An Honest Review of Butter (2026)
I tried Butter during a two-week trip to Melbourne, which is currently the only city where it's available. The concept is straightforward: people post plans (dinner, coffee, gym sessions, runs, whatever), other people request to join, and the host picks who they want. It's like Kndrd in spirit but with one key difference: the host has the final say on who shows up.
How It Works
You create a profile, browse plans that other people have posted, or post your own. When you request to join someone's plan, they see your profile and decide whether to accept you. A group chat opens so everyone can coordinate. The app emphasizes alcohol-free plans as a first-class option, which is unusual and welcome.
Everything is free. You just pay for whatever the activity costs.
What I Liked
Host-picks-guests is smart
On most social apps, you have zero control over who you end up with. The algorithm decides, or it's first-come-first-served. Butter flips that. If you're hosting dinner for four, you can look at who's interested and pick the people who seem like a good fit. That agency makes hosting feel less risky and makes the overall group quality higher.
Alcohol-free options are treated normally
I appreciated that sober plans weren't hidden in a sub-menu or treated as an afterthought. Morning runs, coffee meetups, and gym sessions were front and center alongside bar crawls and wine tastings. For a generation that's drinking less, this feels right.
The Melbourne community is active
Despite being a single-city app, the Melbourne user base was lively. On any given day, there were multiple plans to browse. The plans felt authentic: real people suggesting real activities, not corporate-sounding events.
What I Didn't Like
Melbourne only
This is the obvious limitation. If you don't live in Melbourne, Butter doesn't exist for you. The concept would work anywhere, but they're clearly focused on nailing one city before expanding.
Host-picks-guests can feel exclusionary
The flip side of giving hosts control is that some people will get rejected. If you request to join three plans and get declined from all three, that's going to sting. The app doesn't explain why you weren't selected, which can feel worse than an algorithm making the choice.
No matching intelligence
There's no personality quiz, no algorithm, no matching. You browse and self-select. That means you're relying on your own judgment about which plans will have good people, which is fine but less efficient than AI-matched alternatives.
The Verdict
Butter is doing something genuinely different with the host-picks-guests model, and it works. The Melbourne community is proof of concept. The alcohol-free emphasis feels modern and inclusive. If you're in Melbourne, it's an easy recommendation. For everyone else, keep it on your radar. If they expand to your city, the format is strong enough to compete with the bigger names.
