Part of Notes from the Road, our city-by-city series.
The short answer: Craigslist took its Personals section offline in 2018, and no single site replaced it. In New Jersey, personal ads now live on Reddit boards such as r/nj4nj and r/NJr4r, on classified sites such as Doublelist and Locanto, and in text-first apps including AseeksB. Craigslist’s four New Jersey sites still run missed connections. We checked the boards and the missed connections on October 12, 2026.
New Jersey’s biggest personals board keeps to New Jersey. r/nj4nj, the largest of the six New Jersey boards we found on Reddit, had about 18,000 weekly visitors on October 12, 2026, more than double r/NYr4r, the busiest of New York City’s three r4r boards, with about 8,000 in October. Its moderators’ pinned post says its members are from New Jersey: “Not Philadelphia. Not New York City.”
Search follows the same map. People look for Doublelist by region, not by town: “doublelist nj” and “doublelist north jersey,” which Google counts together, get about 12,100 searches a month, up 49% on last year, and “doublelist south jersey” about 6,600, up 50%, while Newark, Hoboken, and Trenton barely register (Google Keyword Planner, October 2026). So this page goes region by region: North Jersey, Central Jersey, the Jersey Shore, and South Jersey.
Here is how each option works, from our checks on October 12, 2026:
We checked the Reddit boards and Craigslist’s missed connections on October 12, 2026. We no longer count escort ads on the classified sites: the pattern has been consistent in the cities we’ve checked, and our Boston and New England page has the most recent counts. AseeksB ads can’t be read without an account. How we check.
AseeksB publishes this page and is included in it. For how each site handles the eight traits that defined Craigslist Personals, see our full comparison.
Coming from Reddit or a classified site? On AseeksB you still write an ad in your own words, but you choose who can see it, by gender and age; someone can send one message per post until you reply; and no photo or real name is needed. Posting, browsing, and replying are free. How AseeksB works.
“doublelist nj” and “doublelist north jersey” get about 12,100 searches a month together, up 49% on last year and about 14,800 a month from May to August; “doublelist south jersey” gets about 6,600, up 50%; “nj doublelist” about 880; “doublelist new jersey” about 720; “doublelist jersey shore” about 590, up 108%; and “doublelist central nj” about 320, up 129% (Google Keyword Planner, October 2026). Anyone can see Doublelist’s ad titles, but reading a full ad needs an account. Posting is free for up to 3 posts, and seeing members’ photos takes a paid plan; its help center lists two, Hookup and Hardcore, at $45 and $90 a year. Its pages open with a paid pop-up and carry sponsored links to outside sites; on October 11, 2026, one of them, “Hookup Finder,” led to a page that Chrome blocked as dangerous.
We no longer count its ads place by place, because the pattern has been consistent: in most of the cities we’ve checked, escort ads were among its 20 newest ads. Our Boston and New England page has the most recent counts, from October 12, 2026, and earlier pages have their own, such as New York.
If you’re coming from Doublelist, AseeksB works differently: you choose who can see your post, by gender and age; someone can send one message per post until you reply; admins actively monitor posts; and posting, browsing, and replying are free. For more options, see sites like Doublelist.
We found six Reddit personals boards for New Jersey, and the two biggest cover the whole state. The numbers below are Reddit’s own, from October 12, 2026.
r/nj4nj is the biggest, with about 104,200 members, 18,000 weekly visitors, and 5,800 recent posts. Its moderators’ pinned post asks members to stick to one board instead of posting the same ad everywhere, to post a face photo and take part, and says its users are “actually from New Jersey. Not Philadelphia. Not New York City.”
r/NJr4r, created in 2011, is the oldest, with about 79,000 members, 8,100 weekly visitors, and 1,600 recent posts. It is for New Jersey and the surrounding area, ages 18 and up, and welcomes local events and news alongside r4r posts. You can post 3 times a day; selling of any kind, OnlyFans, links, and Cash App included, gets a ban; and anyone whose posts are suspected to be fake is asked to verify with the moderators. Because of what its moderators call an uptick of bots and scammers, you also have to confirm you’ve read the rules, from the board’s menu, before you can post or comment.
Smaller boards include r/NJStraightR4R (about 12,600 members, 2,500 weekly visitors, and 342 weekly contributions) and r/R4R_NJ (about 13,200 members but only 834 weekly visitors and 16 weekly contributions). The Shore has boards of its own, below. For New York City’s boards, see our New York guide.
North Jersey faces Manhattan across the Hudson: Hoboken and Jersey City are a PATH ride from the city, and Newark is a short train ride from Penn Station. It is also the biggest search: “doublelist nj” and “doublelist north jersey” account for about 12,100 of the roughly 22,000 Doublelist searches a month about New Jersey. A North Jersey ad should say which side of the Turnpike you’re on, and whether you’d cross the river for a first drink.
