For hosts
Run your community, not your group chat.
RSVPs, waitlists, check-in, invites and a page to share, all in one place, so your time goes to the people, not the planning.
What Counts as a Community
- Regular: daily to monthly
- Any size: a crew of 3 to 100+
- In person: face to face
- Any host: first-timers welcome
- Any kind: coffee to pickleball
If people keep showing up, it's a community.
- Supper club
- Book club
- Game night
- Run club
- Craft circle
- Language exchange
- Parent group
- Dog walk
- Coffee meetup
Why Porchside
One app, not five.
Built for regulars, not one-off events.
Your community, unified.
Info, chat, polls, activities and members, all in one place. Automatic reminders are sent to attendees 24 hours in advance and 2 hours before the activity.
Know you have the numbers.
Set a cap, and on free events a waitlist fills open seats if someone drops. Set a minimum, and if it's not met, the event cancels itself. Refunds are handled automatically (for paid activities).
First-timers become regulars.
Duplicate past events or post recurring events, so planning the next one is a no-brainer. Members can connect on the app, so the second time around feels more familiar.
Let your people find you.
A public page, a spot in Porchside's community directory, and Newcomer Night are where new people hear about communities like yours.
Also included: tickets, admins, co-hosts on free events, and a tournament feature for sports communities that want to add a little competitive edge to their pickup games.
Fees
Host for free. Sell tickets for less.
Running your community costs nothing. When you charge for an event, the only fee you pay is card processing.
If you sell tickets
You cover the payment processing fee, 2.9% of the ticket price, and that's it. Your guests are charged a service fee, or you can incorporate it into your ticket price, so the price they see is the final price they pay.
| Your guest pays | You receive | |
|---|---|---|
| $10 ticket + fees | $11.48 | $9.71 |
| $12 ticket, fees included | $12.00 | $10.01 |
Choose either one on any event, so you never have to commit to one for everything. A $10 ticket stands out in a list of events; a round price with fees included means no surprises at checkout. The service fee is 7.9% + $0.69, shown before they buy.
Payouts and refunds
- Payouts go to the Stripe account you connect in the app, a day after the event ends. Stripe then deposits them on its usual schedule.
- Guests who cancel more than 24 hours before the start get the ticket price back automatically (the service fee isn't refunded unless you included it in your price). Within 24 hours, the seat is theirs and the money is yours.
- If you cancel, every guest gets a full refund, and the card-processing cost of those refunds is charged to you.
- If your minimum headcount isn't met, the event cancels itself and everyone is refunded, and the card-processing cost of those refunds is charged to you, the same as if you had cancelled.
Questions
FAQs from Hosts
How do I migrate my community?
Public communities can share their public page. Every community has its own invite link to share wherever your members already are: a group chat, a newsletter, your socials or a text. In person, people can scan your community's QR code in the app to join.
Does everyone need to download the app?
No. Members can join on the web, no download needed, though we always suggest the app for the full experience. Push notifications (like activity reminders), tournaments and real-time chat are mobile-only for now. On the web you still get notifications and your community's message board, but new messages show up when you refresh.
Who can join?
Porchside is for adults 18 and over, and it is not a dating app. We take safety seriously: phone and selfie verification, sharing your plans with a trusted contact, reporting and blocking, and a limit on friend requests to people you haven't met yet. That cuts down on bot-like behavior and discourages adding people before you've met them.
Your community can also be public or private, women-only or men-only, and limited to certain age ranges, so you can build the community you're looking for. Read the Community Guidelines and the Host Agreement.
I have a co-host. How do I add them?
Make any member an admin: in the app, tap the three dots on their card in your community's Members tab, or on the web, use the Members and roles section. To add co-hosts to a specific free activity, or hand it over to someone else, use Manage Hosts on the activity page in the app. Co-hosts on ticketed activities are on the way.
Can I track no-shows and welcome walk-ups?
Check-in opens 30 minutes before the start. Guests can check themselves in, or you can check them in by having them scan your check-in QR code or by marking them on the roster. Walk-ups can scan the same QR code to join and check in on the spot (on free activities with open spots; on paid ones they buy a ticket first). Your host dashboard shows how many RSVPs actually showed up, by event and by member.