# Nomads.com drops membership price to $1

> Pieter Levels said Nomads.com now charges a one-time $1 lifetime signup after 12 years and 43,252 paid members. He wants the lower price to expand the community and expects sponsorships, including longtime sponsor SafetyWing, to play a larger role.

- Publication: Go Big News
- By Go Big News Staff (Staff News)
- Category: Startups
- Published: 2026-09-05T11:46:55.174+00:00
- Canonical: https://www.gobignews.com/startups/nomads-com-drops-membership-price-to-1

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Pieter Levels said in a [post on X](https://x.com/levelsio/status/2096177854270550097) on Sept. 5, 2026, that [Nomads.com](https://nomads.com) is now free except for a $1 signup fee intended to deter spam. He said the site had recorded 43,252 paid members, or about 300 a month over 12 years.

Levels said he changed the price because he had made enough money from the site and charging for access constrained the community’s size. He said a $299 price attracted about 50 new members a month, compared with about 200 at $99 and 400 at $29.

The signup page lists the $1 option as a one-time lifetime membership. It also lists a $19.99 lite membership, billed once.

The change moves Nomads.com toward a larger community supported by more sponsors. Levels said he had previously charged users because he needed the revenue, but can now settle the longer-term business model later. He described the shift as borrowing from a subsidized venture-style model while remaining fully bootstrapped.

Levels said [SafetyWing](https://safetywing.com/) has sponsored Nomads.com for years. The company sells global travel medical insurance for nomads and remote workers. Levels expects adding more members and sponsors to become a bigger part of the model.

The Nomads.com FAQ says the site mostly makes money from membership fees and company advertising. It lists custom sponsorships starting at $20,000 a month.

Nomad List launched in July 2014 and became Nomads.com in 2024 after its 10-year anniversary. The site offers city data, chat, dating and friend matching, and says it holds 191 meetups a year across more than 100 cities. Levels wants it to serve digital nomads, world travelers, sovereign thinkers and network-state type people.

On Sept. 4, Levels said builders should focus on human connection and communities, including Nomads.com, because AGI cannot replace them. A day later, he said communities have a business moat that many of his software apps lack, prompting him to remove limits on the site’s growth.

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## Companies in this story

- Safetywing: https://www.gobignews.com/company/safetywing
- Nomads: https://www.gobignews.com/company/nomads

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## X profiles in this story

- @levelsio: https://www.gobignews.com/profile/levelsio