Is Badoo Worth It for Men?

Badoo is worth a short test, and not worth paying for until the test gives you matches and real conversations. Whether it works for you depends on how many women near you are active on it, and Badoo does not publish a success rate for men. So the honest answer comes from your own two weeks, not from a review.

The main screen is Encounters. It shows you one woman at a time, with her photo first and her name, age and a few details beside it. Tap the heart to like her or the cross to pass. If she has liked you too, Badoo sends a match notification, and the chat opens in the Chats tab.

It is fast, and that speed is the risk. A man who decides on the first photo and nothing else will like women he has no interest in meeting. Give each card two honest seconds before you tap.

On top of the basic loop, Badoo sells two things. Premium is a subscription. It lets you see who likes you and gives the messages you send priority. It also adds a daily Crush, removes ads, lets you undo an accidental pass and removes the limit on filters. Premium also adds privacy options. You can browse privately, and you can hide from everyone except your existing matches.

Credits are bought separately and pay for extras, such as chatting with a woman before you match. We give no prices here, because they change and a stale number is worse than none. Read the plan screen on the day you buy.

Seeing who likes you is the feature that changes results. It turns guessing into choosing, because every heart you send from that list goes to a woman who has already shown interest.

a dating coach's rule for choosing an app is simple. Your results depend on whether the women on it are really looking to date, and the same app can be busy in one city and quiet in the next. Good game on an app full of inactive profiles works worse than decent game on an app where people want to meet.

So before you pay, look. Spend a few days in Encounters and check whether the women you see have clear, recent photos and details filled in. If most cards look abandoned, you have your answer without spending a cent.

You also do not have to be loyal to one app. My advice is to run more than one and let the results decide. A man who fails on one app and does well on another has learned something real about which pool suits him.

Paid features are multipliers. They multiply a result you already have, and they multiply zero just as faithfully. If your free week gives you a handful of matches and a few conversations, Premium may give you more of the same. If your free week gives you nothing, the fix is your photos and your first line, not a subscription.

coach is equally firm that refusing to pay for anything is a mistake. His point is that men underspend on dating, and that an app looks after its paying members. So test one paid feature for a short stretch, count the change, and drop it if the numbers do not move.

The first is liking nearly everyone. My warning applies to every app: when an app sees you like everybody, it tends to treat you as less attractive and has less reason to show you its best women. Liking fewer women, picked with care, usually improves results.

The second is a lazy first line. A match is permission to start talking, nothing more. Write one sentence about something in her photos or details, and ask a question she can answer in a line.

The third is chatting for weeks. The point is a date. After a few good exchanges, suggest a specific, easy plan near her, such as a drink on a weeknight.

Use your best photos, set a distance you would really travel, and use Badoo daily for two weeks. Record four numbers: women you liked, matches, conversations and dates set.

If the matches are there, keep going. If the conversations are there but the dates are not, fix how you ask. If almost nothing comes back, the pool near you is probably thin or your photos need work, and either way Badoo is not worth money yet.