Owned by Match Group, Hinge has a user base of primarily Millennials, or folks in their late 20s and 30s to early 40s. Like its parent site, the app is geared toward people who are interested in serious dating experiences. I’ve personally used the app in my own dating life, and today I’m sharing my full Hinge review. We’ll cover everything you need to know in order to decide if this dating app is right for you, plus whether the Hinge premium membership is worth it.

There are reported to be 23 million users on Hinge, with over 800,000 premium users—and, according to licensed counselor Jack Worthy, LMHC, Hinge is the app that comes up when folks are talking about serious relationships: “Tinder is for hookups. Hinge is for relationships.” 

Licensed relationship and sex therapist, Nikquan Lewis, agrees, but says experiences can vary from person to person. “It has been my clinical experience that a lot of people utilize this specific app to gain meaningful connections,” she explains. “I've had clients meet their partners on this app and eventually get married. I've also had clients struggle on this app but that has a lot to do with today's dating pool in general.”   

Perhaps not quite as serious as Match.com, Hinge is still geared toward people who want to put significant effort into their dating lives. The app has a long list of prompts to build your profile, and daters can choose to interact with each others’ photos, videos, or prompt responses to spark a conversation. When creating your profile, you can answer the question prompts with text or audio, which adds another layer of depth versus other apps that are primarily photo-based.

In terms of filters and settings, you’ll be able to set location, age, and gender preferences with Hinge’s free membership, but you’ll need to pay for the premium service to get more specific with parameters such as height, political views, and whether they smoke or drink. With the free membership, you’ll still have the ability to display your basic details (sexuality, gender, job, education, religious beliefs, hometown, dating intentions, political affiliation, etc.) and view those of other users.

Setting up a profile is very easy. You’ll just need to enter those basic details, select three prompts from the list, and add six photos. You can choose to use videos instead of photos, and can leave certain details blank if you do not wish to share things like where you went to school, whether you have kids, or what your current job is.

Once you have your profile created, you’ll be able to look through profiles one by one. If you like someone’s photo or a response they’ve shared to a prompt, you can choose to send them a like or give them a rose (which is essentially the same thing as a Super Like on Tinder, if you're familiar). You have the option to add a comment or response to their photo or prompt, or to simply send the like. 

Once you receive likes or messages from other users, you can review them and decide if you’d like to match and allow them to start the conversation, if you’d like to start it yourself, or if you’d prefer to say no to the like. I’ll note that, despite this being a dating app for more serious daters, I’ve had quite a few “likes” received with no message other than just an emoji or two.

Hinge has a free membership option that works well and personally, meets my dating app requirements. There are also two premium options: 

Hinge+: Costs $15 per month and includes unlimited likes, seeing who likes you, fine-tuning preferences, and having more ways to discover matches. 

While I personally find success with the free membership option, I can see why Hinge+ would be beneficial for some. For example, I don’t swipe often enough to run out of likes on a normal basis, so the unlimited likes feature is not something I feel the need for. Additionally, I like to have an open mind about my potential matches, so I don’t find myself wanting to be able to set a more rigid list of preferences. That said, for people who do want access to more likes, or the ability to set specific preferences such as religion or height, Hinge+ would be worth it.

I’ve used Hinge for almost three years now, and my experience has been fairly mixed. I’ve met some people I thought were good connections, who later ghosted me out of nowhere, or who thought they were ready for a relationship before realizing they actually weren’t.

I also matched with several people who, despite hoping for a better connection, just didn’t line up in person or in texts. I will say, though, I see a level of maturity in many of my matches on Hinge that I don’t see on other dating apps. I’ve actually been able to remain friends with one former match, even though things didn’t work out romantically.

On the other end, there are of course scammers to be wary of, as there would be with any online dating experience. I met one person on Hinge who lied about their location and many other factors—and this experience even caused me to take over a year off from the app.

Our commerce editor, Carleigh Ferrante, says Hinge is the app that made her get more serious about dating. She was using other dating apps for years and never found anything that lasted for more than just a few dates. After interviewing countless experts, including behavioral scientist and Hinge's director of relationship science, Logan Ury, on her dating podcast, Ferrante decided to focus her dating energy solely on Hinge—and, once she put a bit more effort into her profile and got more intentional with her swiping, she was shocked by how quickly she met serious contenders on the app (one of which led to her first serious relationship in years).