The free Timeleft alternative — any night, eleven activities

Timeleft vs LMTW, side by side

Timeleft deserves credit: it proved thousands of people will happily sit down to dinner with strangers. We think that instinct is exactly right — we just think it shouldn’t be limited to one night, one format, and a fee every time you go.

Here’s how the two actually compare, based on Timeleft’s public how-it-works and pricing pages as of August 2026:

Why people go looking for a Timeleft alternative

Talk to people who’ve tried dinner-with-strangers apps and the same three grumbles come up. First, the cost: a booking fee of roughly $20–35 per dinner — before you’ve ordered a drink — adds up fast if you want a social life rather than a one-off experiment. (We break the numbers down on our Timeleft price page.)

Second, the night. If Wednesday doesn’t suit — shift work, kids, sport, life — the whole product doesn’t suit. And third, the ending: you can have a brilliant night with five people you genuinely clicked with, and then… nothing. No way to say “that was great, let’s do it again” without exchanging numbers over dessert like it’s 2004.

LMTW was built around those three grumbles. Founding members pay nothing. Get-togethers run every night of the week. And after the night, our mutual-only follow-ups let you say yes to seeing someone again — your answer stays secret unless they say yes too. No rejection, no awkwardness.

What a week actually looks like on LMTW

Monday might be a $5 coffee catch-up in a laneway café. Wednesday, a dinner party of six at a restaurant members voted for. Saturday morning, a beginner-friendly run club or a bushwalk, followed by the long lunch that’s really the point. Eleven activities means the club flexes around your week, your budget and your energy — introvert-friendly coffee one week, a $120 degustation the next.

You’re matched into a crew of around six by generation, interests and intent — friends first, romance welcome but never required — and a real human reviews every group before the invites go out. Venues come from our directory of 2,600 group-friendly spots across five cities, and members vote on the shortlist.

• Coffee catch-ups from $5 — the lowest-stakes hello in Australia
• Dinner parties of six from $59 — the classic, done properly
• Long lunches from $45 — Saturday afternoons that run long on purpose
• Games nights from $20, gigs from $35, arts outings from $30
• Pickleball & social sport from $18, run clubs from $15, bushwalks from $20

Who it’s for (and who it isn’t)

LMTW is for anyone 18 or over who wants a bigger real-life social circle: new in town, freshly single, coupled-up-but-cocooned, retired and restless. Crews are matched by generation, so a 24-year-old isn’t stuck at a table that feels like a board meeting, and a 64-year-old isn’t the oldest person in the room by thirty years.

It isn’t a dating app — plenty of members are partnered, and nobody is required to be single, looking, or anything else. If you want the full picture of what the night itself feels like, read what actually happens at a dinner with strangers. And if you’re comparing the warmer, over-45s-flavoured options, see LMTW vs NiceToMeet.