An Honest Review of Peanut (2026)

Nobody warns you about the loneliness of new motherhood. You're home with a newborn, your pre-kid friends are at brunch, and your partner goes back to work after two weeks. I downloaded Peanut at 3 AM during a feeding session because someone in a parenting subreddit said it saved her sanity. Three months later, I have thoughts.

How It Works

Peanut works like a dating app, but for moms. You create a profile, set your stage of motherhood (trying to conceive, pregnant, newborn, toddler, school-age), and swipe through other women nearby. If you both "wave" at each other, a chat opens. There are also group discussions organized by topic, a Q&A section, and community threads where you can ask for advice or vent.

The free version lets you swipe and match. Peanut Plus ($8.99/month or up to $99.99 for a year) unlocks features like seeing who waved at you first and advanced filters.

What I Liked

Stage-based matching is genuinely smart

A mom with a two-week-old and a mom with a kindergartner are living in completely different universes. Peanut understands this. When I was in the newborn stage, I got matched with other women who were also up at 2 AM, also figuring out breastfeeding, also terrified. That shared context made conversations start so much easier than "so, do you have kids?"

The community features are the real value

I actually ended up spending more time in the group discussions than on the swiping side. There's a thread for everything. Sleep training opinions. Pediatrician recommendations by neighborhood. Rants about in-laws. It reads like an honest group chat, not a curated feed. Someone posted about postpartum anxiety at midnight once and had fifteen supportive replies by morning. That kind of community is hard to find.

Five million users means it works everywhere

Unlike a lot of the apps I review, Peanut isn't limited to a handful of cities. It's global with five million users. I matched with women within a mile of my apartment. That matters when you're a new mom and the idea of a 30-minute commute to meet a friend feels impossible.

What I Didn't Like

The swipe mechanic feels weird for friendship

I know why they built it this way. Bumble proved that swiping works for engagement. But swiping through moms' profiles at midnight while rocking a baby feels bizarre. Am I judging whether this woman with spit-up on her shirt looks like friend material? The whole interaction model borrows from dating apps, and it doesn't fully translate to platonic friendship between exhausted parents.

Matches fizzle fast

I matched with probably 25 women over three months. I had real conversations with maybe eight. I met up with three in person. That's a pretty steep funnel. The problem is the same one every swipe-based app has: matching is easy, but actually coordinating a time to meet when you're both managing nap schedules and pediatrician appointments is a different story. The app doesn't help with that part.

The free tier feels limited

You can't see who waved at you without paying. The premium filters are paywalled. For an app serving new mothers who often aren't working, the push toward a paid subscription feels a little tone-deaf. The free version works, but you'll bump into walls.

Who Should Try Peanut

If you're a new mom and you feel isolated, download Peanut right now. Seriously. Even if you never swipe on anyone, the community threads alone are worth it. It's also good for women going through fertility treatments or pregnancy who want to connect with others in the same boat.

It's less useful if you're looking for general adult friendships or co-ed social circles. Peanut is built for one specific audience, and it serves them well.

The Verdict

Peanut fills a real gap. New mothers are one of the most socially isolated groups in any city, and most friendship apps weren't built with them in mind. The stage-based matching, community threads, and massive user base make it the best option for moms looking to build a support network. The swiping interface isn't perfect for friendship, and the conversion from match to actual meetup is low. But the community aspect carries it. My best Peanut experience wasn't a one-on-one coffee date. It was finding a group of four moms in my neighborhood who were all in the same newborn fog, and texting them every day for months.