Meetup Review for 2023 | Form Friendships and Share Your Interests

Are you looking for a place to connect with others that have the same interests as you do in a virtual environment that facilitates “meeting up” in real life? Meetup is one of the most useful apps for this purpose!

With over 12 million unique visitors every month from all over the world and approximately 500,000 active users, this is the place to find people who share your interests and build meaningful relationships with them.

Overall Rating
Pros and Cons
Premium Member Benefits
Membership Plans & Pricing
Is Meetup Worth It?
How to Sign Up
Alternatives to Meetup
Frequently Asked Questions

Overview of Meetup

Founded in 2002, Meetup was designed for people to form friendships and network based on hobbies, social causes, passions, and other shared interests!

Key Facts	Details
Site Name	Meetup.com
Key Info	Year Founded: 2002 Best For: Forming friendships and networking opportunities for people who share hobbies, interests, social causes, and passions Number of Active Members: 55,000 Weekly Visitors: 54,000 Gender Ratio: 60% men to 40% women Matchmaking Process: Shared interests and hobbies
Membership Cost	Starting at $16.49/month
Sign-Up Time	5-10 minutes

Meetup is an online community and mobile app that connects individuals with similar interests to others in their immediate area. Activities like hiking, music, art, food & wine, and others are all covered by several local Meetup groups. After you’ve signed up, you’ll have access to the host’s planned groups and Meetups.

It’s an excellent opportunity to connect with the locals in an enjoyable setting. Meetup isn’t only for professionals; it can bring together parents, creative types, and others in their own cities!

The Purpose of This Review

For an in-depth look at what you might expect when joining Meetup, you’ll hear from in-house dating experts who have investigated the site from every conceivable perspective! To help you determine if this social network is worth your time, we’ll provide you with as much info as we can, so keep scrolling for our thorough review of Meetup.

Our Meetup Dating Site Rating

We took the time to learn more about the Meetup dating site and try out a few of its features before committing to a paid membership plan. When evaluating dating websites, we consider many different aspects, such as the number of users, the quality of potential matches, the cost of premium membership, and the intuitiveness of the interface. See below for a full breakdown of how we ranked Meetup and our final rating for each category.

Category	Score
Website Design	4.0
Features	4.0
Cost	3.0
Usability	4.0
Quality Matches	4.0
Active Users	4.5
Overall Rating	4.0

Free Memberships

New users may try out Meetup Pro without paying anything for the first month. During the trial period, you can establish up to 20 groups, among other features. Remember that there will be restrictions on what you can do during the Meetup free trial—people who subscribe to the”free trial won’t have access to all of Meetup’s features.

Creating a Profile

Free trial Meetup accounts allow you to establish up to 20 groups and perform a few other things, but they prevent you from actively participating in the groups you’ve joined or created. You won’t have any say in selecting leaders, determining event costs, or arranging the schedule.

Browsing and Searching

Here are the features that Meetup members can use for free:

Start an account at Meetup
Set up your profile with information and photos
Create up to 20 groups
Upload information and photos for your events
Search for events
View other events’ information and photos
Join groups
Message other members on the Meetup app

Limitations of Free Membership

Meetup.com has a 14-day limit on free events before an organizer must pay to keep them going. It means that in order to organize events that really endure, organizers need to be paying members. In order to take part in the event, attendees do not have to be paying members.

Premium Membership Benefits

While most of the action occurs off-site, you can still get in contact with others involved in the event using Meetup’s premium features that come with a paid membership! As a “joiner,” you can use Meetup.com without paying anything, but you can’t be the “planner” or “creator” of a group that lasts more than 14 days without a “planner” or “creator” who is a paid member. This is just one more reason why paying for a Meetup membership is a good idea.

On top of that, you won’t be able to do things like create a schedule, set prices, or assemble a group of directors. As a member, you will have a greater say in organizing and directing your own activities and organizations.

Communicating Effectively

Sending and receiving messages on Meetup is free for all users and is a method of communicating with the event’s organizers and other attendees in advance. Maybe you and a member who grabbed your attention during the event might arrange a date or two using the messages feature!

Meetup doesn’t provide a lot of options for communicating with people. From the perspective of a joiner, however, participation is free; therefore, you’re welcome to sign up for whatever groups you want!

Is It Worth Upgrading to Premium?

