Carousell: Snap-Sell, Chat-Buy: iPhone vs Android

Carousell is a community-driven mobile marketplace for buying and selling secondhand goods, services, and new items, primarily targeting consumers in Southeast Asia and East Asia. The app demonstrates strong commercial traction in its core markets, ranking #1 in Shopping Grossing in Taiwan and holding top-5 positions in Indonesia and Thailand, while maintaining presence in broader Asian and Western markets.

Similar apps: Mercari, Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark

Users frequently report severe technical issues including lag, login failures, and wrongful account bans, alongside complaints about spammy ads and scam prevalence. While some praise the ease of selling items, many US-based reviewers express frustration over regional restrictions and lack of support.

Mixed (48% of recent reviews give 4–5 stars). People like it for being easy to use, and speed. The main complaints are about login and account problems, and ads.

What people like

• Ease of use: “I so love this app easy to use and user friendly”
• Speed & performance: “Very smooth sale buyer was very nice and polite”
• Useful: “This app is incredibly useful for connecting people looking to sell their unused items with those looking to buy them at a discount”

Common complaints

• Login & account: “i do not have multiple accounts!”
• Ads: “They put up at ad right at startup that you can’t close for 10s!”
• Privacy & data: “However, started getting SMS spam the next day”
• Price & subscription: “If a seller isn’t careful, they could lose money or personal information (I almost lost all my money in my bank account!)”

Carousell is a community-driven mobile marketplace for buying and selling secondhand goods, services, and new items, primarily targeting consumers in Southeast Asia and East Asia. The app demonstrates strong commercial traction in its core markets, ranking #1 in Shopping Grossing in Taiwan and holding top-5 positions in Indonesia and Thailand, while maintaining presence in broader Asian and Western markets.

Similar apps: Mercari, Facebook Marketplace, Poshmark

Users frequently report severe technical issues including lag, login failures, and wrongful account bans, alongside complaints about spammy ads and scam prevalence. While some praise the ease of selling items, many US-based reviewers express frustration over regional restrictions and lack of support.

Mixed (48% of recent reviews give 4–5 stars). People like it for being easy to use, and speed. The main complaints are about login and account problems, and ads.

What people like

• Ease of use: “I so love this app easy to use and user friendly”
• Speed & performance: “Very smooth sale buyer was very nice and polite”
• Useful: “This app is incredibly useful for connecting people looking to sell their unused items with those looking to buy them at a discount”

Common complaints

• Login & account: “i do not have multiple accounts!”
• Ads: “They put up at ad right at startup that you can’t close for 10s!”
• Privacy & data: “However, started getting SMS spam the next day”
• Price & subscription: “If a seller isn’t careful, they could lose money or personal information (I almost lost all my money in my bank account!)”

Carousell is a community-driven marketplace app for buying and selling secondhand goods, services, and new items across Southeast Asia. The app holds strong monetization positions in Singapore (#2) and Indonesia (#3) within the Shopping category, while also ranking #45 in free downloads in Indonesia.

Similar apps: Mercari, Vinted, Facebook Marketplace

Users appreciate the platform's ease of use for buying and selling second-hand items but are increasingly frustrated by technical instability and poor customer support. Recent updates have introduced significant issues with search relevance, app performance, and unexpected account restrictions.

Mixed but leaning positive (58% of recent reviews give 4–5 stars). People like it for being easy to use, and being useful. The main complaints are about login and account problems, and price and subscriptions. Recent reviews are more positive than earlier ones.

What people like

• Ease of use: “Efficient and user friendly”
• Useful: “Carousell is a useful platform for buving and selling new and pre-owned items”
• Login & account: “a clean platform where genuine buyers and sellers are verified”
• Speed & performance: “but I find the app itself runs a bit slow”

Common complaints

• Login & account: “so many slop business accounts”
• Price & subscription: “Not that I don't want yo pay but their payment system faulty and I could not pay”
• Customer support: “Customer service is just a call centre that gives you template reply”
• Privacy & data: “u gotta buy coin and carousell will keep spamming u noti”