Meetup built one of the largest event communities on the internet, and that community is real. But the model asks you to commit to a group before you can attend a single event, and a lot has changed since Bending Spoons acquired the platform in early 2024. If you want to discover what is happening in San Francisco tonight, see who among your connections is going, and show up without a membership application first, Vently is a direct alternative worth knowing about.
Meetup organises events around groups. You find a group around a shared interest, whether that is hiking, tech networking, language exchange, or board games, join it, and then attend events that group hosts. The group model has real advantages: recurring attendees, a host who cares about the community, and events built around a coherent theme rather than whatever happens to be nearby. For people who find an active group that fits their interests, Meetup can be a reliable pipeline for social plans.
The platform has been a fixture in San Francisco's social scene for years, and that history means some groups here are genuinely well-established. If you already have a group or two you participate in regularly, Meetup works fine for what it is designed to do.
Bending Spoons, an Italian software company that has acquired a number of consumer apps including Evernote and WeTransfer, purchased Meetup in January 2024. Several product changes followed in the months after the acquisition that are worth knowing about if you use the platform as an attendee.
In July 2024, Meetup removed Event Chat and Message Boards, replacing real-time group chat with asynchronous comments. Direct member-to-member messaging was moved behind a paid Meetup+ subscription in October 2024, so free-tier members can no longer message other members directly. Organiser subscription prices increased in June 2024, the first price increase since 2019. Meetup+ subscribers also receive priority placement on event waitlists over free members. Ads appear on event pages and post-RSVP screens for users on the free tier.
None of this makes Meetup unusable. But it does mean the free attendee experience is materially different from what it was two years ago, and the direction of travel is toward paid features for things that were previously available to everyone.
The deeper issue for a lot of people is not the pricing changes. It is the model itself. Meetup requires you to join a group before you can RSVP to any event that group hosts. That is a meaningful commitment before you have attended a single thing. You might join three groups before you find one that fits your schedule, neighbourhood, and the kind of people you actually want to spend time with. The group model is great when it works. When it does not, the path to a decent Friday night is slower than it needs to be.
Vently takes the opposite approach. There are no groups to join. You open the app, see what is happening near you in San Francisco, and see which of your connections are also interested in attending the same events. The social layer is built around your existing network and what is happening locally, not around committing to an interest-based community in advance. If you want to discover open events in San Francisco, see who else is going, and show up without a prior membership, that is exactly what Vently is built for. See what is happening in SF this weekend or read the guide on San Francisco social clubs for more context on how people build community here.
The "who is going" signal is the part that matters most to a lot of people. Deciding to go somewhere is easier when you can already see that someone you know is planning to be there. Vently surfaces that information for any local event you can see, before you commit to attending.
These two apps work differently and serve different kinds of social needs. There is no universal winner; the right choice depends on what you are actually trying to do.
The table below covers the attributes that matter most when you are deciding which app fits how you actually want to find and attend events in San Francisco.
| Attribute | Meetup | Vently |
|---|---|---|
| How you access events | Join a group, then RSVP to that group's events | Open discovery, no group membership required |
| Social layer | See other group members; direct messaging now requires Meetup+ subscription | See which of your existing connections are interested in the same local events |
| Event types | Interest-based recurring groups: hiking, tech, language, fitness, and more | Open local events: gallery nights, live music, pop-ups, outdoor events, social meetups |
| Ownership | Bending Spoons (acquired January 2024) | Independent |
| Ads | Ads on event pages and post-RSVP screens for free users | No ads |
| Messaging | Direct member messaging behind Meetup+ paywall as of October 2024 | Free |
| Waitlist priority | Meetup+ subscribers get priority over free members | No tiered waitlist priority |
| Price for attendees | Free tier available; Meetup+ subscription unlocks messaging and waitlist priority | Free |
| City coverage | Global | San Francisco (live now) |
| Platform | iOS and Android | iOS |
Meetup still has a free tier for attendees, but the free experience has become more limited over time. Direct member-to-member messaging moved behind a paid Meetup+ subscription in October 2024. Meetup+ subscribers also receive priority on event waitlists over free members. Ads appear on event pages and post-RSVP screens for free users. The core ability to join a group and RSVP to events remains available without paying, but features that were previously free are now gated.
Several factors have driven people to look for alternatives since the Bending Spoons acquisition in January 2024. The removal of real-time group chat in July 2024, direct messaging moving behind a paywall in October 2024, organiser price increases in June 2024, and the appearance of ads on event pages have all changed the free experience. Others simply find the group-join requirement too slow a path to finding something to do on a given weekend.
Yes. Vently is a free app (web and iOS) built specifically for San Francisco event discovery. It surfaces open local events, from gallery nights in the Mission to live music in the Tenderloin to outdoor events across the city, without requiring you to join a group first. The social layer shows you which of your connections are interested in attending the same events, so you can see who is going before you decide to show up.
On Meetup, no. The platform requires group membership before you can RSVP to any event that group hosts. On Vently, yes. All events on Vently are open for discovery without any prior membership or application. You see what is happening near you, check who is going, and RSVP directly. There is no group to join and no approval process before you can attend.
Bending Spoons, which also owns Evernote and other consumer apps, completed its acquisition of Meetup in January 2024. In the months that followed: Event Chat and Message Boards were removed in July 2024 and replaced with asynchronous comments; direct member messaging moved to Meetup+ in October 2024; organiser subscription prices increased in June 2024 for the first time since 2019; Meetup+ subscribers gained waitlist priority over free members; and ads appeared on event and post-RSVP pages for free-tier users. The platform continues to operate and host events globally.
For open event discovery in San Francisco, Vently is a free alternative. The core difference is the model: Meetup organises events inside groups you join in advance, while Vently surfaces open events directly and shows you which of your connections are interested. Both are free to attend events on at a basic level; Vently does not have a paid tier that gates messaging or waitlist access.
Vently is free on the web and iOS. See what is happening near you in San Francisco, find out who among your connections is going, and show up without joining a group first.
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