Don’t miss out on all the fun things happening off-site! With Meetup’s premium features, you can still stay in the loop and connect with other event-goers. Just remember, membership has its privileges! Don’t miss out on all the fun things happening off-site! With Meetup’s premium features, you can still stay in the loop and connect with other event-goers. Just remember, membership has its privileges! Meetup.com adheres to the adage: “If you’re not paying for it, you’re not the one calling the shots.” As a “joiner,” you can enjoy the perks for free, but if you want to be the mastermind behind a group that lasts longer than two weeks, you have to upgrade and pay.

This is just another advantage of upgrading to a paid membership on Meetup. You also won’t have the authority to do anything like make a schedule, fix pricing for events, or choose a board of directors. When you pay for a premium membership, you’ll have more of a voice in deciding how the group operates!

Comparing Free vs. Premium Features

Meetup is free to use; however, the bare-bones version of the program has several limitations.

With a free account, users are able to:

Start an account at Meetup
Set up your profile with information and photos
Create up to 20 groups
Upload information and photos for your events
Search for events
View other events’ information and photos
Join groups
Message other members on the Meetup app

With a premium membership, users have a great set of tools and perks that include:

Create Email Lists: A neat Meetup Pro feature gives group creators the ability to gather attendees’ email addresses for your events so you can get all your ducks in a row when it comes to communicating important group details.
Integration with MailChimp: This premium feature allows members to either import all data into your customer relationship management system or utilize the MailChimp interface to send out monthly newsletters and tailored emails to your audience.
Custom Registration Form: Members of Meetup can learn more about the people who will be attending by looking at their names, occupations, and motivations on the individualized registration form. This enables people to get to know each other more before a group event or meetup!
Custom Meetup App Icons: With a Member+ subscription, users get access to custom app icons created by the Meetup crew, and the Meetup logo can be removed from the home screen and replaced with an icon of your own design. For your Meetup profile, you can pick a personalized icon from a variety of photos (some of which are available for a short time only).
Prioritized Customer Support: Customer service is there to help whenever you need it, as Meetup’s Member+ members have priority access to the company’s Community Support tools and team.
Early Access to Upcoming Features: Your own personal group organizing experience could be further improved with the help of additional premium members. The Member+ badge designates a community’s most active members, allowing you to find others who share your interests quickly. It’s a terrific approach to spread the burden of leadership and grow your club if you can find other enthusiastic people to host events or act as assistant organizers.

Assessing the Value for Your Needs

If you’re serious about finding love online, we recommend subscribing to a premium membership on Meetup (or any other dating site). Since we can’t predict your financial situation or your opinion of what constitutes a good investment, you’ll have to make that call before deciding whether to join up for a membership. Always ask yourself if you’re receiving your money’s worth and whether or not the platform has the features you need.

Whether you want to sign up for Meetup as a paid member or a “free trial” user, you won’t have to spend more than 5 or 10 minutes doing so. The following are the quick and easy steps for signing up:

Step 1: Visit the Meetup Homepage

To get started with the registration process, go to www.Meetup.com and choose the “sign up” tab at the top right of the page.

Step 2: Pick Your Sign-Up Process

After that, choose a login method to proceed with Meetup.com registration. Some of these alternatives will utilize the applicant’s social media account data to automatically complete some application fields.

You can sign in with any of the following: Facebook, Apple, Google, or your own email.

Step 3: Complete Sign-up Process

We used our email to sign-up, and the next steps are to add your age and gender, which are not displayed on your Meetup account. It’s just to give the site a better idea of your demo so they can give better recommendations!

To sign in, we entered the provided email address. Then, you’ll be asked to complete your profile by giving a name, email address, and password. In case you’re having trouble thinking of a good password, Meetup will provide a random recommendation. Provide your location and confirm that you are not a robot.

A confirmation email will be issued after you click “sign up” to continue. Meetup.com will send you a confirmation email with a link to click in order to proceed.

Step 4: Upload a Profile Photo

An image for your profile picture should be uploaded at this step. You can do this from your computer, mobile device, or Facebook account. You can skip over this part but we strongly recommend uploading a good photo for your profile to help you connect with other Meetup users!

Step 5: Choose Your Interest Categories

Choose as many relevant interests as you can in order to give Meetup a decent understanding of who you are and what you are passionate about.

