Craigslist – Wikipedia
Craigslist reenshot of the main page on January 26, 2008Type of businessPrivately held companyType of siteClassifieds, forumsAvailable inEnglish, French, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, PortugueseFounded1995; 26 years ago (incorporated 1999)HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, U. S. [1]Area served570 cities in 70 countriesFounder(s)Craig NewmarkKey peopleJim Buckmaster (CEO)ServicesWeb communicationsRevenue US$694 million (2016)Net income US$500 million (2016)Employees50 (2017)URL2]Launched1995; 26 years agoCurrent statusActiveWritten inPerl[3]
Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is an American classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussion forums.
Craig Newmark began the service in 1995 as an email distribution list to friends, featuring local events in the San Francisco Bay Area. It became a web-based service in 1996 and expanded into other classified categories. It started expanding to other U. and Canadian cities in 2000, and now covers 70 countries.
In March 2008, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese became the first non-English languages Craigslist supported. [4] As of August 9, 2012, over 700 cities and areas in 70 countries had Craigslist sites. [5] Some Craigslist sites cover large regions instead of individual metropolitan areas—for example, the U. states of Delaware and Wyoming, the Colorado Western Slope, the California Gold Country, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are among the locations with their own Craigslist sites. [6] Craigslist sites for some large cities, such as Los Angeles, also include the ability for the user to focus on a specific area of a city (such as central Los Angeles).
History[edit]
Having observed people helping one another in friendly, social, and trusting communal ways on the Internet via the WELL, MindVox and Usenet, and feeling isolated as a relative newcomer to San Francisco, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark decided to create something similar for local events. [7][8] In early 1995, he began an email distribution list to friends. Most of the early postings were submitted by Newmark and were notices of social events of interest to software and Internet developers living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Soon, word of mouth led to rapid growth. The number of subscribers and postings grew rapidly. There was no moderation and Newmark was surprised when people started using the mailing list for non-event postings. [9] People trying to get technical positions filled found that the list was a good way to reach people with the skills they were looking for. This led to the addition of a jobs category. User demand for more categories caused the list of categories to grow. The initial technology encountered some limits, so by June 1995 Majordomo had been installed and the mailing list “Craigslist” resumed operations. Community members started asking for a web interface. Newmark registered “”, and the website went live in 1996. [9]
In the fall of 1998, the name “List Foundation” was introduced and Craigslist started transitioning to the use of this name. In April 1999, when Newmark learned of other organizations called “List Foundation”, the use of this name was dropped. Craigslist incorporated as a private for-profit company in 1999. [7] Around the time of these events, Newmark realized the site was growing so fast that he could stop working as a software engineer and devote his full attention to running Craigslist. By April 2000, there were nine employees working out of Newmark’s San Francisco apartment. [10]
In January 2000, current CEO Jim Buckmaster joined the company as lead programmer and CTO. Buckmaster contributed the site’s multi-city architecture, search engine, discussion forums, flagging system, self-posting process, homepage design, personals categories, and best-of-Craigslist feature. He was promoted to CEO in November 2000. [11]
The website expanded into nine more U. cities in 2000, four in 2001 and 2002 each, and 14 in 2003. On August 1, 2004, Craigslist began charging $25 to post job openings on the New York and Los Angeles pages. On the same day, a new section called “Gigs” was added, where low-cost and unpaid jobs can be posted free.
Operations[edit]
The site serves more than 20 billion[12] page views per month, putting it in 72nd place overall among websites worldwide and 11th place overall among websites in the United States (per on June 28, 2016), with more than 49. 4 million unique monthly visitors in the United States alone (per on January 8, 2010). With more than 80 million new classified advertisements each month, Craigslist is the leading classifieds service in any medium.
The site receives more than 2 million new job listings each month, making it one of the top job boards in the world. [13][14] The 23 largest U. cities listed on the Craigslist home page collectively receive more than 300, 000 postings per day just in the “for sale” and “housing” sections as of October 2011. [15] The classified advertisements range from traditional buy/sell ads and community announcements to personal ads.
In 2009, Craigslist operated with a staff of 28 people. [16]
Financials and ownership[edit]
In December 2006, at the UBS Global Media Conference in New York, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told Wall Street analysts that Craigslist had little interest in maximizing profit, and instead preferred to help users find cars, apartments, jobs and dates. [17][18]
Craigslist’s main source of revenue is paid job ads in select American cities. The company does not formally disclose financial or ownership information. Analysts and commentators have reported varying figures for its annual revenue, ranging from $10 million in 2004, $20 million in 2005, and $25 million in 2006 to possibly $150 million in 2007. [19][20][21] Fortune has described their revenue model as “quasi-socialist”, citing their focus on features for users regardless of profitability. Eric Baker of StubHub has described the site as a “potential gold mine of revenue, if only it would abandon its communist manifesto. “[19]
On August 13, 2004, Newmark announced on his blog that auction giant eBay had purchased a 25% stake in the company from a former employee. [22] Some fans of Craigslist expressed concern that this development would affect the site’s longtime non-commercial nature. As of April 2012, there have been no substantive changes to the usefulness, or the non-advertising nature of the site; neither banner ads, nor charges for a few services provided to businesses.
