Hinge Review: Eight Free Likes a Day, Hinge+ From £12.99 and Prompts in Place of Swipes

Hinge calls itself the app “designed to be deleted”, which is a bold pitch for a company that would quite like you to subscribe. It is also the fastest-growing brand in the Match Group stable, and the one many people in their twenties and thirties switch to once they have had enough of swiping. Here is what the free app does, what Hinge+ and HingeX add, and when paying is worth it.

Hinge Promo Code: none needed
Promo Code: None needed. Hinge does not publish promo codes.
Best real saving: a longer plan. Hinge sells weekly, monthly, three-month and six-month subscriptions, and the cost per month falls with length. In the US, Hinge+ is around $29.99 for a month but about $15.00 a month on a six-month plan, roughly half the monthly rate. Hinge does not publish UK prices by plan length; the app shows yours before you pay.
Key terms: subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the next billing period; prices can vary by age and platform.

Offer detail	What you get
Promo Code	None needed
Welcome offer	Free app with likes, comments, matching and messaging; Hinge+ listed from £12.99 on the UK App Store
Who qualifies	Anyone aged 18 or over
Key terms	Auto-renews unless cancelled 24 hours before the period ends; subscription refunds generally only considered within 14 days; Roses and Boosts are non-refundable
How to claim	Download the app, build a profile, then tap the gear icon, Subscription, and Subscribe to Hinge to see your prices

Get the Hinge offer

Hinge at a glance

• Owner: Match Group (Hinge, Inc.)
• Launched: February 2013
• Best for: relationship-minded daters who like prompts and conversation
• Free plan: yes, with a daily cap on likes, matching and messaging
• Premium from: £12.99 (Hinge+, UK App Store)
• Verification: Selfie Verification
• Trustpilot / App Store: 1.2/5 (1,207 reviews) / 4.3/5 (197k ratings, UK)

Our verdict
Hinge is the best of the big apps for people who know they want something lasting. Prompts give you something to say, likes attach to a specific photo or answer, and the result is fewer “hey” messages and more actual conversations. The free version is properly usable if you are selective. Hinge+ is worth a month or two if you live somewhere busy and want to see who has already liked you; HingeX is a harder sell. The pricing is opaque and the Trustpilot score is bleak, but the UK App Store rating tells a kinder story.

Pros

• Prompts and comments make it easy to open with something other than “hi”
• A free plan that lets you match and message without paying
• Selfie Verification to confirm people match their photos
• Growing fast, with paying users up 17% year on year
• New social features such as Friend’s Take, which lets friends weigh in

Cons

• Free users get a small daily allowance of likes
• Prices are not published and can differ by age and platform
• No twelve-month plan, and most one-off purchases are non-refundable
• A Trustpilot score of 1.2 out of 5, dominated by billing and ban complaints
• Smaller pool than Tinder outside the big cities

Hinge free vs paid: what you get without paying

The free version of Hinge is a complete dating app with a ration book. You build a profile from six photos or videos and three written prompts, set your preferences, and browse people one at a time. Instead of swiping, you like or comment on a particular photo or prompt answer. If the other person likes you back, it is a match and you can message. Matching, chatting and arranging to meet cost nothing.

What the free tier limits is volume. Reviewers who have tested the app put the free allowance at eight likes a day, plus one free Rose a week, a premium like that sits at the top of the recipient’s queue. You can see incoming likes only one at a time, and the filters beyond the basics (age, distance, religion, ethnicity) are reserved for subscribers.

Eight likes a day sounds stingy, but it encourages a certain care. Someone planning a first date in Manchester, a Sunday walk round Heaton Park or a drink in Ancoats, can get there without paying a penny, as long as they read profiles rather than skim them.

Hinge+ and HingeX prices in the UK, and the cheapest way to pay

Hinge sells two subscriptions:

• Hinge+: unlimited likes, see everyone who has liked you at once, sort your incoming likes, and advanced preferences such as height, politics, drinking and children, which you can also set as dealbreakers.
• HingeX: everything in Hinge+, plus Skip the Line (your profile is shown higher in people’s feeds), Priority Likes (your likes appear near the top of the recipient’s list) and enhanced recommendations.

Roses and Boosts can also be bought on their own.

