| 600 members | 100,000/weekly |
| 1/5 hookup chance | Very Low Sex Chance |
| high fraud risk | Verification email |
| from $2 per placing one ad and from $7.5 for each promotion subscription price |
What is Bedpage? If you are older than 30, you probably remember Backpage, a classified portal for ads known for its high-profile sex scandals and troubles with the law in the US. It was shut down in 2018. Since then Bedpage (I bet you didn’t pay attention to the difference in names till now) has been trying to recreate the old ads giant without any embarrassing by a little plagiarism on his name and design. The question is whether it is possible to avoid the mistakes of the ancestor and at the same time become as large and successful. I analyzed the chances of Bedpage success and am ready to share them in my first-hand review.
Affordability
★★★★☆
Any user over 21 can join the Bedpage website, but only in a “viewer mode”. Unlike other escort sites similar to Bedpage, this service does not have a trial mode and you must pay to post even the first advert.
Free services
All listings, including contacts of the authors, are available without registration. Therefore, looking among all Bedpage classifieds for a suitable one, you can contact its creator without intermediaries. Basically, posters leave a cell phone number to text them directly. I saved 20 numbers from the dating section, and none of them were registered in any messenger. A bit suspicious, innit?
Paid services
As usual, the phrase “mainly free” involves a lot of pitfalls. In this mode, the cost of one post is $2, but the section for adults is missing here. It means that you can publish an ad of car rental or a gardener’s job, but not an application for a date. In addition, the minimum publication price on Bedpage is $4, so you must pay some extra service for placement, for example, select several cities for posting or raise an ad to Top. One does not simply spend only $2 per post.
To publish your ad in the dating section, choose “Post local ad” or “Post in multiple cities”. For each day having your ad at the top of the city list, you will pay $1, no matter how long you want your ad to be there. If you’d like to reach several cities, make your ad Premium for a cost of $15 for a single city and $7.5 for each extra city. Therefore, you save up to 50% and can specify time slots when to display your ads at the top.
The last promotion option is Paid Sponsored Ads which appear as highlighted text boxes at the top and right side of the post list. You can see them on my screenshot in red rectangles. By clicking on these ads, you will be redirected to unprotected third-party sites.
Audience quality
★☆☆☆☆
There is a dating section, broken down by who is seeking who. The vast majority of post creators are women. After two hours of scrolling, I found only two ads posted by men. Perhaps men act as invisible guests. It’s hard to say for sure because the site has no comments and no Bedpage reviews there. However, there is a separate section for dating transgenders, which I find very nice of a site like that.
Age distribution
Most of the members are in their twenties and thirties. The youngest girls I saw were from the CIS countries. The oldest woman was 55 years old, and she offered her services in South America. Of course, for $30/hr in-call or $40/hr out-call. For this money, you can enjoy all the benefits of Pure for a month. And chances of getting a hookup there are way bigger than at Bedpage because first, the app was designed for that, and second, users there know what they want and are eager to meet up as soon as possible.
Fakes and scammers
You don’t need to be a psychic to understand that 80% of advertising is fake. Each section, including dating, offers escort services. These include hottie MILFS, horny Latinas, freaky Dominicans showing you big boobs, and dozens of sexy students lost on the way to the American Dream. A large number of profiles are teeming with photographs of famous pornographic actresses. Some authors did not even bother to remove the watermarks.
As I already mentioned, the indicated phone numbers are not active in the messengers. I tried to make a call to a girl from Kharkiv, but at the other end of the line, a man answered me. Given that this was not a transgender section, I can only guess who that guy is for her.
Interface
★★☆☆☆
If the programmer and site designer were my friends, I would say that the site is minimalistic. But since I have no idea who all these people are, I will tell you the truth. Today the Bedpage interface feels like a flashback from the past. The only thing that reminds us of 2020 is the dominance of the emojis in each ad. Besides this, according to the ranking of the Top 100 Directory Sites by David Jones, Bedpage is a new craigslist personals alternative. But not the best, in my opinion.
Signing up
Bedpage login is available only via Google Account and takes about 5 minutes. All you need to add is your email and a mobile phone, which must be confirmed with a one-time code. Earlier, I read about the reason for introducing this feature into similar platforms in the Doublelist review. This simple verification does not allow people to create multiple accounts. So if you are blocked once, you will not be able to register again under the same number.
Profile
If you click “My Account”, you will not see your profile. Only the list of ads you posted. Purpose and place of search, short biography, age, and photo must be uploaded to each ad separately. It is impossible to change the name and surname after registration, but it is easy to replace the phone number and email address.
Searching
Most classified ads sites allow you to search without registering, and Backpage is no exception in this case. Unfortunately, this is where the advantages of its search end. I highlighted the following cons, though:
- Bedpage is not a location-based website. It does not determine your place of stay and each time you have to choose the right one from a huge list of countries and cities manually.
- Each list opens in a new tab, which is especially unfortunate if you search from a mobile phone.
- Many ads repeat, and you can’t rank your search list in any way. People upload the same ad every day, which turns the list into a spam cemetery.