The company was believed to be owned principally by Newmark, Buckmaster and eBay (the three board members). eBay owned approximately 25%, and Newmark is believed to own the largest stake. [6][21][23]
In April 2008, eBay announced it was suing Craigslist to “safeguard its four-year financial investment”. eBay claimed that in January 2008, Craigslist executives took actions that “unfairly diluted eBay’s economic interest by more than 10%”. [24] Craigslist filed a counter-suit in May 2008 to “remedy the substantial and ongoing harm to fair competition” that Craigslist claimed was constituted by eBay’s actions as Craigslist shareholders; the company claimed that it had used its minority stake to gain access to confidential information, which it then used as part of its competing service Kijiji. [25][26]
On June 19, 2015, eBay Inc. announced that it would divest its stake back to Craigslist for an undisclosed amount, and settle its litigation with the company. The move came shortly before eBay’s planned spin-off of PayPal, and an effort to divest other units to focus on its core business. [25]
The Swedish luxury marketplace website received a lawsuit filed on July 11, 2012[27] which among unspecified damages also asked for a complete shutdown of [28] As a consequence, the young company was forced to rename to JamesEdition.
Content policies[edit]
As of 2012, mashup sites such as and were overlaying Craigslist data with Google Maps and adding their own search filters to improve usability. In June 2012, Craigslist changed its terms of service to disallow the practice. In July 2012, Craigslist filed a lawsuit against [29] Following the shutdown of, some users complained that the service was useful to them and therefore should have remained intact. [30]
App[edit]
In December 2019, Craigslist introduced a platform for iOS and a beta version on Android. [31]
Site characteristics[edit]
Personals[edit]
Over the years Craigslist has become a very popular online destination for arranging for dates and sex. [32][33][34][35][36] The personals section allows for postings that are for “strictly platonic”, “dating/romance”, and “casual encounters”. [32][33][35][36]
The site is considered particularly useful by lesbians and gay men seeking to make connections, because of the service’s free and open nature and because of the difficulty of otherwise finding each other in more conservative areas. [37]
In 2005, San Francisco Craigslist’s men seeking men section was attributed to facilitating sexual encounters and was the second most common correlation to syphilis infections. [37] The company has been pressured by San Francisco Department of Public Health officials, prompting Jim Buckmaster to state that the site has a very small staff and that the public “must police themselves”. [37] The site has, however, added links to San Francisco City Clinic and STD forums. [37]
On March 22, 2018, Craigslist discontinued its “Personals” section in the United States in response to the passing of the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act (SESTA), which removes Section 230 safe harbours for interactive services knowingly involved in illegal sex trafficking. The service stated that
US Congress just passed HR 1865, ‘FOSTA’, seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully. Any tool or service can be misused. We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services, so we are regretfully taking craigslist personals offline. To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness! [38]
Adult services controversy[edit]
Craigslist website as it appeared on September 4, 2010, with black censored box in place of Adult Services
Advertisements for “adult” (previously “erotic”) services were initially given special treatment, then closed entirely on September 4, 2010, following a controversy over claims by state attorneys general that the advertisements promoted prostitution. [39][40]
In 2002, a disclaimer was put on the “men seeking men”, “casual encounters”, “erotic services”, and “rants and raves” boards to ensure that those who clicked on these sections were over the age of 18, but no disclaimer was put on the “men seeking women”, “women seeking men” or “women seeking women” boards. As a response to charges of discrimination and negative stereotyping, Buckmaster explained that the company’s policy is a response to user feedback requesting the warning on the more sexually explicit sections, including “men seeking men”. [41]
On May 13, 2009, Craigslist announced that it would close the erotic services section, replacing it with an adult services section to be reviewed by Craigslist employees. This decision came after allegations by several U. states that the erotic services ads were being used for prostitution. [42]
On September 4, 2010, Craigslist closed the adult services section of its website in the United States. The site initially replaced the adult services page link with the word “censored” in white-on-black text. The site received criticism and complaints from attorneys general that the section’s ads were facilitating prostitution and child sex trafficking. [43][44]
The adult services section link was still active in countries outside of the U. [45] Matt Zimmerman, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said, “Craigslist isn’t legally culpable for these posts, but the public pressure has increased and Craigslist is a small company. ” Brian Carver, attorney and assistant professor at UC Berkeley, said that legal threats could have a chilling effect on online expression. “If you impose liability on Craigslist, YouTube and Facebook for anything their users do, then they’re not going to take chances. It would likely result in the takedown of what might otherwise be perfectly legitimate free expression. “[46]
On September 8, 2010, the “censored” label and its dead link to adult services were completely removed. [47][48]
