How dating apps make their money
The basic pattern is the same almost everywhere: usage is free, but core functions live in a subscription, usually across two or three tiers. On top come one-off purchases such as boosts, super likes or temporarily highlighting your own profile.
In the test we rate not just the price level but the fairness of the model: what stays free, how transparent the prices are, and whether the app pushes you towards purchases. An expensive subscription can be fair if enough stays free without it, and a cheap one unfair if the app is barely usable without it. That is why the price alone says little in our test.
Subscription tiers at a glance
Tinder sells three tiers that build on each other: Tinder Plus, Tinder Gold and Tinder Platinum. Bumble sells its subscription as Bumble Premium among others. Hinge has Hinge+ and, above it, HingeX. Badoo combines Badoo Premium with a balance of its own, called credits.
Dua sells a premium subscription without which reliable contact is hardly possible. embla announces a single subscription, embla+, at €8.99 a month, cheaper with a three or six month term, plus a day pass for €1.99.
We deliberately do not quote prices for the other apps. They change often and differ by country, term and offer, so any figure here would be wrong within weeks. What counts is the price shown in the App Store or on Google Play at the moment you buy.
Hidden costs and dynamic pricing
The most important hidden cost factor is dynamic pricing: the same app can show different prices depending on age, region and device. Tinder is the best-known case and therefore receives only 2 out of 5 for pricing fairness in our test, the same as Badoo.
The second classic: auto-renewing subscriptions combined with short passes whose price looks small at first glance. Always scale a weekly price up to a month before you compare. Only then do you see what you are actually paying.
Term length: why the monthly price misleads
Almost every app shows a lower monthly price for longer terms. But you usually pay for the whole period up front. If you meet someone after six weeks, you have paid for six months and saved nothing.
The honest calculation is therefore: how long do you realistically want to search? If you are taking out a subscription for the first time, one month is usually the better choice, even if the monthly price is higher. Longer terms only pay off once you know the app and know it is alive in your area.
Also check how renewal works. A six-month subscription usually renews for another six months, not for one. How to get out in time is covered in our guide to cancelling dating app subscriptions.
One-off purchases: boosts, super likes and roses
Besides the subscription, most apps sell one-off purchases. On Tinder they are called Boost and Super Like, on Hinge Roses and Boost, on Bumble SuperSwipe and Spotlight among others, and on Badoo you pay with credits. They are often sold in packs, and the bigger the pack, the cheaper each item seems.
That is exactly where the trap lies. One-off purchases have no ceiling, and once you have tried one boost it is easy to buy the next. How such purchases affect your visibility is explained in our guide to dating app algorithms. Here only the cost side counts: a subscription has a fixed monthly price, one-off purchases do not.
A practical tip: if you buy them at all, buy one at a time first rather than a big pack, until you know whether they do anything for you. A pack looks cheap per item but is expensive if you never need half of it or it tempts you into buying more.
What is worth paying for and what is not
A subscription is most worthwhile where it solves a clear bottleneck: for example the overview of your likes on the big apps, if you are actively searching in a region with plenty of choice. Bumble and Hinge sit in the fair midfield here at 3 out of 5 each.
Visibility purchases like boosts score worst in the test: short-term effect, no lasting advantage, costs that are hard to plan. On embla there is neither boost nor spotlight, and ‘who likes you’ is free. Priority can still be bought there: the wildfire gives a sentence one day of priority within other people’s search radius for €3.99, with no promise of views. Because more stays free than on the other apps, embla scores a provisional 5 out of 5 for pricing fairness, measured against the announced model.
Set a budget before the app sets it for you
The most effective saving rule comes before the first purchase. Decide how much the search is worth to you per month, and do it before you open the app. If you only decide when a purchase offer pops up, you decide under pressure.
Also put the date of every renewal in your calendar and count one-off purchases towards your budget. If you leave them out, it is easy to underestimate what the search really costs. With a fixed budget you can answer every purchase prompt in one sentence: fits or does not fit.
Under the announced model, embla has one subscription at €8.99 a month and a day pass at €1.99. If you want to see more people on a single day, you take the day pass, if you search regularly, the subscription. On top of that come three one-off purchases that can add up: the wildfire from €3.99, spark packs from €1.99 and word packs with extra reply sparks from €1.99. If you want to save, set yourself the same ceiling here as on any other app.
Money-saving tips from the test
First: cancel subscriptions right after purchase, the paid period stays intact, only the auto-renewal stops. Second: compare prices across channels, subscriptions are sometimes cheaper in the browser than in the App Store. Third: spend two weeks testing for free whether the app even has enough active profiles in your area.
Follow these three rules and you avoid the most common cost traps, regardless of which app you end up choosing. And if an app does not convince you after two free weeks, it usually will not convince you with a subscription either.