In the modern day, it's all about the dating sites. But a few years ago, personals sites were the places to go to meet that perfect someone.
One of the more frequented classified hotspots was Craigslist personals. The site was super popular and quickly became a place to find casual encounters, but everything changed in 2018 when an online sex trafficking act forced its way in and shutdown most of the big-name sites.
Ever since then, people who used Craigslist personals ads have been clambering for a replacement. Indeed, many alternatives came along, but very few lasted in the unforgiving world of hookup sites.
But some Craigslist personals alternatives still remain out there, and we've put together a long list of the best ones. Which ones will get people laid and which ones are just spam websites? Here's our guide to the best Craigslist alternatives to find casual encounters.
Adult Search's layout looks eerily similar to the old Craigslist personal ads, however, it's actually much better in every way.
The Craigslist casual encounters section was broken down by location and then further down by missed connections and then men searching for women, women searching for men, etc.
But Adult Search, a hookups site dedicated solely to casual sex, takes things a step further. Not only is the website broken down by location, but then categories become endless, allowing you to narrow down your choices a hell of a lot. Some example categories include sex clubs, adult stores, local orgies, massage parlors and brothels.
In addition to being a classic personal ads site, Adult Search is one of the premier websites for sex workers and their clients to find each other. You'll find a lot of ads from working girls peddling their services, so be aware that not every post on there will be hunting for a mutual casual encounter.
Regardless, Adult Search is still a populated, highly active dating website that mirrors CL in the best ways. There are no membership fees, it's available on both app and desktop sites and you'll no doubt have tons of fun on here.
Yumi isn't a classifieds site like Craigslist, but it's definitely a good place to meet people who want casual sex.
Like all great hookup sites, Yumi comes with an interesting gimmick. First of all, it's completely anonymous, so no one will know it's you doing the browsing. Second of all, Yumi introduces an interesting game of chance to your matches.
Once a day, you're given four 'cards.' Two of these cards will be people who've swiped right on you, and two will be people who haven't. You then have to choose two to turn over, and if you choose one or both of the women who swiped right on you, it's a match.
It might sound convoluted, but Yumi reports a significantly high response rate from its users, so it's certainly doing something right. The fact that it limits your matches means that people are more likely to put the effort in to make conversation.
Will you get hookups on Yumi? You certainly will. While it not might not have the sheer number of users that Craigslist did, there's enough footfall to make sure that you'll always be in a conversation thread with at least a couple of hot babes. That's a win in any language.
Personals ads sites don't come any more like Craigslist than Double List. This site pretty much picks up where CL left off.
Just like the old Craigslist personals section, people simply post listings with their basic details. Age, location and whatever they're looking for, whether it's a hookup, long-term sex partner, or just someone to sext with. You're then able to respond to the personal ads via email.
The personals categories take the form of local cities in order to help bring together men and women who are local to each other much easier. There's a personals section for pretty much every developed country in the world too. You'll have to reveal your real email address to whoever you're messaging, so there's not much anonymity on Double List. However, this isn't usually an issue for most people.
There's no worry about Double List going down the same route as Craigslist personals did. For a start, Double List doesn't allow any men or women to advertise for sex work (the main reason Craigslist personals died a death), so this hookup site is here to stay.
Unlike Adult Search and Double List, Classified Ads is just that - a classifieds site. It isn't restricted to solely finding casual encounters. You'll come across a lot on here, like used sofas, job listings, gig opportunities and more. It's got everything.
And of course, there's a personals section for hookups too. It works almost identically to Craigslist, with forums broken down by area, sexual preferences and hookups intentions. Making a post is free too, so you unless you're thinking of hiring one of the many sex workers who post here, you can put your money away.
Craigslist replacement sites don't come any closer than this, with it being almost indistinguishable in certain areas. Is it as good for hookups as Craigslist was? Absolutely. The casual encounters section of the website gets several million readers a day - mightily impressive numbers for dating sites in the post-Craigslist era.
If you want to get laid fast, this is one of the websites which will genuinelly make it happen. The app version of the site offers a video chat function to ensure the person on the other end is real too.
For casual encounters of a different type, try BDSM.com.
This site is essentially the kinky equivalent of the old Craigslist personals section. People are free to post anonymous listings as they see fit, then it's just a matter of waiting for the replies to roll in. It follows the old Craigslist model as close as possible, but offers a few interesting twists and turns along the way.
For example, you'll have to divulge some incredibly intimate info on here. One of the negative things about the old CL personal ads is that many ads were brief, so there wasn't much incentive for users to send the poster a message. No one wants to initiate contact with a post that doesn't reveal much.
However, BDSM.com changes that in a drastic fashion.
Any post you make requires your name, email, age, location, list of kinky interests, and a photo. For a personal ads site, this might seem a lot, but it's definitely worth it.
How does BDSM.com fair when it comes to sex encounters? Given that this hookups site is rife with kinky, sexually-charged men and women the world over, you'll find people, new friends and hookup partners without issue.
No, this isn't a personals website. But given that Facebook already runs half the internet, Facebook Dating makes a great place to go for a hookup or one night thing.
Facebook Dating is exactly like you'd expect it to be. It takes all of your FB information and compiles it into a nice, neat dating profile format to help sell yourself to that perfect someone. It works like a simple dating websites, scrolling through people until you find someone you potentially connect with.
A neat little advantage of FBD is that you'll be able to see all of your FB friends and acquaintances who also use the app. No one is spared. Whether it's your best friend, that weird chick from school who looks like Bill Skarsgård or your crazy aunt. You'll have to scroll past them all.
The one similarity that FBD has to Craigslist is that there's an option to post anonymous classifieds in case you don't want to reveal your dating intentions to your personal little section of the internet.
Oodle is another casual encounter page that resembles Craigslist to a spooky level, but it goes one step further than CL ever did.
One of the problems with the original Craigslist personals was that very few casual encounter posts had pictures with them. Messaging people without knowing what they look is totally a liability. When it comes to hookups, you need pictures. It's a simple truth. It might even be the most important thing of the whole process.
With Oodle, that problem goes away. Every post needs at least three pictures uploaded alongside it. So not only does this show you a true representation of your potential hookup partners, but it also helps reduce the number of fakes and scam users on the app.
Will you get laid on Oogle? While it doesn't have the large user base that CL did, there's plenty of opportunity to connect with that perfect person. The user base hovers around the 2 million mark, and although this number is spread across America, Canada and Europe, it's still good numbers.