NomadList Alternative? Here's What NomadPoint Does Differently

We'll be direct: NomadList (now nomads.com) is legitimately useful. Pieter Levels built something real, and a lot of nomads have gotten value from it. But a few things have changed, and they've created an opening.

Here's what's happened, what the difference actually is, and which one fits your workflow.

What changed with NomadList

NomadList recently rebranded to nomads.com after acquiring the domain. At the same time, they've doubled down on the paywall. As of 2026, there is no free tier — no trial, no browse-without-paying. You land on the homepage, click anything, and you're immediately redirected to a payment page.

Lifetime access is $200–$300+. Monthly membership starts at around $20. For someone who just wants to check if Bangkok has good internet and a solid nomad community, that's a steep ask before they know if the product is worth it.

This is the biggest acquisition friction in the nomad app space right now. And it's the gap NomadPoint was built to fill — among other things.

What NomadList actually is

NomadList is a city ranking and data tool. It scores thousands of cities on:

• Cost of living
• Internet speed
• Safety
• Weather
• Quality of life
• Nomad community size

That's genuinely useful for the "where should I go?" phase of nomad life. The data is crowdsourced from paying members, which creates some bias toward popular hubs and wealthier nomad demographics — but as a starting-point compass, it works.

What NomadList is not: a social network, a trip planner, a visa tracker, or a way to find who's in your city tonight.

What NomadPoint is

NomadPoint is built for what happens after you've picked the city.

You've decided on Medellín. Now:

• You want to know which friends are already there
• You need to track that your 90-day Colombian stamp is counting down
• There's a coworking spot the community keeps recommending — which one is it?
• A group of nomads is organizing a dinner this Thursday — how do you find it?

NomadList doesn't answer any of these. It's not trying to. It's a research tool.

NomadPoint is the planning half: multi-stay trip timelines, entry requirements for the passport you actually hold, and day counting that understands rolling-window zones — Schengen is 90 days in any 180 across the whole area, not per country. Free to download, with an optional Pro tier.

The actual comparison

Who should use what

Use NomadList when you're in pure research mode — comparing 30 cities before your next move, checking raw data on internet speed and cost of living. It's the best destination-research database available.

Use NomadPoint when you know roughly where you're going and you need to actually plan it, track your visas, find your people, and stay connected to the nomad community in that city.

Many nomads use both. Research your destination on NomadList. Plan and live your trip on NomadPoint. They're complementary tools for different phases of the nomad workflow.

The free tier question

This is worth addressing directly. NomadPoint is free to download, with an optional Pro subscription for the advanced planning and document features. We think working out whether you are allowed to stay somewhere should not sit behind a $200 upfront commitment — especially for people new to the lifestyle, or trying it before going all-in.

NomadList's paywall made sense when it was a bootstrapped experiment. At $5M+ revenue and 29,000+ paying members, it's a sustainable business. But for users who aren't ready to commit, it's a wall that doesn't exist in NomadPoint.

What we built that NomadList explicitly chose not to

NomadList is deliberately a data product rather than a planner — that is a reasonable choice, and it is why the two tools sit side by side rather than replacing each other. Once you have picked the city, nothing in NomadList tells you how long you may stay in it.

That's exactly what we focused on. The friend graph. The live city presence. The events that happen around you. The coworking spots your community trusts. The conversations that turn a city from a place you landed into a place you belong.

NomadList tells you where to go. NomadPoint connects you with who's already there.

If you have been paying for NomadList and mainly use it to decide where to go next, keep doing that — it is good at it. Add NomadPoint for the part it does not cover: building the actual itinerary, and tracking how many days your passport allows in each country. It is free to download.

---

NomadPoint is available free on the App Store and as a web app. No credit card required.