so I did something crazy I swiped over
139,000 times across multiple dating
apps like Hing Bumble and Tinder the
three layers of hell and dug through my
dating history data to find out are
dating apps pay to win wouldn't you like
to know honestly so would I but why well
besides the need to find love let's be
real we should probably take a closer
look at these dating apps the use of
these apps have skyrocketed in recent
years their prices are surging to
outrage levels and some of these
platforms are even facing serious
lawsuits so we need to find out do
dating apps actually help you find love
or are they just clever schemes to empty
your wallet which app if any gives you
the best bang for your buck and why does
Finding Love feel more challenging than
ever despite all this new technology
promising to make it easier the answers
to all this and more so whether you're
single have a single friend who annoys
you or just want to watch a nice video
before bed tuck yourself in get
comfortable because this is a story
about love money and the sexiest thing
on earth
data
daada
data for thousands of years humans have
been searching for one thing love love
for most is what gets you up in the
morning it's what saves you and your
darkest times and it's what motivates
you to become a better person it's
sparked peace it's ignited Wars and no
matter who you are you've likely been
affected by love or lack thereof it's
often said love and compound interests
are the two most powerful things in the
universe and that's probably why it's
sought after so much true real Pure Love
Is Life altering it's so profound it's
almost impossible to put into words and
Humanity has always tried to make sense
of it solve its mystery and find a way
to make it happen for most of human
existence finding love meant meeting
someone face to face whether through
work school or even at the cler but as
our world evolved so did the way we
search for connection entered the
internet and with it an entirely new
chapter in the story of dating modern
dating with online messaging email and
social media suddenly you could shoot
your shot with almost anyone anywhere
recognizing the potential of this new
frontier platforms like Match.com and
e-harmony launch focusing on fostering
genuine connections over the web and
before long a significant portion of
dating moved online but the real
Revolution came with fast-paced swipe
happy apps like Hot or Not Tinder
grinder Bumble and hinge these apps
didn't just move dating online they
gamified it creating a new kind of
instant addictive experience soon they
inspired hundreds of spin-offs tailored
to every Niche Farmers Only Christian
Mingle gluten-free singles you name it
now there's dating apps for pretty much
everyone even the rich people that hate
the poor and now finding love and
experiencing modern dating has gotten a
bit out of control traditional romance
feels outdated no pun intended so
Society is increasingly nudged singles
towards these platforms with the decline
of community spaces or third places like
cafes local Hangouts where people once
naturally met it's getting harder to
meet people with the rise of remote work
social media and online networking the
majority of our interactions now happen
through screens making dating apps the
next logical step for connecting and
generally speaking this new era presents
us with a lot of opportunities you can
meet people you might not have ever met
before and if you truly are gluten free
and want to meet somebody like you you
now have that option to meet that
specific person most popular dating apps
let you filter out things like whether
someone wants to have kids is religious
or is pet friendly and for some that's a
dream come true for those Looking For
Love or maybe even a hookup this can
save you a massive amount of time but as
with everything commercialization
happens abs like Tinder Bumble and hinge
are no longer about connecting people
they're businesses driven by making
money these are filled with premium
features that make you feel like paying
for a subscription will boost your
chances of finding love whether it's
more profile visibility unlimited swipes
or extra super likes these features
promise shortcuts to more matches love
or even getting it on now sure these are
businesses and they need to make money
but the cost has gone Bonkers inflation
has somehow hit dating apps with
subscription prices rising exceptionally
High to see who likes you on Tinder it
costs $40 a month Bumble premium is $40
a month hinge X is $50 a month and it
gets even crazier Tinder rolled out a
$500 a month subscription and now it
seems impossible to use many of these
apps without opening your wallet this
subject has brewed so much controversy a
class action lawsuit in the US was
launched earlier this year claiming that
dating apps like Tinder and hinge are
designed to addict users rather than
help them establish relationships and
are even predatory the plaintiff said
that match the owner of these apps and
many others defrauds those was looking
for love and their algorithm rewards
compulsive use on their platforms
therefore forcing the average user to
pay hundreds of dollars a year for these
