The best Facebook Marketplace alternatives, country by country

In mainland Europe, the local leaders do the same job: Kleinanzeigen in Germany, Leboncoin in France, Marktplaats in the Netherlands, Wallapop in Spain and Subito in Italy.

Why look beyond Facebook Marketplace?

Marketplace is huge, free and right inside an app most people already have. Those are also its weak spots for buyers. You need a Facebook account. The results are ordered by an algorithm, mixed with sponsored listings and items that ship from far away. And because almost anyone can list anything in a minute, scammers are there in numbers.

An alternative usually wins on one of three things: a category it does better (cars, rentals, clothes), a crowd that uses it more where you live, or a simpler, quieter way to browse. It rarely wins on sheer volume, which is why the most practical answer is often “as well as”, not “instead of”.

Facebook Marketplace vs Craigslist

Craigslist is the original online classifieds site and still the busiest Marketplace rival in many US cities.

Where Craigslist is better for buyers

• No account needed to browse, and the seller never sees your profile.
• A plain, list-style search, without sponsored listings or a feed deciding what you see.
• Still strong for cars, free items, tools and furniture, and for buyers who don’t use Facebook.

Where Marketplace is better

• More listings in most areas, so more choice and better prices on common items.
• Seller profiles with history and ratings, so you can judge who you’re dealing with.
• Messaging that is quick and keeps a record inside Messenger.

The trade-off: Craigslist tells you less about the seller, so the old rules matter more. Meet in public, look before paying, and never wire money or buy gift cards for a stranger.

Facebook Marketplace vs OfferUp

OfferUp is a US app built around local buying and selling. It absorbed letgo’s US marketplace in 2020, so in some cities it is the second-largest local market after Facebook.

Where OfferUp is better

• Trust tools built in: seller ratings, an identity check called TruYou, and secure in-app chat that keeps your number private.
• Community MeetUp Spots, listed in the app, for safer handovers.
• Many items can ship through the app, which helps for things you can’t find locally.

Where Marketplace is better

• More listings in most places, especially furniture and household items.
• No separate app or sign-up if you already use Facebook.

If you live in a big US city, check both for the same search. For anything over a few hundred dollars, the second site often has the better-priced copy.

Facebook Marketplace vs Gumtree

Gumtree is a long-standing classifieds site in both the UK and Australia (run as separate sites).

In the UK, Gumtree is good for furniture, cars and local services, and you can browse without an account. Marketplace usually has more listings for everyday items. For clothes, Vinted has taken much of that trade, and eBay remains the obvious choice for anything that ships.

In Australia, Gumtree is still busy in regional areas as well as the cities, and its cars section is well used. As in the UK, Marketplace tends to have more volume for furniture and household goods.

Scam patterns are the same in both countries: fake courier or “payment protection” emails, deposits for items you haven’t seen, and sellers who can’t meet.

How to choose

Four questions settle it for most people:

1. Where are the listings near you? Run your exact search on two sites and count. Volume beats features.
2. What are you buying? Cars and rentals favour sites with structured fields and private-seller filters (Kijiji in Canada, DoneDeal in Ireland). Clothes favour Vinted. Collectibles and anything that ships favour eBay.
3. What protection is there? Local cash deals have none anywhere, so inspect first. For shipped items, pick a site where you pay through its checkout: eBay’s Money Back Guarantee, or Facebook’s Purchase Protection, which covers only orders paid through Facebook’s own checkout, not local pickups.
4. Do you want an account? If not, Craigslist, Kijiji and Gumtree all let you browse without one.

Using two sites at once

The simplest way to shop more than one site is to keep the same search, word for word, in two tabs, and check both on the same schedule. Use each site’s alerts too: Kijiji’s saved-search alerts go out once a day on the web, and daily or weekly in the app.

In Canada, Sift does the two-site part for you on a computer. It runs on both Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji, with the same filters on each: sponsored listings and Kijiji’s Top Ads hidden, sold and already-seen listings out of the way, price drops marked. From any listing, one click runs the same search on the other site. If you’re weighing the two, our Facebook Marketplace vs Kijiji comparison goes through them side by side, and the Kijiji tips for buyers help you get more out of the second site.

Wherever you buy, the rules travel with you: see it before you pay, keep the chat on the site, and walk away from deposits. Our guide to whether Facebook Marketplace is safe has the full list.