Craigslist announced on September 15, 2010, that it had closed its adult services in the United States; however, it defended its right to carry such ads. Free speech and some sex crime victim advocates criticized the removal of the section, saying that it threatened free speech and that it diminished law enforcement’s ability to track criminals. However, the removal was applauded by many state attorneys general and some other groups fighting sex crimes. Craigslist said that there is some indication that those who posted ads in the adult services section are posting elsewhere. Sex ads had cost $10 initially and it was estimated they would have brought in $44 million in 2010 had they continued. [49][50] In the four months following the closure, monthly revenue from sex ads on six other sites (primarily Backpage) increased from $2. 1 to $3. 1 million, partly due to price increases. [51]
The company makes efforts to fight prostitution and sex trafficking, and in 2015, Craig Newmark received an award from the FBI for cooperation with law enforcement to fight human trafficking. [52][53][54][55][56]
On December 19, 2010, after pressure from Ottawa and several provinces, Craigslist closed ‘Erotic Services’ and ‘Adult Gigs’ from its Canadian website, even though prostitution was not itself illegal in Canada at the time. [57]
When the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act was signed into law on April 11, 2018, Craigslist chose to close its “Personals” section within all US domains to avoid civil lawsuits. [58] About their decision, Craigslist stated “Any tool or service can be misused. We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all our other services. “[59][60]
Flagging[edit]
Craigslist has a user flagging system to quickly identify illegal and inappropriate postings. Users may flag postings they believe to be in violation of Craigslist guidelines.
Flagging does not require account login or registration, and can be done anonymously by anyone. [61] Postings are subject to automated removal when a certain number of users flag them. The number of flags required for a posting’s removal is dynamically variable and remains unknown to all but Craigslist staff. [61] Some users allege that flagging may also occur as acts of vandalism by groups of individuals at different ISPs, but no evidence of this has ever been shown. Flagging can also alert Craigslist staff to blocks of ads requiring manual oversight or removal. [61]
Flagging is also done by Craigslist itself (Craigslist’s automated systems) and the posts will never appear on the search results. [62]
Bartering[edit]
Craigslist includes a barter option in its “for sale” section. This growing trade economy has been documented on the television program Barter Kings and the blog one red paperclip. [63][64]
Criticism[edit]
In July 2005, the San Francisco Chronicle criticized Craigslist for allowing ads from dog breeders, stating that this could encourage the over-breeding and irresponsible selling of pit bulls in the Bay Area. [65] According to Craigslist’s terms of service, the sale of pets is prohibited, though re-homing with small adoption fees is acceptable. [66]
In January 2006, the San Francisco Bay Guardian published an editorial claiming that Craigslist could threaten the business of local alternative newspapers. [67]
L. Gordon Crovitz, writing for The Wall Street Journal, criticized the company for using lawsuits “to prevent anyone from doing to it what it did to newspapers”, contrary to the spirit of the website, which bills itself in a “noncommercial nature, public service mission, and noncorporate culture”. [68]
This article was a reaction to lawsuits from Craigslist which Crovitz says were intended to prevent competition. Craigslist filed a trademark lawsuit against the Swedish luxury marketplace website on July 11, 2012, [69] forcing the company to rename to JamesEdition.
In 2012, Craigslist sued PadMapper, a site that hoped to improve the user interface for browsing housing ads, and 3Taps, a company that helped PadMapper obtain data from Craigslist, in Craigslist v. 3Taps. This led users to criticize Craigslist for trying to shut down a service that was useful to them. [30]
Nonprofit foundation[edit]
In 2001, the company started the Craigslist Foundation, [70] a § 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that offers free and low-cost events and online resources to promote community building at all levels. It accepts charitable donations, and rather than directly funding organizations, it produces “face-to-face events and offers online resources to help grassroots organizations get off the ground and contribute real value to the community”.
Since 2004, the Craigslist Foundation has hosted eight annual conferences called Boot Camp, an in-person event that focuses on skills for connecting, motivating and inspiring greater community involvement and impact.
The Craigslist Foundation is also the fiscal sponsor for Our Good Works, the organization that manages, an application that distributes volunteer opportunities across the web and helps people get involved in their communities. [71]
As of summer 2013, the Craigslist Foundation’s functions are mostly moved to and the is no longer updated. has shut down. [72] Its website is gone, and its Facebook page has not been updated since 2017.
In popular culture[edit]
Films[edit]
24 Hours on Craigslist (2005), an American feature-length documentary that captures the people and stories behind a single day’s posts on Craigslist
Due Date shows one of the lead characters, Ethan (Zach Galifianakis), buying marijuana from a dealer through the site.
The Craigslist Killer (January 3, 2011), [73] a Lifetime made-for-TV movie featuring the story of Philip Markoff, who was accused of robbing and/or murdering several prostitutes he met through Craigslist’s adult services section.
