MeetUp.com is a useful site, but it comes at a literal price: MeetUp charges organisers (and maybe attendees in the future) for what is just a simple group page. This is unfair on the organisers, who are forced to either pay it themselves or charge their members.
There are better, fairer alternatives available, and the more we use them the better they become.
Mobilizon
Mobilizon is a federated and libre event organization platform, provided by France’s largest ethical software organisation Framasoft.
- Website:
- Android app:
Gathio
Gathio is a simple, free and open source, federated, privacy-first event hosting platform, for creating ephemeral, hidden events, with self-hosting options.
There are no accounts: upon creating or joining an event, a password is generated which can be used to edit the event, optionally being sent by email. By default, events are automatically deleted 7 days after they end. Gathio federates with other instances and services using ActivityPub.
- Website:
- Source Code
GetTogether
GetTogether is a free open source event management site. Groups are called “teams”, and the site automatically searches for teams and events near you.
It’s still very new and most of the events are currently related to software development, but anyone can set up a team and events for any topic.
- Website: