I Tried Every Site Like Skipthegames — Here's My Honest Ranking

I spent six months and way too many hours testing every skipthegames alternative I could find. Some were surprisingly good. Most were mediocre. A few were straight-up dangerous. Here's my honest ranking so you don't have to waste your time like I did.

Let me be upfront about my methodology. For each platform, I created a profile, browsed listings in at least five major cities (I focused on Houston, Chicago, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Miami since those are the biggest markets), attempted to make real connections, evaluated the safety features, and tracked how many scams or fake profiles I encountered. I used each platform for at least two weeks before forming an opinion.

I'm not affiliated with any of these platforms except for the one I ended up using the most, which I'll be transparent about. My goal was to find something better than skipthegames because, frankly, I was tired of the spam, the fake profiles, and the general feeling that the site hadn't been updated since 2019. A lot of you are probably in the same boat, so here's what I found.

#1: Skip The Games App

Safety Rating: 9/10 | Overall: 9.2/10

I'll be honest: I didn't expect a newcomer to take the top spot. I went into testing Skip The Games App expecting another half-baked skipthegames clone. What I found was genuinely the best platform I tested across every category.

The first thing you notice is that this was built as a mobile app from day one. It's not a website crammed into a phone screen. The interface is clean, fast, and intuitive. Search filters are actually useful. You can filter by verification level, distance, activity recency, and more. I found what I was looking for in Houston within about three minutes of opening the app, compared to the twenty minutes of scrolling through spam it takes on skipthegames.

The verification system is leagues ahead of anything else I tested. Real-time selfie verification, ongoing re-verification, and tiered trust levels. I encountered almost zero fake profiles during my testing. The few suspicious ones I reported were removed within hours, not days.

The scam ratio was the lowest of any platform: I'd estimate under 5% of profiles showed any red flags, compared to 30-40% on some of the sites lower on this list. The user base is growing fast, especially in the cities I tested. Houston and Atlanta had the most active communities, but even Phoenix and Miami had solid activity.

Pros: Best verification I've seen, excellent mobile experience, very low scam rate, responsive moderation, transparent policies, active user base in major markets.

Cons: Newer platform so smaller cities may have fewer listings, some premium features require payment (but the free tier is very usable).

Bottom line: This is where I ended up spending most of my time, and it's my primary recommendation. If you're looking for sites like skipthegames, start here.

#2: Skipthegames (The Original)

Safety Rating: 5/10 | Overall: 6.5/10

Yes, skipthegames itself is on this list because, let's face it, it's still the baseline that everyone's comparing against. And to be fair, it's not terrible. It's just coasting.

Skipthegames has the largest user base of any platform in this space. If you're in a mid-size city like Tucson, Omaha, or Richmond, skipthegames might be the only platform with meaningful activity. That matters. The biggest user base means the most potential connections, even if you have to wade through garbage to find them.

The problems are well-documented. The mobile experience is poor. Spam and fake profiles are rampant. Verification is basic and easy to circumvent. Customer support responds at glacial speed. The interface looks like it was designed in 2016 because it was. But it works. Millions of people still use it every month, and real connections happen there every day.

Pros: Largest user base by far, covers virtually every US city, free to use, established reputation, everyone knows what it is.

Cons: High scam ratio (I'd estimate 25-35% of profiles are fake or suspicious), poor mobile design, slow support, basic verification, aggressive auto-moderation that catches innocent posts.

Bottom line: Still usable, especially in smaller markets. But if you're in a major city, better options exist.

#3: MegaPersonals

Safety Rating: 5/10 | Overall: 6/10

MegaPersonals is the second-largest traditional personal ad site after skipthegames, and in some cities it actually rivals it for activity. Houston, Los Angeles, and New York are particularly strong markets. I tested it primarily in Houston and Chicago, and both cities had healthy listing counts.

The site design is slightly more modern than skipthegames, which is a low bar but worth noting. The search and filter options are decent. City-specific pages load fast. Photo quality tends to be higher than skipthegames, partly because the platform enforces minimum image resolution requirements.

The downside is that MegaPersonals has a serious scam problem. I'd estimate 30-40% of the profiles I encountered were either fake, using stolen photos, or were clearly scam operations. The verification system is minimal, basically phone verification only in most cities. There's no photo verification to speak of. You're flying mostly blind on whether the person is who they claim to be.

