A CouchSurfing breakfast at a park in front of my home in Helsinki in July, 2018 (photo by the author).
While I understand the need for funding in order to run and develop CouchSurfing, I cannot really appreciate the way how the fees were implemented: for most users, access was blocked without a prior warning and paywall established.
Even if I am not happy for the development, personally I have intention to stay in CouchSurfing and continue hosting – at least as far as it stays the biggest and most active of the hospitality exhcange (hospex) communities.
Verified users initially got one year for free but currently they have to pay too. My free period ended already in May, 2021, and since that I have paid the yearly fee. Residents of some unbanked and developing countries (mostly low income countries where residents have a limited access to bank services) can continue to use CouchSurfing for free.
The initial fees were rather modest, 2.39 euros monthly or 14.29 yearly, in the eurozone. However, the prices were raised in 2025 and now they are 5.99 and 22.99 euros, respectively. That means, the monthly fee has more than doubled and also the yearly fee is about 60% higher now.
In any case, it is good to remember that CouchSurfing is not the only hospex community out there, and most of the alternatives are free. The other communities still have much less members compared to the millions of CouchSurfing account holders but a lot of those accounts have been inactive since the fees were implemented (and even before), and probably even more will be after the price raise.
BeWelcome is probably the most popular hospex community after CouchSurfing, and the biggest free one. The basic idea is the same: host people and stay at other people's homes. It is run by a volunteer organisation called BeVolunteer. It doesn't have a proper mobile app but just a "web app" which is basically the website in an app. I cannot see any real use for it as its website works rather well in mobile browsers. Many of those who actively host have found their way there but not as many of those who mostly travel. Hence it is probably a good website to look for hosts but doesn't work as well if you are a host and want to get guests.
My profile in BeWelcome: bewelcome.org/members/lipsanen
TrustRoots is another volunteer-run hospitality network. I have to admit that I am not very familiar with it; I just joined there yesterday. But it looks promising: the website is well-designed and they have a mobile app. You can join in "circles" like hitchhikers, nomads, ecoliving, families, or several others, to find like-minded people. A reference system was recently introduced so now it is possible to leave feedback for hosts and guests. It was originally founded as a hitchhiker community. Also, it seems to be popular with a bit more hippie-minded people than most other hospex communities.
My profile in TrustRoots: trustroots.org/profile/nli
In my opinion, those are the two free hospex communities that work the best. As a host, I still get quite a few requests from them compared to CouchSurfing (if I get 10 from CS, maybe I get one or two from those two combined in the same time). Unfortunately they seem to lack resources to develop their websites, apps and other community features but, on the other hand, there has not been much development on CouchSurfing either in the past few years, despite the fees.
But there are more alternatives so let's check them too.
If you are a cyclist, maybe Warm Showers could be something for you? It is a hospitality network for those travelling by bicycle. However, they recently made the same thing as CouchSurfing: you now have to pay to use it. New users should pay a one time fee of USD 30 to join. The website seems rather well-designed and they have over 150 thousand members. They are also developing a mobile app but they are going to charge a "nominal fee" for its use. "Hosting only" accounts used to be free (and the old ones like mine still are) but as far as I understand, now you have to pay even if you intend only to host.
My profile in Warm Showers: warmshowers.org/user/248171
Couchers is a newcomer in the hospitality exchange scene and still in beta (even if it has existed for several years already). Their idea is to recreate CouchSurfing like it used to be in the past and keep it free. There was some initial enthusiasm and first it seemed to attract users but at the moment it seems rather quiet. Would it have been more useful to join some of the existing communities and develop them instead of trying to create a new one?
My profile in Couchers: couchers.org/user/nli
Host a Sister is a women-only hospex community (women hosting other women) which started as a Facebook group but now also has a website. Welcome To My Garden is for offering travellers opportunity to camp in your garden. I am not a woman nor I have a garden so I am not really familiar with these and hence don't know how active and usable they are.
Hospitality Club used to be the number one network for hospitality exchange before CouchSurfing came to exist and attracted most of its users. The website still exists but hasn't apparently been updated for over a decade (and it was outdated already when it still was active). I am not sure if it is still technically usable; at least I couldn't log in and access my own profile anymore. Hospitality Club was where I started hosting back in 2005 but I think we can rather safely say now that it is already part of hospex history and is not coming back.
One more hospitality network is Servas International which has existed already since 1949. Their motto is: "Peace and understanding through travel and hosting." New members will be interviewed before they can join, and there is a membership fee. It doesn't suit to ad hoc kind of travelling where you go to a city and start looking for hosts but more for a kind of travelling where you plan your trip better beforehand. I am not a Servas member myself so I don't have personal experience of it.
Couchsurfers that I hosted in Helsinki at summer, 2017 (or at least most of them).
Nevertheless, I am not asking anyone to leave CouchSurfing and, to be honest, I don't believe any of the other networks can compete with it anytime soon – at least in the number of users (which is quite important to create a big enough community to find hosts and travellers in different places around the world). Most probably CouchSurfing will stay as the main player in hospitality exchange field for quite some time. Still, it is better not rely too much on just one player: the other communities provide nice encounters with travellers and hosts too.
My profile in CouchSurfing: couchsurfing.com/people/nli
See also: CouchSurfing blog post about the changes
If you have a profile in CouchSurfing but you have not paid, log in and click couchsurfing.com/users/me to see your own profile (but apart from seeing it, there is not much more that you can do without paying). You should also be able to download all your data at couchsurfing.com/preferences/privacy.
There are a lot of options in the hospitality exchange field – too many, I would say. Either hosts and travellers get scattered in several different websites and apps which makes it more difficult to connect with each other, or one has to create, update and check profiles in all (or several) of them which also is a bit of a burden (I say this from my own experience). I hope one of them, like BeWelcome or TrustRoots, grows into a big general hospex community that can compete with CouchSurfing in terms of size and activity, and then maybe some others could stay serving some more niche community.
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