Craigslist Joe (August 2012), a documentary featuring a 29-year-old man living for 31 days solely from donations of food, shelter, and transportation throughout the U. S., found via Craigslist[74]
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), a comedy based on a real Craiglist ad placed by two brothers who wanted dates for their cousin’s wedding that went viral in February 2013, which they then turned into a book, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates: And a Thousand Cocktails. [75]
Television[edit]
The American comedy series Bored to Death revolves around a fictional Jonathan Ames (played by Jason Schwartzman) who posts an ad on Craigslist advertising himself as an unlicensed private detective.
The premise of the sitcom New Girl centers around a girl (Zooey Deschanel) who looks on Craigslist to find new roommates. She misunderstands one of the listings and ends up moving in with three men, when she had intended to find female roommates.
The American television mockumentary comedy sitcom Modern Family in the 10th episode of the third season “Express Christmas” mentions Craigslist when Phil Dunphy played by Ty Burrell buys a signed Joe Dimaggio card for his father-in-law Jay played by Ed ONeill. [76]
Theatre[edit]
In November 2007, Ryan J. Davis directed Jeffery Self’s solo show My Life on the Craigslist at off-Broadway’s New World Stages. [77] The show focuses on a young man’s sexual experiences on Craigslist and was so successful that it returned to New York by popular demand in February 2008. [78]
Video games[edit]
2008’s Grand Theft Auto IV features a parody of Craigslist called ‘Craplist’, which can be accessed by the player through the game’s in-game internet feature. The player can browse the site and view numerous satirical adverts.
Songs[edit]
In June 2009, “Weird Al” Yankovic released a song entitled “Craigslist”, which parodied the types of ads one might see on the site. The song was a style parody of The Doors and featured Doors member Ray Manzarek on the keyboards.
In 2006, composer Gabriel Kahane released an album of his satirical art songs for voice and piano, entitled “Craigslistlieder”, using excerpts from real Craigslist ads as text. [79]
Media[edit]
Craigslist received attention in the media in 2011 and 2014 when it was reported that convicted murderers had used the platform to lure their victims. [80][81]
The site has been described by Martin Sorrell as “socialistic anarchist”. [82]
See also[edit]
eBay
Facebook Marketplace
Mercari
OfferUp
References[edit]
^ “craigslist – Company Overview”. Hoover’s. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
^ Jay Leon. “Why Does a Person Need a Craigslist Account? “. Small Business – Chron. Retrieved September 18, 2018.
^ Roger Chapman. “Top 40 Website Programming Languages”. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved September 6, 2011.
^ Craig Newmark (March 27, 2008). “Multiple language support on Craigslist”. cnewmark. Archived from the original on October 5, 2008. Retrieved September 13, 2008.
^ “about > factsheet”. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
^ a b “about > expansion”. craigslist. August 21, 2009. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
^ a b “about > factsheet”. November 29, 2010. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
^ “On The Record: Craig Newmark”. San Francisco Chronicle. August 14, 2004. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
^ a b, Terynn Boulton -. “Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Craig From Craigslist”. Gizmodo. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
^ “Archived page from Craigslist’s About Us”. April 19, 2000. Archived from the original on June 20, 2000. Retrieved February 8, 2007.
^ “Jim Buckmaster—CEO & programmer”. Archived from the original on June 30, 2007. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
^ “Craigslist Statistics”. Statistic Brain. September 14, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
^ Lenhart, Amanda; Shermak, Jeremy (November 2005). “Selling items online” (PDF). Pew Research Center. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 14, 2007. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
^ “craigslist fact sheet”. Archived from the original on February 1, 2009.
^ “Craigslist Tracker Overall Stats”. Archived from the original on March 16, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2011.
^ Jones, Del (January 2, 2007). “Can small businesses help win the war? “. USA Today. Retrieved April 7, 2009.
^ Davis, Wendy (December 7, 2006). “Just An Online Minute… Stunning Wall Street, Shunning Profits”. MediaPost. Retrieved November 30, 2016.
^ Hau, Louis (December 11, 2006). “Newspaper Killer”. Forbes. Retrieved May 9, 2013.
^ a b Lashinsky, Adam (December 12, 2005). “Burning Sensation”. Fortune. Retrieved August 22, 2007.
^ “Zen and the Art of Classified Advertising: Craigslist could make $500 million a year. Why not? “. Carney, Brian M. (June 17, 2006). The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 22, 2007.
^ a b Owen Thomas (July 26, 2007). “Craig Newmark, filthy rich on eBay’s millions”. Archived from the original on August 27, 2011. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
^ “craigblog”. Archived from the original on August 13, 2004.
^ Sandoval, Greg (July 3, 2007). “Craigslist grapples with competitor on board”. CNET. Retrieved August 22, 2007.
^ “EBay sues Craigslist ad website”. BBC. April 23, 2008. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
^ a b “EBay Divests Craigslist Stake, Ends Litigation”. Retrieved June 20, 2015.
