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levelsio

Nomad List 2.0 - Find the best cities to live and work remotely

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Nomad List is a social network of 10,437 digital nomads. Discuss and discover the best cities to live and work remotely.

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levelsio
Maker
Hi Hunters! I spent the last few months building this by myself :D Nomad List indexes the best cities where you can go to live and work remotely. I started with 25 cities and 100 data points, and now have 500+ cities and 50,000+ data points. From cost of living and internet speed, to how safe and fun a city is. I've also added 25,000+ places you can work (coffee shops, coworking spaces) and sleep (hostels and hotels). And it's integrated with my Slack group #nomads, which lets you meet other travelers in every city.
Jonny Miller
@levelsio Phenomenal update! And smart to integrate with the various affiliate links as well (kudos for the transparency there). Down the line it would be great to see nomad photos+stories+maps from the places themselves, in addition to the practical info. We’re planning to relocate the Maptia HQ to Asia later this year so will spend a lot of quality time exploring!
levelsio
Maker
@jonnym1ller Yes! Someone said I should add Instagram photos from each location (automatically), that'd be pretty cool. Maybe a blog tab, with curated stories from blogs about the cities? And where you'll be staying first?
Jonny Miller
@levelsio exactly, perhaps starting a #nomads on IG and re: curated stories I know that @peachananr travelistly.com posts are all tagged by place, perhaps he could assist? The Maptia HQ will be based around Hubud between Sept–December, would be awesome to see you out there!
Alex Suarez
@levelsio just a quick update ... Cubans have to apply for visa to move to Ecuador since 2016 :)
Lucas Gordon
Nice work @levelsio, this is looking awesome! It might be worth hiding the visible filters behind a 'show filters' button, as on my screen I'm only able to see the first city above the fold. I noticed that 'expat' is selected by default. Do you find that Nomad List is used more by expats than nomads?
levelsio
Maker
@lucasjgordon Thanks for the tip Lucas! I might make the header smaller to make that work. There was a lot of discusson on Reddit about this: https://www.reddit.com/r/digital... NomadCost was based on my own behavior, which was staying in hotels/hostels and short-term AirBnBs. But then cost of living gets amplified a lot. I discovered that most people want to know the actual cost of living for 6 to 12 months (e.g. expat), and then I let them switch to see the NomadCost too. For the long-term it'll get more users in and scare off less users (as in "those prices are wrong, I hate this site, byeeee!")
Lucas Gordon
@levelsio no problem, that'll do it! Interesting discussion, I agree with the idea of a time travel feature. That sounds like a reasonable approach. Do you think that as the lifestyle becomes more prevalent we will see more nomads staying in one place for 'expat' periods of time? I imagine this option is more suitable for families, or anyone seeking an amount of stability.
levelsio
Maker
@lucasjgordon I think digital nomads are like short-term expats, that means they stay in a place for 1 to 3 months. Moving around faster than that (like every week) is too physically and mentally taxing (e.g. culture shock) to do in the long run. When digital nomads settle down, it usually means finding 2 or 3 different places and hopping from there throughout the year. Many people choose to "follow the sun", that is they skip winters in US and Europe altogether but enjoy the summers of their home countries. That sounds nice to me.
Lucas Gordon
@levelsio it sounds perfect! I guess it's just a case now of adjusting the perception of how realistic this lifestyle choice actually is. And you seem to be doing a pretty good job so far, keep it up :)
Marc Köhlbrugge
Great update! I'd be interested in hearing a little bit more about all the different changes and your reasons for them. Where you just bored with the old design, or were their specific data points or user feedback that based this redesign on? And if so, do you have any data available yet that provide any insight in how user behavior has changed? (Might be too early to tell?)
levelsio
Maker
