DayOfUs vs First Round's On Me (FROM)

Pricing

DayOfUs is priced at $ ($12.99/single dinner or $15.99/month unlimited + cost of your meal), while First Round's On Me (FROM) comes in at Free (Free classic membership; premium Social Club membership with 50 credits/month, daily coffee, and clubhouse access).

Format & matching

DayOfUs uses groups of 4-6 per table, compared to First Round's On Me (FROM)’s 1:1 and groups, and DayOfUs relies on algorithm-based matching while First Round's On Me (FROM) uses manual / self-select matching.

How they work

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.

First Round's On Me (FROM): Apply to join — FROM is referral and waitlist only, so you'll either need an invite or wait for approval. Once you're in, add the friends you want to see more of, or discover new connections nearby. Sync your calendar so the app can see when you and your people are free. When the stars align, pick a drink, a time, and a place from FROM's curated list of NYC bars, restaurants, and cafés. Send the invite and show up. Every time you follow through on a plan, you earn drink credits that you can redeem at partner venues with a two-drink minimum. The premium tier gets you a physical Social Club in Chelsea, daily coffee, and guest passes.

What to love

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.

First Round's On Me (FROM): The drink-credit reward system creates a genuine incentive to follow through on plans. Curated venue list means you're always going somewhere good, not just wherever's closest. Calendar sync removes the 'when are you free?' back-and-forth that kills plans. Approval-only membership keeps the community intentional and high-quality. A physical Social Club in Chelsea bridges the gap between app and real life.

Reality check

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.

First Round's On Me (FROM): NYC only — completely useless outside New York. The waitlist and approval process creates real friction to get started. Two-drink minimum at partner venues means you're spending money to redeem 'free' credits. Premium membership pricing isn't transparent upfront.

Søren's take

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.

On First Round's On Me (FROM): FROM is built on a simple insight: the problem with socializing isn't finding people — it's actually making the plan and showing up. The drink-credit mechanic is clever because it gamifies the part everyone struggles with. The curated venue list and calendar sync remove the two biggest plan-killers (where do we go? when are you free?). The physical Social Club in Chelsea is a bold move that shows they're serious about the offline piece. The catch is that it's NYC-only and approval-gated, so if you're not in New York or don't have a referral, you're waiting. But if you are in the city and your social life has devolved into a graveyard of unanswered group chats, FROM might be the thing that gets you off the couch.