Pros: Large user base in major metros, slightly better design than skipthegames, good search filters, fast page loads, competitive with skipthegames in top cities.

Cons: Very high scam ratio, minimal verification, aggressive pop-up ads, some features locked behind paywalls that are poorly explained.

Bottom line: A decent second option if skipthegames isn't working for you in a major city. Proceed with extreme caution regarding scams.

#4: Escort Babylon / ListCrawler

Safety Rating: 4/10 | Overall: 5.5/10

I'm grouping these two together because they're run by the same people and share a lot of content. Escort Babylon is the listing site; ListCrawler is the search/aggregation tool that pulls listings from multiple sources including Escort Babylon.

The concept is clever. Instead of hosting all content directly, ListCrawler aggregates from various platforms, giving you a wider selection in one place. I found this genuinely useful for comparison shopping across platforms. If someone is posted on three different sites, you can see all their listings in one view.

The safety situation is mixed. Because they're aggregating content, they don't control verification on the original platforms. What you see on ListCrawler is only as trustworthy as the source platform, and some of those sources are deeply untrustworthy. The sites themselves don't add any verification layer. You're browsing at your own risk.

The interface feels dated but functional. The forum attached to Escort Babylon can be useful for reviews, but take everything there with a grain of salt. Forum reviews can be faked just as easily as profiles.

Pros: Aggregated listings from multiple sources, useful for comparison, established presence, active community forums, free to browse.

Cons: No independent verification, safety depends entirely on source platforms, dated interface, forum can be unreliable, some aggregated listings are very outdated.

Bottom line: Useful as a research tool alongside other platforms. I wouldn't rely on it as a primary platform due to the lack of verification.

#5: Tryst

Safety Rating: 7/10 | Overall: 5.5/10

Tryst is interesting because it has arguably the best safety features of any traditional platform, but its user base is much smaller than the top contenders. It occupies a mid-to-premium niche and attracts posters who are serious about presentation and professionalism.

The verification process on Tryst is thorough. ID verification, photo verification, and a selective approval process for new accounts. This means the scam ratio is much lower, probably under 10% based on my testing. Profiles tend to be detailed, well-written, and feature professional-quality photos.

The catch is that this selectivity limits the user base. In my five test cities, Tryst had maybe 15-20% of the listings that skipthegames had. In smaller markets, it might have zero. If you're in Los Angeles or New York, Tryst is worth checking. If you're in Boise or Little Rock, you probably won't find much.

Pros: Strong verification, low scam rate, professional-quality listings, poster-controlled platform, respectful community.

Cons: Small user base, limited city coverage, paid listings mean fewer posters, premium positioning may not match what everyone's looking for.

Bottom line: High quality but limited quantity. Worth checking if you're in a major metro and value verification over volume.

#6: Eros

Safety Rating: 7/10 | Overall: 5/10

Eros has been around forever. It's the premium player in this space and it knows it. Listings feature professional photography, detailed bios, and a polished presentation that makes the rest of this list look amateur. If skipthegames is Walmart, Eros is Nordstrom.

The safety features are solid. ID verification is required. Photo verification exists. The platform actively moderates for quality. The scam rate is very low. This is probably the safest platform on this list behind Skip The Games App and Tryst.

The problem is accessibility. Eros is expensive for posters, which means fewer listings. And because it positions itself as premium, the expectations and pricing reflect that. This isn't a casual personal ads site. It's an upscale platform for a specific market segment. Most people searching for "sites like skipthegames" aren't looking for what Eros offers.

Pros: Professional quality, strong safety measures, very low scam rate, established reputation, polished experience.

Cons: Very limited user base, premium pricing limits accessibility, not a general personal ads site, small city coverage.

Bottom line: A different product for a different market. If it's what you're looking for, it's excellent. But most skipthegames users won't find what they want here.

#7: BedPage

Safety Rating: 3/10 | Overall: 4/10

BedPage has been around since right after the Backpage seizure and it's never really improved from its 2018 launch state. The name is clearly riding on Backpage nostalgia, and the site layout is reminiscent of the original. For some people, that's the appeal. For me, it was a warning sign.

The listings in major cities are plentiful enough. I found reasonable activity in all five of my test cities. But the quality of those listings was poor. I'd estimate 40-50% of profiles were obviously fake, using stolen photos or showing clear signs of scam operations. The verification system is basically nonexistent. Phone verification only, and I'm not even sure it checks if the number is real versus a VoIP throwaway.

