[hugocast]

I've been hosting meetups online and in person since 2014 and launched a new one that meets monthly in the Southeast US in 2021. It's grown from 5 people to 45. We usually get 20-25 people per meetup nowadays. In person.

I suggest you check out Eventbrite. Events with up to 25 tickets are free to publish. If you want to offer more tickets for an event, you can pay a one-time fee or sign up for the monthly subscription.

If you are just testing the waters for your meetup you could run it for free with less than 25 tickets and see if there is interest without putting any money down.

You would still need to promote the event where people you are targeting hang out. Social media, forums, town subreddits, etc

[jimberlage]

Thanks! Yup, that sounds like what I need. The additional marketing to get people in the door would still be a thing with meetup too, but if Eventbrite will let me have a link to a meeting without signing up for a subscription, that would be a huge help!

If any meetup people are looking at this - what Eventbrite offers is what I want from you! I would even pay for it on a one time basis, given that I know there are or were a lot of tech people who used to watch meetup for new events.