An Honest Review of RealRoots (2026)

Every friendship app I've used has the same problem: you meet someone once, exchange numbers, and then never follow up. RealRoots was built to fix that. Instead of a single coffee date, they match you into a small group of women and commit you to six weeks of guided hangouts with the same people. A trained facilitator runs each session. The idea is that real friendships need time and repetition, not just a good first impression.

I finished a full six-week cycle. Here's the honest version.

How It Works

You download the app, take a five-minute personality assessment with an AI coach named Lisa, and get matched into a group. The group meets once a week for six weeks. Each hangout is led by a trained RealRoots guide who plans the activity and keeps things moving. After the six weeks, you join the "graduate community" with access to ongoing events and the people you've met.

The pricing isn't listed publicly. You have to sign up to see what it costs in your city.

What I Liked

Six weeks changes everything

This is the big insight, and it's real. By week three, I stopped being nervous before meetups. By week five, we had inside jokes. By week six, we made plans to keep meeting without the app. No other friendship app has gotten me there. A single dinner with strangers can be fun, but it rarely turns into a real friendship. Six weeks of seeing the same faces does.

The facilitators are the secret weapon

Having someone run the hangouts removes so much friction. The guide picks the activity, sets the tone, makes sure nobody is left out of the conversation. When one person in our group was quiet during week two, the guide gently pulled her in. That small intervention made a huge difference. Without it, she might have drifted away.

The graduate community has legs

After your six weeks end, you're not just dumped back into the wild. The graduate community hosts events and connects you with people from other groups. It's like an alumni network for friendship. Two of us from my group went to a graduate brunch and met women from three other completed groups.

What I Didn't Like

The commitment is real

Six weeks of weekly meetups is a lot. Life gets in the way. I missed one session due to travel and felt like I'd lost a step with the group. If you're someone who can't reliably commit to the same evening every week for a month and a half, RealRoots will be frustrating.

Women only

This is by design, and I understand why. But it means half the population can't use it. If you're a man, or if you want co-ed social experiences, RealRoots isn't an option.

The pricing opacity is annoying

I don't love that you have to sign up before seeing what it costs. For a product that asks for a multi-week commitment, being upfront about the price feels important. I eventually found out it was reasonable for what you get, but the lack of transparency left a bad first impression.

Limited cities

New York, LA, London, Toronto, and Melbourne. If you're not in one of those five, you're out of luck.

The Verdict

RealRoots is the most effective friendship app I've used, and it's not close. The six-week format with facilitators creates the conditions for real friendships to form, not just pleasant one-time encounters. Two of the women from my group are now people I text regularly and see monthly. That's a better outcome than any single-meetup app has ever produced for me. The trade-off is the commitment and the limited availability. If you're a woman in a supported city and you're willing to show up every week for six weeks, I'd pick this over any other friendship app.