If you are searching for a new backpage, I have quite bad news for you. Backpage was officially closed in 2018 by the FBI. And it has not been published on a new domain since. Yes, many sites are trying to use their names, or they use the same theme or layout of the backpage. But none of these look-alike sites is a new backpage. And I believe they never will. I was searching for those guys who have built the original backpage on LinkedIn. And all of them who I have found have moved on to other projects. So all of these look-alike sites are fake.
What is the best backpage alternative
If you have used to use the backpage and now after it was shut down, you are looking for a new replacement site, and you are in the right place. I wrote this article about the best backpage alternatives. So if you are looking for such websites, click on the link in the previous sentence.
Within that article, all of the classified sites are described. Not only that, each of those sites has the main categories written out, but all of those classified sites are also still working, and they are the best ones in the US. But to 100% honest with you. None of these websites is better than the backpage, and I wish that they have built either the old or maybe even new backpage. Because that was the best-classified site I have ever visited.
Is it safe to visits that new backpage look-alike site?
I know that quite a few people might disagree with me on this, but I believe they do not have as much knowledge in this space as I do. All those sites, which are acting like new backpage websites, are in my eyes not safe to visit. And I am not even talking about registering over there and storing your personal information. First of all, at the time of writing this, I have checked a few of those websites. And they were all hosted outside of the US. I did not look any further, but it was clear that most of them are using offshore hosting. That is probably because some of these sites are still running the categories like personals. Which ultimately was the reason why the old backpage took down.
And why these sites are not safe to visit? Well, since they are not hosted in the US, I highly doubt that they are also registered on their real names. And if all that is true, I highly doubt that these guys are playing by the rules. Almost none of these sites have asked me about my cookies. If these guys don’t care about GDPR, why would they care about other things? Also, these offshore hosting companies are usually not that big. And they don’t have nearly as much security as the big guys in the industry, like GoDaddy, blue host or Namecheap. So your data might be easily hacked, or they might even sell your data. I would not be even slightly surprised if they did that.
If you are still not sure, if it is safe to visit such sites, read this:
Another reason why I would not visit websites that are claiming to be a new backpage is that most companies who provide banner ads will not accept them. And that means only bad things for visitors. And let me explain what I mean by that. The smaller or less known company there are working with, the more bad ads and ads with malware will be present. Big companies like Adsense earn so much money that they have the almost perfect system for detecting malicious ads and ads with viruses, etc. But the small guys don’t. First of all, they don’t have enough spare money to hire guys to that work for them or to code a sophisticated program or AI, which would do that for them. And secondly, if they had that, they would have almost zero advertisers.
The second reason why I would instead not visit such a site is that some of these sites are also using cryptocurrency mining for more income from their website. This sounds ok at first, but it is one of the worst things that can happen to your pc. This is also very common on online movie sites. And unfortunately, I know quite a few people, whos computer got permanently damaged or even died from it. Because these sites have a script within them, which will use your computer resources and they do not care about your hardware, they are just trying to earn as much as possible, so they will be using as many resources as they can.
Usually, the thing that goes first is CPU. Especially if you have that site opened in one of your tabs for several days. That could quickly destroy your computer forever. And I believe that in the last two years these scripts got so sophisticated, that it also works on smartphones. We all know how smartphones can overheat real quick just from regular use. And now imagine if someone is using 100% of free resources on your smartphone for several hours to mine crypto. Your smartphone can die anytime from overheating, but one thing that will happen for sure. It will slowly ruin your battery and possibly other components.
Which alternative to use
That depends on in which state you live and in which category you would like to post or search. All of these classified websites perform differently in different countries, and each of those sites has only a few popular categories.
You may ask, why is that? And it is quite simple. It is due to the ranking of these sites on google in different states and cities. Generally speaking, craigslist is the best, but it might not be the case for you if you live in Denver, and you would like to post ads in gigs.
My last thoughts
I would genuinely like it if there was a new backpage. That website was excellent. I have loved that site. I was recommending it to anyone because so many good things have happened to me due to that site. Why have I loved the site? I have bought so many things for extremely cheap over there. I have sold so many things on there, and I have even promoted my business on their classified site. But unfortunately, now it is not possible. And please take my recommendations seriously, all these fake sites are not safe to visit, not to even mention storing your data on these kinds of websites. I hope that I have made everything clear within this article, but if not. Just contact me, and I will try to answer your questions and possibly add them to this article.
