A Facebook Marketplace scanner, and what scanning can actually do

A Facebook Marketplace scanner is a program that repeats your Marketplace search on a schedule and tells you when something new appears. That is all any of them do, including Deal Scanner: scan, compare with what was there last time, alert on the difference. The useful questions are how often it scans, what it does with the results, whether it needs your Facebook account to do it, and how honest it is about timing. Deal Scanner scans Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp and Craigslist from its own servers, needs no Facebook login, filters lookalikes, scores each find against the typical price, and stamps every alert with when it was found. It costs $3.99 a month, cancel anytime.

What a scanner can do

• Repeat a search more often than you would. Nobody refreshes Marketplace every few minutes at 2 a.m. A scanner does.
• Watch several searches at once. The drill, the chair and the bike, each with its own price range and radius.
• Watch several marketplaces at once. Deal Scanner scans OfferUp and Craigslist from the same search.
• Judge the price. Having seen every listing for your search, a scanner knows what "typical" is. Deal Scanner's Deal Score says how far under typical a find sits, measured from what your own search has seen.
• Filter. A low price limit, a radius, and a relevance check that drops most accessories and lookalikes.

What no scanner can do

• See a listing before Facebook shows it. Facebook surfaces new listings on its own schedule, and that schedule is not the scanner's to change. A scanner that promises to catch every listing "the moment it is posted" is describing its own schedule, not Facebook's.
• Beat a seller's inbox. Being first to see a listing helps; being the buyer the seller picks is a different skill.
• Read what is not written. A listing titled "chair" with the Aeron in the photo will be missed by every text scanner on the market.

This is why Deal Scanner puts "Found 2h ago" on every alert instead of a speed claim. It tells you what you can act on: how old the listing was when we saw it.

Does a scanner need your Facebook account?

Some do. A scanner that logs in as you to read Marketplace puts your account at the mercy of Facebook's automation rules, and the people who get their accounts restricted are rarely told why. Deal Scanner scans logged out, from its own servers; it never asks for your Facebook, OfferUp or Craigslist password. Flipify and Outpost Alerts also say they work without your login. Browser-extension scanners such as CarSnipe run inside your own logged-in browser by design. Prefer logged-out scanning for anything you care about keeping.

Scanner, monitor, bot, alert app: are these different things?

Mostly the same thing with different names. "Scanner" and "monitor" describe the repeated search. "Alert app" describes the notification. "Bot" usually means a scanner that also messages sellers automatically, which Facebook's terms do not allow and which gets accounts restricted; Deal Scanner does not message anyone for you. There is a longer comparison on the Facebook Marketplace monitor page, and the full list of apps with prices on Best Facebook Marketplace alert apps, compared.

How Deal Scanner scans

1. You set a search: the item, your town, a radius, a low and high price.
2. Deal Scanner repeats that search on Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp and Craigslist around the clock from its own servers. Your app can be closed; your phone does no work.
3. New listings are checked for relevance (most accessories and lookalikes are dropped) and against your price range and radius.
4. Once your search has seen a few listings, each new one is compared with the typical price for that item near you. Clear bargains get a Deal Score.
5. Your phone buzzes with the listing, the marketplace, the price, the score, and when we found it. Tap through and you are on the listing, as yourself.

Three searches cost $3.99 a month, six $9.99, twelve $19.99. Every plan scans all three marketplaces at the same speed. Cancel anytime in your phone's subscription settings. Only after one thing? Pay for the month you're looking and cancel when you've got it.

FAQ

Is there an app that scans Facebook Marketplace for you?

Yes. Deal Scanner scans Facebook Marketplace, OfferUp and Craigslist for a search you set and buzzes your phone when a listing is posted. Flipify, Outpost Alerts, BigFlippa, Crawlbench and others scan Facebook too; prices for all of them are on our comparison page.

How often does Deal Scanner scan?

Continuously, around the clock. We do not advertise a minutes figure because Facebook, OfferUp and Craigslist each surface new listings on their own schedule, which caps how fresh any scanner's results can be. Every alert shows when we found the listing instead.

Is a Facebook Marketplace scanner safe to use?

A scanner that runs on its own servers without your login, like Deal Scanner, cannot touch your account. A scanner or bot that logs in as you, or messages sellers for you, can get your account restricted under Facebook's automation rules.

Can a scanner message sellers for me?

Some bots do. Deal Scanner does not. Automated messaging is against Facebook's terms, and sellers can tell.

Does it also scan OfferUp and Craigslist?

Yes, from the same search. See OfferUp alerts and Craigslist alerts for how each marketplace's own alerts compare.

Sources checked

Facebook Help Center on Marketplace notifications; Facebook's Terms of Service on automated collection and messaging; each competitor's own site as listed on the comparison. Checked October 26, 2026.