Plans first. Verified people. Small groups.
There are good ways to meet people. Here’s what’s different about this one — and where the others are a better fit.
At a glance
Plans first
You choose a real plan — place, time, activity — and say yes. The plan is the point, not the profile.
Verified people
Government ID and a live selfie for every member. Not “most people”, not “optional”: everyone.
Small groups
Sized for conversation, matched by age range, with hosts who can approve who joins and make a plan women-only or men-only.
Built for campus
Students add a verified university email for study groups matched by course, society meets and nights out. Plans for students →
How we compare
Based on each company’s own public website and help pages, reviewed in October 2026. Products change, and a blank or “not described” means we couldn’t find it stated — not that it doesn’t exist.
| Good Company | Timeleft | 222 | Bumble BFF | Meetup | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What you do | Join (or host) a specific plan: a hike, a table, a pitch. | Dinners, drinks, coffee, runs and walks with 4–6 other people, on days the app sets. | Personality-matched group meetups. | Friend-finding with profiles, plus group plans of up to 15 and larger groups. | Interest groups and events, since 2002. |
| How people are checked | Government ID plus a live selfie, every member, before they can post or join. | Real names and photos; the check isn’t described in the pages we reviewed. | “Vetting” described; method not specified in the pages we reviewed. | Selfie-pose photo verification reviewed by moderators — not a government-ID check. | Not stated in the pages we reviewed. |
| Typical group | Small, set by the host. | 4–6 at a table. | Small matched groups. | Plans of up to 15; groups of any size. | Varies by group. |
| Meet the same group again | Yes: Same time next week (the same 4–6 people for four weeks) and Clubs (groups that keep meeting). | You can invite people you’ve met to your next event; the table is new each week. | Not described. | Groups you create or join can meet again. | Yes: groups meet regularly. |
| You choose the activity | Yes — any plan you can describe. | No — the app sets the format. | No — matched by the app. | Partly. | Yes, within each group. |
| Safety check-in with a trusted contact | Yes, built in. | Not described. | Not described. | Not described. | Not described. |
| Live location for family and friends | Yes: up to three trusted contacts, in the app, while you’re out. | Not described. | Not described. | Not described. | Not described. |
| Keeping in touch afterwards | Add people as friends after a plan; hear when they post one. | Not described. | Not described. | Yes: it’s built around one-to-one connections. | Through the groups you join. |
| Cost | Free for members: no subscriptions or paywalls. Chat and every safety feature always free. Funded by sponsors and partners. | Paid subscription (about US$19.99/month in the US when we checked). | Paid. | Not stated. | Varies by group. |
Spotted something out of date? Tell us at hello@goodcompanyapp.uk and we’ll correct it. Names belong to their owners; we’re not affiliated with any of them.
Where the others are the better choice
- You want a fixed weekly ritual without organising anything: a set-format dinner service does that well.
- You want an existing community around one hobby: Meetup has twenty years of groups.
- You need somewhere live today: we’re opening first in Manchester, Birmingham and London, so elsewhere there may be no one near you yet.
Why the combination matters
Plenty of apps do one of these things. The difference is doing all three at once: a specific plan you can judge on its merits, a group where everybody has proved who they are, and a size where you can actually talk. Safety tools — a check-in that alerts someone you trust, ratings that only show an average, one-tap block and report — are built around that, not bolted on.
What we don’t claim. Verification confirms someone is a real adult who is who they say they are. It isn’t a background check and can’t guarantee anyone’s behaviour. See how safety works in practice.