Rooster
Rooster is a free web community for neighbors who want to share items, skills, time, and local knowledge.
What Rooster is
Rooster is a free web community for neighbors who want to share items, skills, time, and local knowledge. Members can post free goods, borrowing and lending offers, skill exchanges, activity partners, volunteering, lost and found notices, free events, rides, advice, and related topics. A moderator checks posts against community guidelines before they become visible. Members can send thank-you notes that appear on recipient profiles, Rooster’s thank-you wall, and a featured thank-you area. The beta is available only in selected locations, including communities in California, Oregon, Washington, and Austin, Texas. Rooster says street addresses are visible only to the member, and map pins cannot identify a specific person or exact location. Email notifications typically arrive twice weekly, with an option to reduce them to zero. Rooster does not verify identities. Borrowing and lending rely on mutual trust, with no insurance or guarantee for lenders’ items. Selling, buying requests, paid services, jobs, fundraising, and promotional posts are prohibited. Sensitive or credit information is encrypted with SSL, and transactions use a gateway provider rather than Rooster’s servers.
Good
- Free web access
- Many sharing and volunteering categories
- Moderator review before posts appear
- Notifications can be reduced to zero
- Street addresses kept member-only
Watch out
- Beta limited to select locations
- Member identities are not verified
- No insurance for lenders’ items
- Sales and paid posts are prohibited
Who it suits
Rooster suits neighbors in its available beta locations who want free exchanges, borrowing, volunteering, or local advice. It is intended for community sharing rather than sales or paid services.
Verdict
Rooster provides a moderated, free space for neighborhood sharing and recognition. Its geographic limits, identity policy, and trust-based lending model should shape how members use it.
Plans and prices
From Rooster's own pricing page, checked 11 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Everything must be free; available in select locations |
The facts
Each one read from Rooster's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Audience
- Rooster describes itself as a place for neighbors to share and build human connections, and says its movement has grown to tens of thousands of members.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Availability
- Rooster says its beta is available in select locations, including communities in California, Oregon, Washington, and Austin, Texas.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Borrowing limitation
- Rooster says borrowing and lending are based on mutual trust and that there is no insurance or guarantee for lenders’ items.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Email notifications
- Typical email notification frequency is twice per week, and members can reduce it to zero.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Identity verification
- Rooster says it does not verify member identities and encourages members to use the service with care and responsibility.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Location privacy
- The FAQ says a member’s street address is visible only to that member and map pins cannot be associated with a specific user or exact location.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Post moderation
- A moderator reviews posts for compliance with community guidelines before approved posts become visible to Rooster members.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Privacy and security
- The privacy policy says sensitive or credit information is encrypted using SSL, access to personal information is limited, and transactions are processed by a gateway provider rather than stored or processed on Rooster’s servers.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Purpose
- Rooster is a city community for neighbors to help, borrow, share, and get together for free.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Restrictions
- Rooster disallows selling, requests to buy, paid services, jobs, fundraising, and promotional posts.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Security disclosure
- The privacy policy says Rooster does not use vulnerability scanning or PCI standard scanning and uses regular malware scanning.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Sharing categories
- Members can post about free items, skill exchanges, activity partners, volunteering, borrowing and lending, lost and found, free events, rides, advice, and other sharing related topics.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Support
- Rooster lists [email protected] as its contact email for questions.checked 11 Oct 2026
- Thank you notes
- Members can send thank you notes that appear on recipients’ profiles and on Rooster’s thank you wall and featured thank you notes area.checked 11 Oct 2026
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