Alternatives
What you are actually paying for on a dating app
Most people searching for an alternative to a dating app are not looking for a different logo. They are looking for a way out of a paywall. So this page goes through the six things dating apps charge for, says honestly which ones are worth paying for, and tells you what the free option is.
Seeing who liked you
rentCharged for by Hinge, Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, Coffee Meets Bagel
This is the most common paywall in the category and the least defensible. Somebody has already told you they are interested, and the app is charging you for the message. It is not a feature, it is a hostage. It is free here, on every tier, including the free one.
Unlimited likes
rentCharged for by Hinge (8 a day), Tinder, Bumble
A cap on likes exists to create the moment where you are asked to pay. It is not protecting anybody's experience. If an app genuinely wanted you to be deliberate it would say so and let you decide, rather than rationing you and selling the ration back. There is no cap here, and nothing to buy when you reach one.
Boosts and super likes
rentCharged for by Tinder, Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel, Hinge
You are paying to be shown to more people for a short window. It works, in the narrow sense that it does what it says. It is also the purest example of paying to fix a problem the app created, and it turns finding somebody into a slot machine with a price per pull. We do not sell one.
Advanced filters
sometimesCharged for by Hinge, OkCupid, Bumble, Coffee Meets Bagel
This one is closer to legitimate, because filtering is real work and it does improve who you see. The honest position is that it should be free, and here it is: every filter is on every account. Charging for the ability to say what you want is charging for the question, not the answer.
Verification and ID checks
worth itCharged for by Bumble, Tinder (partial); absent on Hinge and CMB
The one thing genuinely worth paying for is knowing who you are meeting - and it is not for sale anywhere, including here. Verification is free on every account because charging for it would mean the people who most need it cannot afford it. Note that several major apps do not offer ID verification at all.
No adverts
sometimesCharged for by OkCupid, and most free tiers in the category
A fair thing to charge for in most products. It is a lower priority in dating than people think, because an advert between two profiles does not cost you a match. There are no adverts here at all, on any tier, so there is nothing to pay to remove.
The honest summary
Three of those six are rent: a charge to undo a limitation the product created. Two are reasonable but should not require a subscription. One, verification, is genuinely valuable and should never be paid for, which is why it is not for sale anywhere on this site.
The free option does not have to be us. If you want the largest pool, the comparison with Tinder says plainly that Tinder is the better product for that, and it is not close. If you want the best-designed interface, the Hinge comparison says the same about Hinge.
What you get here, and cannot get there, is a free account that includes everything that gets you to a date: no like cap, nothing to buy when you reach one, who liked you included, and verification steps that nobody can pay their way past. The paid tiers add more pools and stricter filtering, never a feature you need to stay safe.
Create a free accountThe wider advice section covers what to do when dating has worn you down and how to tell whether someone is genuine.