Hey Everyone,

To manifest your best dating life, are you wondering if you might benefit from paying for a dating app, but not sure where your money will be best spent? I’ve made it easy for you: here’s my definitive guide to what you’ll get from the paid version of each app, and which ones are worth the price.

TINDER

Tinder Plus: Not Worth It

What You Get:

• Unlimited likes and rewinds, passport, no ads — handy features to have, but if you’re going to pay for Tinder, pay just a little more for Tinder Gold so you can see everyone who’s liked you

Under 30: $4.99/mo*

Over 30: $7.99/mo*

Tinder Gold: Worth It!

What You Get:

• Can see everyone who likes you in a grid — there are just SO MANY people on Tinder that this is a great way to save time. Rather than endless swiping, you can quickly swipe left on the people you’re not interested in and then immediately match with the ones you are. This is by far the most valuable part of Tinder Gold
• Can set your location anywhere — super valuable if you travel but want to be able to keep swiping on people in your hometown while you’re away, or want to start chatting with people wherever you’re heading in advance
• Unlimited likes — less valuable than on Hinge, but Tinder has now been restricting users to about 25 likes per 12 hours. If you’re big on swiping right, this is valuable
• Unlimited rewinds
• One free Boost per month — you can boost yourself to the top of people’s queues for 30 minutes, and you will be guaranteed an onslaught of likes. Make sure to use this at prime swiping times, like just after work or just before bed

Under 30: $14.99/mo*

Over 30: $24.99/mo*

Tinder Platinum: Maybe Worth It

What You Get:

• All of Tinder Gold
• Can attach a message to your Super Likes — my personal opinion is that this would be nice if it were more ubiquitous, but right now it would tip your hand that you pay for the most expensive Tinder. I’m all about investing in your app experience, but showing it off may come off as a little desperate in this specific instance
• Premium Likes — this is potentially really valuable. When you like someone, your profile is seen faster by the people you Like and Super Like (but Tinder doesn’t specify how quickly)
• Can see the likes you’ve sent in the last 7 days — frankly, I’d rather not be able to see these!

Under 30: $19.99/mo*

Over 30: $29.99/mo*

*note for Tinder: prices are approximate, and fluctuate depending on a number of factors that Tinder keeps private

BUMBLE

Bumble Boost: Not Worth It

What You Get:

• Unlimited likes — right now Bumble gives you 25 likes per day, and then it locks you out of swiping for 24 hours
• Can extend time on your matches — a nice feature, but probably not worth the money unless you have such a busy lifestyle you’re missing out on great matches because you weren’t able to message them in time
• One Spotlight per week — this functions the same as a Tinder Boost and is valuable, but you can pay for these separately
• 5 SuperSwipes per week — another feature that you can pay for separately if you want them, but my personal opinion is that SuperSwipes don’t send the best message

$14.99/mo

Bumble Premium: Worth It!

What You Get:

• All of Bumble Boost
• Unlimited advanced filters — given how many people on Bumble, it’s convenient to be able to narrow the pool a bit with extra filters
• Can see everyone who’s liked you — as with Tinder, this is where you get your money’s worth!
• Travel mode
• Can rematch with matches who have expired — handy when someone falls through the cracks
• Incognito mode — this feature hides your profile from other users unless you’ve swiped right on them. This seems valuable if you have something revealing in your profile that you wouldn’t want a friend or coworker to accidentally see, or if you’re hiding from an ex [or if you’re trying to cheat on your partner….!]

$32.99/mo

HINGE

Hinge Preferred: Probably Not Worth It

What You Get:

• Additional filters — you can filter for height, children, politics, and smoking/drinking/drugs, but those things are pretty easy to quickly see on someone’s profile anyway (being able to filter for height is maybe a nice feature if you feel REALLY strongly about that, but not worth $30/mo)
• Unlimited likes — Hinge only allows you to send 8 likes per day. If you’re an avid Hinge user, this might be where the premium membership really pays off
• Can see everyone who likes you — a nice perk, but is less valuable than on Tinder and Bumble because you can already access everyone who’s liked you (you just have to go through them one at a time)

$29.99/mo

MATCH

Match Member: Basically A Requirement

You can send likes on the free version, but you can’t message people without payment. Paying for Match is the only way to make the app worth your while.

$35.99/mo

COFFEE MEETS BAGEL

CMB Premium: Not Worth It

What You Get:

• Can see everyone who likes you — valuable, but less important given that there’s a smaller pool of people on CMB
• 8 extra Discover Likes per month — given that you already get 8 per day, 8 more over the course of a month doesn’t seem like much
• 1 monthly profile boost — this will boost your profile for 48 hours, but you can also pay for this separately
• Activity reports — you can see whether users have been recently active, which can give you a little bit of insight into whether someone is more or less likely to match with you, but isn’t critical
• Read receipts on messages — you can see whether your matches have read your messages, which again, maybe isn’t a good thing!
• Unlimited Skip the Line — after liking someone, this allows you to be pushed to the top of the queue of those who have liked that person, so you’ll be seen faster. Valuable, but another feature that you can pay for separately

$34.99/mo

In a nutshell: you’ll get the most bang for your buck by paying for Tinder or Bumble, but it all comes down to which apps you love and what you want to get out of them! And don’t forget to consider a date coaching session with me when thinking about investing in your dating life 🙂
 

Happy dating!

Alyssa

Need more dating inspiration, anecdotes, and practical advice?

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