^ “Craigslist strikes back at eBay”. May 13, 2008. Retrieved May 13, 2008.
^ Sherbert, Erin (July 12, 2012). “CraigsList sues JamesList, the “Craigslist for the rich””. San Francisco Weekly. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
^ Allemann, Andrew (July 20, 2012). Retrieved June 29, 2016.
^ Farivar, Cyrus (July 24, 2012). “Craigslist sues site that makes its apartment listings easier to find (Updated)”. Ars Technica.
^ a b Goldman, Eric. “Craigslist’s Anti-Consumer Lawsuit Threatens to Break Internet Law”. Retrieved March 4, 2014.
^ Vincent, James (December 5, 2019). “Craigslist, founded 24 years ago, is finally getting its first official app”. The Verge. Retrieved December 5, 2019.
^ a b Craigslist hookups,, 2009
^ a b College student to launch ‘sex hookup site: It’s safer than CraigList, and cheaper than bars Archived December 4, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, ABC News
^ Columbus Sex Survey Archived February 4, 2013, at, The Other Paper
^ a b Paul LaRosa and Maria Cramer, Seven Days of Rage: The Deadly Crime Spree of the Craigslist Killer, Simon and Schuster, 2009.
^ a b Risky Sex- and Drug-Seeking in a Probability Sample of Men-for-Men Online Bulletin Board Postings, by Christian Grov
^ a b c d The Hottest Spot Online – The explosively popular-and free-Craigslist attracts both gay men and lesbians by the thousands but the guys and gals aren’t generally looking for the same things, by Ann Rostow. The Advocate.
^ “Craigslist Just Nuked Its Personal Ads Section Because of a Sex-Trafficking Bill”. Motherboard. Vice. March 23, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
^ “Attorneys general call for Craigslist to get rid of adult services ads”. CNN. August 26, 2010.
^ Miller, Claire Cain (September 4, 2010). “Craigslist Blocks Access to ‘Adult Services’ Pages”. The New York Times. Retrieved September 4, 2010.
^ “Warning: men seeking men—Craigslist posts disclaimer for gay male personals”. Southern Voice. August 31, 2005. Archived from the original on July 2, 2007. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
^ Stone, Brad (May 13, 2009). “Craigslist to Remove Category for Erotic Services”. Retrieved April 30, 2010.
^ “Adult services censored on Craigslist”. September 5, 2010. Retrieved September 5, 2010.
^ Craigslist removes ads for adult services, James Temple, San Francisco Chronicle, September 4, 2010
^ “Adult services censored on Craigslist”. May 9, 2010. Retrieved May 9, 2010.
^ Miller, Claire (September 9, 2010). “Craigslist Pulls ‘Censored’ Label From Sex Ads Area”. Retrieved September 12, 2010.
^ Matyszczyk, Chris (September 8, 2010). “Craigslist removes ‘censored’ bar from site”. Retrieved September 12, 2010.
^ Miller, Claire Cain (September 15, 2010). “Craigslist Says It Has Shut Its Section for Sex Ads”. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
^ Lindenberger, Michael A. (September 16, 2010). “Craigslist Comes Clean: No More ‘Adult Services, ‘ Ever”. Time. Archived from the original on September 18, 2010. Retrieved September 17, 2010.
^ “Price increases drive growth in adult ad revenue”. AIM group. January 26, 2011.
^ “Craigslist founder Craig Newmark isn’t closing site’s ‘erotic’ section – NY Daily News”. New York Daily News. Associated Press. April 25, 2009.
^ “Charlotte: Search Results”.
^ Kim Palmer (April 4, 2013). “Ohio judge sentences convicted Craigslist killer to death”. Reuters.
^ dailyfinance staff (August 27, 2013). “Conmen Seeking Suckers: Beware of Stolen Merchandise on Craigslist”.
^ “Craig From Craigslist’s Second Act”. June 2017.
^ “Craigslist pulls ‘erotic services’ from Canadian site”. The Canadian Press. December 18, 2010.
^ Eichert, David. “‘It Ruined My Life: FOSTA, Male Escorts, and the Construction of Sexual Victimhood in American Politics” (PDF). Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law. 26 (3): 201–245.
^ “craigslist | about | FOSTA”.. Retrieved April 12, 2018.
^ a b c “Unofficial Flagging FAQ”. Craigslist users. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
^ “Craigslist | about | help | flags and community moderation”.
^ Chris Matyszczyk (July 20, 2010). “Teen Trades Old Cell Phone on Craigslist, Gets Porsche”. CNET.
^ Bergstein, Brian (April 16, 2006). “Man Uses a Paper Clip to Barter for House”. Retrieved August 5, 2016.
^ Lelchuk, Ilene (July 11, 2005). “Craigslist pressured to ban dog, cat ads”. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
^ “Prohibited Items”. About. Craigslist. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
^ Redmond, Tim (July 11, 2005). “Editor’s Notes”. San Francisco Bay Guardian. Retrieved September 6, 2007.
