers
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