What’s wrong, my child? You look troubled. What’s that? Do you seek more wisdom? The answer to one of life’s oldest questions? What’s better: Hinge or Tinder? Well, you’ve come to the right guy.
Many people think that Hinge is part of Tinder, but, let’s be clear, they are entirely different apps. Hinge is not a part of Tinder. In fact, there are many things that make the two apps incredibly different.
But which one is the best for you? Well, stick around and we’ll take a look at the things that make Hinge different from Tinder and see which one you think is the best for you.
If this is your first time hearing about Hinge, I’d recommend starting with this article that gives you the basics and if you feel like neither Tinder nor Hinge is right for you, have a look at this list of all the great dating apps out there.
So let’s get started: Hinge VS Tinder.
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Hooking Up
Is Hinge A Hookup App?
The first thing you want to look at when you’re trying to find the app is whether it’s for hookups or serious relationships.
Hinge’s tagline is “designed to be deleted” and they call themselves “the only dating app”, so it really does take long-term relationships seriously. So, quick answer, no: Hinge is not a hookup app.
In fact, it’s where presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg met his husband, Chasten.
Hinge works differently from other dating apps.
Instead of using the usual swiping formula, they ask you questions about the partner you’re looking for and take some information from your Facebook profile (although linking to Facebook is optional), and use their algorithm to match you with someone you’ll genuinely like.
It then has more of an Instagram type, where you’ll scroll through content posted by your potential matches and comment to get the match started.
Is Tinder A Hookup App?
Tinder has been around for longer than Hinge and is by far the most well-known dating app out there. This means that it has a much larger user base.
Tinder uses the traditional swiping mechanism to match with people based pretty much entirely on hotness.
Of course, not everyone on Tinder is there purely for hookups, but for the most part, you’re pretty safe to say that Tinder is used as a hookup app by a lot of people.
Tinder also has a lot more younger users than Hinge and it’s a scientific fact that younger people are hornier… probably.
But this brings us to our next section:
Age Groups
What Age Group Is Hinge For?
Hinge’s CEO says that his target audience is young professionals, looking for a serious relationship, aged between 25 and 35, and he’s pretty because, in actual fact, the average Hinge user is a young professional aged between 25 and 32.
Of course, this isn’t the only age group, and much younger and older folk also regularly use the app.
The average age of the users should be a guide only, don’t let it put you off.
As the app takes such care to ask you what you’re looking for in a partner, it’s not going to match you with a fist-shaking Boomer, Harry Potter-worshipping Millennial, or SoundCloud rap-loving Zoomer unless you want it to.
What Age Group Is Tinder For?
Tinder is huge. Everyone has heard of Tinder and according to these statistics, a lot of y’all have tried it. That kind of makes the average age range irrelevant. It just depends on who’s using it in your area.
But let’s take a look and see just how many people are using Tinder. In the USA, the most common age group on Tinder is 33 to 44, with a stunning 19% of all Americans in that age group have used it.
The next most common group is 18 to 27-year-olds, with an almost equally impressive 15% of people that age having used it.
This just shows how vast the amount of people using Tinder is, which is one of the biggest differences between Hinge and Tinder.
So we see that people in their mid-30s love Hinge and people in their mid-40s love Tinder. But what if you’re older than that?
Where’s the love for the over-40s? Right here, baby. There’s a site for everyone out there, you’ve just got to find it.
Features
Like Limits
Free users on Hinge are limited to 10 likes per day. If you decide Hinge is worth paying for, you’ll be given unlimited likes.
This is where Tinder really shines, with free users being able to like 100 profiles every 12 hours. Again, if you go premium, they will, of course, be unlimited.
Preferences
Hinge’s selling point is that it listens to what you’re looking for and matches you with people you’ll get on with, so they have a butt-load of more preference options than Tinder.
That said, free users on Hinge are also limited in what preferences they can set. You’re welcome to set what age, location, gender, height, ethnicity, and religion you want without a premium account, but to get more detailed you’ll have to pay.
Premium users are able to choose additional preferences like children, weight, politics, and drugs. So if you’re desperate for an obese Libertarian with a heroin problem, you’re going to have to spring for premium.
Profiles
Hinge limits you to six photos or videos, which is slightly less than Tinder. Hinge bios are made up of three ‘prompts’ that you answer in under 150 characters.
This can definitely take away some of that bio-anxiety that comes with having to write about yourself.
In order to be active on Hinge, you have to have all six photos and three prompts.
Tinder gives you up to nine photos. The bio is free-form and has up to 500 characters.
So in total, there’s only a fifty-character difference.
Unlike Hinge, you only need to upload one photo and you don’t need to write any bio in order to start chatting to people.
Is Tinder Or Hinge Better?
As always, this question depends on what you’re looking for. If you’re a young professional, looking for something a little more serious than a fling, or are looking for a serious relationship, I’d definitely recommend Hinge. If you’re just looking for fun or very casual dating, Tinder is probably slightly the better option.
I hope this article helped and that you now know the right dating app for you. If you’re still confused try my quiz and see what our all-knowing algorithm thinks will work for you.
Until next time, safe dating!
