Bumble Premium vs HingeX: Which Is Worth It?

Neither one is better on its own, because they sit on two different apps and fix different problems. Bumble Premium shows you who already liked you and adds advanced filters, Incognito Mode and Travel Mode. HingeX takes the limits off Hinge: unlimited likes, every incoming like at once, and extra reach for the likes you send. Pay for the one on the app where you already get good results and where a free limit is actually holding you back.

Premium includes everything in Bumble Boost. Boost covers unlimited likes, a weekly supply of SuperSwipes and a Spotlight, Extend and unlimited Backtrack. Premium adds seeing who already liked you, advanced filters, Incognito Mode and Travel Mode. A tier above it, Premium+, adds photo insights, fast-tracking of your likes and priority in feeds, plus a weekly supply of Notes, SuperSwipes and Spotlights.

HingeX is easier to judge once you see what free Hinge limits. A free user can send only a limited number of likes a day, sees one incoming like at a time and gets only a small allowance of Undo Skips.

Those three limits are what HingeX removes. If you open Hinge, send your likes by lunchtime and sit idle for the rest of the day, you are the man HingeX is built for.

HingeX includes advanced preferences. A subscriber can filter Discover by height, children, family plans, education, politics, drinking, smoking, marijuana use, drug use and Signals badge. It also includes See Compatible People Sooner, Get Seen by More Daters and Priority Likes.

A Priority Like stays toward the top of the other person's Likes You list for a limited time, below any Rose. Use it for a woman you really want rather than for everyone.

HingeX is billed weekly, monthly, every three months or every six months. It renews automatically and can be paid through Hinge payment on iOS, the App Store or Google Play. Check the screen for the price on your own phone.

Start with the app, not the subscription. Open both and look honestly at which one shows you more women you would be glad to meet. A subscription makes the app you use better. It does not move the women you want onto a different app.

Then ask what is limiting you:

• If a daily like limit stops you, HingeX is aimed straight at it.
• If you want to see who already likes you, so you stop spending effort on women who are not interested, Premium does that on Bumble, and HingeX shows every incoming like at once on Hinge.
• If you want privacy or to browse another city, Premium has Incognito Mode and Travel Mode, and HingeX does not list either.

a dating coach says many men in the dating world hold a strong bias against paying for anything, and he thinks it holds them back. His reasoning is that these apps are businesses that earn money from paying members, so they have a reason to make the paid version worth it. He also says the more useful ability is controlling who you reach, rather than waiting for the app to decide.

He is just as clear that nobody should pay blindly. His advice is to test a paid feature, and to drop it if it makes no real difference.

Pick one app and one subscription. Before you pay, spend a week on the free version and note how many conversations turn into a plan. Then subscribe for one billing period, change nothing else and count again.

If the number rises, keep it. If it does not, cancel before it renews. The subscription cannot repair weak photos and an empty bio, so fix those first, because they decide what the extra reach is worth.