What Dating App Is The Best? Pros & Cons Of Some Of The Most Popular Ones

With a  plethora of dating apps out there, it can be difficult to find the right one more you. The most popular ones have a slew of pros and cons, and it’s important to take everything into consideration before you bother signing up. Here’s our take on what dating app is the best.

Is Tinder the best dating app? Pros & cons

1. It’s quick and easy to set up a profile. Tinder profiles are quick to set up and don’t require much effort. There aren’t penalties related to not setting up your profile properly like there are with other dating apps. Just whack a few photos and lines about yourself on there, and you can start swiping in minutes.
2. There’s a large user pool. Tinder is one of the most popular dating apps. In fact, it really kicked off the swiping movement. So there’s a large user pool compared to some other dating apps. You probably won’t run out of people to swipe through on here!
3. It has the safety feature known as Noonlight. Tinder has a safety feature known as Noonlight, which is a definite pro. This protects users by allowing them to connect to Noonlight, which will share their personal information with 911 and first responders if they trigger an alarm through the app. When you’re meeting up with strangers on the internet, this feature is invaluable.
4. It has a reputation for being a hookup app. The bad news about Tinder is that it has a reputation as a hookup app. People can and do find true love on there. But you might have to swipe for quite a while before you find someone looking for something serious. And given the large user pool, you could be swiping for even longer. However, people have found long-term relationships on Tinder, so don’t let that deter you.
5. There are more bots and scams reported. More bots and scams have been reported on Tinder than on other dating apps. While this tends to improve with each upgrade, it’s still something to be mindful of, and something that can give you a negative experience on the app.
6. The algorithm can mean your profile isn’t shown to the most suitable users. As Beyond Matching explains, the algorithm that Tinder uses means that your profile isn’t always shown to the kind of users you’d match with. So it can feel like you’re swiping for ages and never getting matches, but this isn’t necessarily because the right people are rejecting you. It can just mean they haven’t seen you.

Pros & cons of Hinge

1. You can respond directly to people’s photos and prompts. One of the best features of Hinge is that you can respond directly to people’s photos and prompts. This seriously comes in handy if you feel too awkward to break the ice. Responding to someone’s photo or prompt can also make them more likely to match with you.
2. There’s a Date from Home feature. Hinge has a Date from Home feature, which is pretty essential in a post-COVID world. Dating from home can also be a great way to ease into dating if you’re new or feeling a bit nervous about it.
3. There’s a Most Compatible feature. Hinge also has a Most Compatible feature. At no extra cost, it shows you a new profile every day that you would be most compatible with. This can seriously speed up the process of finding the right person for you.
4. You have to send likes rather than swiping anonymously. The major downside to Hinge is that you don’t just swipe and match. You actually have to send likes. Put simply, other users get a notification when you like them. This is in direct contrast to Tinder and Bumble, where generally people only know if you like them if they like you too. In this case, Hinge requires you to put yourself out there, which can feel much scarier.
5. You have limited likes. The free version of Hinge comes with a like limit of eight likes per day, which will reset at 4 a.m. local time. So if you have a lot of love to give and like to swipe mindlessly, this may not be the app for you.
6. Skipping users doesn’t eliminate them from your feed. Sometimes, Hinge will show you profiles that you’ve already rejected. While you can just reject them again, it’s a bit of a time-waster when you’ve already said no once.

Pros and cons of Bumble

1. People don’t know you like them unless they like you too. Like Tinder, Bumble works by matching people who have both swiped right on one another. So unless you compliment someone’s profile, or they have paid for an upgrade, the other person won’t know that you liked them unless you like them too.
2. Men can’t send messages first. For women who are sick of unsolicited messages from men, this is a huge plus.
3. You have a window to start the conversation. Some people view Bumble’s time window as a con. But for those who are sick of having matches just sitting there for days with no one talking, this is a great solution. The woman in a straight match has 24 hours to say hello. If she does, the man has 24 hours to respond, or else the match disappears.
4. Men can’t send messages first. For women who don’t like to start the convo, this is a huge con.
5. Profiles tend to go less in-depth. Like Tinder profiles, Bumble profiles tend to be less in-depth than Hinge profiles. Often, you won’t know a lot of information about someone before you swipe them, other than the basics or what they choose to write in their bio.
6. The paid version is expensive. Many features are only available to paid subscribers on Bumble. This particularly bites because the paid version of Bumble tends to be more expensive than average. Bumble Premium is $19.99 a week and $39.99 a month.