We Built Colombia's Craigslist — And Made It Better

I used Craigslist for everything when I lived in the States. Found my first apartment on it. Sold a couch for $200 in 30 minutes. Hired a guy to help me move for $15 an hour. Bought a used MacBook that lasted me four years. Craigslist wasn't pretty, it wasn't fancy — but it worked. You could post anything, find anything, and connect with real people in your city. No middleman, no commission, no nonsense.

When I moved to Colombia, I looked for the equivalent. Something simple where I could find an apartment, sell my stuff, hire help, or buy a used laptop. I expected it to exist. It didn't.

Colombia's Classified Ad Problem

Here's what I found instead: Facebook Marketplace, which in Colombia is basically Facebook Groups with extra steps. Half the listings are fake, sellers ghost you after you express interest, and there's zero accountability. MercadoLibre exists but charges sellers 9-17% commission — which means sellers inflate prices to cover the fee, and you end up paying more. OLX used to be here but pulled out of Colombia entirely. Finca Raíz is decent for apartments but useless for everything else.

And none of them — not a single one — is bilingual. In a country with one of the fastest-growing expat and digital nomad populations in Latin America, every classifieds platform is Spanish-only. If you're an American trying to sell furniture before leaving Medellín, you're stuck posting in broken Spanish on Facebook and hoping for the best.

I kept thinking: how does a country of 52 million people not have a Craigslist? Not a copycat or a clone — but something that serves the same purpose. A free, no-BS platform where people can buy, sell, rent, and find services without getting gouged on fees or swimming through spam.

So We Built It

I'm not a guy who complains about problems without doing something about them. Colombia gave me a home, a wife, a life I love. The least I could do was build something that gives back to the community I'm part of. So we built Colombia Move — a free classifieds platform at colombiamove.com — and honestly, I think we built something better than Craigslist ever was.

I know that's a bold claim. Let me back it up.

Everything Craigslist Did, Plus What It Should Have

It's Free. Actually Free.

Craigslist started charging for some categories over the years — job postings, apartment listings in major cities. We don't charge for anything. Post a job, list your apartment, sell your car, offer your services — it's all free. No listing fees, no commission on sales, no premium placements. Free is free.

It's Bilingual

This is the big one. Every listing you post is automatically translated to the other language. Write in Spanish, it appears in English on colombiamove.com and colombiamove.com. Write in English, it appears in Spanish on colombiamove.com and colombiamove.com. You're not just reaching half the market — you're reaching all of it.

Think about what that means practically. A Colombian family selling a car reaches every English-speaking expat who might want to buy it. An American selling furniture before leaving the country reaches every Colombian in the city. The language barrier — the single biggest friction point in Colombian commerce — just disappears.

Built-in Messaging (Craigslist Never Had This)

Remember the Craigslist email relay system? You'd get anonymous emails, half of them spam, with no way to block anyone. We built actual messaging. Buyers contact sellers through the platform. No phone numbers exchanged unless you want to. Block anyone with one click. Messages auto-delete after 30 days for privacy. You get notified by email or WhatsApp when someone messages you.

This alone solves the biggest complaint about online classifieds in Colombia: random WhatsApp messages from strangers at 11pm asking "último precio?" Now those messages come through the platform, and if someone's wasting your time, you block them and move on.

Real Categories, Not Chaos

Craigslist had its charm with the anything-goes approach, but it also meant wading through garbage to find what you wanted. We have structured categories:

• Housing: Apartments, houses, rooms, offices, fincas, short-term rentals — for rent or sale
• Electronics: Phones, laptops, consoles, cameras, audio, appliances
• Vehicles: Cars, motorcycles, trucks, bicycles, parts
• Furniture: Everything from beds to desks to kitchen equipment
• Jobs: Full-time, freelance, remote — tech, education, marketing, trades
• Services: Plumbing, cleaning, tutoring, translations, photography

Each category has subcategories. You can search by city, neighborhood (for the 9 largest cities), price range, and condition. It's organized the way Craigslist should have been from day one.

