gumtree.com
Gumtree.com is a large UK classifieds marketplace where people can find local goods, cars, homes, jobs, and services.
What is Gumtree.com used for?
Gumtree is built around simple local classified ads.
People can post an ad for something they want to sell or offer.
Other people can search those ads by keyword, category, and location.
The current Gumtree homepage describes the service as “Free local classifieds” and shows around 600,000 daily active users and 30,000 new ads each day.
Popular areas include cars and vehicles, home and garden, tradespeople, baby items, fashion, sports, computers, and property.
The wider classifieds section also includes jobs and professional services.
This broad mix makes Gumtree different from a store that sells its own stock.
Gumtree mainly gives buyers and sellers a place to find each other.
Its terms explain that users can list, discover, buy, sell, and arrange many kinds of goods, rentals, jobs, and services.
How did Gumtree become so well known?
Gumtree started in 2000.
Its founders wanted to help people who were moving to a new city find practical things such as work, housing, and furniture.
The company describes itself as the first online classifieds platform in the UK.
That simple idea worked because classified ads become more useful when many local people use the same site.
Gumtree was bought by eBay in 2005 and later became part of Adevinta after eBay sold its classifieds group in 2020.
Ownership changed again in 2021.
Another major change happened in 2024, when Ocean Link and its portfolio company 58.com acquired Gumtree.
These ownership changes did not remove the site's main purpose.
Gumtree remains focused on connecting people who want to buy, sell, rent, find work, or find local services.
How big is Gumtree today?
Gumtree still has a large UK audience.
The company said in its 2026 press information that more than 10 million people visit the service each month.
It also said that more than 1.8 million ads can be live at one time.
A recent classifieds page showed roughly 1.9 million advertisements across the site's categories.
Those numbers explain one of Gumtree's biggest strengths.
A marketplace with many ads gives a shopper more chances to find something nearby.
It also gives a seller access to a large group of possible buyers without opening an online shop.
Why is location so important on Gumtree?
Gumtree is designed around local discovery.
Its search box asks people to add a postcode or location.
This matters for things that are hard or costly to ship.
A table, bicycle, sofa, or other large item can make more sense when the buyer lives close to the seller.
The same local model works naturally for property and services.
Gumtree also lists major location pages for places such as London, Glasgow, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool, and Leeds.
The result feels closer to a digital version of local classified ads than a normal online shop.
How does Gumtree make buying and selling easier?
The website keeps the basic process simple.
A seller creates an ad with information about what is being offered.
A buyer searches the marketplace and contacts a seller when an ad looks useful.
Gumtree also has mobile apps that provide messaging notifications and search alerts.
Sellers can post ads from their phones as well.
The marketplace has also been adding features around delivery and trust.
For example, Gumtree announced an integrated delivery service with Evri in 2025 and business seller verification in 2026.
These changes show Gumtree moving beyond the old model of a basic online notice board.
What should users understand before using Gumtree?
Gumtree is a marketplace, so an advertisement should not automatically be treated as proof that an offer is good.
The platform's own information explains that users are responsible for their advertisements and the transactions that follow.
That makes careful checking important before agreeing to any purchase or arrangement.
For younger users, involving a parent or trusted adult is especially sensible before contacting strangers, sharing personal information, meeting anyone, or arranging payment.
The core value of Gumtree is simple: it puts a very large collection of local opportunities into one searchable place.
Its long history, local search model, huge range of categories, and millions of UK users have helped Gumtree.com remain a major name in UK online classifieds.