- A search outside the US was disappointing because it showed that my expectations for Bedpage international coverage were false. Many cities from the main page turned out to be ghosts with empty lists.
- Irrelevant advertising further underscores frustration. Whichever category you choose, 99% of the ads are female escort offers.
Overall, Bedpage cannot boast of an advanced search engine.
Chat
Of course, Bedpage has a chat. But, unfortunately, only with a support service.
As for me, this is a huge disadvantage, because internal chats only can ensure maximum confidentiality of information. That’s why I prefer Pure with its advanced chatting system. You have only 24 hours to talk about all the meeting details in a secure chat. Once this time is over, the chat dissipates instantly. So you either meet or move to the next match. Fast, convenient, and safe.
Mobile app
It would probably be strange that without a chat, they would have an application. But everything is ok, as there is no application either. Nevertheless, the website is adapted for mobile screens.
Security and privacy
★★★☆☆
On the one hand, Bedpage keeps its website HTTPS-enabled which allows users to browse this service with end-to-end encryption. You can read the security policy on the website as well as take into account that your personal data that you leave there could be disclosed to third parties under confidentiality or similar agreements, including shippers, vendors, payment processors, and advertisers. Did you come here for all this stuff? I doubt it.
If you only want to view ads, you do not need to register, and just after emptying the cache, you can remain anonymous. If you were caught red-handed, say that you were looking for spare parts for your car. The auto parts section goes right after the sugar babies.
At the same time, it’s a little strange that email verification is not required on Bedpage. The only thing it checks is your mobile phone. Also, the “Bedpage Verified” tag (see the screenshot) that must guarantee users that they are calling the person described in the ad, does not work. So Bedpage can not be considered as a 100% reliable platform in terms of security.
Hookup chance
★★☆☆☆
Bedpage can help you to find sex, but be prepared to pay a fixed price for it. In any section of the site, including dating, escort and prostitution ads prevail.
Besides the fact that such professional activity in most cities is illegal, it is rarely possible to meet real sex workers on the sites like Bedpage. Instead, they are full of fake ads that make lonely people feel disappointed. I think that the majority of Bedpage users are nostalgic for the old Backpage and do not understand that since its opening a bunch of much better ways to set-up a date. Anyway, I can conclude that Bedpage would not help anyone to find a legitimate and carefree hookup. At least in its current state.
And according to one of the Bedpage review, people share my opinion:
“If you must find yourself a sex worker, I promise you, Bedpage is not the place to do it. You’re really better off joining a hookup site and finding someone interested in a mutually legal sexual relationship, but again, you do what’s right for you. Just don’t do it on Bedpage, ok?”
Matching algorithm
The matching algorithm is generally absent. Ads are searched manually. By the way, forum users note curious things about account verification, which indirectly affects the “matching” process on Bedpage:
Alternatives
I have found out that Bedpage could offer you a good number of escort ads mainly in the cities of the USA and Canada. But if that isn’t what you’re after or you live outside these countries, then take a look at these Bedpage alternatives:
| 2 million members | 2,000 logins per day |
| 2/5 hookup chance | Low Sex Chance |
| high fraud risk | Verification email |
| $9.95 - $80.04 subscription price |
Uberhorny promises to deliver hookup for any time you are feeling horny. With over 2 million members worldwide, more than half of its member population come from the United States.
| 11 millions members | 300k per months |
| 4/5 hookup chance | High Sex Chance |
| low fraud risk | Verification email, phone, photo |
| $0.95 – $45.95 subscription price |
Pure was created for real meetings of sex-seekers and does not require long conversations in chats. The app has a clear structure and a user-friendly interface, it is available for iOS, Android, and as a web-version.
| 13,300,000 members | 120,000 users per week |
| 4/5 hookup chance | High Sex Chance |
| low fraud risk | Verification email |
| $27.30-73.80 subscription price |
BeNaughty aims to find you easy hookups and fits better if you have a female account. For male profiles, sending messages is a pre-paid feature.
To find the most suitable Bedpage alternative for you, you can explore 16 free hookup sites.
FAQ
What kind of dating site is Bedpage?
Bedpage is a classified advertising site that in fact is a market for buying and selling sex.
Is Bedpage free?
Viewing ads is free, posting is paid. Minimum you will pay $4 for one post. Also, you can buy extra features for ad promotions. A monthly subscription is not possible.
Can you stay anonymous on Bedpage?
Yes, you can view ads incognito. To post an ad, you only need to confirm the mobile phone.
Is Bedpage legit?
Federal law enforcement agencies keep an eye on Bedpage and consider it a copycat of Badpage, an illegal sex trafficker seized in April 2018. Furthermore, many users complain about a lot of scammers, so Bedpage shutdown seems like a matter of time.
Is there a mobile application for Bedpage?
No. It has only a desktop version with an open-source network which makes Bedpage look almost the same as Craigslist.
Can I find a hook-up at Bedpage?
In theory, yes. In practice, if you want to have a safe place to find a person who’s up for hot activities, no strings attached, try Pure. It is an app designed specifically for that; it values your privacy and anonymity.