List Mantis alerts you to new listings across Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Gumtree, AutoTrader and Vinted the moment one matches your saved search. This page walks through the minimum path: account, first search, first alert.
1Sign up
Create your account on the web, then pick a plan to start your 7-day free trial. Cancel before the trial ends and you won’t be charged. You can sign in with:
- Email and password
- Sign in with Apple: one tap in the iPhone app, no password to manage
- Sign in with Google: one tap on the web and in the apps
You can also use List Mantis on your phone: get it on the App Store or Google Play, sign in with the same account, and your searches and alerts will be there.
2Create your first search
Tap the Searches tab at the bottom of the app, then tap the + button to create a new search. You'll see four fields:
- Keywords: what you're looking for. Plain words work best: solid oak dining table, vintage Singer sewing machine, Sony WH-1000XM5. Every word has to appear in the listing, so try to make each search as specific as possible: you'll get faster, more accurate alerts. Up to 8 words.
- Location: a UK postcode or town. We use it to filter listings by distance.
- Radius: how far you're willing to travel, in miles.
- Max price: we'll skip anything above this. Set it to 0 if you only want free items.
Below those four basics, you can pick which marketplaces to include. By default all five are enabled, turn off any you don't care about to keep the feed tidy.
Tap Save. Your search is now live and we'll start looking for matches.
3Receive your first alert
A few minutes after you save a search, your Alerts feed shows up to five recent matching listings so you can see it working. From then on, you’re alerted only to genuinely new listings, so a new search won’t bury you in notifications.
Alerts arrive in two places:
- Push notifications: the fastest channel. Tap one and it deep-links you straight into the listing.
- The Alerts tab: the in-app feed. Every alert lands here, whether you saw the push or not.
If you'd rather receive a daily summary by email instead of (or as well as) push, head to Settings › Notifications and turn email alerts on.
4Act on an alert
Each alert card shows the listing title, price, source (Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Gumtree, AutoTrader or Vinted), location and distance, plus a thumbnail. Tap View listing to open the listing in the marketplace's own app or website, that's where you message the seller, make an offer or buy. List Mantis doesn't broker transactions; it just helps you get there first.
Two icons sit beside the View Listing button:
- Save (bookmark), keeps the alert in a separate Saved list so you can come back to it later.
- Bin (trash), archives the alert so it stops cluttering your feed. We won't show it again.
5Get the app
The List Mantis apps for iPhone and Android are in review with Apple and Google and will be available soon. The apps are the fastest way to get push notifications, including when your browser is closed.
Until then, use List Mantis on the web at app.listmantis.com. When the app arrives, sign in with the same account and your searches and saved alerts sync across both.
What's next?
- FAQ, quick answers to the questions people ask most.
If something here doesn't match what you're seeing, or you've got an idea for the next feature, drop a note at hello@listmantis.com. Every email shapes what we ship next.