DayOfUs vs Heylo

Pricing

DayOfUs is priced at $ ($12.99/single dinner or $15.99/month unlimited + cost of your meal), while Heylo comes in at Free (Free to use; Heylo takes a small percentage when groups collect payments).

Format & matching

DayOfUs uses groups of 4-6 per table, compared to Heylo’s Varies, and DayOfUs relies on algorithm-based matching while Heylo 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.

Heylo: A group leader creates a branded group page on Heylo with their logo, colors, and a custom URL. They post events with all the details — location, time, registration caps, guest policies — and members get notified by push notification and email. Members RSVP, pay if there's a fee, and join event-specific group chats to coordinate. The leader can collect recurring membership dues, require waivers, screen new members before letting them in, and track attendance over time. Members manage everything from the app or web — no separate payment apps, no email threads, no spreadsheets.

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.

Heylo: Replaces GroupMe, Venmo, Google Forms, and email chains with a single platform. Completely free to use with no paywall or usage limits — Heylo only takes a cut of payments. Branded group pages with custom URLs look professional and are easy to share. Built-in payment collection, waivers, and member screening solve real operational headaches. Works on iOS, Android, and web so nobody is left out.

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.

Heylo: Not a friend-matching app — you need to already know about a group or start your own. Discovery of groups is limited; there's no curated marketplace of communities to browse. The platform's value scales with group size — solo users won't get much from it. Heylo's transaction fee on payments may not work for groups with tight budgets.

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 Heylo: Heylo isn't a friendship app in the traditional sense — it's the infrastructure that makes community groups actually work. If you're running a running club and juggling Venmo requests, GroupMe threads, and Google Form RSVPs, Heylo consolidates all of that into one clean platform. The fact that it's free (they only take a cut when money changes hands) is a huge deal for volunteer-run groups. The limitation is discovery: Heylo doesn't help you find a group, it helps groups run better. If you're a group leader, this is a no-brainer. If you're looking for friends, you'll need to find the group first — but once you do, Heylo makes the experience seamless.