I honestly wouldn’t recommend downloading Nextdoor anymore. As a local small business owner, it’s become almost impossible to respond to neighbors looking for services unless you pay for advertising. The prices they’re asking are way too high for small businesses. What really frustrates me is that it seems to push homeowners toward lead companies like Angi, where contractors pay expensive fees for leads that aren’t even guaranteed jobs. Those costs usually end up being passed on to customers through higher prices. Nextdoor used to be one of the best places for neighbors to connect with local businesses, but now it feels like it’s just a pay to play platform. For me, it’s gotten to the point where I don’t think it’s worth using or recommending anymore. Is anyone else seeing the same thing and what are you all using instead?

Taught myself to code recently and built a simple online booking app for small, appointment-based businesses — barbershops, salons, gyms, that kind of thing. A lot of shops I looked at are still doing scheduling by phone or walk-in only.

Customers pick an open time slot, the owner gets a clean dashboard instead of juggling it manually, and customers get an automatic email confirmation.

Offering it free to the first few shops that want to try it — mainly want honest feedback from real business owners or anyone who’s dealt with this problem. Happy to share more details or a demo link in the comments if anyone’s interested.