Multiple Currencies

Post prices in Colombian pesos, US dollars, or crypto (Bitcoin, USDC, USDT, PayPal USD). This isn't a gimmick — it's practical. Expats think in dollars. Crypto communities are growing fast in Colombia. A single listing can reach all of them because the price is displayed in whatever currency the buyer understands.

The Job Board Too

Craigslist's job section was legendary in the US. We have that covered too. colombiamove.com (or colombiamove.com in English) is a full bilingual job board — completely separate from the classifieds but part of the same ecosystem. Post a job for free, find services, hire freelancers. Same account, same messaging system, same zero fees.

Why I Care About This

I could have just blogged about Colombia and called it a day. But here's the thing: when you live somewhere and you see a gap this obvious, you either keep complaining about it on Reddit or you do something. Colombia has been good to me. Building tools that help both Colombians and expats navigate daily life here — finding apartments, selling stuff, hiring help, getting jobs — that feels like a real contribution.

Craigslist worked in the US because it was built by someone who understood the community. I've lived in Colombia long enough to understand the specific problems here: the language barrier, the trust issues with online transactions, the phone number spam, the MercadoLibre fees that don't make sense for individual sellers. This platform addresses every single one of those.

What People Are Using It For

We're still early — the platform launched recently — but here's what's already happening:

• Expats leaving Colombia listing entire apartment setups (furniture, appliances, electronics) at steep discounts
• Colombians selling cars and motorcycles to both local and expat buyers
• Digital nomads looking for rooms and shared apartments in Medellín and Bogotá
• Small businesses posting services — cleaning, repairs, tutoring, photography
• People looking for specific items setting up search alerts and getting notified when they're listed

Every listing makes the platform more useful for the next person. That's how Craigslist grew — one person at a time, one listing at a time.

Your Turn

If you have something to sell, a room to rent, a service to offer, or a job to post — try it. It takes 3 minutes, it's free, and your listing reaches both English and Spanish speakers across Colombia.

If you're looking for something specific, set up a search alert. We'll email you when it shows up. No need to refresh the page every day like the old Craigslist days.

And if you have ideas for how to make it better — we actually read every message on our contact page. This is a community project. It gets better because people tell us what they need.

Quick Category Links

• 🏠 Apartments for Rent
• 📱 Phones
• 💻 Laptops & Computers
• 🚗 Cars
• 🏍️ Motorcycles
• 🛋️ Furniture
• 💼 Jobs & Services

Preguntas Frecuentes

❓ Is this really like Craigslist?

Same concept — free classifieds for your community — but modernized. We have built-in messaging (Craigslist relied on email relays), automatic bilingual translation, structured categories, search alerts, and no fees. It's what Craigslist would look like if it were built today for Colombia.

❓ Why is it free? What's the catch?

No catch. The platform is part of the Colombia Move ecosystem. We fund it through the blog and affiliate partnerships — not by charging users. If we ever add premium features in the future, the core listing functionality will always remain free.

❓ Is it safe to buy and sell on here?

We have several safety features: built-in messaging so you don't have to share your phone number, a report/flag system for suspicious listings, content moderation, and user blocking. For in-person transactions, we always recommend meeting in public places and never sending deposits before seeing the item. The same rules that applied to Craigslist apply here — common sense goes a long way.

❓ Can Colombians use it too, or is it just for expats?

It's for everyone. The platform is bilingual — post in Spanish on colombiamove.com or in English on colombiamove.com. Your listing automatically appears in both languages. Half our users are Colombian, half are expats and digital nomads. That's the whole point.

❓ What cities does it cover?

All of Colombia. The most active cities right now are Medellín, Bogotá, Cartagena, Cali, and Barranquilla. Neighborhood-level search is available for the 9 largest cities. But you can post from anywhere — if you're in Pereira, Bucaramanga, or Santa Marta, it works just the same.