Short answer: if you want one-off events, Eventbrite and Facebook events cover much of the same ground as Meetup. If you want a group that meets every week, the better alternative is usually the group's own website or the club finder of the national body it belongs to, such as parkrun or GoodGym. BelongHub catalogues 1,386 named community groups by activity and city, free and without an account.
This page is for someone who wants to join a group, not run one. Every row below was read on the company's own pages on 17 October 2026. Prices change, and some vary by country.
Meetup and seven alternatives compared
| Option | What it lists | Cost to you as a member | Where it falls short |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meetup | Groups and events run by organisers who pay for a plan | Free plan: join groups and RSVP to events. Meetup+ is an optional paid upgrade for full attendee lists and direct messages | Free members cannot see full attendee lists. Organisers pay from $29.99 a month on the Standard plan; the free Starter plan allows one group, two events a month and ten people per event |
| Facebook Groups | Public and private groups started by anyone with an account | A Facebook account. The Help Centre lists no fee for joining | A hidden private group is visible only to members and invited people, so search will not find it |
| Eventbrite | Events and tickets | Free events have no fees. For paid tickets its US pricing page lists a service fee of 3.7% plus $1.79 per ticket and 2.9% payment processing per order; organisers pass ticket fees to buyers by default | It is organised around single events, so check whether the organiser runs the same thing again |
| Nextdoor | Neighbourhood news, recommendations, for-sale listings, events and groups; its own examples include a weekly pickup game | Its About page lists no member price and describes members as verified neighbours | Only your own neighbourhood, in the 11 countries Nextdoor says it covers |
| Bumble For Friends | People near you who also want new friends | Free to download and use; optional Premium, £4.99 for one month on the UK App Store | Its listing describes meeting people, not finding clubs, so you still need somewhere to meet again |
| Discord | Chat servers, joined with an invite link | Free; Nitro is an optional paid subscription | Public discovery only covers Community servers with at least 1,000 members that are at least 8 weeks old, so a small club's server will not appear there |
| A national club finder, such as parkrun or GoodGym | Local chapters of one activity, such as Bushy parkrun every Saturday at 9:00am | parkrun is free once you register; GoodGym says you do not have to pay and donations are optional | One activity per finder, so you need to know what you want first |
| BelongHub (this site) | 1,386 named groups and 186 group types, from choirs and morris sides to hackspaces and dragon boat crews, searchable by activity, city or country | Free, no account | No dates, sign-ups or messages. Each entry links to a source page for the group and does not confirm that the group is active or taking members today |
Where the alternatives beat us
Meetup, Eventbrite and Facebook all do things BelongHub does not. Meetup and Eventbrite tell you what is on this week and take your RSVP or ticket. Facebook Groups and Discord give a club somewhere to talk between meetings. Nextdoor is organised around your neighbourhood. We do none of that. We are a catalog that helps you work out what kind of group to look for, then points you to that group's own pages.
What our catalog says about where groups publish
On 17 October 2026 we counted the source link stored for each of the 1,386 groups in the BelongHub catalog. One points to a Meetup page. Forty-five point to Facebook, 14 to Instagram and one to Luma. None points to Discord, Eventbrite or Nextdoor. Of the rest, 112 are Wikipedia articles and 1,213 are other websites: a group's own site, its federation, a city council, a festival organiser or a news report.
That is a count of the sources our researchers cited, not of every channel a group uses. A club cited by its own website may also run a Meetup group. It does show that, for the groups we catalogue, the public record we could cite was usually an ordinary website: about seven in eight sources are not social, event or encyclopaedia pages. Our check of 59 hobby club websites found Meetup a minority channel there too: 7 linked to a Meetup group and 38 to Facebook.
Three groups, three ways in
Three entries from our catalog show why it pays to search by activity rather than by platform. Each detail comes from the group's own website on 17 October 2026.
- Makespace Cambridge, a member-run workshop, sends visitors to Meetup: its website says to search Meetup for the next "See the Space" event. For this group, Meetup is the right tool.
- Seattle Go Center keeps its own timetable. It says its Tuesday session is the largest weekly gathering of go players in North America and that your first ten visits are free, including lessons. Its schedule links out to a Meetup group and to the South Sound Go Club's Discord, and its meet-ups page invites players to join the Center's own Discord server.
- Washington Ringing Society links no Facebook, Meetup or Discord page from its homepage. Its site describes an entry-level class run once or twice a year, after which new ringers join the weekly practices, and lists a Tuesday practice from 7:00 to 8:30pm. Here the way in is a search for the activity, such as our bell ringing page, not an app.
Choose Meetup if, or choose something else if
- Choose Meetup if you live in a large city, want to sample several interests quickly and like to RSVP. The free plan is enough to join groups and events.
- Choose Facebook Groups if the club you want already posts there, which is common: 38 of the 59 hobby club websites we checked link to Facebook.
- Choose Eventbrite if you want a single class, talk or social on a set date.
- Choose Nextdoor if you want something within walking distance of home.
- Choose Bumble For Friends if you would rather meet one person at a time.
- Choose Discord if your hobby talks online every day and the club gives you an invite link.
- Choose a national club finder if you already know the activity, as with parkrun or GoodGym's area pages for run-and-help groups.
- Choose BelongHub if you know the kind of belonging you want but not yet the activity, or you want a long-running group with a place and a tradition. Then use the group's own page for the next date.
Start with a search for your activity or your city on BelongHub's find page, then open the group's own website for its next date. If two groups look equally good, our guide to comparing two groups helps you choose between them.
Common questions
Meetup is free for members: the free plan lets you join groups and RSVP. Its Starter plan, free for first-time organisers only, allows one group, two events a month and ten people per event. Facebook Groups and Discord need only an account, free Eventbrite events carry no fees, parkrun is free once you register, and BelongHub needs no account.
Many clubs publish somewhere else. Of 59 hobby club websites from our catalog checked on 17 October 2026, 7 linked to a Meetup group and 38 to Facebook, while 13 linked to none of the platforms we counted. Search for the activity plus your town, check the national body's club finder, and open the club's own website.
A group that meets at the same time every week, because you see the same people again until they know you. Any app or directory can help you find one; what matters is going back. Our catalog lists 1,386 community groups by activity and city, each linked to its own website or another source.
No. BelongHub is a catalog of groups, not an events calendar, and it has no sign-ups or messages. Each entry links to a source page for the group; meeting times live on the group's own website. Our entries do not confirm that a group is active or taking members today, so check its own page before you go.