Couchers.orgLike Couchsurfing™, but better
Free forever. Community‑led. Non‑profit. Modern.
Couchers.org is a non-profit and free platform, built by volunteers and responsible to the couch surfing community, instead of investors. Formed after Couchsurfing™ put up its paywall in 2020, our goal is to reclaim couch surfing by creating a complete alternative to Couchsurfing™. For this, we’re including some of the best features from other platforms while tackling their main issues.
We have the plans but we can't do it without you! Help make Couchers.org the new home of couch surfing by joining us, sharing the news, or inviting your friends to join! Whether you're a developer, community leader, designer, blogger or anything else, we'd love to chat to you about joining our team.
We're sure that you, like all of us, have had great experiences that couldn't have happened without Couchsurfing™. But we all know it's got its issues. For the next generation in couch surfing apps, we need to fix those issues.
If there's any problems you've found with Couchsurfing™ or any other platforms, we'd love to hear about it so we can try to fix them.
Issue:
Couchsurfing™ is explicitly for-profit, prioritizing returns for investors over users and communities.
The community has been ignored, too many users have been pushed onto the platform, trust between members has been eroded.
Issue:
Detrimental users threaten users' safety, especially for women. Freeloaders abound.
You can't trust people based on references.
Local communities have been shrinking to just small groups of super-hosts.
Issue:
There are far too many bugs and problems with the Couchsurfing™ platform. It wasn't good enough as a free service, and it's definitely not good enough now that it's paid.
Our plan:
This platform will be run as a non-profit, taking no outside investment. The priorities will be the users and community.
We will build communities into the foundations of the product, and improve trust through a new verification method.
Our plan:
Users will be accountable for how they treat other members, filtering out creeps and freeloaders.
Overhauled references to reflect more accurately on users.
Healthier communities by spreading out hosting opportunities and no message limits.
Our plan:
Our platform is developer-led. We will build this right, make it scalable, and listen to the community to fix bugs. We want to make something to be proud of.
Our growing team is a mix of couch surfing software specialists and community organizers who are committed to building this platform for you. Read more about the team.