Cloomba vs Meetup
Meetup invented the model of recurring local groups around shared interests. Two decades on, the price has gone up, the UI has aged, and a lot of organisers are looking around. Cloomba is one of the alternatives — built for the same use case (recurring community events) without the monthly group fee.
What both do well
- Recurring local groups / channels that build a following
- Public event pages with RSVPs
- Member discovery within the group
- Free for attendees to join
When Cloomba is the better fit
You don't want a monthly group subscription. Meetup charges organisers a recurring fee per group (the price has crept up over the years, and varies by region). Cloomba calendars — the equivalent of a Meetup group — are free. So are your events, as long as they're free to attend.
You want to sell paid tickets cleanly. Cloomba has full Stripe Connect support with EU SEPA + VAT, plus an off-platform payment mode. Meetup's paid-event support exists but feels grafted on; checkout flows route through different vendors and the organiser fee dynamics keep changing.
You want a modern UI on the web. Cloomba is built mobile-first on the web (and installable as a PWA). Meetup's web product looks and feels like a 2010s product, and the mobile apps have a reputation for pushing engagement notifications more than serving organisers.
You want richer event pages. Cloomba ships with a media wall, comments and reactions, organiser updates, waitlists, and guest approval. Meetup's per-event page is more bare.
You want a CSV export of your attendees. Cloomba's export is one click. Meetup has restricted member data export over the years for privacy reasons; what you can get out varies.
You're an EU organiser. Cloomba's servers are in Amsterdam. Meetup is US-hosted (currently owned by Bending Spoons, an Italian company, but the infrastructure remains US-based).
When Meetup is the better fit
- You're starting a group from zero and want immediate discovery. Meetup has a large existing audience that browses by topic and city — installing the app and joining a group is a well-established habit, especially in the US and UK.
- You're in a city where Meetup already has hundreds of active groups and your target audience is reflexively checking Meetup for things to do.
- You don't mind the subscription fee and you already have your group set up there.
Pricing snapshot (May 2026)
| Cloomba | Meetup | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting your group / calendar | Free | Monthly subscription per group (rate varies by region, typically tens of USD/EUR per month) |
| Free events | Free | Included with group subscription |
| Paid events | 5% + standard payment processing | Group subscription + payment processing |
| Member limits | None | Tiered by subscription |
| Hosting | EU (Amsterdam) | US |
Meetup's exact pricing depends on your country and tier — check their current pricing page.
Honest bottom line
If you're a community organiser tired of paying a monthly fee for a group page and a dated UI — and you don't depend on Meetup's existing audience for discovery — Cloomba gives you the same recurring-group model for free, on a faster, EU-hosted platform. If you depend on Meetup's discovery to fill events in a city where that habit is entrenched, switching costs a real audience and may not be worth it today.