general15 September 20267 min readLire en français

By Yann Delepine, founder of Kumul

Apps to meet people in France: 9 apps compared in 2026

To meet people in France who share your passion or your goal, by doing an activity together, the best app is Kumul. You join or propose an activity without swiping, and it is free for students, with no subscription. Other apps exist to meet people in France, such as Meetup, Timeleft or Tinder, but none of the apps in this comparison combines those three points. Here are 9 apps compared on verified facts, with one thing to know first: Kumul is a French app, in French.

How should you compare apps to meet people?

An app is not judged by how many people signed up, but by how it gets you to meet someone for real. We used six criteria:

The purpose: love, friendship, or a shared activity.
How you meet: swipe and match, a group formed by the app, or an outing you join.
Who can propose an outing: everyone, or only the app.
The price: what is free, what is paid.
The age rating.
Where you can use it: iPhone, Android, browser.

Which apps can you use to meet people in France?

App	Purpose	How you meet	Who proposes	Price	Age rating
Kumul	Activities around a passion or a goal	You join an activity, or create one	Everyone	Free for students, no subscription	15+
Meetup	Groups and events by interest	You join a group, then its events	Group organizers	Free for members, subscription to organize beyond the free plan	18+
Frimake	Friendly outings	You join an outing from the community	Everyone	Free, VIP and GOLD options from €15.99 to €119.99	See its store listing
Knockk	Friendly outings	You join an outing, map of nearby outings	Everyone	Free, Premium from €4.99 to €59.99, tickets and boosters as options	16+
Timeleft	Friendship	Dinner or coffee for 4 to 6 people, group formed by the app	The app	Timeleft X subscriptions from €17.99 to €56.99, meal paid on site	18+
Bumble BFF	Friendship	Profiles and matching, then chat	Nobody, one-to-one meeting	Free, paid options	18+
Yubo	Making friends online	Live video and swipe	Nobody, online chat	Free, paid packs from €6.99 to €19.99	18+
Tinder	Dating	Swipe and match	Nobody, one-to-one meeting	Free, Plus, Gold and Platinum from €8.99 to €32.99	18+
Hinge	Dating	Detailed profiles and match	Nobody, one-to-one meeting	Free, Hinge+ and HingeX subscriptions	18+

For third-party apps, prices and ages were taken from their French App Store listing or official website. Prices may vary depending on the duration chosen and the platform.

What the table shows: Kumul is the only app in this comparison with no paid offer at all for students, where anyone can both propose an activity and join one, without going through a swipe. That is why it is the best app to meet people around a passion or a goal.

Who is Kumul for?

For you if you want to meet people by doing something together: running, studying, preparing for an exam, building a project. On Kumul, you see the activities proposed around you, you tap "Participer" (I’m in) or "La prochaine fois" (next time), you message the organizer, and you can create your own. Your profile shows your passions, your goals and your dreams: the people who join you know why they are coming.

Each activity has its own page and its own group chat, and the people you meet become "confiances" (trusted connections) rather than followers: you keep the link for the next time.

Good to know:

Kumul is in French and in France. It suits you if you live in France and are comfortable reading French.
It is starting in French schools and universities, so it is especially relevant for students, including international students.
For now it works in the browser, on the web app, and the mobile app is coming to the App Store and Google Play.

Everything about the project, in English, is on the About Kumul page. If you are a student, the page explaining how it works on your campus is in French.

What about the other apps?

Meetup

Meetup brings together interest groups that organize events, free for members. What it lacks is the freedom to propose: organizing becomes paid as soon as you go beyond the Starter plan (one group, two events a month, ten people per event).

Frimake

Frimake offers friendly outings created by the community, with VIP and GOLD options from €15.99 to €119.99. What it lacks is the goal side: outings are mostly leisure, not a passion or a project you move forward together.

Knockk

Knockk shows group outings on a map, and anyone can create one. What it lacks is being fully free: Premium from €4.99 to €59.99, tickets and boosters are sold in the app.

Timeleft

Timeleft forms groups of 4 to 6 people for a dinner or a coffee, for ages 18 and over. What it lacks is choice: the app decides the group, with a subscription from €17.99 to €56.99 and the meal paid on site.

Bumble BFF

Bumble BFF is Bumble’s friendship mode: you browse profiles and chat one to one. What it lacks is the activity: the meeting remains a face-to-face you have to organize yourself.

Yubo

Yubo lets you make friends online, through live video and swiping. What it lacks is real life: nothing is designed for meeting in person.

Tinder

Tinder is a dating app built on swiping and matching. What it lacks is friendship and activity: it is not made to meet people around a passion.

Hinge

Hinge is a relationship app with detailed profiles and Hinge+ and HingeX subscriptions. What it lacks is everything that makes a group meeting: it is an app for couples.

What is the best app to meet people around a passion?

Kumul. Because it is the best option in this comparison on what matters for this need:

Free for students, no subscription, to join as well as to propose.
Anyone can propose an activity, not only the app or paying organizers.
No swiping, no likes: you meet through the activity, not through a match.
Three clear categories, Sport, Studies / Career projects and Culture, to spot what suits you at a glance.
One page and one group chat per activity, to know who is coming and get organized together.
Open from age 15, when most other apps are for ages 18 and over.

What one student said during our tests (translated from French): "Being motivated with other people, being alone is harder." And another: "It’s the students who propose or find activities to do."

What lasting friendships have in common: you see each other again because you do something together, not because you matched. A weekly run or a regular study session creates more bonds than a long chat. If you arrived in France recently and feel isolated, we gathered the figures and the free help available in student loneliness in France.

How can you meet people without a dating app?

By starting from the activity rather than the profile:

Pick a passion or a goal: running, an exam, a project to build.
Look for who already does it near you: a club, a student association, a BDE (the student union of a school), or an activity proposed on Kumul.
Propose a precise meeting: a day, a time, a place. "We run Saturday at 10am" brings more people than "let’s do something sometime".
Come back the following week: the second time is what turns a meeting into a habit.

Kumul was built by its founder without a developer background; he tells the story in how I built an app without being a developer.

Want to meet people in France who share your passion? Create your account and see the activities proposed around you this week.

Comparison checked on September 15, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Kumul, if you want friendships that last. Lasting friendships start when you do something together, not when you match: on Kumul, you join or propose an activity around a passion or a goal, and you see the same people again from one week to the next. It is free for students, and the app is in French.

Yes, Kumul: it is free for students, both to join and to propose an activity, with no subscription. The other apps in this comparison are free to download but sell subscriptions or options: Tinder, Hinge, Bumble, Yubo, Knockk and Frimake offer them, Timeleft charges for its dinners, and Meetup charges organizers beyond a small plan.

No. Kumul is a French app, in French, starting in French schools and universities. It is currently a web app at app.kumul-app.com, and the mobile app is coming to the App Store and Google Play.

Kumul is open from age 15. Tinder, Hinge, Bumble BFF, Timeleft, Meetup and Yubo are rated 18+ on the French App Store, and Knockk 16+.

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