Hinge does not publish a UK price list. Prices are set per account and, by the company’s own help pages, billed weekly, monthly, every three months or every six months. There is no twelve-month plan. The UK App Store lists these purchases without saying which plan length each covers:

Item (UK App Store)	£	$	€
Hinge+ Subscription	12.99	17.31	15.42
Hinge+ Subscription	14.99	19.98	17.79
Hinge Subscription	29.49	39.30	35.00
Boost	9.99	13.31	11.86
Bundle of three Roses	9.99 / 11.99	13.31 / 15.98	11.86 / 14.23

Full UK prices by plan length:

Tier	1 week	1 month	6 months	12 months
Hinge+	Shown in app	Shown in app	Shown in app	Not offered
HingeX	Shown in app	Shown in app	Shown in app	Not offered

For comparison, SwipeStats reported approximate US prices in September 2026 of $29.99 (£22.50 / €26.71) a month for Hinge+ and $49.99 (£37.51 / €44.52) a month for HingeX. On six-month plans, paid upfront, those fell to $89.99 (£67.53 / €80.15) and $149.99 (£112.55 / €133.58), or about $15.00 (£11.26 / €13.36) and $25.00 (£18.76 / €22.26) a month. Weekly plans are the most expensive way to pay by far.

The cheapest route is to try the free app first, then buy the shortest plan that covers a deliberate burst of activity, a month rather than a week. Commit to six months only once you know there are enough people near you. On iPhone you can pay through Apple or through Hinge directly (processed by Stripe), so compare the two prices before you tap.

Hinge promo codes, discounts and student deals: what exists and what doesn’t

There are no official Hinge promo codes. Coupon sites list plenty, but Hinge does not issue them, and neither Apple, Google nor Hinge’s own checkout has a field for one. Anything offering a “free Hinge+ code” is best ignored.

There is no student discount either, and no free trial for Hinge+ or HingeX mentioned in Hinge’s help pages or store listings. Some members are shown discounted offers inside the app, often on longer plans, which is the only legitimate way to pay less than the list price.

Who owns Hinge and who uses it

Hinge was founded by Justin McLeod in New York and launched in February 2013, originally as an app that matched people through Facebook friends. It relaunched in 2016 with the profile-and-prompts format it uses today. Match Group, the Dallas-based company behind Tinder, Match.com and Plenty of Fish, bought a 51% stake in June 2018 and the rest in early 2019. In December 2025 Hinge announced that McLeod would step down to launch a new AI dating venture, with Jackie Jantos taking over as chief executive.

Hinge is now Match Group’s growth engine. In the second quarter of 2026 it took $204 million (£153.08m / €181.68m) in direct revenue, up 22% on a year earlier, with 2.0 million paying users, up 17%, and monthly active users up 13%. Match expects Hinge to reach $1 billion in annual revenue in 2027. In Q2 it entered six more European countries and four more in Latin America, and Match says it was the most downloaded dating app across its European expansion markets in that quarter.

Hinge is 18+ and does not publish an age breakdown. It is strongest in big English-speaking cities: London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Bristol are all busy. A new arrival in London will find plenty of people; someone in a market town may run out of profiles by Wednesday.

Hinge features that matter

Prompts, voice and video. Every profile carries three prompt answers, which can be written, recorded as a voice note or answered with video. They are what most people like or comment on, so a good answer does more work than a good photo.

Matching. Hinge learns from who you like and who likes you back, and serves a daily “Most Compatible” pick. After you swap phone numbers with a match, it later asks how the date went and uses the answer to sharpen recommendations.

Friend’s Take. Launched in July 2026, it lets friends and family look at profiles and offer their verdict, for anyone who already forwards screenshots to the group chat.

Profile help. Prompt Feedback rates up to three of your prompt answers as “Great Answer”, “Try a Small Change” or “Go a Little Deeper”. Your Turn Limits, introduced in 2024, stops you sending or receiving new likes once too many matches are waiting on your reply.

Video. Hinge has removed its in-app voice and video calling feature, so you can no longer call a match inside the app; voice notes and messages remain.

Travel and privacy. There is no Passport-style travel mode; Hinge does not update your location automatically, but you can change it by hand under Location in your profile, which is handy before a move. Hinge’s help pages describe no incognito mode, although you can pause your profile so nobody new sees it while you keep chatting to existing matches.

Is Hinge safe? Verification, safety tools and privacy

Hinge’s main check is Selfie Verification: you record a short video selfie, Hinge compares it with your photos, and a verified badge appears on your profile. It is optional, but many users filter towards verified profiles. You can block, report or unmatch anyone at any point, and Hinge lets you filter out likes with comments containing words you choose, a tool launched as Hidden Words in 2024 and since expanded into Comment Filter. The standard advice applies: meet somewhere public, tell a friend where you are going, and never send money to someone you have not met.

