Ask HN: People are looking for a meetup.com replacement – what are the options?

meetup.com is changing its pricing policy https://www.meetup.com/lp/paymentchanges?mpId=9038

"Members will pay a $2 fee when they reserve a spot at your event."

So what are the most realistic options for meetup.com alternatives?

56 points | by andrewstuart 1627 days ago

17 comments

  • evv 1627 days ago
    "freeCodeCamp is building an open source alternative to Meetup."

    Announcement: https://twitter.com/ossia/status/1183845054449930241

    Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/vbRUYWS

    Repo: https://github.com/freeCodeCamp/event-tool

  • hbcondo714 1627 days ago
    Good question. Someone submitted this Meetup link and discussing on here:

    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21251596

  • tckr 1627 days ago
    I've started to collect the open-source alternatives here: https://github.com/coderbyheart/open-source-meetup-alternati...
  • olegp 1626 days ago
    Another alternative aimed at technical meetups is https://meetabit.com which we built at Toughbyte. I organize a number of technical meetups, such as HelsinkiJS which is the biggest developer meetup in Finland, and have found Meetup.com lacking. To scratch our own itch, we built Meetabit which includes some additional features such as the ability to accept talk proposals and sponsorship offers, have speaker profiles, archive of talks and related materials, export data etc.

    It does what we need and we haven't been actively developing or promoting it recently, but it has still grown organically to around 10K users and multiple meetups organized each month. We are likely to put more resources into it given the recent changes at Meetup.com. Worth adding that the service is free both to organizers and attendees; our long term plan is to have the same business model as Stack Overflow by promoting relevant jobs to members.

    I also posted this as a Show HN and you can find more info in the comments on that post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21261397

  • quickthrower2 1627 days ago
  • _zeel_shah 1625 days ago
    If you are looking for a meetup alternative then AllEvents.in is the right choice for you.

    They allow you to create your free meetup events and do not charge your attendees unless you want to. They provide you a lot of similar perks as Meetup with a database of 6M event seekers and 250M published events every month.

    You can use your already built fanbase on Meetup.com on AllEvents.in. Use Meetup.com to attract the audience and ask them to RSVP or register for your free meetup on AllEvents.in. This way you will be able to migrate your meetup community easily.

    Read more to find out how AllEvents.in is the right Meetup alternative in 2019 and how you can easily switch from Meetup To AllEvents.in: https://allevents.in/blog/one-of-the-best-meetup-alternative...

  • _bxg1 1627 days ago
    Pahaha. Who in the world would pay that kind of fee? I could see a $2/month subscription or even a higher amount for organizers, but with this people will just stop RSVPing altogether.
  • sunjam 1626 days ago
    Mobilizon is currently under development from Framasoft (developers of Peertube), having just raised 117% of their fundraising goal. It is an open source alternative to MeetUp and Facebooks Events. Built with federation support for ActivityPub/Mastodon.

    https://joinmobilizon.org/en/

  • rvz 1627 days ago
  • raykanani99 1627 days ago
    I'm starting an alternate to meetup but with a focus on coffee meetups. If you're interested in being an early user, let me know. https://beta.coffeeson.me Also feel free to post a comment if you think this is useful or not
  • whateveracct 1627 days ago
    Facebook groups + events. Plenty of video game communities to organize weekly tournaments and meetups.
    • rad_gruchalski 1627 days ago
      This really hit me. Never going to sign in to Facebook to join any kind of meetup. Simply never. Forget about it.
      • whateveracct 1626 days ago
        That's fair, but it undeniably Just Works for events that are very similar to the ones Meetup typically hosts.
  • jaredsohn 1627 days ago
    I wonder if this has any relationship to recent WeWork news since they own Meetup now.
    • arthurcolle 1627 days ago
      Good catch. This actually seems like a reasonable revenue model tbh, probably increases the barrier for people to just host random meetups (although iirc to actually "run a meetup" group you have to pay something like $50 as a recurring membership fee, so maybe not), and actually making meetups more cohesive in the sense that you actually paid SOMETHING to show up. But I might be overthinking it.
      • mister_hn 1627 days ago
        or since We is crushing from IPO to bankruptcy at speed of light, they are thinking to make some revenues. Am I negative?
  • partisan 1627 days ago
    I received an email earlier this week from Meetup. It was an email from the CEO asserting Meetups commitment to the community. Now this. The timing is certainly a commitment alright.

    I’d love to build the replacement for this site.

  • throw03172019 1627 days ago
    Pay $2 to get some pizza, beer, conversation and a talk. Not a bad deal...but sounds expensive compared to free.
    • inglor 1627 days ago
      But those 2$ don't go towards the organizers or the meetup itself.
    • sdan 1627 days ago
      Keep in mind meetup is run by We
  • barisesen 1627 days ago
    After I searched a community platform I found https://kommunity.com. It looks like very OK for replacement with Meetup, It has import from Meetup option too.
  • walshemj 1627 days ago
    For Board games and Table Top Games Warhorn Is one option
  • notelonmusk 1627 days ago
    Maybe apps can't solve all problems and this requires cultural/concerted action for community building? But I could be wrong and off-topic.