Hinge tests a cheaper plan as users become more fed up paying for dating apps

Hinge is testing a cheaper subscription plan as its parent company Match Group looks for new ways to get users to pay for dating apps at a time when people are increasingly tired of subscriptions and, in some cases, dating apps altogether.

During its third-quarter 2026 earnings call on Monday, Match Group said the new Hinge tier will include features such as additional filters and custom location boundaries, giving users more control over who they see and where they meet people.

“It’s designed for women in particular, but also for price-sensitive users,” said Steve Bailey, chief financial officer of Match Group. “Remember that Hinge is one of the highest-priced products we have. The revenue per payer, for example, at Hinge is almost twice that of Tinder, around $30. It also has one of the lower payer penetrations. Its payer penetration is only slightly more than half that of Tinder.”

Match Group didn’t share how much the new subscription will cost. TechCrunch has reached out to the company for more details.

The move comes as dating apps continue to struggle to convince people to pay for services they’re growing tired of using. Between subscription fatigue, endless swiping, and frustration with the overall dating experience, users are increasingly questioning whether premium dating features are worth the money.

Interestingly, Hinge is making this move despite being one of Match Group’s strongest performers. The app had a much better quarter than Tinder, with global monthly active users growing 12% year over year, direct revenue increasing 19%, and paying users rising 23% to 2.3 million. The app generated $221 million in direct revenue and had 2.3 million paid subscribers as of the end of the quarter. Direct revenue is money earned from subscriptions and in-app purchases.

By comparison, Tinder brought in $480 million in direct revenue but experienced a slight 2% decline year-over-year, and although it has 8.9 million paid users, a 4% decline from a year earlier.

The lower-priced subscription could help Hinge build on that momentum by converting more users into paying customers without requiring them to spend as much upfront.

The move also marks a shift in Hinge’s subscription strategy. In 2023, the company experimented with a more expensive tier aimed at users willing to pay extra for features designed to help them get more out of the app. Now, it’s testing whether a more affordable option could appeal to a broader audience.

Still, cheaper subscriptions alone are unlikely to solve the bigger problem facing dating apps: user fatigue. Match Group says it’s seeing some signs of improvement, partly thanks to efforts to make its platforms feel less like traditional dating apps.

Recent initiatives include Group Hangouts and Events, which offer users alternative ways to connect beyond the usual one-on-one matching experience. Match Group plans to ramp up those efforts in the fourth quarter. 

Another initiative on the horizon is real-time adaptive recommendations, which the company plans to begin testing in the fourth quarter. Announced during its CEO Connection presentation in September, the feature will allow Tinder to respond to user actions within seconds rather than hours, with the goal of making recommendations more relevant and personalized.

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