subscriptions match group said quote
this lawsuit is ridiculous and has zero
Merit now I'm not one to make
assumptions and with this lawsuit going
on loneliness skyrocketing and me being
single I thought this would be a perfect
opportunity to look into this is this
really the key to connection or just
some cash grab well luckily I'm here a
man who puts his life Body and Soul on
the line for things he cares about a man
committed to finding love a man who's
got so much affection it hurts a man who
all right relax buddy to find out if
dating apps was really worth it my plan
was simple I needed to use these apps a
lot track my experience and find as much
data as I could to give you all enough
information to make an informed decision
a lot of people don't realize that you
can actually request your data from
these dating apps and you could find out
how many people liked you swiped how
many people you matched with and more
with this data my personal experiences
and a few extra steps we can actually
get some real answers about these dating
apps but before we get into my research
and break down each app and my findings
I have to talk to you about something
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have nearly 4 years of experience in
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sample our latest fragrance and believe
it or not after all these years I'm
still an advocate for good smells it's
often said that fragrance is like an
invisible accessory it can boost your
confidence spark attraction and even
serve as a conversation starter I'm
currently loving Versace AOS it's got
notes of Cedarwood tonka bean mint and
more honestly I love how it adds a tou
of me to my day what's crazy is back
when I was selling fragrances people
sometimes spent hundreds of dollars
trying to find their signature scent
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bird for sponsoring the video okay now
back to it now a few quick notes if this
wasn't already clear this data is raw
it's from the depths of modern dating
hell I'm saying this because I was on
these apps not just for the bit to me
that would be a bit psychotic if I
purposely swiped on thousands of people
for a video I only thought of making
this video and looking into my dating
history and the data and analyzing it a
few months ago I've got on real dates
made real friends and all of it has been
pretty genuine the point I'm making is
that this experience is pretty much as
real as it's going to get I also want to
emphasize this is only one piece of the
puzzle I'm one person living in Western
Pennsylvania now I do travel as much as
I can but my experience on dating apps
where I live may be different from
someone who lives in a place like Salt
Lake City or Paris plus I'm a guy I'm
not a female so I'm only offering 50% of
the story what might be great for me on
these apps might not be great for other
people in other cities or females now
with all that out of the way let's get
into the apps and my
findings insert door hinge joke here
okay for those of you who don't know
hinge markets itself as designed to be
deleted the app claims to focus on more
meaningful connections rather than
casual swiping unlike Tinder and Bumble
hinge uses prompts to encourage deeper
interactions and compatibility over the
years hinch has given us some iconic
memes so here's a couple
bang for many especially people around
my age hinge seemingly is the dating app
of choice for actual relationships if
Tinder is like diving into a shark tank
hinge is more like waiting through
jellyfish there's still a chance you'll
get your heartbroken and even die but at
least you're in slightly safer Waters
hinge has three versions the free
version hinge Plus at $30 a month and
hinge X at $50 a month hinge caps you
out on how many likes you have to access
a day so in order to have full access to
hinge you have to pay premium plans let
you see the full list of people who like
you offer priority likes unlimited daily
likes and give access to additional
dating preferences now it's worth noting
the highest tier hinge X claims you're
likely to get three times as more dates
with this plan now in my research I
couldn't find where they got this number
but I'm sure they have some internal
data that shows that this might be true
still I think it would be nice if the
data was public and a little bit more
accessible for people because let's be
honest it's a pretty bold claim three
times more dates that's a lot there's a
long-standing theory that hinge uses an
ELO system meaning the more likes and
matches you get the more likely your
profile is going going to be shown to
others creating a feedback loop of
visibility similarly fewer likes May
mean fewer appearances getting matches
from people with High ELO supposedly
boosts a quote desirability score
Landing you in hinges preferred user
section so this three times more dates
statement kind of implies hinge X boost
these apparent desirability scores
however hinge denies all of this stating
in many articles that no such system
exists of course all these theories
could be coincidental or even
self-serving bias where we'd rather
