A Girl’s Guide to the Most Popular Online Dating Apps: Tinder, Bumble, or Hinge?

Dating is HARD! And the apps don’t make it any easier! From different bio layouts to the types of people and relationships you can hope to find on a dating app, it’s enough to make your head spin!

I have been in the dating pool for three years and have tried all three of most popular dating apps for young adults: Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge.

On all three apps I set my gender preferences to male, age range 20–26 and location radius about 15 miles. I live in a suburban area close to a large city

Tinder

Where I went to college, the only dating app with any amount of people on it was Tinder. Tinder was my first dating app and is where I met my first boyfriend.

Since (thankfully) moving to a more populated area, I have found that Tinder is the LAST place to find a quality date.

The quick swiping and low effort profie is not designed to prioritize any kind of compatibility.

Most guys are either holding fish in their pictures (EWWWW) or posing shirtless with ski goggles at a frat party (ummmm no thanks?)

In my experience, the men of Tinder are either looking for a hookup or are swiping to collect’em all.

If you just want a game of validation, Tinder might be for you. But anything past creepy messages or a few weak pickup lines before asking for your snap, and you are out of luck.

Therefore, Tinder is at the bottom of my list for dating apps.

Pros

• Can be a fun game if you are bored or just want to get used to the idea of online dating
• Depending on your area, it may be the most popular app, and therefore the quality people are forced to use it too

Cons:

• Low chances of meeting someone quality or even getting past a few texts
• Umm girl, good luck with all the Fish picture men lol!🎣
• Too easy to swipe and match

Bumble

The next app I tried was Bumble. I like the layout and feel like it asks more questions based on personality. Women text first and matches expire after 24 hours, making it more likely a match will take your interest seriously and respond promptly (as he should!).

It is basically the only app that gives power to the women in conversation, allowing you to glance over a man’s profile a second time before committing yourself to the *trauma* they will most likely bring.

The expiring feature can help limit the amount of people you are talking to at once, allowing you to better focus on the matches you are getting along with. And if someone doesn’t respond, they disappear, (umm boi bye!) saving you from having to manually unmatch out of frustration.

One con is there is no free backtrack! So if you swipe left on the LOVE OF YOUR LIFE, good luck finding them again!

I learned that the hard way with my PERFECT match, Benicio, an adorable Spanish teacher who I later matched with on Tinder only for him to ghost me in classic Tinder fashion. RIP BENICIOOOO.

I had two in person dates through Bumble and the guys I matched were more likely to stay engaged in conversation long enough to actually want to meet them in person.

Therefore, Bumble is slightly better than Tinder and much more likely to result in in-person dates.

• Bumble BFF Side Note: Bumble BFF is a great extra feature that other dating apps don’t have. You can match with people of your same gender and form friendships based on interests. I met one of my besties on there! However, beware of people recruiting for PYRAMID SCHEMES or Multilevel marketing campaigns.

If anyone asks you if you want to be your own #GIRLBOSS, #entreprenuer, or run a business with them RUNNNN!

No one has time for that nonsense, and these girls are looking to use you for your money, not make friends! Trust me for now, more on that story later!

Pros:

• Women text first
• Less creepy messages ( this could be seen as a con since some men don’t show their true colors as quickly when women text first)
• Expiring Feature
• Personality based bios
• Bumble BFF feature to find your next bestie to complain about all your bumble men with!
• In- person dates are more likely

Cons:

• No backtrack button
• While men might be more likely to meet in person, they often aren’t looking for anything serious

Hinge

The last app I tried was Hinge. Similar to Bumble, Hinge has a more personalized bio feature. Their questions make you think and the bio is more aesthetic overall.

I like that Hinge uses buttons instead of the swiping feature, giving you less of a trigger finger while swiping. They also have a free backtrack button!

Similar to superswipes on other apps, Hinge has the rose feature, which lets you give a rose to someone once a week (how very Bachelorette of them).

In my experience, you will get a lot less matches on Hinge than other dating sites, which they claim is because people are pickier.

However, I noticed that a lot of the people they analyzed to be “Most Compatible” with you are placed behind a paywall and never appear in your normal swiping roster. This leads me to believe that they purposely learn your type and then remove them so that you are incentivized to pay to get access to these more quality matches. Just my theory.

Good for them trying to make money though, but not the best for a girl on a budget!

Therefore, while I feel Hinge’s bios are much better than either Tinder or Bumble, their algorithm definitely works against you if you are not willing to cough up cash.

Surprisingly, I have had the worst luck on Hinge setting up dates, with most men either creeping me out after a few texts, ghosting, or (most annoyingly) wanting to continue an endless online conversation without ever meeting in person.

In the end, I deleted the app that was “meant to be deleted” because of dating burnout.

If I ever go back to online dating, I might give the paid version a try to get to all those compatible men Hinge is GATEKEEPING!

Pros:

• Personalized and aesthetic bio
• Free backtrack button
• Good algorithm if you pay]
• Potential to be the best if you pay for the better matches

Cons:

• Pushes you to pay for quality matches
• Low match rate
• Surprisingly high ghosting rate
• A lot of guys you don’t pay to access just want an online pen pal (and probably have girlfriends already)

Conclusion

My overall consensus is that if you want real in person dates and less online chatting burnout, try Bumble first.

The Hinge algorithm does a great job of learning your type but will happily let you pick from low quality profiles until you feed it some cash!

I would 100% leave Tinder in the dust unless you are looking for a hookup or a video game to pass the time.

My Dating App Ratings

Most Men: Tinder

Most Likely to Meet-Up- Bumble

Least Creepy Messages: Bumble

Best Bio: Hinge

Easiest to Create: Tinder

Favorite Overall: Bumble