ToGather vs Meetup: stop paying just to exist
Meetup wants $16–$47/month before your first member RSVPs. ToGather doesn't. Here's what else changes when you switch.
Meetup raised organizer prices in June 2024 — the first increase since 2019. Then in October 2024 they relaunched Meetup+ and put DMs behind a paywall. The community-platform internet did not take it well.
If you're an organizer paying Meetup $16–$47/month just to keep your group alive, this post is for you.
The mandatory-subscription problem
Meetup's pricing isn't transactional. Whether your group runs one event a month or one event a year, the bill is the same. Organizers running quiet groups subsidize ones running busy ones. New organizers test the platform for ~$20 before they've sold a single ticket.
ToGather's baseline is free. You create your community, you host events, you collect RSVPs. The platform takes a single-digit percentage when paid events transact through it — and zero otherwise. No monthly fee. No tier you have to pick on day one.
Your attendees, your contact list
| Meetup | ToGather | |
|---|---|---|
| Organizer fee | $16–$47/mo mandatory | $0 baseline |
| Attendee email access | Gated (workarounds required) | Full |
| Direct messaging | Member-paid ($9.99/mo Meetup+) | Roadmap, event-scoped |
| Waitlist on paid events | – | Roadmap |
| API access | Pro tier only | Public API on roadmap |
| Languages | EN / ES / FR | EN / TR / DE / FR / ES / IT |
| Sponsor monetization | – | Sponsor entity + tiers |
The attendee-email row is the one that bites organizers hardest. On Meetup, you can't reliably email your own audience without custom registration questions and manual workarounds. On ToGather, the organizer panel surfaces your attendee list and your channel members directly. They came for your event, you can talk to them.
Built in public, shipped in public
When Meetup explained the 2024 price increase, they were unusually candid: the platform is being rebuilt because the old foundations couldn't carry it forward. That's a fair explanation. It's also a signal about which platform you want to bet the next five years of your community on.
ToGather is built and shipped in public. The changelog lists every meaningful release. The roadmap shows what's coming. The /now blog explains the thinking behind product decisions. When we change something, we say so.
The DM problem, our take
Meetup paywalling DMs is the change that bothered organizers most, and we think they're right. Forcing members to subscribe ($9.99/mo) to message anyone is a tax on the thing that makes a community a community.
But platform-wide DMs also bring spam, scam, and moderation work. Our plan: event-scoped DMs. If you both attended the same event, you can message for a window after. No platform-wide inbox to police. We think it's the version of DM that actually serves communities.
What Meetup still wins
The discovery network. Joining Meetup means inheriting an audience that's been searching for groups for two decades. ToGather doesn't have that yet.
If your community already has its own audience — a Slack, a WhatsApp, a mailing list, a Discord — you don't need Meetup's discovery. You need a home for your events, your tickets, and your members that doesn't bill you monthly. That's the trade we're making.