@marckohlbrugge I started with a very simple list layout, the MVP of 6 months ago. Then I moved to grid view and it showed that people shared the site more, but the time users spent on the site decreased. Probably because it was more visual but less informative. It also slowed down everything because users needed to load the big city pictures in the grid view. On mobile it started to become unusable with so much data. I've prioritized speed and mobile now. So it does relatively well on slow connections on mobile now. I really want people to be able to get out their phone and find a place to work (like a coffee shop) by using the site in a remote area. That's a steep goal.
levelsio
Maker
@levelsio Update: I've opted for grid view on desktop and list view on mobile for performance
Simo Elalj
Nice work! Really love the ability to filter with visa requirements. Would be great to be able to filter elements with a slider instead of toggles. Eg. Have internet filter with a slider "from 1Mbps to 165Mbps" instead "Slow, Fast, Super Fast".
levelsio
Maker
@simoelalj thanks! I agree, I'll change it into a slider.
eelco
Congratulations Pieter! Really big improvement on a already fabulous list! Looks like the € switch is gone? Can't find it—only $. What does the filter "food" actually do? The other ones are self-explanatory.
levelsio
Maker
@eelcojellema yes, had to remove it to speed the site up a bit, will add localization back in a few weeks :)
Felipe Pacheco
Great work, @levelsio ! Always happy to be a part of this community. :) Is there an easy way to suggest changes on the city's information?
levelsio
Maker
@fepacheco yes! the EDIT button is hidden now but I'll add it again in a few hours
Rehman Abdur
@levelsio waiting for the button :) gotta make some edits for Bucharest
Wilco de Kreij
Looking really, really good @levelsio! Already was a fan of the site (helped me to pick Buenos Aires as my most recent city and I'll be checking it for every upcoming trip as well). Kudos :)
Oo Nwoye
Good job @levelsio. I've been following Nomadlist since it was just a spreadsheet. As expected, I checked out my city and "Female Safety" was rated bad. https://nomadlist.com/lagos-nige... On what basis is such a declaration made? What is the criteria? Lagos is no eldorado however, I dare say Lagos is as safe as or safer than new York which you have rated good for female safety. I live in Lagos in case anyone has any questions.
levelsio
Maker
@oothenigerian It's quite disputable if Lagos is a safe city, most data shows it's not. It's getting better but I have to compare it all world cities and in that case it's not safe in general nor for females (yet).
@marty
Great updates! I highly recommend the PDF city guides too, the Chiang Mai one was very helpful 👌
Adrian
The info here is ridiculously valuable. I've been following since the first iteration and it's gotten a LOT better. I really feel a huge speed improvement too! Love it!
levelsio
Maker
@adrianmcli Yes, it was incredibly slow before!
Darren J Smith
Top work @levelsio!
Matt Dickinson
@levelsio still amazed that you don't have Byron Bay, Australia on the list. I started being a digital nomad back in 2003 (started build 1st online business while living in Whistler, Canada) and have lived in a bunch of locations globally since then. Have since settled in Byron Bay as it had the best mix of lifestyle, culture, access to world class cities etc for me... For people that are into surfing, nature, natural living it's hard to beat...
levelsio
Maker
@mattdickinson No data on it yet, will add it :)
Casey Rosengren
Right now Newark, NJ is showing up as #1 based on where I am.... as someone from NJ, I think you might need to tweak your algorithm ^_^;; http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.s...
levelsio
Maker
@caseyrosengren it's sorted by distance from you. I've changed to sort on score again now. Will see what's best.
Chris Georgiev
Love the product, even contributed for earlier versions. Not sure what I get for the $50 so not buying it. You should consider some perks for people who have helped with info for some cities.
Anne-Laure Chorro
Great job @levelsio ! ;)
Thibaut Davoult
Excellent work as always. Love the toggle of local vs expat vs nomad. Overall it's super clear and helpful. Every time I check out Nomad List, I get wanderlust :)
Craig Barber
Congrats on this. A true resource for an ever evolving workforce. I can't believe how much functionality you packed into the mobile experience! I could see a native iOS app of this doing very well also.
Prah Veluvolu
@levelsio making great products like usual!
Guilhem Menard
This is just great! Well done @levelsio
David Lyons
I had no idea we had all these amazing co-working spaces here in Denver! I'm going to share this with some friends looking to make a move.