On privacy, our research found no regulator fine against Hinge. On 14 February 2024 six users filed a proposed class action in the US federal court for the Northern District of California, accusing Match Group of designing Hinge and Tinder to be addictive. Payment data for direct purchases is handled by Stripe, and your subscription status is not visible to other users.

Hinge lets you choose man, woman or non-binary, add a more specific gender identity and pick your sexuality from a list, and you decide whether each appears on your profile, so it works for LGBTQ+ daters as well as straight ones.

What users say about Hinge

The verdict depends on where you look. On the UK App Store Hinge scores 4.3 out of 5 from about 197,000 ratings. On Trustpilot it scores 1.2 from 1,207 reviews, 92% of them one-star; as with most dating apps, Trustpilot draws mainly people with a grievance.

The complaints are mostly about value and billing. “I bought 3 months subscription. 7 weeks past and I only had chance to talk to 5 men,” wrote Sharron C. from the US in October 2026. Happier users talk about outcomes. “I recommend this dating app to someone who is looking for a serious relationship,” wrote JenBean28 on the UK App Store in April 2026. Another UK reviewer summed it up in six words: “No ghosting, no games, no attention seeking.”

How to sign up, set up a good Hinge profile and cancel a subscription

1. Download Hinge from the App Store or Google Play and sign up with your phone number, confirming you are 18 or over.
2. Add six photos or videos: one clear face shot, one full length, one doing something you love. Avoid group shots where nobody knows which one is you.
3. Choose three prompts and answer them specifically. “The best Sunday roast in Leith, and I will fight you on it” gives someone an opening; “I love travel” does not.
4. Complete Selfie Verification from your profile.
5. Set your preferences, then like or comment on a detail in someone’s profile rather than just tapping the heart.
6. Use the free app for a week or two before deciding whether to pay.
7. To cancel on iPhone (paid through Apple), open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, choose Hinge and tap Cancel Subscription.
8. To cancel on Android, open Google Play, tap your profile icon, then Payments and subscriptions, Subscriptions, Hinge, Cancel subscription.
9. If you paid Hinge directly on iPhone, open Hinge, tap the gear icon and choose Cancel Subscription.

Cancel at least 24 hours before renewal. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription. Refunds on Apple and Google purchases are decided by Apple and Google; for direct payments, contact Hinge support within 14 days. Roses and Boosts are not refundable.

Hinge vs Bumble vs Tinder

	Hinge	Bumble	Tinder
Free plan	Yes: likes, comments, matching, messaging	Yes: swiping, matching, messaging, video calls	Yes: swiping, matching, messaging
Premium from	£12.99 (Hinge+, UK App Store)	£9.99 for 7 days of Premium (UK App Store)	£3.99 (Tinder Plus, UK App Store)
Best for	Relationship seekers who like prompts	Control over who contacts you, plus BFF for friends	The biggest pool, casual to serious
Verification	Selfie Verification	Photo and ID verification	Face Check video selfie (mandatory for new UK users)
Owner	Match Group	Bumble Inc.	Match Group

Pick Hinge if you want a relationship and like having something concrete to reply to. Pick Bumble if you want a calmer inbox, strong safety tools and the option of using BFF to make friends after a move. Pick Tinder if you want the largest number of people, especially outside the big cities or while travelling. Plenty of people run two at once.

Hinge FAQs

Is Hinge free?
Yes. You can build a profile, like, match and message for free, with a daily limit on likes.

How much is Hinge+ in the UK?
The UK App Store lists Hinge+ at £12.99 and £14.99, depending on plan length and account. Your exact price appears in the app under Subscription.

What is the difference between Hinge+ and HingeX?
Hinge+ gives unlimited likes, shows everyone who likes you and unlocks advanced filters. HingeX adds Skip the Line, Priority Likes and enhanced recommendations.

Is HingeX worth it?
Only if you live somewhere busy, already have a strong profile and want faster results. For most people Hinge+ or the free app is enough.

Is there a Hinge promo code or student discount?
No. Hinge does not issue promo codes, and there is no student discount.

Is Hinge only for serious relationships?
It is built for people looking for something lasting, and its prompts suit that, but you can say what you are looking for on your profile.

Is Hinge safe?
It is as safe as any mainstream app used sensibly. Selfie Verification, blocking and reporting are free to everyone.

How do I cancel Hinge+ and get a refund?
Cancel through Apple, Google Play or the Hinge app, depending on how you paid. Subscription refunds are generally considered only within 14 days.

Visit Hinge

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