Open Nextdoor and you should find your neighborhood. A recommendation for a plumber who actually shows up. A lost dog, found. A road closure you'd otherwise drive into. A neighbor offering a hand.
For years, the loudest and most consistent feedback from our members has been that this was getting harder to find. Promotion crowded the feed, and spam has consistently been one of the top reasons neighbors report content. So we listened, and we changed it.
Promoting one's own business, service, or paid opportunity from a personal account isn't allowed in the main feed, including posts, comments or direct messages. Businesses can now do this from a Business Page instead. This applies to anyone regularly promoting products or services for money, including freelancers, side gigs, and home-based businesses.
Two things it doesn't apply to: Nextdoor Groups, where admins decide what promotion is welcome in their community, and the neighborly favors and recommendations that make Nextdoor what it is. More on both below.
It isn't deleted. It stays up exactly as you posted it, and you'll still see it just as before – but it reaches far fewer neighbors, and comments and DMs related to that post are paused, so the flagged content can’t be used as a workaround for direct solicitation.
You'll always know if this happens because you'll get a notice when you post, in the form of a notification, an email, and a banner on the post itself. If you never saw any of those, your post wasn't flagged.
This detail matters more than it sounds. Some business owners have concluded that older posts were retroactively hidden, because those posts are still sitting there with no engagement. What they're seeing is reduced reach on newer posts, not deletion of older ones.
Are small businesses banned? No. Local businesses are part of what makes a neighborhood work, and they're as welcome as ever. What changed is where they post from: a free Business Page rather than a personal account. A Page also does things a personal post can't — collect Faves and recommendations in one place, respond to neighbor messages and give neighbors an informative place to land when they search for a business like you. And no, your personal profile doesn't go away when you claim one. You'll keep being a neighbor, just as before.
Can neighbors still recommend businesses? Yes. Neighbors recommending a business you love is welcome and encouraged. Neighbors asking who to call, comparing notes on a contractor, and vouching for the person who fixed your furnace is what the feed is for.
One honest wrinkle here. The systems that spot promotion look at patterns of behavior, not just who owns a business. If the same business gets recommended repeatedly from the same personal account, that can match the pattern even when the person has no connection to the business. It happens to friends, family, and loyal customers, and it isn't the intent of the policy. If you're flagged in error, contact support and ask for a review – we're glad to take a look, and the system will keep improving.
Can my spouse or employee post about my business for me? Recommendations should come from your customers. Posts about a business from a spouse, employee, or close friend are treated the same as the owner posting, whether or not the connection is disclosed. An account that exists mostly to promote one business reads as promotion to neighbors, regardless of whose name is on it.
Is this change about making money? No. Nextdoor is a business, so every change ultimately supports a healthy foundation, but this decision was driven by years of neighbor complaints about too much self-promotion “spamming” their feeds. Handling that well meant separating business activity from personal accounts.
Claiming and posting from a Business Page is free, and we plan to keep it that way. Opportunity Alerts is a separate, optional paid subscription that some home-service providers use to find customers – it unlocks features like replying to neighbors' requests and sending DMs, and it has been a paid feature since it launched. Nothing about this change made a free thing cost money. (Nextdoor Ads are separate too, and weren't affected by this policy.)
The hardest question in all of this is where a neighbor doing a favor ends and a business begins. Here's the test.
You're a casual provider, welcome to post from your personal account, if all of these are true:
Babysitting, dog walking, lawn mowing, crafts, and baked goods are the kinds of things this covers – no license or verification needed. Garage sales, lemonade stands, and one-time community events are fine in the main feed. So are job posts that focus on an open role. Nonprofit and community posts such as school bake sales, community meetings, fundraisers are welcome up to once a week. Casual one-off items and services are welcome in For Sale & Free too; just pick one place, since posting the same service in both the feed and For Sale & Free can read as a business running the same message in two channels.
If any of those stop being true, a Business Page is the right home for it.
If you run a business
Claim your free Business Page – verification is a quick step that confirms your connection to the business, and then you're all set. From your Business Page you can post to the feed, respond when neighbors mention or recommend you, thank customers for their recommendations and collect Faves.
Eligible home-service providers can also subscribe to Opportunity Alerts to hear when nearby neighbors are looking for what they offer, and to reply to those requests directly. That one is paid, and optional, with pricing that varies by service category, area, and the categories you choose. You'll always see your price before you subscribe.
A change this size, rolled out area by area over a couple of months, won't be 100% perfect. Some posts get flagged that shouldn't be – a heads up: naming your own business in a post about your field, or including contact details or pricing, tends to trip the system even when the intent is helpful. And enforcement isn't as even as it needs to be yet. If you see posts that don’t follow the updated policy, reporting them helps us apply the rules evenly.
If your account was restricted and you believe it was a mistake, you can appeal – please don't create a second account to work around it, since that puts both accounts at risk. Your reports and appeals genuinely help us continue to work to get this right. If something looks wrong, say so.
One more piece of feedback worth repeating back, because it comes up a lot: neighbors want scammers dealt with as much as they want a cleaner feed. That work is separate from this, it's ongoing, and it isn't slowing down.
To everyone working to make your neighborhood better, and telling us honestly what you want Nextdoor to be: thank you. Please keep it coming.