Dating apps

Hinge review (2026): designed to be deleted, by the numbers

By Matthew Firth, founder of NexSpark · Oct 5, 2026 · 9 min read

Hinge calls itself the dating app designed to be deleted. In the twelve months to June 2026 it added 17% more paying users, charged each of them about 4% more, and grew quarterly revenue 22% to $203.5 million, on its way to the $1 billion a year Match Group has promised investors for 2027. Hinge is designed to be deleted the way a gym is designed to be quit. That isn't a knock. It's the shape of a well-run subscription business, and it's the one fact every other Hinge review leaves out. Here is what Hinge actually costs in October 2026, what its ratings say when you read all four of them side by side, what changed this year, and who it's genuinely right for.

One thing to say before any of it: I run NexSpark, a matchmaking service that pairs AI scoring with a human who reviews every introduction, so Hinge and I are after some of the same people. Every number below carries its source and the date I checked it, and where Hinge does something well I've said so. Where I'm giving an opinion rather than a figure, I've labeled it.

Hinge by the numbers, checked October 5, 2026

Two of those rows are the whole review. The App Store says Hinge is the best-liked mainstream dating app in America. Trustpilot says it's one of the worst. Both are true, because they're measuring different moments: the store rating is the product on a good day, and Trustpilot is what happens the day your account gets banned or your card gets charged. I'll come back to that gap. The revenue rows are the thesis, and they get their own section.

What Hinge actually costs in 2026

Hinge doesn't publish a price. Its own help center, in an article updated August 24, 2026, lists what each tier includes but not what it costs, and the price you're quoted inside the app moves with your age, your market and the plan length you pick. So the only numbers I'll stand behind are the ones I can point at. On October 5, 2026, at 10:40 pm Eastern, Hinge's US App Store page listed these in-app purchase items:

• Hinge Subscription: $14.99, $29.99 and $34.99
• Hinge+ Subscription: $16.99 and $19.99
• Membership: $19.99
• Roses: 3 for $9.99, 12 for $29.99
• Boost: $9.99 and $19.99

Apple doesn't label plan lengths, so a $14.99 item and a $34.99 item can be the same tier at different commitments. Read against what the app quotes a new US user, the picture is: Hinge+ at $32.99 to $34.99 for a single month, falling toward the mid-teens per month on six-month plans, and HingeX at $49.99 for a single month, the most expensive tier Match Group sells. HingeX doesn't appear among the App Store's ten listed items, which suggests far fewer people buy it. Free members get one Rose a week and what the help center calls "a select number of likes per day," which in practice has long been eight.

What the tiers buy, from Hinge's own feature table: Hinge+ adds unlimited likes, unlimited undo on skips, the ability to see all incoming likes at once, and advanced filters. HingeX adds everything in Hinge+ plus "See Compatible People Sooner," an always-on Boost, and Priority Likes that jump your like to the front of someone's queue. Notice what isn't on the list: nothing in either tier changes how well the people you're shown fit you. HingeX moves compatible people earlier in your queue; it doesn't find different ones. You're paying for volume and visibility. For how that compares with every other app, see our 2026 dating app price guide.

How Hinge works, and what changed in 2026

If you've never used it: you build a profile from six photos and three written prompts, and instead of swiping on a whole person you like or comment on one specific photo or answer. That one design choice is, in my experience, most of why Hinge conversations start better than Tinder's. A match opens a chat; "We Met" asks you afterward whether the date happened and whether you'd see them again, and Hinge uses the answers to tune who it shows you. The slogan on its help center, in an article updated December 23, 2025, is unchanged: "Hinge is the dating app designed to be deleted."

Three things changed this year, all documented on Hinge's own pages or in Match Group's filings:

• Voice and Video Calling is gone. A help article dated January 26, 2026 says Hinge decided "after much consideration" to remove the feature; voice notes and messaging remain. If you liked screening a match by call before meeting, that's a real loss.
• The Signals badge arrived June 1, 2026. It marks daters who, over the previous 30 days, did at least three of: spent time reading profiles before liking, left comments instead of bare likes, answered incoming likes, messaged matches, or confirmed dates. You need a complete profile, Selfie Verification and an account at least a week old. It's Hinge's answer to the complaint that half the app is passive.
• More tiers are coming. On the August 2026 earnings call, Match Group told investors that Hinge has "upcoming subscription tier tests." Two paid tiers today; expect more price points, not fewer.

Designed to be deleted, by the numbers

Every Hinge review I've read takes the slogan at face value and reviews the experience. Nobody checks it against the one source that can't spin it: Match Group's quarterly filings, which report Hinge's direct revenue, paying users and revenue per payer every three months. Here's the recent run.

Sources: Match Group Forms 10-K and 10-Q and quarterly results materials; percentages are year over year as Match Group reported them. The 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 puts it in one sentence: "Hinge Direct Revenue grew 22% on 17% Payer growth and higher RPP."

Read that the way an investor does. Revenue per payer is up about 10.6% since 2024, from $29.94 to $33.11 a month. The paying base is growing 17% a year. Management is guiding to a billion dollars a year by 2027. Those are the numbers of a product people keep, and keep paying more for. An app that was actually getting people off it would show the opposite: flat payers, falling revenue per payer, a shrinking top line. Hinge's growth is the proof that "designed to be deleted" describes the marketing, not the model.

None of this makes Hinge dishonest. It's a subscription company owned by a public one, and it's doing exactly what a good subscription company does. But it means the incentive behind every design decision is retention, not exit, and that's worth holding in your head when a paywall appears between you and the person who liked you. We've written about why that incentive problem is built into the category; Hinge is the best-run example of it, not the exception to it.