^ Crovitz, L. Gordon (May 12, 2013). “Toward Rivals, It’s Craigslitigious”. Retrieved August 18, 2013.
^ “Craigslist Foundation – GuideStar Profile”.. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
^ “”. Retrieved July 30, 2011.
^ “LikeMinded CommunitiesInc | San Francisco, CA | Cause IQ”.
^ “The Craigslist Killer Movie — Official Site”. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
^ “Man Lives Off Craigslist for One Crazy Month in Craigslist Joe”. Wired. July 3, 2012. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
^ Maggie Lange (July 7, 2016). “Getting Weird with the Real Mike and Dave Who Needed Wedding Dates”. GQ.
^ “Express Christmas”. Modern Family. Season 3. Episode 10. ABC.
^ Hetrick, Adam (October 17, 2007). “Jeffery Self to Offer My Life on the Craigslist at New World Stages Nov. 1”. Playbill. Archived from the original on February 22, 2008. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
^ “‘My Life on the Craigslist’ Returns Feb. 15, 22 & 29”. Broadway World. January 23, 2008. Retrieved May 8, 2008.
^ Midgette, Anne. “Gabriel Kahane, a genre bender musician”. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 30, 2018.
^ “‘Craigslist Killers’ Miranda and Elytte Barbour Sentenced to Life in Prison”. September 18, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
^ “Files tell more about ‘Craigslist killer'”. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
^ Terazono, Emiko (June 20, 2006). “Sorrell warns of e-communities ‘threat'”. Financial Times. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
Further reading[edit]
Gale Directory of Company Histories, “craigslist” (2007) online
External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Craigslist.
Official website
Company blog
Craigslist Foundation
“Why Craigslist Is Such a Mess”. August 24, 2009.
Newman, Lily Hay (January 30, 2015). “Police Stations Increasingly Offer Safe Haven for Craigslist Transactions”. Slate.
How to Make Your Own Website Like Craigslist – Compete …
“Follow the plan outlined here and you can create your own website from scratch without writing any code for less than $300. ”
Want to make a site like Craigslist?
With WordPress, you can create a beautiful and feature-rich classified ads website without touching a line of code.
Not only can you make this site without writing code, but you can do it all yourself. No hiring developers or outside help required.
Even better, the gorgeous and profitable site you create will only cost around $130 to build, including the domain name and hosting.
Excited to build your Craigslist-style website? Keep reading…
How to create a site like Craigslist
Get a domain
Signup for hosting
Choose your WordPress theme
Lisfinity design
Lisfinity features
Alternative themes
Customize and launch your site
There are five steps to create a website like Craigslist:
Purchase a domain nameGet web hosting for your siteInstall WordPressChoose a classified ads WordPress themeLaunch your site
In this tutorial, I’ll help you get a domain name, host, and theme to create your classifed ads website.
I think you’ll be impressed with how attractive and customizable your site ends up being. Not to mention, all the awesome monetization tools that come included.
Let’s start with the domain name.
You’re probably familiar with the concept of a “domain name. ”
This website’s domain name, for instance, is You’ll need one for your site as well.
Buying a domain name is simple; the hard part is finding an available domain name. It’s probably no surprise that after decades of global use, the availability of domain names has greatly dwindled.
If you want to find a name that is relevant to your business and memorable, you’ll need to get clever. That’s why I wrote this guide on finding available domains.
Employ the tactics in that guide and you’ll have no trouble finding a domain name that is memorable and still available for registration.
But don’t buy it yet!
Because if you complete the next step, you can get the domain name for free.
When someone visits your domain, the contents of the site need to be delivered to them, and that’s what hosting does.
When you pay for hosting, you’re renting space on a server that will deliver your website’s content to visitors when they arrive at your domain.
While there are hundreds of hosts to choose from, I always recommend Bluehost for WordPress beginners.
I used Bluehost to create my first WordPress website back in 2010, and these days, the process is even simpler.
When you signup, they’ll automatically create a WordPress site for you. No installation required.
Even better, they’ll register your first domain for you for free. This will save you about $10 and lets you skip the DNS zone configuration, which is often confusing for new site owners.
Once you’ve signed up with Bluehost, you’ll already have a live website on the domain of your choosing. The next step is to select a WordPress theme.
Normally, WordPress themes are used only to change the style of your site and plugins are used to add new functionality.
But in this case, I’ve got an all-in-one recommendation, Lisfinity.
Lisfinity is an extremely impressive WordPress theme. It’s been designed from the ground-up to create classified ad websites, like Craiglist.
Let’s take a quick look at both the design and features included in this premium theme.
The listing page is perhaps the most important aspect of the design.
Lisfinity has an excellent layout for listings and search results.
