Key Takeaways
Since 2012, our team has tested, rated, and reviewed dating platforms that are popular, effective, and can stand the test of time (unlike Backpage).
-
We’ve ranked NaughtyCharm as the best Backpage alternative because it requires little personal information and takes 30 seconds to sign up.
-
If you’re looking for serious dating, then Match with free messaging between matches would be the best choice.
Backpage was a classified ad website that was founded in 2004. However, U.S. authorities, including the FBI and Department of Justice, seized control of the site in April 2018 after an investigation found that Backpage allowed — and even encouraged — people to post ads related to prostitution and human trafficking. Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer pleaded guilty to conspiracy and money laundering.
Since then, many who relied on Backpage have been on the hunt for a more reliable alternative. That’s why we’ve handpicked nine sites that can offer you an experience similar to Backpage — without the deception, unreliability, and major issues.
1. NaughtyCharm
NaughtyCharm has mastered the art of hookup matching by keeping things simple. The site only asks for your gender, ZIP code, email, and age. It has search parameters by appearance and a photo swipe game for finding compatible people. If you’re interested, you can send flirty winks, suggestive icebreakers (called FlirtCasts), or private messages (more than 8.5 million messages are sent on NaughtyCharm every day). Photos are required, but real names aren’t, so users can take on a naughty persona.
2. KinkyPeopleMeet
KinkyPeopleMeet is much like Backpage because it’s free to join and lets people browse without using real names. You don’t even need to upload a photo if you don’t want to. This casual dating site respects your privacy by asking only for your age (not your birthdate) and offering the chance to make up a username instead of giving your real name. This helps singles feel more comfortable as they explore kinky connections online. You can browse and chat on the site for free, and you don’t even need to form a mutual match to say hi.
3. Victoria Milan
Victoria Milan is an affair dating site known for raunchy chats and minimal personal details. It’s all about quick, casual connections — nothing serious. Singles hailing from all over the world have signed up for the site in search of an anonymous date. You can sort profiles by age, background, type of encounter, location, appearance, love nest availability, and other identifiers. Victoria Milan verifies profiles to ensure a positive dating experience that’s free of the scams that brought Backpage down.
4. AdultFriendFinder
They say you can never have too many friends, and AdultFriendFinder can definitely help you find some, if by “friends” you mean “sex buddies.” The company was founded in 1996, and it’s got video chat rooms, discussion forums, polls, nude photo galleries, and a ton of other adult spaces to explore. AdultFriendFinder allows free members to post and comment without paying anything or uploading a photo, and they can see who’s liked, viewed, and messaged them to get a sense of their local options.
5. FriendFinder-X
FriendFinder-X stands out as a horny dating site that mixes porn with sexting. The result is a wild time. Nudes are allowed on the site, and so are strip-tease videos. If you don’t want to see too much, you can turn nudity filters on, and a gray box will let you know when a profile pic or video is X-rated. With just a username and bare bones profile, you have the run of the site, including the Community Forum, where it’s free to post ads and comment on photos or statuses made by others. It’s like a social media feed, but for sex.
6. Ashley Madison
Ashley Madison is a discreet dating site for single and not-so-single people. It’s very popular (over 91 million users), and it’s free to sign up and browse profiles under a nickname. Women can chat on Ashley Madison for free, while men use a credit system to send replies. Your safety is a top priority at Ashley Madison, and it has been encrypted to help protect your personal information. You can also blur or mask your face in photos if you wish to stay under the radar. Ashley Madison verifies all photos as genuine, but it doesn’t require faces to be visible.
7. MenNation
For horny gay, bisexual, and sexually curious men, it doesn’t really get any better than MenNation. Not only is the site free to use, but the communication options include live chat, videos, groups, voice introductions, and private messages. You can find new profiles every day in the My New Member Matches section, and MenNation allows you to see who’s online when you are and who’s viewed your profile. The photo gallery is where a lot of action is because guys post naked pics to get attention, and it’s free to comment and send replies.
8. Match
Backpage wasn’t all about hooking up. If you’re interested in dates that could lead to relationships, I would definitely suggest giving Match a try. Launched in 1995, Match was one of the first dating sites to exist, and it’s got ironclad verification tools to keep users safe. Once you post your profile, which is free to do, you can start looking for matches based on criteria that matter to you (education, looks, lifestyle, etc.). Once you form a mutual match, you can start chatting for free.
9. SparkMeets
SparkMeets is a casual dating site with a straightforward setup. It has a search tab with filters for hair color, eye color, ethnicity, piercings, and tattoos. It has a photo-swiping game to make quick matches. And it has a mix of free and paid communication to keep users in line. Unlike Backpage, which became overrun by unsavory characters, SparkMeets has rules in place to keep conversations pleasant. You can join within 30 seconds with just an email address and ZIP code.
Is There a Free Alternative to Backpage?
The sites on this list all have a mix of free and paid features. But most of the core stuff will be available upon signup. I’d say KinkyPeopleMeet should be your go-to if getting the most bang for your buck (pun most definitely intended) is most important to you.
