Tools and apps for meeting people

Every one of these gets you closer to being in a room with people. None of them does the actual work for you. We have listed what each does, what it costs, and what is wrong with it, because a directory where nothing has a downside is an advertisement.

We do not rank these and we take no commission from any of them. Entries are grouped by what the tool actually does for you — which is not always the category its makers would choose — and are alphabetical within each group.

All of them at a glance

Five columns, because those are the five things that decide whether a tool is any use to you. Recurrence is the one the research actually backs: seeing the same people repeatedly is what turns an acquaintance into a friend. Evidence means a published evaluation of that product against a loneliness measure — not whether it is popular, and not whether we like it. Every app in this directory scores None on that column, including the ones we rate highly.

Tool	What it does	Recurrence	Cost	Where	Evidence
Meetup	Recurring interest groups	Built in	Free	Worldwide	None
222	Seated with strangers	One-off	Paid	LA, under-28s	None
Buffet	Seated with strangers	Possible	Free tier	Los Angeles	None
Pie	Seated with strangers	Possible	Free tier	5 cities	None
Timeleft	Seated with strangers	One-off	Paid + bill	Many cities	None
Bumble BFF	One-to-one matching	One-off	Free tier	Worldwide	None
Hinge	One-to-one matching	One-off	Free tier	Worldwide	None
Peanut	One-to-one matching	Possible	Free tier	Worldwide	None
Eventbrite	Finding and hosting events	One-off	Free	Worldwide	None
Luma	Finding and hosting events	Possible	Free	Worldwide	None
Partiful	Finding and hosting events	One-off	Free	Worldwide	None
Nextdoor	Neighbourhood	Possible	Free	Worldwide	None
Your public library	Not an app	Built in	Free	US-wide	Indirect
Run clubs and sports leagues	Not an app	Built in	Free	Most cities	Indirect

Recurring interest groups

Built around the same people meeting again. Repetition is what turns an acquaintance into a friend, and this is the category that offers it.

Meetup
Free to attend most groups; organisers pay to run them.
The long-running platform for recurring in-person groups organised around an interest.
How it works
Search your area, join a group, turn up to its events. Groups are run by volunteer organisers rather than the company. Reported at roughly 60 million members.
Best for
Recurrence. The same people at the same hiking group each month is how acquaintances become friends.
Where it falls short
Quality depends entirely on the organiser. Dormant groups with old listings are common, and some cities are much better served than others.

Seated with strangers

These pick the people, the place and the time for you. The closest thing to a direct answer if the organising is what stops you.

222
Paid per experience; some formats include the venue cost and some do not.
An app that matches under-28s into small groups for a booked activity — a dinner, a walk, a night out — at a partner venue.
How it works
You fill in a long personality questionnaire, and the algorithm builds the guest list and picks the venue. There are deliberately no profiles, no direct messages and no swiping. Founded in 2021 and built up in Los Angeles; sign-up is restricted to ages 18 to 27.
Best for
Younger people who want the decision taken out of their hands entirely, and who find profile-browsing exhausting.
Where it falls short
The age cap is a hard gate — over 27 and the product is simply not open to you. City coverage is narrow, and because there are no profiles you have no way to opt out of a group that looks like a poor fit.
Buffet
Free tier, with a paid tier for additional features.
An app that puts you at a table with a small group of people at a specific place and time, rather than leaving you to arrange it yourself. It also runs a one-to-one mode that pairs you with a single person.
How it works
A set of curated experiences is posted each week. You claim a seat, and once three people have claimed seats the group chat opens and the table is confirmed. Groups cap at six, and there is a one-to-one mode as well. Currently operating in Los Angeles, with other cities planned.
Best for
People who find the deciding-and-organising part the obstacle, rather than the showing-up part.
Where it falls short
City coverage is the binding constraint — outside its launch cities there is nothing to join. The small group size means a table that does not click has fewer people to fall back on.
Pie
Free to join; individual events may charge.
A social app built around group events — dinners, trivia, pickleball — hosted by local organisers it pays.
How it works
A quiz sorts respondents into groups of roughly six predicted to get along, and opens a group chat before the event so the table is not cold on arrival. Founded by Andy Dunn. It reported raising an $11.5m Series A, and reported over 130,000 monthly active users while live in only two cities.
Best for
People who want an activity rather than a dinner, and who find a group chat beforehand takes the edge off.
Where it falls short
Reach is uneven — it is strongest in a handful of cities and thin everywhere else. Paying organisers is what makes the events good, and it is also the part that has to keep being funded.
Timeleft
Paid per dinner or by subscription; the restaurant bill is separate.
Weekly dinners that seat a handful of strangers together at a restaurant.
How it works
You complete a personality questionnaire and are matched to a table for a set night. There is no messaging before the dinner, which is deliberate. Founded in 2020; the company reports having seated more than three million guests.
Best for
Trying the format once with no ongoing commitment.
Where it falls short
One-off by design, so a good table does not automatically become a second meeting. You also pay for dinner on top of the booking fee.

One-to-one matching

Profiles, matching, then a conversation you have to carry yourself. Getting matched is easy; getting to a first meeting is the part that fails.

