Ranking
Safest Shopping Apps 2026
Every shopping and second-hand marketplace app we cover, from Amazon, Walmart and Etsy to Temu, Shein and AliExpress, and resale apps such as Vinted, eBay, Depop and Facebook Marketplace. Each score weighs how much the app collects and shares for advertising, account and payment security, buyer protection against scams and fake or unsafe goods, and fines from regulators.
Updated · Scores update with each page
The ranking
Craigslist
Craigslist collects little and shares less than any other marketplace we score, with no ads and no tracking. The catch is the deal itself: buyers and sellers are anonymous, payment happens outside the site, and nothing protects you if it goes wrong.
Score 61, grade CShop app
Shop is one of the safer shopping apps we have scored. Shop Pay stores cards to PCI DSS Level 1 and never gives stores your full card number. The trade-off is data, because Shopify follows your activity across its merchants and can scan a connected Gmail or Outlook inbox for orders.
Score 61, grade CEtsy
Etsy is one of the safer marketplaces to buy from, as long as you pay through Etsy checkout, which Purchase Protection covers. Account security is good and we found no breach or regulator fine. The weak point is advertising data: Etsy's label says purchases and contact details may be used to track you.
Score 60, grade CMercado Libre
Mercado Libre (Mercado Livre in Brazil) is the safest emerging-market shopping app we score. In-app purchases are covered by Compra Garantida and its App Store label declares little tracking. The weak spots are a 2022 breach and sellers who still list illegal or unapproved products.
Score 58, grade CeBay
Buying on eBay is safe when you pay through eBay's checkout, which its money back guarantee covers. The record behind the app is worse than the shopping experience suggests, including a criminal case over eBay security staff who harassed a couple who wrote about the company.
Score 55, grade CFlipkart
Flipkart is a reasonably safe place to shop in India, with in-app payments and returns that mostly work. It scores in the middle because the app collects and shares a wide range of data for marketing, scammers copy its big sales, and the consumer regulator fined it over unlawful walkie-talkie listings.
Score 55, grade CAllegro
Allegro is a well-run marketplace with its own security team, buyer protection and a fairly restrained App Store label. The main risks are phishing pages that copy Allegro, and Polish and Hungarian fines over unfair terms, a misleading promotion and favouring its own shop.
Score 54, grade DAmazon
Your Amazon account and card are well protected, and a breach of customer accounts is not the main risk. The weak points are how much data Amazon collects, a record of US orders over Prime, Alexa and Ring, and the scammers who pretend to be Amazon.
Score 54, grade DAlibaba.com
Alibaba.com is a real wholesale marketplace with no regulator fine we could find, and paying through Trade Assurance keeps a dispute route open. The weaker side is privacy, since purchases and contact details are used to track you, and the supplier you choose matters more than the platform.
Score 53, grade DKleinanzeigen
Kleinanzeigen itself has a clean regulatory record, and its "Sicher bezahlen" escrow works when you use it. Most deals still happen by bank transfer, PayPal or cash between strangers, which is where police warnings about advance-payment and triangle fraud point.
Score 53, grade DMarktplaats
Marktplaats has a clean regulatory record, requires an SMS code when you log in on a new device, and holds the money on parcels sent through its own shipping. Collections and bank transfers have no cover, fake payment-request links are the main scam, and the app shares email and search data for ads.
Score 53, grade Dnoon
noon is a legitimate Gulf marketplace with no fines or confirmed breaches that we could find. The catch is data. Apple's label shows purchases used to track you, and Google Play says search history and installed apps are shared with other companies. Many items come from third-party sellers with their own return rules.
Score 53, grade Dleboncoin
leboncoin has no fines from French privacy or consumer regulators that we could find, holds the buyer's money on every online purchase and offers two-step login. Its store disclosures list name, contact details and precise location shared for advertising, and deals paid outside the app have no protection.
Score 51, grade DMeesho
Meesho is a workable way to buy cheap unbranded goods in India, and cash on delivery limits what you can lose. The catches are wide data sharing for advertising, a flood of fake Meesho sites and lucky-draw scams, uneven product quality, and a 2025 consumer-regulator penalty over misleading listings.
Score 51, grade DVinted
Buying and selling on Vinted is reasonably safe as long as the money goes through Vinted's own checkout. The weak points are scammers who move you to fake payment pages, a GDPR fine over deletion requests and secret "shadow blocking", and an app rated 4+ for a service meant for adults.
Score 51, grade DWalmart
The Walmart app is a reasonable place to shop, and we found no large breach of customer accounts. It scores in the middle because its Apple label lists purchases used to track you, and it settled an FTC fraud case in 2025 and an ad pixel data case in 2026.
Score 51, grade DWhatnot
Whatnot is a real marketplace whose Buyer Protection covers items that never arrive or turn out to be fake. The risks are fast live auctions and random card breaks, which more than 70 customers allege are illegal lotteries, ad tracking, and a 13+ app rating on a service meant for adults.
