Plenty of Fish vs Tinder: Which Is Better for Guys?

Tinder is better for a man with strong photos who wants the biggest crowd and is happy to swipe. Plenty of Fish is better for a man who wants to search for the women he actually wants to meet and message his matches without paying. Asked as POF vs Tinder or Tinder vs POF, the question has no single answer, because both depend on how many women near you are active. Neither app publishes a figure for how many men get dates, so we will not invent one. Test both for two weeks.

Plenty of Fish gives you two ways in. Search works at every membership level and filters by distance, age and other details. You set the range and look through the women who fit. Meet Me is the swiping side, where you like or pass on women one at a time.

Tinder has one way in. You swipe right on a card to like her, and if she likes you back, it is a match. Its recommendations draw on your location, your age and distance, your preferences and your Likes and Nopes.

Most men on Plenty of Fish go straight to Meet Me and never use search. That wastes the best thing the app has.

A free Plenty of Fish account does the whole basic loop. You search, you like, you match, you talk and you plan a date. When a woman you liked also likes you, that mutual match gives you unlimited messaging. You need a main photo before you can send any message.

The limit is the first message. If you write to a woman you have not matched with, it is her choice to answer or like you back. If she does neither, you cannot keep writing. Your first line counts, because you get one.

Tinder's own help page says its free version lets you match, chat and connect. Only mutual Likes can chat, and messaging before matching is a Platinum feature, according to Tinder's FAQ. The paid tiers are Plus, Gold and Platinum. Plenty of Fish's are Plus, Premium and Prestige, and seeing everyone who likes you comes with those.

This is where the two split, and nobody can settle it from outside your town.

a dating coach says Tinder has more of a hookup reputation than Hinge or Bumble, and that in major US cities it carries a lot of fake profiles. In much of Europe it is still the app almost everyone uses.

a dating coach's rule for choosing an app is that your results depend on whether the women on it are really looking to date. Good skills on an app full of fakes and women who are not looking produce less than ordinary skills on an app where women want to meet. He does not rate Plenty of Fish, so we will not either.

You can judge it yourself. On Plenty of Fish, run a search for the women you would want to meet and see whether the results look active and real, with clear, current photos. On Tinder, look at who you are shown in an evening.

Tinder is fast. A card shows a face and a short line, and a dating coach says it leans on photos more than longer-form apps. A man with a boring, average page gets the average result, which is few matches.

Plenty of Fish is slower and gives you more to read. A woman's page tells you more, so you can write a better first line. The cost is that you need to write a short line that names one real detail from her page and ends on a question she can answer in one sentence.

Tinder says being active is the most important thing a user controls, because it prioritizes people who are active at the same time. If you will only open an app twice a month, Tinder works against you. Plenty of Fish asks less of you on timing and more of you in what you write.

Tinder suits a man who has a varied set of good photos, is on the app most days and does not mind that most swipes go nowhere.

Plenty of Fish suits a man who wants to control his search, lives somewhere with enough active members, and is willing to write one good first message instead of a stream of casual ones. It does not suit a man looking for a short cut. If your photos are dark, cropped or years old, neither app hides that.

a dating coach's rule for any paid tier is that it multiplies what you already have. A man who gets likes and replies on a free account will get more of both. A man who gets nothing will get nothing to more people.

He is also clear that never paying holds men back, because apps look after paying members. So test cheaply. If the free account gives you a few real conversations a week and you wish you could see who liked you, a short stretch of a paid tier is a fair experiment. Count what changes and drop it if nothing does.

Use the same photos on both. Lead with a clear, recent shot of your face in daylight, then add two that show what you do in a normal week.

For two weeks, count four things on each app: women you liked, matches, replies and plans. When a chat is going well, move it toward a place and a day within a few texts. a dating coach's range is about four to seven short messages, each with a purpose.

Keep the app that gave you dates with women you were glad to meet. If your numbers are flat on both, change one thing, usually the lead photo, and count again.