Here is a quick rundown of the noteworthy free features included in each site listed here:
| Dating Site | What’s Free? |
|---|---|
| NaughtyCharm | Anonymous browsing, unlimited likes, read messages. |
| KinkyPeopleMeet | Private chatting, search filters, friend requests, sending likes. |
| Victoria Milan | Photo editing tools, extensive search parameters, profile likes. |
| Adult Friend Finder | Public posts, commenting, some video, nude pics, kink searches. |
| FriendFinder-X | Discussion forum activity, meetup posts, X-rated content, search filters by looks. |
| Ashley Madison | Anonymous browsing, likes, women chat for free. |
| MenNation | All-male photo galleries, public commenting and posting, some X-rated videos. |
| Match | Free messaging between matches, some search filters, limited likes per day. |
| SparkMeets | Registration, profile browsing, search tools. |
Keep in mind that totally free sites aren’t always the safest dating sites. Just look at Backpage for an extreme example. If it’s free to join and free to chat with no guardrails or verification in sight, that’s going to attract fake profiles and spell trouble down the line.
What Chat Rooms Do People Use Instead of Backpage?
All of the sites on this list are great Backpage alternatives for dating, but if you’re after more of a chat room vibe, here are some other options to consider:
- Chatib
- 321Chat
- YesIChat
I’d also strongly suggest trying to use online dating to meet people. AdultFriendFinder may be a hookup site, but it has a community forum that has a similar vibe to Backpage’s chat spaces.
Apps like Ashley Madison benefit from the use of text verification to eliminate fake profiles. You’re also unlikely to see phony accounts on KinkyPeopleMeet, which has a mix of required and opt-in verification tools.
If you want a tailored recommendation for your dating needs, take our expert-led quiz to discover viable options:
This interactive tool needs JavaScript to run. See our top-rated dating apps instead.
Are Backpage Alternatives Safe?
Personals sites are dying out because they’re not super safe and becoming overrun by scammers and sex workers. It’s so easy to create an anonymous account without any verification. That’s why we focused more on dating sites and apps for this list — there are more safety nets.
For example, Ashley Madison has a mandatory ID check for any profiles it deems suspicious. I know because my profile was deemed suspicious (which is fair, it was a test account that I made using very little real info), and I was blocked until I submitted a government photo ID.
The online dating world can be a scary place, but if you vet your matches, you should be just fine. Common red flags to watch out for include:
- Asking for money (no matter the reason)
- Repeatedly refusing video dates or phone calls
- Edited or overly glossy photos
- Vague profiles
- Requests to get off the app and chat on WhatsApp or Yahoo Messenger
- Pressure to share private photos
It’s important to trust your instincts in the online world and be skeptical of anyone you meet. Especially now that AI content is so common, you’ve got to question and verify the words on the page and the photos on the profile. Stay vigilant, and never ever agree to lend an online match any money.
Which Site Has the Quickest Registration Process?
All the sites have a pretty fast signup, much like Backpage, but I’d say NaughtyCharm, SparkMeets, and KinkyPeopleMeet are among the fastest, coming in at under a minute with about 5-7 required fields.
SparkMeets only asks for a person’s gender, age, ZIP code, and email address to get going. It does verify the email, but it doesn’t check the ZIP code, and users can browse in any city they want once they join. This setup reminded me of Backpage, except it at least has an email verification step (as well as required photo uploads) to stop duplicate profiles and fakers.
A fast signup can be awfully tempting, and it’s great for newcomers to get the lay of the land. But, not to be a nag, but I want to emphasize that fully completed profiles are going to naturally get more attention and feel more genuine online. So it might be worth backtracking to complete those optional fields once you’re a full member.
What Happened to Craigslist Personals?
Craigslist Personals also fell victim to the 2018 government crackdown on online sex trafficking. After seeing Backpage’s collapse, Craigslist chose to remove its dating personals. Their statement explained they couldn’t oversee user actions or be accountable for any bad actors misusing the platform. RIP.
If you’re looking for personals sites similar to Craigslist Personals, sites like Oodle, Classified Ads, Pernals, and Doublelist are all vying to become your go-to choice for online dating classifieds.
I’d recommend Doublelist as the best option in the bunch because it has a two-factor profile verification built into it (hence the name Doublelist), so it offers more security than the typical sketchy classifieds.
What Is Bedpage?
Bedpage probably looks pretty familiar to those of you who used to frequent Backpage’s listings. The setup is basically a copy/paste job. But it’s not very popular. Except for scammy-looking massage ads, I didn’t see a single real listing there. Avoid like the plague.
How We Evaluated Backpage Alternatives
Our dating reviewers are pretty big fans of online dating (some even met their partners on the apps), so it seemed natural to point Backpage-less people to the swiping world. We focused more on hookup sites than mainstream dating sites because we know the activity on Backpage was hardly innocent and pure.
Our editorial team compared each platform based on five criteria that matter for adults seeking casual dates in an anonymous setting.
- Privacy options
- Free features
- Audience size
- Communication tools
- Safety measures
We wanted to make sure we were pointing people toward safe alternatives as well, so profile verification was a crucial must-have for each site.
Over the years since this article was originally written, features have changed and popularity shifts, so we regularly return to update the content for accuracy. Our editors monitor user traffic and trends to provide helpful ratings that reflect real-time choices made by modern daters.
We’re All Better Off Without Backpage
What the Backpage team did was truly terrible, and we’re in a much better place now thanks to the government’s intervention.
But if you find yourself missing some of the genuine services Backpage offered, like adult-focused personals, you’re not out of options. The hookup sites mentioned here can satisfy that need while prioritizing your safety and best interests.
