Adverts or profiles
Locanto vs Local Sex Meets: Adverts or Dating Profiles?
Locanto is a classifieds site. We are a dating site. For casual sex, that changes how you meet.
Locanto is a noticeboard for local adverts, and its Casual encounters section is one of many. Local Sex Meets is a dating site, where you build a profile and the site suggests members to you each day. Read adverts on Locanto, or meet through profiles here.
Local Sex Meets
A dating site with profiles, tags and daily suggestions for adults who want a casual meet.
Locanto
A classifieds service for buying, selling and connecting locally, with personals among its sections.
The big difference
An advert is not a profile
- An advert
- Written once by whoever posts it, then read by anyone who finds it. You answer it or you scroll on.
- A profile
- A page about a person, with photos, a town and tags, that the site can put in front of other members.
- What follows
- On Locanto you message the advertiser in its messaging centre. Here you message members you have browsed or been suggested.
What do you actually get from each?
| Topic | Local Sex Meets | Locanto |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A dating site for adults who want to meet locally | A classifieds service where users post and answer adverts |
| How you start | Build a profile, choose tags, open your daily suggestions | Browse adverts, then message an advertiser or post your own |
| Where you use it | Your browser, with an optional home-screen shortcut | Its websites, plus iPhone and Android apps from Yalwa GmbH |
| Safety it states | Optional ID and live video checks, blocking, reporting, human support at all hours | Its app listing describes a messaging centre for conversations |
| Age rule | 18 or over; 21 in four US states and in places that set adulthood later | Apple rates its UK app listing 18+ |
| Cost | Three levels, with a daily message limit on Classic. See the pricing page | The iPhone app is free to download, with no in-app purchases on its UK page |
What Locanto has going for it
- 4.4UK App Store rating
- 4.6Irish App Store rating
- 4.7US App Store rating
- 2006launch year, per Wikipedia
Those stars are Apple’s, read on 3 November 2026. Locanto’s app also lists classes, community, events, jobs, property, services and vehicles, and says posting an ad takes seconds.
What are Locanto’s casual encounters pages?
Search results on 3 November 2026 listed these page titles.
UK
- Casual encounters
- Personals
Ireland
- Casual encounters Ireland
- Personals
- Personals Dublin
USA
- Casual encounters Manhattan, NY
- Personals Chicago, IL
- Personals Los Angeles, CA
- Hook-ups United States
What a dating profile adds to an advert
Tags state your terms
Local Only, Private Meets or Short-term Fun on a profile say what you want before anyone writes.
Suggestions find you
Each day the site lines up suggested members, so you do not scroll through adverts to find one.
Checks you can add
Take the optional ID check, at no charge, for a badge, or a moderator’s live video check, which asks for no documents.
Which should you use?
Locanto suits you when
- You want adverts for jobs, flats or cars as well as personals.
- You like writing your own advert and waiting for replies.
Local Sex Meets suits you when
- You want to be suggested to other members.
- You want tags and daily suggestions, not adverts, and a person on support at any hour.
Staying safe with adverts and profiles alike
Pay nothing in advance. A stranger asking for money before you have met is the pattern to walk away from. The dating scams guide covers the rest.
Keep your details back. Share a town, never an address, until you trust someone.
Meet where others are. Pick a busy spot, tell a friend and plan your own route home. Our meeting for sex safely guide has the details, and the safety page lists our tools.
Straight answers on Locanto
Is Locanto a dating site?
Not in the matching sense. Locanto calls itself a place to buy, sell and connect with people in your community, and its app is subtitled ‘Browse & post local ads’. The company behind the app, Yalwa GmbH, also publishes a separate app named #Dating, which Apple lists as an online dating app.
What are Locanto casual encounters?
Casual encounters is the title of a Locanto section in the UK, Ireland and the USA, as search results listed it on 3 November 2026. Whoever posts there writes the adverts.
Is there a Locanto app?
Yes, on iPhone and Android. Apple’s UK, Irish and US stores list Locanto, sold by Yalwa GmbH. The UK page shows it updated on 5 October 2026, free to download, with no in-app purchases and an 18+ rating.
Is Locanto legit?
Wikipedia says Locanto launched in New York City in July 2006, and Yalwa GmbH sells its iPhone app. That tells you who is behind it, not who wrote a given advert, so treat every advertiser with care and never pay in advance.