How to Create a Classified Site Like Craigslist with WordPress

Do you want to create a classified site like Craigslist with WordPress? Well, you have come to the right place. WordPress, the open-source website builder we know and love has reached its fifth version recently. There is nothing you cannot do with WordPress if you know what you want to do. Creating a classified site like Craigslist is very easy using WordPress.

What is a classified website?

A classified website is a categorized website where others can post ads. A classified website is a site where you could find whatever you want. You can post ads yourself, and search for ads.

You can be buyer and seller at the same time in a classified website

How to Create a Classified Site Like Craigslist with WordPress?

If you have not installed WordPress already, you can install WordPress on your server using our easy WordPress installation guide. This would be your first requirement to create a classified site like Craigslist.

After installing the self-hosted WordPress on your live server or on localhost, you could create a classified site like Craigslist in three easy ways. We will show you how to create a craigslist like site with WordPress using plugins in this tutorial.

Creating a Classified Website with WordPress

• You can create a WordPress classified website with WordPress plugins (Covering on this tutorial)
• You can create a WordPress classified website with WordPress themes

Create a Classified Website like Craigslist with WordPress Plugins

There are quite a few plugins which enable you to create a Craigslist-like site. Here are some of the best WordPress plugins that you can use to create a classified website.

1. AWPCP – Another WordPress Classifieds Plugin
2. WPUF – WP User Frontend
3. Classified Listing
4. WPAdverts – Classifieds Plugin

In this tutorial, we will be using WPUF – WP User Frontend to create a classified site like Craigslist with WordPress. WP User Frontend makes it ridiculously easy to make a classified website. Also, the plugin loads very fast, cleanly coded and all of your users will be able to login to your WordPress, submit ads, through the front end of your website. This makes a really good impression on your users who will be posting a new ad for the first time on your classified website.

The intuitive frontend UI of WPUF is extremely easy. Anyone with even no previous WordPress experience can easily create a Craigslist like site using WPUF. That is why we are choosing WPUF. You can try a demo from their website.

Start Creating a Craigslist Like Site with WordPress and WPUF

First, navigate to your Dashboard and go to Plugins. 

Create Custom Post Type For Your Classified Ads

WPUF’s free version does not support custom post type. Since we want all our classified ads to go into a separate post type, we will install a small plugin which lets us add Custom Post Types to WordPress. Go to Plugins→Add New and search for Custom Post Type UI. This is a great little plugin which lets anyone create custom post types. Install and activate Custom Post Type UI.

Go to the settings of Custom Post Type UI and add a new post type. Note: For your reference, we are creating an advertise post type from the Custom Post Type UI panel.

Then go to Add/Edit Taxonomies.  You have to create a new taxonomy and select the previously created post type. We are selecting advertise here since we created that post type previously.

You will be able to see your newly created post type on the left side of your WordPress Dashboard.

Now, you can add new ads, edit them, delete them – all from the backend. However, we want to make it visible from the front-end so that users can easily post ads.

Create A Registration Form

\WP User Frontend can create frontend registration page for your visitors. Go to wp-admin→User Frontend→Registration Forms to create a new registration form for your users

After creating the registration form, paste the shortcode on a registration page.  Check out how to allow guest posting on WordPress site to know about adding shortcodes in detail.

Tip: Don’t forget to enable registration on your WordPress website from Settings → General

Create A Form from WPUF to Submit Ads

Now comes the most crucial part of this process. We will add a new Post Form (Advertise) which will be used to take user submission of ads.

Go to  WP User Frontend→Post Forms→Add New

Now create the post form you want for your ads. Then go to Post Settings→Post Type and choose the previously named custom post type.

You can configure other settings for your Ads from the WPUF Settings page. Learn more about WPUF from their docs

Create The Required Pages

Now you need to add some other front end pages for your website.

Go to Pages→All Pages→Add New

WPUF offers you all the necessary shortcodes that you need to use from the WP User Frontend Shortcodes menu.

You need to create the following pages to make sure users have a great workflow.

• Registration Page: The page that will be used for registration
• Login Page: Login page for your users
• Ad Page: The actual ads page
• My Ads: The user dashboard to see all their add post
• All Ads Page: The front page of the website the classfied ads will be showed

For our classified website like Craigslist, we have made these pages for our convenience.

Admin Dashboard

You can manage everything from the custom post type menu that we have created previously. Also, you will be able to see the Ad title, author, tags, date. You can delete the ads from both frontend and backend.

Wrapping Up Everything

Creating a site like Craigslist is pretty easy with WordPress. There are some great classified themes available for making classified websites with WordPress. However, we prefer using a plugin becomes it gives you a lot more flexibility and you can use your existing theme to achieve all of this.

You can try creating an eCommerce website using WordPress or create a multivendor marketplace if you want to take things to the next level.

You may need to speed up the WordPress website since you need a fast website to keep users focused on your website. Check out our WordPress speedup techniques to increase your WordPress website speed up to 3x.

>> Let Me Get Dokan to Create a Site Like Craiglist <<

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more beginner-friendly WordPress tutorials and reviews