letgo is a marketplace app designed to help you buy and sell used stuff locally. It's basically like having a massive, always-open garage sale right in your pocket. I started using it a few years ago when I needed to clear out my apartment before a move. The app launched back in 2015 and you can download it for free on both Google Play and the App Store. It has over 100 million installs from Google Play alone, which tells you how popular it is. You don't need to pay anything to download and install the app, and you can start browsing listings immediately. To sell something, you do need to create an account, but it's a quick process with your email or Facebook. The app itself is free to use, but it does show you ads to support itself. There aren't really in-app purchases for features; it's more about the buying and selling between people.

Using letgo is super straightforward. When you open the app, it shows you items for sale near you. You can scroll through pictures of everything from sofas and phones to baby clothes and bikes. If you want to sell, you just tap the sell button, take a photo of your item, write a quick description, set a price, and post it. My tip is to always use clear, well-lit photos – stuff sells way faster that way. I also found that being responsive to messages is key. The chat feature in the app lets you talk directly to buyers or sellers to ask questions, make offers, and arrange to meet up. I usually pick safe, public places like a coffee shop parking lot for meetups. It feels much more personal and faster than dealing with shipping on other sites.

Compared to other apps like OfferUp or Facebook Marketplace, I keep coming back to letgo for a few reasons. The interface feels cleaner and less cluttered to me than Facebook's, which can be overwhelming. It's also more focused on local, instant deals than something like eBay, where you mostly deal with shipping. While OfferUp is very similar, I found the user base on letgo in my area was just a bit more active when I was looking for specific furniture. The simplicity is the biggest win – it doesn't try to do too much. It's just for local buying and selling, and it does that one job really well without complicated menus or fees. For quick, cash-in-hand deals on used items around town, it's become my go-to app.

• 📱 Super simple listing process. Just snap a photo, add a brief description and price, and your item is live in seconds. It's much faster than listing on sites that require more detailed forms.
• 📱 Hyper-local browsing. The app automatically shows you items near your location, making it perfect for finding things you can pick up today without waiting for shipping.
• 📱 Built-in direct messaging. You can chat securely within the app to negotiate and arrange meetups, keeping your personal phone number private, which is a safety feature some classifieds sites lack.
• 📱 Visual-first interface. Scrolling through photos feels intuitive, like a social feed for stuff, compared to text-heavy classifieds which can be harder to browse quickly.

• 👍 The photo-first approach makes browsing fun and easy, unlike text-based classifieds where you have to open each ad.
• 👍 It's completely free for basic buying and selling, whereas some platforms take a final value fee or charge for promotions.
• 👍 The local focus leads to faster, cash-based transactions without shipping hassles, which is a big plus over auction sites.
• 👍 The in-app chat is seamless for communication, more integrated than trying to coordinate via email or text on other platforms.

• ⚠️ The app shows banner and video ads, which can be distracting, while some competitors have a cleaner, ad-free experience.
• ⚠️ Search filters can be less precise than on more established marketplace sites, sometimes making it hard to narrow down results.