The ratings gap, and what it's really measuring

A 4.4 from 1.1 million people and a 1.2 from 1,208 people look like a contradiction. They aren't. App Store ratings are prompted inside the app, usually after something good just happened, so they measure the product. Nobody goes to Trustpilot or the Better Business Bureau to say a date went well. Those sites measure what happens when you need a human at the company, and for Hinge the pattern is unusually consistent. Trustpilot's own summary of recent reviews leads with "sudden, unexplained account bans and the complete lack of support transparency." The BBB's latest reviews, on the day I checked, were three people describing bans they believe were wrong, one of whom says his appeal was "immediately denied" after "content detected with our automated tools." Seventeen thousand complaints in three years is a lot of people who couldn't reach anyone.

The practical reading: as long as nothing goes wrong, Hinge is excellent. If something does go wrong, a hacked account, a mistaken ban, a charge you didn't expect, you are dealing with an automated system and a company that hasn't claimed its own Trustpilot profile. Keep screenshots, keep your receipts, and don't put your only copy of a conversation you care about inside the app.

Who Hinge is genuinely good for

• Relationship-minded daters in their late twenties through forties who'll write three real prompts and comment instead of just liking. Hinge's whole mechanism rewards effort, and the Signals badge now makes that effort visible.
• People who want the free tier to be usable. Eight likes a day and a weekly Rose is enough to date on if you're selective. Of the big apps, only OkCupid gives you more for nothing.
• Anyone leaving Tinder for something slower. The prompt-and-comment format is a real change of pace, and the pool in most US cities is deep.

Where it fits less well: people who want to screen by video call before meeting, since that's gone; anyone who expects a paid tier to improve match quality, not just quantity; people in smaller markets, where the pool thins quickly and HingeX's visibility boost has little to boost into; and anyone who can't afford to lose their account to an automated decision, given the appeal process reviewers describe.

The honest verdict

Hinge is the best mainstream dating app for people who want a relationship, and I'd say that even though I compete with it. The design does more to produce real conversations than anything else at its scale, the free tier is fair, and a 4.4 from more than a million people is not an accident. Two things should temper that. The first is the ratings gap: Hinge's support and ban process, as reviewers describe it, is the weakest part of the product, and you only find out how weak when you need it. The second is the one this review exists to say out loud. Hinge is designed to be deleted the way a gym is designed to be quit. Its paying base grew 17% last year, each payer paid 4% more, and the company is guiding to a billion dollars. Use it with that in mind, and the paywall will make more sense when it appears.

A different way to end the search

If what you actually want is the outcome Hinge advertises, being done, it's worth knowing there's a model whose incentive points that way. At NexSpark you answer a set of questions once, the AI scores compatibility in both directions, and a human reviews every introduction before you see it. There's no feed, nothing to swipe, and the matching rules are published, as is the price: $599 per person, paid once when you choose to connect, refundable until the connection opens, and waived during our launch period. We get paid when you find someone, not for as long as you keep looking.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Hinge cost per month in 2026?
Hinge is free to match and message. Hinge+ runs $32.99 to $34.99 for a single month and HingeX $49.99, with lower per-month rates on longer plans. On October 5, 2026, the US App Store listed Hinge subscription items at $14.99, $29.99 and $34.99 and Hinge+ items at $16.99 and $19.99; Hinge does not publish one fixed price because it prices by age, market and plan length.

Is Hinge worth it in 2026?
For a serious relationship, Hinge is still the strongest mainstream app: prompt-based profiles, a relationship-first design, and a 4.4 out of 5 App Store rating from more than 1.1 million people as of October 5, 2026. The free tier is usable. Whether a paid tier is worth it depends on volume: Hinge+ mainly buys unlimited likes and filters, not better matches. Go in knowing Hinge's Trustpilot score is 1.2 out of 5 and that the BBB lists 17,562 complaints, almost all about bans, billing and support.

Is Hinge really designed to be deleted?
That is Hinge's slogan, and the product does push toward dates rather than endless swiping. The business, though, is a subscription business. Match Group's Q2 2026 filing says Hinge direct revenue grew 22% on 17% payer growth and higher revenue per payer ($33.11 a month, up 4%), and management has told investors Hinge is on track for $1 billion in annual revenue by 2027. An app that was emptying out would not post those numbers.

Why is Hinge's Trustpilot rating so low?
Hinge scored 1.2 out of 5 from 1,208 Trustpilot reviews on October 5, 2026, against 4.4 out of 5 on the App Store. The two measure different things. The store rating reflects the product; Trustpilot and the BBB reflect what happens when something goes wrong. The complaints cluster around sudden account bans with no explanation, appeals denied by automated tools, subscriptions that feel poor value, and support that reviewers describe as unreachable.

How many free likes do you get on Hinge?
Hinge's help center says free members get "a select number of likes per day" without stating the number; in practice it has long been eight, resetting daily. Free members also get one Rose a week. Unlimited likes require Hinge+ or HingeX.

What changed on Hinge in 2026?
Three documented changes: Hinge removed its Voice and Video Calling feature (help article dated January 26, 2026), leaving voice notes and messaging; it launched the Signals badge on June 1, 2026, which marks daters who show consistent effort over the previous 30 days; and Match Group told investors in August 2026 that new Hinge subscription tier tests are coming. Hinge+ and HingeX remain the two paid tiers.

How this was checked. Ratings and complaint counts were read directly from the App Store, Google Play, Trustpilot and BBB pages on October 5, 2026. Price items are the in-app purchases Apple listed on Hinge's US App Store page the same day. Financial figures are Match Group's own, from its Forms 10-K and 10-Q and quarterly results materials. We re-check this page when we update it; the date in the heading above is the last check.