Today’s complex systems can be addressed by exploiting software agents, and in particular sets of interacting agents. Agent societies represent a powerful means to design organization-oriented agent-based systems, in particular those where agents belonging to different users meet and interact. To effectively exploit them, developers must be supported by appropriate methodologies. In this paper we present a survey of agent-based methodologies, evaluated under some criteria that, in our opinion, are useful for developing societies. Our aim is to help developers in understanding the society-related features and choosing the most appropriate to their needs.