What is the difference between First Round's On Me (FROM) and Sweatpals?

First Round's On Me (FROM) is a friendship app that uses manual / self-select matching with groups of 1:1 and groups, priced at Free (Free classic membership; premium Social Club membership with 50 credits/month, daily coffee, and clubhouse access), available in 1 city. Sweatpals is a friendship app using interest-based matching with groups of Varies, priced at Free (Free to join and discover; hosts set their own ticket prices), available in 4 cities. Key differences include their matching approach, pricing model, and city coverage. First Round's On Me (FROM)'s strengths: The drink-credit reward system creates a genuine incentive to follow through on plans. Sweatpals's strengths: Two-sided marketplace — great for both discovering events and hosting them.

Which is better, First Round's On Me (FROM) or Sweatpals?

It depends on what you're looking for. Choose First Round's On Me (FROM) if you prefer manual / self-select matching, 1:1 and groups groups, and on-demand events — An approval-only app that rewards showing up.. Choose Sweatpals if you prefer interest-based matching, Varies groups, and on-demand events — Fitness events, classes, and wellness near you.. Both are available as IRL social apps. Compare pricing (First Round's On Me (FROM): Free, Sweatpals: Free) and city availability on Søren to find the best fit for meeting people in real life.

First Round's On Me (FROM)

Sweatpals

First Round's On Me (FROM) vs Sweatpals

First Round's On Me (FROM) and Sweatpals are both friendship apps that help you meet people in real life, but they take different approaches. Here’s how they stack up across pricing, format, cities, and more.

Side-by-side comparison · Updated 2026

At a glance

First Round's On Me (FROM)Sweatpals

CategoryFriendshipFriendship

PriceFree — Free classic membership; premium Social Club membership with 50 credits/month, daily coffee, and clubhouse accessFree — Free to join and discover; hosts set their own ticket prices

Group Size1:1 and groupsVaries

MatchingManual / Self-selectInterest-based

Frequencyon-demandon-demand

Age Range21+18+

PlatformsiOS, AndroidiOS, Android

Cities1 city4 cities

Founded20202022

Pricing

Both First Round's On Me (FROM) and Sweatpals fall in the Free price range. First Round's On Me (FROM): Free classic membership; premium Social Club membership with 50 credits/month, daily coffee, and clubhouse access. Sweatpals: Free to join and discover; hosts set their own ticket prices.

Format & matching

First Round's On Me (FROM) uses groups of 1:1 and groups, compared to Sweatpals’s Varies, and First Round's On Me (FROM) relies on manual / self-select matching while Sweatpals uses interest-based matching.

How they work

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.

Sweatpals: Download the app, set your location, and browse a feed of fitness and wellness experiences happening near you — everything from sunrise yoga to weekend hikes to pickleball meetups. Join a community built around your favorite activity and chat with other members. When an event catches your eye, book a ticket directly in the app. If you're a host, you can create events, manage memberships, collect payments and waivers, and even send SMS blasts to your community — all from one dashboard. The discovery feed also surfaces experiences you wouldn't have found on your own, which is where the magic happens.

What to love

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.

Sweatpals: Two-sided marketplace — great for both discovering events and hosting them. Built-in ticketing, payments, waivers, and SMS marketing for hosts is genuinely useful. Strong presence in Austin and Bay Area with 25K+ local users. Community chat and social feed create ongoing connection beyond single events. Free to discover and join — no subscription paywall for attendees.

Reality check

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.

Sweatpals: Concentrated in a few cities — experience outside Austin, SF, and Miami is thinner. App can be buggy — multiple reviews mention glitches with profiles and photos. The 'Pals' matching feature is inconsistent and often shows no results. Host-dependent quality means some experiences are polished and others are bare-bones.

Søren's take

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.

On Sweatpals: Sweatpals is trying to be the Eventbrite of fitness, and in the cities where it has traction — especially Austin and the Bay Area — it works. The dual focus on attendees and hosts is smart: hosts get real tools (ticketing, waivers, SMS), and attendees get a discovery feed that surfaces things they'd never find on Instagram. The app itself is still rough around the edges — reviews mention bugs and the matching feature barely works — but the core experience of finding a local run club or yoga class and just showing up is solid. If you're in one of their active cities and want to meet people through movement, it's worth downloading.