Townleap vs InterNations
InterNations is a membership-gated expat community running in-person events and local groups in 420 cities, plus destination guides and the annual Expat Insider survey. We're a permanent-relocation planner. Below is the honest version, including the parts where they beat us.
InterNations is the best product in the world for meeting expats once you've moved. It's a poor one for deciding where to move, because its data is how people feel about a place — not what a place will legally let you do.
InterNations is best for the six months after you land, when you know nobody and need actual humans.
Townleap is best for the six months before you go, when you're still deciding which country it's going to be.
Before we sell you anything
Expat Insider is a genuinely good dataset and we're not going to pretend otherwise — 7,786 respondents across 162 nationalities in 2026, rating up to 53 factors. But it measures satisfaction, not entitlement. It can tell you expats in Panama feel good about their money. It cannot tell you whether you'd be granted a visa.
What each one actually has
✓ has it · ~ sort of · ✕ doesn't. Checked August 2026.
| Feature | InterNations | Townleap |
|---|---|---|
| What things cost, allegedly | ~ | ✓ |
| How to legally stay past 90 days | ~ | ✓ |
| What's left after the tax office | ✕ | ✓ |
| Whether you're safe, and allowed to complain about it | ~ | ✓ |
| Can your spouse get a job | ~ | ✓ |
| Somewhere for the kids to go all day | ~ | ~ |
| A quiz that decides for you | ✕ | ✓ |
| Retirement, but abroad | ~ | ✓ |
| What it costs you | ~ | ✓ |
| Do they want your email | ✕ | ✓ |
Cost of living data
Residency and visa program comparison
Take-home pay modelled against local income tax
Safety statistics plus democracy and political-freedom scoring
Dependent and partner work rights on each visa
Family and schooling data
Guided recommendation flow
Pension visa thresholds and retiree-specific guidance
Price
Account required to see the content
Coverage, plainly
420 cities, ~3,000–3,500 events/month, 5.6–6M registered members (2026)
140 cities across 60+ countries. Zero events. We are not a community.
Pros and cons, both of us
InterNations
- +420 cities with roughly 3,000–3,500 real-world events a month. Nobody else has the in-person layer.
- +Expat Insider, running annually since 2014 — 7,786 respondents across 162 nationalities in 2026, rating up to 53 factors.
- +200+ destination guides covering the practical texture of arriving somewhere.
- +Approval-based membership keeps the community quality high, which is the point of a community.
- +A free Basic tier exists, so you can look before paying.
- −Its indices are self-reported satisfaction. Useful signal, but it measures mood rather than measured outcomes.
- −No structured residency data — visa content is per-country prose, not a comparable database.
- −No income tax modelling of any kind.
- −No democracy or political-freedom scoring, which for a settler is a strange thing to omit.
- −Membership is approval-gated and paid tiers charge upfront for 3, 6 or 12 months at once, with auto-renewal.
- −The Expat Insider sample shrank sharply: 10,085 respondents and 46 ranked destinations in 2025 down to 7,786 and 31 in 2026.
- −Ownership changed in July 2026 — New Work SE sold InterNations to the private equity firm FairCap, so the product direction is genuinely uncertain right now.
Townleap
- +Structured, comparable residency data instead of prose — 55 routes, with eligibility, timelines and dependent rights.
- +Take-home pay after local income tax, which nobody in this category models.
- +Democracy, freedom and peace indices sit alongside cost and safety.
- +Free with no account, no approval queue, no upfront annual charge.
- +Every number attributed to a named public source you can go and check.
- −No community whatsoever. No events, no groups, no members. After you land, InterNations is the more useful product and it isn't close.
- −140 cities against their 420.
- −No lived-experience survey data — we have no equivalent to Expat Insider, and satisfaction data is genuinely worth having.
- −No destination guides written by people who moved there.
So which one
Use InterNations if you've already chosen the country, or you've just arrived and need a social life, local advice and people who've done the paperwork before you.
Go to InterNations →Use Townleap if you're still choosing, and you need structured answers on residency eligibility, post-tax income, governance and family logistics before you commit to a country.
The parts of Townleap this page is talking about
All free. None of them ask who you are.
Swipe through 140 cities. It asks what you actually want, then argues with you about it.
Your passport, your job, your savings — which residency routes you'd survive.
Numbeo prices, arranged for someone signing a lease rather than booking a hotel.
What's left of your salary after the local tax office has had a look.
Pension visas, income thresholds, and healthcare you can actually get onto.
Questions people actually ask
Is InterNations free?
There's a free Basic tier, but membership is by approval and some users are only offered the paid option at signup. Paid tiers run roughly $59.99 for three months or $129.99 for a year via the US App Store, charged upfront and varying by country. Townleap is free with no account.
Does InterNations help you choose where to move?
Partly. The Expat Insider survey ranks destinations on expat satisfaction, and destination guides describe what living somewhere is like. What it doesn't offer is structured residency eligibility, income tax modelling or governance scoring — the data that determines whether a move is legally and financially possible.
What is Expat Insider?
InterNations' annual expat survey, running since 2014. The 2026 edition surveyed 7,786 expats from 162 nationalities, rating up to 53 factors on a 1–7 scale across five indices. Note the sample narrowed from 2025's 10,085 respondents and 46 ranked destinations to 31 destinations in 2026.
Who owns InterNations?
As of 13 July 2026, FairCap — a European private equity firm — after buying InterNations GmbH from New Work SE, which had owned it since 2017. The purchase price was not disclosed.
Can I use both InterNations and Townleap?
That's the sensible order. Townleap for the decision — which country, which residency route, what your salary becomes after tax. InterNations for the arrival — events, local groups and people who've already filed the paperwork you're about to file.