In this example, for a real estate site, the ads are listed in cards across the right side, and the search filter options are available in a thin left sidebar. Visitors can quickly narrow down their search based on the zip code, number of rooms, square footage, and more. It’s instantly familiar and effective for browsing results.
If the visitor clicks on a result, they’ll see the individual ad page.
The ad page includes an image gallery, pricing, how much longer the item is available, plus tons of additional meta information. Design details like the colors and logo are easily changeable, but the layout will be mostly the same for your site.
You might be wondering now if Lisfinity only works well for boats and houses, and how it could be adapted to other products, such as cars or electronics.
Well, the Lisfinity developers have created an ad management system that is powerful enough to not only handle any type of product, but to handle a wide range of products and services on the site all at once.
A classified ad site is essentially a search engine.
But unlike Google or Bing, the search bar isn’t the most critical feature of your site. The most important feature is the search filters.
For example, visitors will likely prefer searching for a car by selecting the make, model, and new VS used, rather than entering “Ford” into a search bar.
But to get those search filters onto the site, it means that every car listing needs to have data entered for the make, model, and new VS used status. Lisfinity makes this possible with its custom fields and category builder.
With this system, you can create a “cars” category and then add custom fields for the make, model, and mileage. Then every time a member lists a car, they simply fill those fields out during their submission.
This functionality is the backbone of the site and Lisfinity handles the data way better than most other solutions.
Beyond the category and custom fields system, Lisfinity has a lot of valuable monetization tools too.
You can create pricing tables allowing members to submit ads for free or any price you decide. It’s up to you how much it costs, how long their ads stay on the site, and how many different pricing tiers there are.
Every member has their own dashboard to manage their listings
Furthermore, Lisfinity includes amazing upselling tools. While members are creating their ads, you can upsell them a featured placement on the site.
They get more visibility, and you get more revenue. This can be incredibly complex to add to a theme yourself, so it’s fantastic that Lisfinity includes all the functionality to accept payment and implement their ad in the purchased position on the site.
On that note, Lisfinity doesn’t roll out its own eCommerce platform. Instead, it requires the WooCommerce plugin to handle the payment processing and foundational eCommerce functionality. This is a smart idea since WooCommerce is very reliable for handling purchases after years of use across millions of websites.
Lisfinity also has member dashboards, image upsells, and more features for a classified ads website, but I want to keep moving along with this guide. You can learn more about Lisfinity here if you want to continue exploring its features.
While I think Lisfinity is the best option to create a site like Craigslist, it’s certainly not the only viable theme to choose.
I have more recommendations in this collection of classified ad WordPress themes.
And if you want to add this type of functionality to your existing WordPress site without changing themes, you could instead add one of these classified ad WordPress plugins.
With your site online and Lisfinity installed, the only steps left are to customize and launch your site.
Lisfinity is packed with tutorials and the developers offer excellent support for customers, so you’ll have no trouble there. It will take time to set up as it’s a complex theme, but you won’t be required to write code or do anything technical.
Once your site is prepared for launch, you can follow this guide to begin attracting new visitors and vendors:
Build a Traffic-Generating WordPress Site With These Tips
For a classified ads website, you should work on getting traffic from both social media and search engines. Make sure to encourage your members to share their ads on their social networks to help increase the reach. Add social share buttons to make this easier too.
To attract more search engine visitors, I recommend checking out these SEO tutorials, which will help you target keywords and optimize your WordPress site for higher rankings.
Creating a site like Craigslist isn’t so hard with WordPress and the amazing modern tools made for the platform. I hope this guide has inspired you to make your site and get started today, rather than waiting or putting it off for months.
Thanks for reading and please consider sharing this guide by using the buttons below.
The 10 Best Craigslist Alternatives for Buying and Selling Stuff
GaudiLab /
Whether you’re looking to sell or buy, having more options is a good thing.
And even though Craigslist is the grandfather of online classifieds sites, it probably shouldn’t be the only place you turn to.
Many websites like Craigslist have sprung up over the years, including some you might not think of. If you’re thinking about how to make money online, or just enjoy window shopping from the comfort of home, check out these 10 Craigslist alternatives.
1. Facebook Marketplace
If you’ve abandoned the social network or use it sparingly, you might not be aware Facebook is a popular Craigslist alternative.
You can search by city, neighborhood or ZIP code within a specified mile radius, based on price for all kinds of stuff. It has at least one edge over other sites like Craigslist: Facebook is one of the most-visited websites in the world, so the odds are high that people will see your stuff — including people you already know who might be interested. And the big bonus: Selling is free.
Separate from the Marketplace feature, Facebook also has a category of Groups for buying and selling stuff. Some groups may have their own rules and membership criteria you won’t be restricted by elsewhere on the site, but it might help you find the right niche.
2. eBay Classifieds
Being another of the most popular sites on the internet makes eBay a great Craigslist alternative for getting your stuff seen. The first thing people think about on eBay is auctions, but it also has classified ads searchable from its homepage.