Buffet
Free tier, with a paid tier for additional features.
An app that puts you at a table with a small group of people at a specific place and time, rather than leaving you to arrange it yourself. It also runs a one-to-one mode that pairs you with a single person.
Listed here for its one-to-one mode, which pairs you with a single person rather than seating a group. Same booking model, and the same city limits apply.
How it works
A set of curated experiences is posted each week. You claim a seat, and once three people have claimed seats the group chat opens and the table is confirmed. Groups cap at six, and there is a one-to-one mode as well. Currently operating in Los Angeles, with other cities planned.
Best for
People who find the deciding-and-organising part the obstacle, rather than the showing-up part.
Where it falls short
City coverage is the binding constraint — outside its launch cities there is nothing to join. The small group size means a table that does not click has fewer people to fall back on.
Bumble BFF
Free, with paid upgrades.
Friend-finding built on the dating-app interaction model.
How it works
Swipe through profiles, match, then message. It relaunched as a standalone app in late 2025 and added group chats and meetup planning.
Best for
One-to-one friendships, and people already comfortable with the swipe format.
Where it falls short
The gap between matching and actually meeting is where most of these conversations die. Matching is not the hard part, and the app cannot do the hard part for you.
Hinge
Free, with paid tiers.
A dating app. It is in this directory because it is the model every app above borrowed from, and because it is what most people actually download when they feel alone.
How it works
Prompt-based profiles, a like on a specific part of someone else’s, then a conversation.
Best for
Dating. That is what it is for and it is straightforward about it.
Where it falls short
A romantic relationship is not a substitute for a social circle, and treating dating apps as the answer to loneliness is one of the more reliable ways to stay lonely. If what is missing is friends, this is the wrong tool, however familiar it feels.
Peanut
Free, with a paid tier.
A network for mothers and women through fertility, pregnancy, and motherhood.
How it works
Profile-based matching with local women at a similar stage, plus group discussion.
Best for
New parents, who face one of the sharpest and least-discussed drops in social contact.
Where it falls short
Narrow by design. If you are not in its audience it is not for you.

Finding and hosting events

Logistics tools, not introduction tools. They are excellent at what they do and they are frequently miscategorised as a cure for loneliness.

Eventbrite
Free to browse; tickets priced by the organiser.
A ticketing and event-discovery platform.
How it works
Browse what is on near you, buy a ticket, turn up. Anyone can list an event on it.
Best for
Finding out what actually exists in your area, which is genuinely hard to discover any other way.
Where it falls short
It sells you a ticket, not an introduction. Most listings are audience events — a talk, a gig, a class — where you can attend start to finish without speaking to anyone. Look for the ones that are small, recurring, and involve doing something.
Luma
Free tier for hosts; paid tiers for larger features.
An events platform built around calendars people subscribe to, widely used by meetups and professional communities.
How it works
Hosts publish an event page; guests RSVP and can subscribe to a calendar so future events from the same host arrive automatically. Supports recurring events and ticketing.
Best for
The subscribe-to-a-calendar part. Following a host whose events you liked is the closest this category gets to building recurrence.
Where it falls short
Discovery is weak unless you already know which community to follow — it is a tool for hosts first. Skewed heavily towards tech and professional events in most cities.
Partiful
Free to use.
An invitation and RSVP app for casual parties.
How it works
Make an invite page, send it, guests RSVP with a phone number and can see who else is coming. Added paid ticketing in 2026.
Best for
The person who has people to invite and finds the admin of inviting them the friction. It is very good at that.
Where it falls short
It does not introduce you to anyone. Partiful assumes you already have a guest list, which is precisely what someone rebuilding a social life does not have. Filed under apps for meeting people constantly, and it is not one.

Neighbourhood

Tied to where you physically live.

Nextdoor
Free.
A message board tied to your verified physical neighbourhood.
How it works
Post, read, and reply to people who live near you.
Best for
Weak ties — the people you recognise but do not know well, which the research treats as a distinct and undervalued form of connection.
Where it falls short
Not built for making friends, and its tone varies enormously by neighbourhood. Treat it as a way to find local things happening, not as a social app.

Not an app

Free, offline, and consistently underrated.

Your public library
Free.
Free, staffed, heated buildings that run regular programming and expect nothing from you.
How it works
Check the events calendar for your branch. Most run reading groups, classes, and clubs.
Best for
Anyone for whom cost, or the pressure of a social app, is the barrier. Libraries are the clearest real example of what researchers call social infrastructure.
Where it falls short
Programming is uneven between branches, and it is rarely advertised well. You usually have to go in and look at the noticeboard.
Run clubs and sports leagues
Free to modest league fees.
Recurring physical activity with the same group of people.
How it works
Most cities have free run clubs meeting on fixed days from a fixed place, and recreational leagues that take individual sign-ups rather than whole teams.
Best for
People who find unstructured socialising hard. A shared activity removes the need to generate conversation from nothing.
Where it falls short
The fitness barrier is real but usually overstated — most run clubs have a slow group. Leagues that require you to bring a team are no use if you have no team.