Guides
A free Facebook Marketplace alert app comes in four kinds: Facebook's own saved searches, capped free tiers such as SuperFlip's 3 hunts or DealHunter's once-daily check, short no-card passes such as Crawlbench's 24-hour Day Pass, and open-source scripts you run yourself. Most paid tools offer only a trial, often with a card.
You want to hear about a new Facebook Marketplace listing before someone else buys it, and you would rather not pay a monthly bill to find out whether alerts are worth it. A free Facebook Marketplace alert app exists, but "free" means four different things, and each one stops somewhere. This guide sorts them by what you actually get, using each vendor's own wording.
There are four kinds of free: Facebook's own saved searches, free tiers with caps, short passes and trials, and open-source scripts you run yourself. Only the first and the last have no time limit, and each kind trades away something different.
Facebook Marketplace lets you save a search and get notified about new matching items, inside the Facebook app, at no cost. It is the baseline every other option is measured against. We cover the setup in Facebook Marketplace saved search notifications.
A free tier is a permanent plan with a cap. Two are worth knowing:
A day pass gives you the full product for a short window. A trial gives you a paid plan for a few days, and usually needs a card. Crawlbench's Day Pass is free for 24 hours with no credit card. Flipify's web trial runs seven days, and its homepage says "A payment method is required, and you will not be charged until the trial ends" (Flipify). Classifindr's own guide says its trial "is not positioned as a permanent free-forever monitoring service" (Classifindr, page dated 15 Jul 2026). Outpost Alerts has no free plan and offers a 3-day trial.
Open-source monitors such as ai-marketplace-monitor on GitHub cost nothing but your time. You install Python, set up a browser it can drive, keep a computer running, and fix it when Facebook changes its pages. It suits someone who enjoys the tinkering more than someone who just wants the listings.
The table below compares each free option on searches, check frequency as each vendor states it, whether a card is needed, and how long it lasts. Crawlbench, which publishes this post, is listed as one of the options, and its row states what the Day Pass includes rather than a speed.
| Option | What is free | Searches | Check frequency, as the vendor states it | Card needed | How long |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook saved searches | Saved searches with notifications | Saved in your Facebook app | Not stated | No | No limit |
| SuperFlip Hobby | Free tier | 3 live hunts | "Hourly scans" | No | No limit |
| DealHunter free account | Free account | 1 saved search | "Once-daily checks after your demo" | No | No limit |
| Crawlbench Day Pass | The full product for a day | 1 search | Not compared here | No | 24 hours from your first search |
| Flipify trial | Seven-day web trial | One basic and one premium watchlist | Not compared here | Yes | 7 days |
| Outpost Alerts trial | 3-day trial | Per the trial plan | Not compared here | See its signup page | 3 days |
| Open-source script | Software you run yourself | As many as you configure | Whatever you set | No | As long as you maintain it |
Vendor figures come from each vendor's own pages, linked above. Prices and limits change, so open the vendor's page before you sign up.
Facebook's saved searches tell you a new matching item was posted. They do not filter out junk words or tell you whether the price is good. That gap is what most paid alert tools are built to close.
You cannot tell a saved search to skip words. As Outpost Alerts' free-apps comparison puts it, "There is no way to exclude words, so a search for a PS5 brings cases, controllers and empty boxes with it." For anything with lots of accessories, that is most of the notifications.
Facebook ranks results by its own suggestions unless you sort them yourself, and the notification gives you a title and a price with nothing to compare it to. You still have to work out whether $300 for that PS5 is a deal or the going rate. If the alerts stop arriving altogether, check that notifications for Marketplace are on in both the Facebook app and your phone's settings.
Spend a free day on one search you would actually act on, with exclude words set and the price comparison read on each alert. A vague search wastes the window.
Choose the item, the most you would pay, and the cities you would drive to. "PS5 disc edition under $350 within 25 miles" tells you something by tomorrow. "Electronics" does not.
Add the words that mark listings you would never buy. For the PS5 example: case, controller only, box only, broken, for parts. Our post on buy box excludes lists starter excludes by category.
A price on its own says little. Compare each listing with what similar listings ask, and message only the ones that sit clearly lower. Note that asking prices are not sold prices: a lower ask is a reason to look, not a guarantee.
Count the listings you would have messaged. If there were none, widen the radius or the price before paying for anything. If there were several, a paid plan is likely worth a trial.
Crawlbench's Day Pass is free for 24 hours with no credit card: one search on Facebook Marketplace, with the price check and the assistant on every listing. The 24 hours start when your first search goes live, not when you sign up.
On the Day Pass you get the same search as a paid plan:
Crawlbench covers Facebook Marketplace only today, in 52 countries and more than 3,500 cities. Crawlbench is not affiliated with Meta.
The Day Pass ends, and nothing is charged because no card was taken. If the search was worth keeping, paid plans start at $39 a month with 3 days free, and a card is required at that point. Full details are on Crawlbench pricing, and the wider field of paid tools is in the best Facebook Marketplace alert apps.
Free Facebook Marketplace alerts are real, but each kind stops somewhere: saved searches have no exclude words or price context, free tiers cap your searches or checks, trials often need a card, and scripts need upkeep. The honest way to choose is to run one real search for a day and count the listings you would have messaged.
Start a free Day Pass: free for 24 hours, no credit card, one search, with the price check and the assistant.
Guides
Reseller apps sorted by job: sourcing alerts, price research, cross-listing and bookkeeping. What each tool does, what it costs on its own pricing page, which are free, and how they fit together.
Guides
Flipify charges per watchlist and needs a card for its trial. Five alternatives compared on price, marketplaces, trial terms and what each alert tells you, plus when Flipify is still the better pick.
Guides
Swoopa costs $47, $144 or $352 a month, or less on a 6 or 12-month commitment. What each plan includes, what a year costs, and a free no-card way to compare.
Crawlbench compares each new listing with similar ones nearby and alerts you to each one that fits, with its price check. Your first search goes live at signup.
Free for 24 hours. No credit card.