Unfortunately, this Craigslist alternative isn’t free: It works much like selling anything else on eBay, only for locals. Listing is $9. 95 for 30 days. You’ll need to set up an account and create an “advanced listing, ” which offers the classified ad format. Categories are limited to a handful.
To shop eBay’s classified ads, search for the item you want normally from the homepage, then filter the buying format to “classified ads. ” You can also limit your search to a ZIP code radius and filter for “free local pickup. ”
3. Mercari
Mercari is one of a few apps like Craigslist or eBay worth mentioning.
It’s not technically a classifieds site, since it involves shipping instead of meeting locally like other sites similar to Craigslist. But it’s a popular Craigslist-style marketplace with a large audience and a convenient phone app.
Listing on Mercari is always free, but there’s a flat 10% fee when the item sells. You’ll get a printable shipping label, but are responsible for packing and shipping the item. It also has a buyer and seller rating system similar to eBay.
4. Poshmark
Poshmark is another app-based marketplace similar to Craigslist, but specifically for fashion: clothes, shoes, jewelry, accessories and handbags.
You use the site’s free app to list items, and when someone makes a purchase, you get a prepaid shipping label to mail the item. If you have a closet full of stuff you don’t wear, this might be how to make money online without breaking a sweat or resorting to many other apps like Craigslist.
For sales under $15, there is a flat fee of $2. 95. For sales of more than $15, Poshmark takes 20%.
5. OfferUp
Next on the list of sites similar to Craigslist is OfferUp, which is sort of like if Pinterest owned Craigslist.
Images, prices and distance from you are prominently displayed, making it possible to visually browse through things you’re interested in more quickly than many websites like Craigslist. If you’re a seller, that also means it’s easier to catch someone’s eye.
There is a rating system for buyers and sellers.
6. Letgo
One of the most popular sites similar to Craigslist is Letgo, which like OfferUp focuses on an image-based format but has robust search features that allow you to search by distance, time since listing, price range and category.
You have to create an account to use Letgo, but this allows you to communicate without sharing a phone number or email address, an advantage over many sites like Craigslist. It also has an app that is free to use for both buying and selling.
7. Trovit
Trovit claims to search thousands of websites similar to Craigslist all at once, although it only has a few, very specific broad categories: homes, cars and jobs. Each of these has subcategories, such as car brands or job field.
The initial search screen is very simple and clean, but once you start a search, you can apply a variety of filters and sort results in different ways, as on other sites similar to Craigslist.
Trovit is free to use, but the site cautions that their effort to include as many results as possible may sometimes result in a few listings from sites that require a subscription to access. “In case you find one with a paid subscription, you will have to choose whether to continue or not with them, ” the site says.
8. Locanto
There are still a few other sites like Craigslist, Locanto among them.
The site features a number of traditional classifieds categories — from classes to cars, jobs to personals — and searches can be refined into further subcategories and by location. The listings are clean and look more like a traditional retail website than the do-it-yourself look of Craigslist.
Locanto is free to use, but offers a “premium account” option that hides third-party ads and allows you to get notifications of new results for saved searches or sellers that you follow.
9. Swappa
Swappa is another Craigslist alternative focused on electronics: phones, computers, cameras and video games. The company tries to distinguish itself from other websites similar to Craigslist by highlighting that it has people reviewing listings to fight spam and has lower fees than eBay for buyers.
There are no fees to list items for sale, but buyers pay a flat fee when they buy based on the listed price. Swappa’s fee is $0 for items under $50 — but how often do you buy electronics that cheap?
The fee can go up to $250 for items over $6, 000. Swappa points out eBay typically charges a 10% fee to the seller.
From the seller’s perspective, this looks like a great option for how to make money online, especially if you’re the kind of person constantly upgrading gear.
10. Oodle
Oodle is another marketplace similar to Craigslist, with some categories you might not find on other sites, including office space and event tickets.
It’s free to use, but requires you to sign up and connect your Facebook account in an attempt to cut down on fraud. So, if you’re already using Facebook Marketplace or other websites like Craigslist that connect to Facebook, you might consider listing here, too.
Disclosure: The information you read here is always objective. However, we sometimes receive compensation when you click links within our stories.
Like Article Add a Comment
Frequently Asked Questions about what type of website is craigslist
What type of site is Craigslist?
Classified advertising
How do you make a website like Craigslist?
There are five steps to create a website like Craigslist:Purchase a domain name.Get web hosting for your site.Install WordPress.Choose a classified ads WordPress theme.Launch your site.Mar 29, 2021
What do you call websites like Craigslist?
The 10 Best Craigslist Alternatives for Buying and Selling StuffFacebook Marketplace. If you’ve abandoned the social network or use it sparingly, you might not be aware Facebook is a popular Craigslist alternative.eBay Classifieds. … Mercari. … Poshmark. … OfferUp. … Letgo. … Trovit. … Locanto.More items…