RentAFriend invented this category and still owns the search results for it. If you have looked into getting paid for your company at all, it is the name you found first.
It is not the only option, and it is the only one on this list that asks you for money before anyone has booked you. Here is the honest version of what else exists.
First, why people go looking
Three complaints turn up again and again in reviews, and they are worth stating plainly because they are the reason you are reading this.
You pay to be listed. A fee up front, with no guarantee that a single person messages you. In a big city that may work out. In a smaller one people report paying and then hearing nothing for weeks.
Traffic is thin outside the largest cities. The model needs seekers as well as friends, and the seekers concentrate.
It reads as dating-adjacent to some people. The site is explicit that it is platonic, and it means it. But enough of the surrounding internet treats it otherwise that a lot of people are simply not comfortable being listed there.
None of that makes it a scam. It is a real business that has run for well over a decade and effectively proved that this trade is legitimate. These are just reasons people look around.
The alternatives, by what you actually want to be paid for
If you want to be paid for company
Roavi. The closest equivalent to what RentAFriend does, and the model is inverted on money: free to join, free to be listed, no commission, and Roavi never touches the payment -- you agree the amount with the person directly and keep all of it. Covers both the local side (an evening out, an event somebody does not want to attend alone, someone new in town) and travellers, which RentAFriend does not particularly do. Full comparison in RentAFriend vs Roavi.
Meetup, sort of. Not a way to get paid, and worth naming anyway because a fair number of people looking for RentAFriend alternatives actually want the free version of the problem solved rather than income.
If you want to be paid for running tours
This is a different job with different rules and it is worth being clear about the difference. A tour is a product you build and sell; company is your time.
ToursByLocals expects a semi-professional tour product and, in some cities, a licence. GetYourGuide and Viator are marketplaces with real traffic and a commission to match. All three are covered properly in the platform-by-platform breakdown.
If you want general gig work that is sometimes social
TaskRabbit overlaps occasionally -- waiting in a queue, accompanying someone to an appointment -- but it is built for tasks and you will be competing on price with furniture assembly.
The one thing to check before signing up anywhere
Ask what it costs you before anyone books. That single question separates these platforms more cleanly than anything on their marketing pages.
A listing fee means the platform is paid whether or not you ever earn. A commission means it is only paid when you are. Nothing at all means the platform is betting on volume. All three models are legitimate; only one of them can leave you out of pocket having earned nothing.
Is any of this legal?
Yes, and it is worth answering because it is the question underneath the search.
Being paid for your time and company is not a regulated profession in any US state, which is why platforms doing exactly this have operated nationwide since the late 2000s without a licensing regime appearing.
Two adjacent things are regulated and are not this. Tour guiding is licensed in a handful of American cities -- New York and New Orleans among them -- and that covers guiding as a trade, not having dinner with somebody. And personal care is a licensed field: if a booking involves medication, mobility or anything physical, that is home care and it is a different job.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best alternative to RentAFriend?
It depends what you want to be paid for. For company -- dinner, an event, an afternoon, conversation -- Roavi is the closest equivalent and does not charge you to be listed. For running structured paid tours, ToursByLocals or GetYourGuide are the real comparison, and they take a commission instead. For general odd jobs that happen to be social, TaskRabbit occasionally overlaps but is not built for this.Is there a free alternative to RentAFriend?
Roavi is free to join and free to be listed, takes no commission, and does not process the payment -- you agree the amount with the person and keep all of it. RentAFriend's model is the opposite: a listing fee from you before anybody has booked anything.Why do people look for alternatives to RentAFriend?
Three complaints come up repeatedly in reviews. Paying to be listed with no guarantee of a single message. Thin traffic outside the largest cities. And a site that reads as dating-adjacent to enough people that it puts others off. None of that makes it a scam -- it is a real business that invented this category -- but they are real reasons to look around.Is getting paid to be someone's friend legal in the US?
Yes. It is not a regulated profession in any state. Platforms built entirely on paid platonic companionship have operated across the country since the late 2000s. The only adjacent things that ARE licensed are tour guiding in a handful of cities -- New York and New Orleans among them -- and anything that crosses into personal care, which is a different field altogether.