I also encountered more aggressive popup ads and redirects on BedPage than any other platform I tested. On mobile, the experience was genuinely bad. Pop-ups, redirects to sketchy third-party sites, and slow page loads made it nearly unusable without an ad blocker.

Pros: Reasonable listing volume in major cities, free to use, familiar layout for ex-Backpage users.

Cons: Very high scam ratio, almost no verification, terrible mobile experience, aggressive ads, questionable data practices.

Bottom line: I can't recommend this one. The scam rate is too high and the experience is too poor. Use only as a last resort.

#8: CityXGuide

Safety Rating: 3/10 | Overall: 3.5/10

CityXGuide was once a legitimate contender. Back in 2019, it had real momentum, especially in cities like Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Dallas. But it's gone downhill significantly since then. Domain changes, server instability, and inconsistent moderation have driven away the serious users and left behind mostly spam and scam profiles.

When I tested it, the Houston and Atlanta pages had decent listing counts, but Chicago was nearly empty and Miami was overrun with obvious fakes. The site's design varies by city, which is bizarre. Some city pages look reasonably modern while others look like they haven't been touched since 2018. It's as if different people are managing different cities with no central coordination.

Verification is minimal. I found no evidence of photo verification or ID verification on any city page I tested. The only thing standing between you and a scammer is your own judgment.

Pros: Some activity in select cities, occasionally has listings not found elsewhere.

Cons: Inconsistent quality across cities, high scam rate, minimal verification, domain instability, unreliable server uptime.

Bottom line: Skip it. The few real listings you might find aren't worth the ocean of fake ones you'll wade through.

#9: OneBackpage

Safety Rating: 2/10 | Overall: 2.5/10

OneBackpage is one of those sites that exists purely to capture search traffic from people looking for Backpage alternatives. The site looks like a Backpage template with a new logo slapped on. That's because it essentially is.

Listings exist, technically. But in my testing across all five cities, I couldn't find a single profile that I was confident was a real person. The photos were clearly stolen from other sites or social media. The text was copy-pasted templates. The phone numbers either didn't work or connected to scam operations.

I also had concerns about data security. The site doesn't use HTTPS consistently, the privacy policy is either nonexistent or a copied template, and there's no indication of who actually runs the platform. If you create an account here, assume your information is not secure.

Pros: It exists, I guess?

Cons: Almost entirely fake profiles, no verification whatsoever, security concerns, likely data harvesting, no customer support, questionable legitimacy as a platform.

Bottom line: Avoid completely. This is the kind of site that gives personal ad platforms a bad name.

#10: iBackpage

Safety Rating: 1/10 | Overall: 1.5/10

I'm including iBackpage as a warning. This is the worst platform I tested, and I genuinely think it might be a scam operation pretending to be a personal ad site.

The site prompts for personal information and credit card details before you can even browse. That's a massive red flag. No legitimate personal ad platform charges you to look at listings. Every listing I managed to see (I used a disposable prepaid card for testing) was fake. The entire site feels like a phishing operation designed to collect credit card numbers and personal data.

I reported this site to my browser's safe browsing system during testing. If you see it in search results, do not click through. Do not enter any personal information. Do not give them a credit card number.

Pros: None.

Cons: Likely a scam/phishing operation, requires payment to browse, entirely fake listings, security risk.

Bottom line: Dangerous. Stay away.

The Final Verdict

After six months of testing, here's what I can tell you with confidence: the skipthegames alternatives market is a mixed bag. For every decent platform, there are three bad ones and one outright dangerous one. The landscape has gotten better since the chaos of 2018, but it's still far from where it should be.

If you take one thing from this article, let it be this: don't settle for the first platform you find just because it shows up in search results. The search results are full of garbage sites that look legitimate at first glance. Do your research, check for verification features, and start with the platforms at the top of this list.

For my money, Skip The Games App is the clear winner. It's not perfect, and it's still building out its user base in smaller cities, but the safety features, mobile experience, and overall quality are head and shoulders above everything else I tested. If you're tired of the skipthegames experience and want something better, start there.

And whatever you do, stay away from the bottom three on this list. Your data, your time, and your safety are worth more than what those sites offer.