Meetup charges you to host. We pay you.
Meetup deserves its place in history — it normalised strangers meeting around an interest. But if you organise there today, you know the shape of it: a monthly organiser fee of around US$24, discovery you don’t control, and no-shows that routinely run 30–50%. LMTW — Let’s Meet This Week — is the social connection club built the other way around: hosting is free, the club fills your seats by matching members into your night, and Captains earn credits for every night they run. Here’s the honest side-by-side.
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Meetup vs LMTW, side by side
This is based on Meetup’s public organiser pricing and how the platform works for organisers, as of our last check — their numbers change, so do confirm current pricing on their site. Ours won’t: hosting is free, full stop.
| Meetup (organiser) | LMTW (Captain) | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to host | Organiser subscription, roughly US$24/mo depending on plan and billing | Free, always — Captains never spend credits on their own events |
| Who fills the seats | You — promote the group, chase RSVPs, hope | The club — members are matched into your night by generation, interests and intent |
| No-shows | Commonly 30–50% of RSVPs; a free “yes” costs nothing | A 12-credit bond on every seat, refunded on attendance — people who book, show up |
| What you earn | Nothing from the platform — you pay it | +12 credits every night you host, +3 for a full house, +25 every five nights |
| On the night | You greet, you icebreak, you work the room | Trained through the free Captain Academy, with a conversation menu on every seat |
| After the night | RSVP list resets; members drift | Mutual-only follow-ups, circles and chat — your regulars become a crew |
The fee maths, honestly
At roughly US$24 a month, a Meetup organiser subscription is about US$288 a year — paid whether your events fill or not. Add the hours of promoting, reminding and re-listing, and the real cost of “free community” is your evenings.
On LMTW the same year of hosting runs the other way. Hosting is free, and a weekly host earns around 60 credits a month at +12 a night plus full-house and five-night bonuses — enough to cover your own social life in the club, with the earnings program on top. Meetup charges you to host. We pay you. That’s not a slogan; it’s the ledger.
Where Meetup still wins
Credit where it’s due: Meetup’s reach is enormous, and for very large or very niche gatherings — the 200-person hike, the obscure-interest group with twelve members worldwide — an open directory is a fine tool. If your dream event is a stadium, we are not your platform.
But if what you actually run is a regular table — six to twelve people, a good venue, the same warm ritual every week — the open directory is working against you. Small, hosted, matched and seated beats big, open and hopeful. That’s the whole club.
Moving your group over
You don’t need to bring a single member with you — the club fills your first table from its own matching. If you do have a crew you love, bring them: everyone joins free as a founding member, and your regulars become the core of a community that the whole city can find.
The path is short: join, tap Become a Captain, take the free Academy (about an hour, Toastmasters-style), and your first night is matched and seated by the club. Host a dinner club has the first-night checklist; the Academy has the craft.
Common questions
What does Meetup charge organisers?
Meetup’s organiser subscription runs around US$24 a month depending on plan and billing period — check their site for current pricing, as it changes. LMTW never charges hosts anything: hosting is free and Captains earn credits every night they run.
Can I move my existing Meetup group to LMTW?
Yes — and you don’t have to bring anyone. The club fills seats by matching its own members into your night. If you’d like your regulars along, they join free as founding members and can form the core of your public community.
How does LMTW handle no-shows?
Every seat carries a 12-credit bond that’s only kept when someone doesn’t show — a no-show costs credits, a cancellation in the free window costs nothing. When a “yes” has a price, attendance stops being a coin toss.
Is it safe?
Every member is onboarded and every new group is reviewed by a human before invites go out. Get-togethers are hosted in public venues, the table runs on first names only, and the club is 18+ only.
Stop paying to organise. Start getting paid to host.
Free Academy training, seats filled by the club, and credits every night you run. See what’s on first if you’d rather be a guest before you’re a host.
Become a CaptainFriends first — romance welcome, never required.