Dating app pricing: what free means and what paid tiers cost

What free means on a dating app

Free covers different ground from one app to the next. Tinder's App Store listing says free accounts can send Likes, match and chat. Hinge's says "The app is free to use", and its listings do not say whether messaging between free accounts has limits. Match's help center says "All of our free members are now able to chat with every match", and free members can rate up to 50 recommended profiles a day.

Other limits come from each app's own pages. eharmony's Basic membership has no time limit, and free members can send an initial message, but photos of others are generally blurred and personalized messaging is limited, according to its US terms. OkCupid's help center says "Using OkCupid is completely free", with paid plans adding who has liked you, unlimited Likes and Dealbreakers. Bumble's Google Play listing calls it "a free app for meeting singles" and sells Boost, Premium and Premium+ as upgrades.

Credits are another model. Ashley Madison gives a free member profile with access to some features, and further ones need credits or a package. The pages read for AdultFriendFinder say registration is free but do not say what a free account can do. Pure goes furthest the other way: its pages describe no standard free tier, require a subscription to use the app and mention only occasional free trials. Free-tier dating apps compares what free covers across apps.

Why one tier shows several prices

Tinder Gold has four prices on the US App Store: USD 13.99, USD 14.99, USD 18.99 and USD 24.99, with no billing period stated. On the US App Store, Hinge Subscription has three (USD 14.99, USD 29.99 and USD 34.99) and OkCupid Premium has six, from USD 7.99 to USD 59.99, again with no period. When a listing leaves the period out, the prices cannot be sorted into weekly, monthly and longer plans, and guessing would mislead.

Listings that do state the period show where the extra prices come from. Feeld's Majestic Membership is USD 29.99 for 30 days, USD 49.99 for 90 days and USD 149.99 for 1 year on the US App Store. Pure Membership is USD 13.49 for 1 week and USD 29.99 for 1 month on the US App Store. Match's rows on the US App Store pair Basic at USD 44.99 for 1 month and a Bundle at USD 129.99 for 6 months with four rows that state no period, from USD 19.99 to USD 129.99. A lower number can belong to a shorter plan, so only rows with the same stated period are comparable. Feeld's plans and Pure's weekly and monthly rows have their own pages.

How country and store change the price

Tinder Plus is USD 9.99 on the US App Store and GBP 3.99 on the UK one. Tinder Gold runs from USD 13.99 to USD 24.99 on the US App Store and from GBP 7.49 to GBP 14.99 on the UK App Store. Hinge's lowest Subscription row is USD 14.99 on the US App Store and GBP 14.99 on the UK one: the same number in two currencies. Nothing on this site converts currencies, so a price in pounds says little about the same plan in dollars. The country breakdowns are on Tinder pricing by country, Hinge subscription prices and eharmony's plans by country.

Availability decides whether a price exists at all. Match was listed on 15 of the 45 App Store storefronts checked and is not on the UK, Irish, German or French ones, so there is no UK App Store price for it. eharmony is listed on 23 of 45 and Hinge on 32 of 45, while Tinder and Bumble are listed on all 45. Local rules by country shows what is available where.

Google Play and web prices are not covered here, so a price on this site says nothing about them.

Lowest listed prices on the US App Store

Among seven apps, the lowest listed row on the US App Store is USD 2.99 for Bumble Boost, and the highest of the seven lowest rows is USD 59.99 for eHarmony Basic. Only Feeld states a period on its lowest row.

The lowest row is not always the plan people mean. Bumble's Boost rows run from USD 2.99 to USD 12.99 on the US App Store, while Bumble Premium there is USD 17.99, USD 19.99 and USD 32.99. On the same US App Store, USD 9.99 is Tinder Plus and the lowest listed Tinder Gold row is USD 13.99. Details are on Bumble's Boost and Premium rows, OkCupid's price rows and Match's subscription prices.

Cancelling and refunds

The App Store rows give a price and sometimes a period, and nothing else: cancellation steps and refund terms are not part of them. The steps for stopping a subscription are in cancelling a subscription, and Tinder's price page covers that app's own cancel and refund wording.

Price pages by app

Each of the 19 apps below has a page with its App Store prices by country.

• AdultFriendFinder pricing

  AdultFriendFinder pricing: registration is free and paid prices appear only after sign-up. Auto-renewal, cancel steps and refunds follow the site's terms.

• Ashley Madison pricing

  Ashley Madison pricing from App Store listings: what a free profile does, Preferred and package prices by country, credits, cancelling and refunds.

• Badoo pricing

  Badoo pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, Premium prices by country, credit and Super Powers prices, cancelling and refunds.

• Bumble pricing

  Bumble pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, Boost and Premium prices by country, add-on prices, free trial terms, cancelling and refunds.

• Coffee Meets Bagel pricing

  Coffee Meets Bagel pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, CMB Premium and Platinum prices in the US and Canada, beans, cancelling, refunds.

• DOWN pricing

  DOWN pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, VIP prices in five countries, Profile Boost and More Picks add-ons, cancelling and refunds.

• eharmony pricing

  eharmony pricing from App Store listings: what free Basic membership does, Premium light and Premium plus prices by country, trial, cancelling and refunds.

• Feeld pricing

  Feeld pricing from App Store listings: Majestic Membership 30 day, 90 day and 1 year prices by country, Ping and Uplift costs, cancelling and refunds.

• Grindr pricing

  Grindr pricing from App Store listings: what is free, XTRA and Unlimited prices by country, Boost and Day Pass add-ons, trials, cancelling and refunds.

• happn pricing

  happn pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, subscription prices by country, Coins, Credits and Boost prices, cancelling and refunds.

• HER pricing

  HER pricing from App Store listings: what is free, HER Gold and Platinum prices by country, trial, cancelling and refunds. Lowest US App Store price USD 14.99.

• Hinge pricing

  Hinge pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, Hinge+, HingeX and Subscription prices by country, Boost and Roses prices, cancelling, refunds.

• HUD pricing

  HUD pricing from App Store listings: what the free Basic Membership does, Premium and Diamond prices by country, add-ons, the 7-day trial and refunds.

• Match pricing

  Match pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, subscription prices in six countries, Top Spot and Boost prices, cancelling and refunds.

• OkCupid pricing

  OkCupid pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, Premium, A-List and Basic prices by country, Boost prices, cancelling and refunds.

• Plenty of Fish pricing

  Plenty of Fish pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, subscription prices by country, tokens and Boosts, cancelling and refunds.

• Pure pricing

  Pure pricing from App Store listings: no standard free tier, Pure Membership prices by country, add-ons, free trial, cancelling and refunds.

• SCRUFF pricing

  SCRUFF pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, SCRUFF Pro, Messaging Pro and Browsing Pro prices by country, Boost, cancelling and refunds.

• Tinder pricing

  Tinder pricing from App Store listings: what a free account does, Plus, Gold and Platinum prices by country, add-on prices, cancelling and refunds.