Central Jersey runs from New Brunswick and Princeton to Trenton, between the New York and Philadelphia orbits. “doublelist central nj” gets about 320 searches a month, up 129% on last year.
The Shore runs from Monmouth County down to Atlantic City and Cape May, and it fills up every summer. So do its searches: “doublelist jersey shore” got about 1,000 a month in July and August, about twice its usual, and is up 108% on last year; “doublelist atlantic city” gets about 260. The Shore has two Reddit boards of its own: r/JerseyShoreDLFWB, for discreet friends with benefits, with about 35,700 members, 5,100 weekly visitors, and 475 weekly contributions; and r/JerseyShoreWifeShare, for couples, with about 23,000 members, 4,500 weekly visitors, and 193 weekly contributions.
South Jersey looks west across the Delaware to Philadelphia, from Camden and Cherry Hill outward. “doublelist south jersey” gets about 6,600 searches a month, up 50% on last year, and “doublelist cherry hill” about 110, up 467%. South Jersey also searches for missed connections more than the north does: “south jersey missed connections” and “craigslist south jersey missed connections” get about 140 a month each, against about 50 and 40 for the North Jersey versions.
Craigslist has four New Jersey sites, North Jersey, Central NJ, Jersey Shore, and South Jersey, and each still runs missed connections under Community. On October 12, 2026, North Jersey and Central NJ had 11 each and the Jersey Shore and South Jersey 8 each, all going back about three months. Central NJ’s and South Jersey’s all looked genuine; 1 of the Shore’s and 5 of North Jersey’s were really ads. That is a snapshot of one day, not a measure of the whole site.
AseeksB has a missed connections category too: say where and when, and only the audience you choose can see the post. For how to write one that the right person will recognize, see our guide to missed connections.
Beyond the apps. Date Faster runs speed dating for ages 24 to 39 in Jersey City, on Newark Avenue, and in Morristown. For more ways to meet people, with or without an app, see our guide to alternatives to dating apps.
New Jersey’s personal ads are much older than Craigslist. Around the turn of the 20th century, the Newark Evening News ran a column headed PERSONAL, with replies sent to box numbers at the paper’s office. On February 25, 1899, it carried this:
“M. 2024, who noticed blond in Montclair, please be there to-night, 7:30.”
Newark Evening News, February 25, 1899. Read the adThe notice names someone only by a number and sets the meeting for that same night. The same column carried a woman’s question, “Is there an honorable, liberal man of means?”, and a widow looking for a widower over 47. In September 1905, the column had a widower past 50 describing his “handsomely furnished home” and his housekeeper, and a “refined American lady” who wanted to correspond. More in our history of personal ads and The Personals Archive.
In New Jersey, a few miles can mean a river, a toll, or a dozen Parkway exits. Every AseeksB post shows how far away it was posted, and anyone can search by distance.
One honest difference: AseeksB ads can only be read inside the app after signing up, unlike Craigslist’s missed connections and most of the classified sites above. That is the trade for choosing exactly who sees each post.
Every post makes AseeksB busier for the next person in New Jersey. Post what you’re looking for, and if there’s a feature you’d want, tell us through the app, from the profile tab; we’d love to hear it.
Text-first personal ads for New Jersey, from North Jersey to the Shore, in your own words, with distance and other controls in Supporter.
Craigslist took its Personals section offline in the US on March 22, 2018, after Congress passed FOSTA, including in New Jersey. People there now post on Reddit boards such as r/nj4nj and r/NJr4r, on classified-style sites such as Doublelist, in Locanto’s personals section, and in text-first apps such as AseeksB. Missed connections still run on Craigslist’s four New Jersey sites. They differ mainly in who can read your ad and how replies reach you.
Yes, several. The biggest is r/nj4nj, with about 104,200 members and 18,000 weekly visitors in October 2026; its moderators say its members are from New Jersey, not Philadelphia or New York City. r/NJr4r, created in 2011, had about 79,000 members and 8,100 weekly visitors; you can post 3 times a day, selling of any kind is banned, and you have to confirm you’ve read the rules before you can post or comment.
Craigslist has four New Jersey sites, North Jersey, Central NJ, Jersey Shore, and South Jersey, and each still runs missed connections under Community. On October 12, 2026, they had 8 to 11 posts each, going back about three months. AseeksB has a missed connections category too.
Yes. AseeksB is a free personal ads app for iOS and Android. Every post shows how far away it was posted, anyone can search by distance, and Supporters can also set a maximum distance on their own posts. A free account keeps one active post, and someone can send one message per post until you reply.