Meetup.com
The most recommended of 7 event platforms
People recommend it for finding local groups and in-person meetups around hobbies. The most common caveat is steep price increases and a worsening app.
People recommend it for finding local groups and in-person meetups around hobbies. The most common caveat is steep price increases and a worsening app.
70 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 26
- criticize it
- 44
- approval share
- 37%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Owned for 10 years
Median of the 3 owners who said how long they have had it.
Each square is one year.
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 26 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Finds groups for hobbies and interests
“I always like to join hobby groups on meetup.com (say cycling or DIY crafts or book clubs) and get to meet new people that way. It helps.”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: How to Be Alone?” “Search for in-person meetups in your area and if any look interesting, sign up and go to some events.”
Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: How to Be Alone?” “I use it for ongoing hiking clubs and book clubs and movie clubs.”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 in “The $2 per hour worker behind the OnlyFans boom” - Comment from 30 Sep 2026 in “Singapore govt dating app uses Gale-Shapley stable marriage algorithm”
- Comment from 9 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: How to Be Alone?”
- Comment from 16 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?”
- Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Loneliness at 19, How to Cope?”
Meeting new people, some becoming friends
“I always like to join hobby groups on meetup.com (say cycling or DIY crafts or book clubs) and get to meet new people that way. It helps.”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: How to Be Alone?” “Meetup.com has allowed me to meet countless people in multiple countries, of whom some became friends.”
Comment from 3 Jun 2026 in “Life and work is not meant to be spent in isolation” “my interactions were great. Meetup was scheduled, people showed up, we had a good time.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years” - Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Is the Internet Making Culture Worse?”
Easy filtering and scheduled events
“my interactions were great. Meetup was scheduled, people showed up, we had a good time.”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years” “You could filter for the right stuff, pretty easily.”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Italy's Bending Spoons, Owner of AOL and Vimeo, Files for Nasdaq IPO” Large base of users and meetups
“sometimes, groups are on Meetup because it is one of the least bad options”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years” “Eg meetup at least has critical mass of users and meetups”
Comment from 20 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com Alternative”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Price increases after changes in ownership
“Meetup used to be that until they got greedy and started charging everyone. It collapsed very quickly after that.”
Comment from 28 Jun 2026 in “Turn your site into a place people can bump into each other” “Meetup has been nothing but finding ways to raise prices and revenue and not about building the site to be better”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Bending Spoons buying Miro for $1.355B” “jacked up prices so high after acquiring it that it's no longer a viable platform for consumers”
Comment from 20 Aug 2026 in “Harvest hikes bills by 1500% after purchased by Bending Spoons” - Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Bending Spoons makes first post-IPO acquisition with $1.3B Airtable deal”
Declining quality and app changes
“Meetup got enshittified years ago already, and the changes drove away the small communities that once made up so much of the site”
Comment from 30 Sep 2026 in “Singapore govt dating app uses Gale-Shapley stable marriage algorithm” “I've had some success with Meetup (tech meetups specifically). The app/site is terrible though”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Loneliness at 19, How to Cope?” “they're actively trying to kill it with every new change to the app / web experience”
Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years” - Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?”
Spammy events, Zoom calls, repeated listings
“Meetup became a crappy stew of for-profit low effort AI flyer events designed to harvest money from people.”
Comment from 21 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Radius – A Meetup.com Alternative” “meetup used to work but it has become a cesspool of zoom calls and pay meetings”
Comment from 15 Jan 2026 in “Ask HN: How can we solve the loneliness epidemic?” “They show the same events over and over. They don't enforce categorization.”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Google is dead. Where do we go now?” - Comment from 15 Oct 2026 in “Americans' social activity has steeply declined in the past 30 years”
Owned by Bending Spoons and holding companies
“Considering what Bending Spoons did to Meetup.com after buying the site, I wouldn't trust them to improve a product.”
Comment from 21 Jan 2026 in “Bending Spoons laid off almost everybody at Vimeo yesterday” “WeWork sold Meetup to a series of increasingly awful holding companies.”
Comment from 3 Jan 2026 in “I rebooted my social life”
Other event platforms people recommend
The four most recommended other event platforms, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 7 event platforms, rankedWhat people said
40 of the 80 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“worked fine before facebook got everyone to leave them”
“sometimes, groups are on Meetup because it is one of the least bad options”
“I really don't understand why they have virtual meetups on their platform.”
“they're actively trying to kill it with every new change to the app / web experience”
“my interactions were great. Meetup was scheduled, people showed up, we had a good time.”
“Go to meetups instead via meetup.com and also look for local group activities happening on EventBrite”
“it has the major benefit of being independent of the tech giants”
“Meetup got enshittified years ago already, and the changes drove away the small communities that once made up so much of the site”
“have always been best for finding people with related interests”
“Development had stalled and there were quite some bugs, but we could put up with it.”
“with the enshittification of Meetup, the only forces that prosper on that site are for-profit ones”
“Meetup became a crappy stew of for-profit low effort AI flyer events designed to harvest money from people.”
“Eg meetup at least has critical mass of users and meetups”
“Meetup has been nothing but finding ways to raise prices and revenue and not about building the site to be better”
“jacked up prices so high after acquiring it that it's no longer a viable platform for consumers”
“the price you pay is for you to access their users”
“subscription prices skyrocketed while nothing useful was added to the product”
“Meetup used to be that until they got greedy and started charging everyone. It collapsed very quickly after that.”
“You could filter for the right stuff, pretty easily.”
“Meetup.com has allowed me to meet countless people in multiple countries, of whom some became friends.”
“Product Hunt, Meetup, and other early 2010s products (even HN) are functionally dead.”
“Most people will let you try their builds.”
“Meetup's still fighting the good fight”
“I use it for ongoing hiking clubs and book clubs and movie clubs.”
“Meetup.com is a great place to find groups you might like.”
“Search for in-person meetups in your area and if any look interesting, sign up and go to some events.”
“I always like to join hobby groups on meetup.com (say cycling or DIY crafts or book clubs) and get to meet new people that way. It helps.”
“they enshittified (sorry, "harvested called for the PE overlords") two other web properties I used and loved back in the day”
“their massive price increases have really driven people away”
“Considering what Bending Spoons did to Meetup.com after buying the site, I wouldn't trust them to improve a product.”
“things like Meetup or Facebook groups help a lot”
“meetup used to work but it has become a cesspool of zoom calls and pay meetings”
“WeWork sold Meetup to a series of increasingly awful holding companies.”
“Modal popups that want you to sign up for Pro. You can’t dismiss them.”
“They show the same events over and over. They don't enforce categorization.”
“I've had some success with Meetup (tech meetups specifically). The app/site is terrible though”
“Join an interest group on Meetup maybe.”
“That's a good point of positivity and I welcome it”
“i find meetup.com to be a good antidote to the "local" part of the situation”
“I made a lot of good software industries connections that night and it was early in my career so that was very useful as well”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.