Score 51, grade DDepop
Buying on Depop is safe enough if you pay with the Buy button, because Depop Protection then refunds items that never arrive or are significantly not as described. The weak points are heavy ad tracking, optional SMS-only two-factor login, and scams that move buyers to PayPal or bank transfers outside the app.
Score 50, grade DLazada
Lazada, Alibaba's Southeast Asian marketplace, is a reasonable place to shop if you pay inside the app. Its weak points are a broad data label that includes your contacts and "sensitive info", a 2020 breach that Singapore's regulator blamed on keys left in source code, and small consumer and data fines.
Score 50, grade DShpock
Shpock has a clean regulatory record and a Buyer Protection scheme that refunds buyers who pay inside the app. Collections paid in cash or by bank transfer have no cover, the app shares location and usage data with ad networks, and we found no two-factor login.
Score 50, grade DWallapop
Wallapop's in-app payment and Protección Wallapop cover shipped orders well, and it can ask for a second login step. Meetups paid in cash or by direct transfer have no cover, fake payment links are the common trick, and the app tracks location and identifiers for ads.
Score 50, grade DMercari
Mercari is safe enough for second-hand buys if you check the item on arrival: payment is held until you rate the order, with 72 hours to report a problem. The weak points are ad tracking of location and search history, text-code-only login protection in the US and contradictory age rules.
Score 49, grade DPoshmark
Poshmark is reasonably safe for buying clothes if you pay in the app and inspect your order the day it arrives: Posh Protect gives you three days after delivery to open a case. The weaker points are a 2019 breach, login codes only by email or text, and an app label that lists purchases and contact details for tracking.
Score 49, grade DOfferUp
OfferUp checks IDs for users who opt in and forces two-factor login, but since dropping shipping in 2025 every sale is a local, in-person deal with no buyer protection. Its privacy policy says it may sell or share data with data brokers and ad companies.
Score 48, grade DTikTok Shop
TikTok Shop's own checkout gives buyers more protection than most social marketplaces, with free returns on many items and a 90-day money-back guarantee. The weak points are counterfeit and unsafe goods from third-party sellers, influencer videos that sell them, and the TikTok app's broad data collection.
Score 48, grade DZhuanzhuan (转转)
Zhuanzhuan has turned from an open second-hand market into a platform that inspects, prices and resells used phones and gadgets itself, which removes most stranger-to-stranger scams. The trade-off is heavy data collection, face data kept for five years, and a run of 2026 complaints that its inspections missed faults.
Score 48, grade DGumtree
Gumtree has no fines from UK regulators, and its newer Buy Now checkout holds the buyer's money until delivery. That covers only some categories, so most deals are still cash or bank transfer between strangers, and the app shares precise location and usage data with ad partners.
Score 47, grade DTmall (天猫)
Tmall is Alibaba's mall for brand stores and big retailers, and it is a safer bet for branded goods than Taobao. It shares Taobao's account and tracking, carries an 18+ App Store rating that lists gambling and loot boxes, and was fined about 31.7 million yuan in 2026 over unlicensed cake sellers.
Score 46, grade DTokopedia
Tokopedia is a real and widely used Indonesian marketplace, and paying inside the app protects most orders. The weak points are heavy ad tracking, a policy that covers ID cards, biometrics and constant location, and a 2020 breach of 91 million accounts that still has no published finding.
Score 46, grade DAliExpress
AliExpress is a real marketplace with an in-app dispute process, but the product risk is real. The European Commission fined it €550 million in July 2026 because counterfeit goods, unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics stayed online for weeks, and Korea fined it in 2024 over data passed to overseas sellers.
Score 44, grade DJD.com (京东)
JD sells much of its stock from its own warehouses, so fakes are less common than on open marketplaces. But China fined it about 635 million yuan in 2026 over unlicensed food sellers, and the app tracks device data and can ask your mobile carrier for a score of your internet behaviour.
Score 44, grade DShopee
Shopee holds your payment until you confirm delivery, which protects most orders. The weak points are fake goods from third-party sellers, an app that shares purchase and contact data for ad tracking, and a run of consumer and data protection fines in Brazil, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Score 44, grade DOLX
OLX is a real classifieds service with optional escrow (Garantia OLX in Brazil, Przesyłka OLX in Poland), but most deals still run directly between strangers. That is where the fake payment links, fake receipts and impersonation scams happen, and the app shares a lot of data for ad tracking.
Score 43, grade DTaobao
Taobao is a workable way to buy straight from China's biggest marketplace, with payment and delivery run by Alibaba. But overseas users' data is stored in mainland China, a scraper took over a billion records by 2020, the US lists it for counterfeits, and China fined it in 2026 over unlicensed food sellers.
Score 42, grade DTemu
Buying from Temu will not usually get you scammed, but it sits near the bottom of our list. The EU fined it €200 million in 2026 because shoppers were very likely to meet illegal products, and several US states accuse it of harvesting data, which Temu denies.