Step 6: Specify your Interests

You can now start sorting your many passions into more manageable buckets. This will help the site as well as other people understand the depth to which you’re interested in certain subjects, hobbies, or causes.

Step 7: Join Some Groups

Meetup will compile a list of organizations and events you may like according to the data you submit. Select as many as you like; there’s no limit!

Keep in mind that “joining” a group does not need any financial investment on your part. In order to establish or administer a group or function for more than 14 days, you will need to upgrade to a paid membership.

Step 8: Locate Events and Explore Meetup

The following page will provide upcoming events that you may find interesting depending on your preferences.

Step 9: Pick a Membership

After that, you’ll be sent to your Meetup page. From here, you can keep searching for meetups and groups to join, setting up your own interests and schedule, and checking out other users’ accounts. As a free user, you can create as many as 20 groups, but after 14 days, they will be deleted.

Click the “see profile” link in the upper right-hand corner to access your profile and apply for membership. You’ll see “create your own Meetup group” on the screen’s bottom. There’s a “get started” button next to it.

Get Signed Up for Meetup Now!

Costs and Payment Options

If you decide to become a paying member of Meetup, you can pick from one of four different membership options. There are two basic plans and two professional (or premium) plans to choose from. Those who choose the basic plan will have access to fewer features, while those who choose the premium plan will have access to all of them. The varying costs reflect the various durations of the available plans.

Fun fact: the longer the plan, the cheaper the monthly charge; thus, you can save a lot of money by choosing the 6-month option rather than the 1-month one.

Meetup is one of the only dating sites that will allow you to pay off the total price of the membership in up to four monthly installments–most require the entire payment upfront.

Membership Plans

Total Cost: $23.99

1-Month Membership Standard

$2399 Monthly Select Plan

Total Cost: $98.94

6-Month Membership Standard

$1649 Monthly Select Plan

Total Cost: $35.00

1-Month Membership Pro

$3500 Monthly Select Plan

Total Cost: $180.00

6-Month Membership Pro

$3000 Monthly Select Plan

FYI: Meetup uses auto-renewal, so if you fail to terminate your membership at least one day before it is due to expire, you will be billed for the same plan again. These packages are configured to renew once they have reached their end date automatically.

Payment Methods and Security

Meetup accepts all major credit cards as well as Apple and Google Pay, and as for their security, after a cyber-security firm notified the platform of a potential vulnerability, Meetup’s trust and safety team fixed the issue reported and made it even more secure.

Pros and Cons

We think joining Meetup is absolutely worth it! While it’s not a traditional dating site, it is a great way to connect with and meet eligible singles in your immediate area. But as Meetup is more of a social network where individuals can make genuine connections based on shared interests than a dating site, if you want a dedicated online dating experience, you may want to search elsewhere. Below are some pros and cons to help you decide if Meetup is the place for you.

Advantages of Meetup

Around 12 million unique users use the site every month, and there are over 500,000 registered users.
Powerful online community for connecting with others who share your hobbies and interests.
Available in more than 179 countries across the globe
Find meetups and events around you based on criteria like topic and distance from your location.
Monthly pricing is as low as $16.49 per month.

Drawbacks to Consider

The “free trial” version of the site will lack several premium membership benefits.
Memberships with shorter terms have higher monthly fees.
60% of the community is male, whereas 40% of the population is female.
Users come from all over the globe, although the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia account for the vast majority.
There is a time restriction on your ability to cancel a subscription plan and get a full refund.

Users Reviews and Testimonials

It’s important to have an outside opinion on how well Meetup functions as a dating platform and a social networking site–real user input from people who have had both good and negative experiences with Meetup is something we continually want to incorporate since it increases the scope of our study!

Success Stories

Following are some real reviews from users who have had positive (or even excellent) experiences on the social platform Meetup:

Common Concerns and Complaints

Without addressing the most prevalent concerns and difficulties that Meetup members have talked about on multiple review sites, mainly related to customer service, our reviews would not be unbiased. Here are some common complaints from members:

Alternative Sites and Competitors

Maybe Meetup isn’t the right site for you, and that’s totally okay! You can find singles who share your hobbies or passions on so many different dating sites. Several of these options aren’t really social networking sites at all but online dating sites. They all have huge user bases that you can tap into to make meaningful relationships or meet lasting ones. Look through the ones below and see if any strike your fancy!