Like meetup.com, but without the $12/month fees?

November 17, 2012 1:42 PM

What alternatives are there to meetup.com? I'm looking for the RSVP and calendar functions, but without the $144 annual fees to run a group.

I'm a member of a small but active OpenStreetMap group. We get maybe six regulars to the monthly Mappy Hour, and a couple of visitors. The visitors always find us through Meetup.

We don't make heavy use of Meetup's other features, so the fees are a bit steep for a small group. Are their cheaper alternatives to Meetup that people might still be able to use to find us? I'm aware of BigTent, but am unsure about how well known it is.

posted by scruss to sports, hobbies, & recreation (9 answers total)

Google calendar?
posted by whyareyouatriangle at 2:04 PM on November 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

You could post your events to sites like couchsurfing and internationals/expat groups.
posted by travelwithcats at 2:14 PM on November 17, 2012

Eventbrite for the RSVP and calendar, and a free blog for the rest of the info? Meetup is still the main way people find such events in my city, though.
posted by third word on a random page at 2:27 PM on November 17, 2012

MEETin.
posted by Exchequer at 3:13 PM on November 17, 2012

Facebook events.
posted by b1tr0t at 4:06 PM on November 17, 2012

We're actually porting our group from Meetup over to Facebook for the same reason and it seems to be working for us.
posted by patheral at 8:23 PM on November 17, 2012

I'm not sure if everyone would go with the Facebook option; several members aren't on it.
posted by scruss at 9:37 PM on November 17, 2012

I was also going to suggest Google Calendar. It does invites and tracks RSVPs.
posted by zippy at 11:08 PM on November 17, 2012

I was just alerted to GroupSpaces, which seems to do all I'd want.
posted by scruss at 2:11 PM on March 24