Closer vs DayOfUs

Pricing

Closer is priced at $$ ($20/month after 3-month free trial, plus $35 initiation fee), while DayOfUs comes in at $ ($12.99/single dinner or $15.99/month unlimited + cost of your meal).

Format & matching

Closer uses groups of Intentionally small groups, compared to DayOfUs’s 4-6 per table, and Closer relies on manual / self-select matching while DayOfUs uses algorithm-based matching.

How they work

Closer: Head to becloser.co and create an account with your name, email, and phone number. Your first three months of membership are free — after that it's $20/month. Browse upcoming experiences in your city: dinners, drinks nights, live jazz, yoga and wine, home-cooked meals, or weekend getaways. Reserve a spot and show up solo. A facilitator guides the evening with conversation prompts designed for small groups, so you skip the surface-level small talk and get to real conversations fast. There's a $35 initiation fee at your first event.

DayOfUs: Download the app and take a personality quiz that covers your interests, conversation style, and what you're looking for in a dinner companion. Pick your city and a date that works. DayOfUs's algorithm assembles a table of four to six people with complementary personalities and handles the restaurant reservation. On the day of your dinner, you'll get the venue details. Show up, sit down, and meet your group. The app also includes icebreaker prompts if the table needs a nudge.

What to love

Closer: No app download required — just sign up on the website. Three free months of membership to try it risk-free. Variety of experience types beyond just dinners — yoga, jazz, trips, home meals. Facilitated format means you skip awkward small talk and get to real conversation. Everyone comes solo, so there's no feeling of being the odd one out.

DayOfUs: Available in 13+ cities across four continents — significantly wider reach than most dinner-matching apps. Personality-based matching creates genuinely compatible tables. The app handles the entire reservation so there's zero logistics on your end. Affordable entry point at ~$13 per dinner. Smaller group sizes (4-6) keep conversations intimate.

Reality check

Closer: Currently limited to 8 cities — mostly US, plus London, Toronto, Montreal, Sydney, Melbourne. $35 initiation fee at your first event on top of the monthly membership. No matching algorithm — who you meet is based on who else signed up for that event. Late cancellation ($10) and no-show ($20) fees can sting if plans change last minute.

DayOfUs: Still relatively new — no public ratings yet on the App Store. iOS only, no Android app. No structured post-dinner community or follow-up features. Restaurant selection may be limited in newer cities.

Søren's take

On Closer: Closer sits in a sweet spot between a dinner club and a full-blown social platform. The facilitated format is the real differentiator — most social clubs just put people in a room and hope for the best, but Closer's prompts and small-group structure actually create the conditions for meaningful conversation. The three-month free trial is generous, and the event variety (not just dinners!) keeps things fresh. If you're in one of their cities and tired of forced networking energy, this is worth a try. Just be aware of the initiation fee — it's not huge, but it's an extra cost they don't highlight upfront.

On DayOfUs: DayOfUs is essentially Timeleft's younger sibling with a wider passport. The core mechanic is identical — personality quiz, algorithm-matched dinner group, restaurant booked for you — but it's already live in cities across Asia, Australia, and Europe that Timeleft hasn't fully penetrated. The lack of ratings suggests it's early days, which means smaller user pools in some cities. But the price is right, the model is proven, and if it's available where you live, it's worth a shot.