Score 42, grade DXianyu (闲鱼)
Xianyu is China’s biggest second-hand marketplace, with Alipay holding payment until the buyer confirms. The risks are privacy and other users. It reads running processes and the clipboard, stores data in mainland China even for users abroad, is rated 18+ and was ordered to fix data collection and pop-ups.
Score 41, grade DFacebook Marketplace
Marketplace is where most people in many countries now buy second-hand, and most deals are a local pick-up paid in cash or by transfer, with no buyer protection. It shares the Facebook app's heavy tracking, and the EU fined Meta €797.72 million in 2024 for tying it to Facebook.
Score 40, grade DShein
Ordering from Shein rarely ends in outright fraud, but the app has a weak record. French regulators fined it €190 million in 2025 over cookies and fake discounts, a 2018 breach exposed 39 million accounts, and the EU opened a Digital Services Act investigation in 2026.
Score 40, grade DCoupang
Coupang delivers fast, but its privacy and security record is the weakest of any large shopping app we score. A former employee read 33 million accounts for seven months, the company tracked 11 million members on other sites without consent, and two record fines are under appeal.
Score 34, grade FPinduoduo (拼多多)
Pinduoduo is China's cheapest big shopping app and the sister of Temu. It sits near the bottom of our list, because Google and several security firms found that 2023 versions exploited Android flaws, and China's market regulator fined it 1.52 billion yuan in 2026 after it obstructed an inspection.
Score 31, grade F
Which apps are on this list
The list covers every app in our shopping group. That means retailers and marketplaces such as Amazon, Walmart, Etsy, Mercado Libre and Flipkart; the cross-border apps Temu, Shein, AliExpress and Pinduoduo; and resale and classifieds apps such as eBay, Vinted, Depop, Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. It also includes Chinese platforms such as Taobao and JD.com, and regional ones from Coupang in Korea to noon in the Gulf.
How the order is built
Each app is scored on five factors. Privacy and security count for 30% each: what the app collects and shares for advertising, and how well it protects accounts, cards and stored data. Transparency and control count for 15%, scams and harmful content for 15%, which covers counterfeit and unsafe goods as well as fraud between users, and the regulatory record for 10%. Full rubrics are on how we score apps.
The list is those scores sorted from the highest down. When we update a page, its place here moves too, so this text does not quote scores.
Why shopping apps score lower than most
Few shopping apps score high. Selling is built on knowing what you look at and buy, so most of them track you for advertising, and many share purchases with ad partners. Marketplaces with millions of third-party sellers also carry fakes and unsafe products, and the EU's Digital Services Act has led to large fines for some of them. The apps that do better collect less, as Craigslist does, keep card details from sellers, as Shop does with Shop Pay, or have strong buyer protection and no record of breaches or fines, as Etsy does.
Why some score much lower
A breach or a heavy fine pulls an app down fast. Coupang lost points after a former employee read 33 million accounts over seven months. Pinduoduo, Temu's sister app under PDD Holdings, lost points after Google and several security firms found that 2023 versions exploited Android flaws. Shein was fined €190 million in France in 2025 over cookies and fake discounts.
What the score does not tell you
The score is about the app, not every seller on it. A high-scoring marketplace can still list a fake from one bad seller, and a low-scoring one can deliver exactly what you ordered. Pay with a credit card or the app's own checkout, read the seller's reviews and return policy before you buy, and be most careful with anything a child will use or put in their mouth.
Questions
Is Temu safe to buy from?
Most orders arrive, and outright fraud is rare. The bigger risks are what you buy and what the app collects. In 2026 the European Commission fined Temu €200 million because shoppers were very likely to meet illegal products, and several US states accuse it of harvesting data, which Temu denies. Take most care with toys, cosmetics and anything that plugs into the mains.
How do I avoid scams on second-hand apps?
Pay inside the app's own checkout, where the buyer protection applies, and never follow a link to a "payment page" sent in chat. Most scams on Vinted, OLX and similar apps start when a buyer or seller moves you off the platform. For local pick-ups, meet in a public place and check the item before you pay.
Do shopping apps sell my data?
Many share it for advertising. Etsy's App Store label says purchases and contact details may be used to track you, Facebook Marketplace shares the Facebook app's tracking, and Coupang tracked 11 million members on other sites without consent. Check an app's privacy label and switch off ad personalisation in its settings.
Are fake products a problem on big marketplaces?
Yes, mostly from third-party sellers. The European Commission fined AliExpress €550 million in July 2026 because counterfeit goods, unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics stayed online for weeks. Buying from the platform's own stock or from a brand's official store lowers the risk, as on JD.com and Tmall.
What protection do I get if an order never arrives?
That depends on how you paid. eBay's money back guarantee, Etsy's Purchase Protection and Mercado Libre's Compra Garantida cover orders paid through their checkout, and Shopee holds your payment until you confirm delivery. Craigslist and most Facebook Marketplace deals have no buyer protection, so a credit card's chargeback rights are your only fallback.