For many people, Craigslist is the first site we load when we’re trying to buy a new car, sell some old furniture or find a new job — and if you know how to navigate it, it can be a great resource. Craigslist also has a bad reputation for being a haven for malcontents and other dangerous individuals, even murderers.
If you want to find a new car without ending up on the evening news, here are a few sites better than Craigslist that you should definitely consider trying out.
1. Facebook Marketplace
If you load your Facebook app on your mobile phone, you have probably seen the icon for the Marketplace — a small icon that looks like a market stall. This is a fantastic little tool and one of the top sites better than Craigslist you can use to both buy and sell items locally.
It uses your phone’s location to show you things that are being sold locally and allows you to contact sellers directly through Facebook.
It’s a bit safer than Craigslist — while there is nothing stopping someone from making a fake Facebook account, buying and selling through the Facebook Marketplace gives you a paper trail to protect yourself if need be.
2. Gumtree
When it comes to international sites better than Craigslist, Gumtree is for the U.K. what Craigslist is in the United States. Gumtree has started spreading out into other countries like the U.S., New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore.
This site offers most of the things that Craigslist does — buying and selling, home rentals, job listings and the like — but doesn’t have any personals section. Don’t expect to find your next hot date through Gumtree.
3. Penny Saver
Penny Saver has been around since before the internet. You’ve probably seen or handled one of these print ads at least once.
It has grown with the times and has moved onto the internet, so now you can simply log onto its website to post an ad, find a job or search for a new car. If you want to host your advertisement, you can’t go wrong with Penny Saver — the site gets over a million visitors every month.
4. Roomster
Finding a roommate on Craigslist can be hit or miss. You could find a great roommate who is quiet and pays their part of the utilities on time, or you could find yourself rooming with someone you didn’t expect — and not in a good way.
Roomster is a home-sharing website that makes it so much easier to find a roommate. Not only can you post your room for free, but you can also verify that your potential new roomie is who they say they are because the site allows them to integrate their social media.
5. Trovit
Let’s face it: Craigslist can be a hot mess when it comes to finding what you’re looking for. That’s why Trovit has broken its listings down into three categories: cars, jobs and homes. This is a global site as well, so whether you’re looking for a car in Kansas or a home in Timbuktu, you’ve come to the right site.
6. CasualX
Craigslist has killed its Personals section due to new laws designed to prevent sex trafficking, but that doesn’t mean you have to go back to trolling the bars to find your next one-night stand.
CasualX is an app that allows you to find other individuals looking for a casual encounter, with more security than you would ever find on Craigslist’s personals. Each profile is approved manually to weed out fake profiles, scammers and other dangerous individuals.
7. USA Today
This might not sound much different from paying to put an ad in your local newspaper, except your local paper definitely doesn’t have the same reach as USA Today. The website alone gets 102 million visitors a month.
If you’ve got something to sell, this is the place to put it. The classifieds on the USA Today website have categories like careers, business, automotive and real estate. It’s also a nationwide paper, so if you’re looking to move to a new area, this is a great place to start your new home search.
8. Glassdoor
If you’re looking for a new job, you don’t just want to find a classified ad. In today’s economy, you also need to look into the culture of the company to see if it will be a good fit for you.
Glassdoor lets you do that. Not only does the site host job listings from around the country, but it also allows current and former employees to review their employer. This gives you a great, if biased, idea of what working for the company might be like before you ever click that “apply” button.
It isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but that doesn’t mean it’s your only option for buying, selling or job hunting online. Check out some of these sites better than Craigslist before returning to the site.
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