Tinder, Hinge, OkCupid, Bumble and Feeld are all free to download and use, and Hinge lists the United Kingdom among the countries where it is available. Each one sells paid upgrades on top, so a free account is a starting point and not the whole product. For most men in the UK, the free version is enough to find out whether the apps work where they live.
What free gets you on each
| App | What the free version covers | What the paid tier adds |
|---|---|---|
| Tinder | Match, chat and connect | Plus, Gold and Platinum as paid upgrades |
| Hinge | Free to download and use, with a limited number of likes a day, and you see one incoming like at a time | Hinge+ and HingeX give unlimited likes and show all incoming likes at once |
| OkCupid | Accounts are entirely free, messaging is free once two people Like each other, and you see your mutual Likes for free | A few paid features on top |
| Feeld | Browse and connect with other members, and send chats, images and short videos to connections | The Majestic membership adds exclusive features |
| Bumble | Works well without paying, with a daily like allowance that refreshes after 24 hours | Boost adds unlimited likes, and Premium adds seeing who liked you and removes the allowance |
Every cell in that table is from the app's own help pages. We have left out prices on purpose, because they change.
Which of them names the UK
Hinge is the one that does. It keeps a public list of the countries where it is available, and the United Kingdom is on it. The list can change, so read Hinge's own page before you rely on it.
The help pages for the other four did not name the UK in what we read. That does not mean they are missing there. It means you should look at the app store on your phone, since an app that is offered to you is an app that runs where you are.
The free version of each, in plain terms
Tinder. Free lets you match, chat and connect. Plus, Gold and Platinum are optional.
Hinge. The regular version is free. The limit is in likes per day and in how you see the likes sent to you, one at a time.
OkCupid. This is the most generous free account of the five. It says accounts are entirely free and messaging costs nothing once two people Like each other.
Feeld. A free membership lets you browse and connect and send chats, images and short videos to your connections. Majestic is the paid tier.
Bumble. Its own words are that paid features are up to you and that it works great without them. The free allowance of likes refreshes after a day.
Where free runs out
The same thing runs out on almost every app: likes per day. Hinge limits free users to a select number of likes. Bumble gives free members a daily allowance. The paid tiers lift the limit and add ways to see who has already liked you.
You do not need either to find out if the app works. A man with decent photos and a limited number of likes should treat each one as worth a message.
Small towns and rural areas
Some men search for free dating sites in a particular county, which usually means a smaller place. The problem there is rarely the app. A small place simply has fewer people on any one of them.
The fix is to widen the distance you will travel. If you see the same few pages over and over, open the distance setting and drive further. A woman half an hour away is a perfectly good date.
How to get the most from a free account
- Start with two apps, not five. Two used properly beat five checked once a week.
- Get the photos right first. One clear face photo in daylight, plus a few showing a real life. This costs nothing and matters more than any upgrade.
- Write to the women you like. A short, specific first message beats a stack of unanswered likes.
- Pay only when free is clearly working. If likes run out while conversations are happening, a paid tier is a reasonable thing to test. a dating coach's view is that paying for dating site features is probably worth it in most cases when the price is sane, and that you find out by trying one cheaply.
Free is not the problem for most men. A page nobody answers is.
Written by Matthew Stevens, Co-Founder & Head Coach. More than half a decade coaching men across the US and worldwide.
Everything here comes out of real coaching work: the approaches, dates, texts and profiles we go through with the men we coach.