believe that an algorithm or AI is to
blame then accept that maybe we're just
not getting the likes that we hoped for
and instead blame external factors no
matter where you stand on the issue it's
still incredibly important to stay
informed and dig into the facts hinges
push towards premium subscriptions is
reason enough to look closely so let's
break it down as I mentioned before you
can get your data from hinge and these
dating apps after just a few steps and
we could use this to establish a
baseline I have to give hinge credit as
they were the quickest to get my data
out of all three of these apps I
requested it and received it in less
than 72 hours when it comes to analyzing
my swiping and match history I used a
website that breaks down your data into
cold hard numbers and the results were
enlightening over the course of my time
on the app a little over a year and a
half I sent out a total of
1,936 likes and received 90 matches of
the those 90 matches 84 came from people
I liked first meaning 4.34% of the likes
that I sent turned into matches the
remaining six matches were from people
who liked me first unfortunately this
data doesn't tell us how many total
likes I received just the likes that led
to matches which again was six if I had
to Ballpark I'd say it was probably a
couple hundred but who knows still the
data that they gave us reveal some
incredibly interesting takeaways first
the vast majority of matches over 9 3%
required me to take the initiative while
hinge does encourage Mutual interaction
the numbers show that you're likely to
see better results by actually swiping
rather than waiting for someone to like
you the fact that only six out of all my
interactions like me and L do matches
highlights how selective this process is
and possibly how tough it can be to
stand out on these apps to me after
seeing these numbers it's making me
think that maybe using these apps isn't
the most efficient way to connect with
people but more on that later with the a
baseline in place I decided to subscribe
to hinge X the $50 premium version I
wanted to see if this premium version
actually delivers on that promise of
getting three times as many dates or if
there's any real benefit for paying for
this app I had never subscribed to the
service before so I had no idea what to
expect but for over a week every day I
would swipe on 10 to 20 people to see if
I could get matches data and information
to compare during this period I sent out
105 likes from those I only got one
match a success rate of just
0.95% yikes less than 1% I was also
liked by seven people Which is higher
than usual for me unfortunately none of
those likes turned into matches I even
sent one super like or Rose and received
one as well but neither led to a match
so what did I actually find well with
hinge X it was pretty clear to me that
hinge was pushing my profile more I
consistently received at least one like
a day compared to the free version where
I would likely get like one to two a
week if that that said even with the
increased visibility the ability to
convert those likes into matches just
weren't there I also might have skewed
my premium results by liking that many
people a day according to previous data
I swiped over 1,900 times over 500ish
days that would be an average of around
3.59 swipes a day but I just wanted to
get the most out of the premium service
so I swiped a lot more but just so you
know if I swiped 3.59 times a day
assuming the results were the same I
still would have had a success rate of
around 3% which is a lower percentage
than my experience with the free version
so while hinge X may seem appealing I
believe the results don't necessarily
justify the cost if anything they
highlight that these apps often
overpromise while under delivering but
that's just hinge let's talk about
another
app next up is Bumble the app that
flipped traditional swiping on its head
the idea was simple Bumble put control
in women's hands making it the first
major dating app where only women can
start the conversation after a match the
simple twist made Bumble Stand Out
appealing to women who wanted a Fresh
Approach to online dating especially
those tired of unsolicited messages and
awkward opening lines what's crazy about
Bumble is that recently they've also had
a slew of controversy remember about 24
seconds ago where I said Bumble put the
control in women's hands well that's not
exactly the case anymore a couple years
ago Bumble launched a feature called
compliments which allowed users men
included to send a note before they
decide to connect which kind of defeats
that original idea doesn't it you might
be thinking why would they do that oh
right money initially you'd get a few
compliments for free then they limited
that and started charging people a ton
to compliment others it seems like the
company got pushed back a lot on this
because I could not find a way to
purchase compliments in fact it gave me
no option to do so but there was still
an option to send them just not bu so if
I'm reading between the lines I believe
they're quietly removing this feature
but don't worry Bumble is still trying
to make money in other ways like kinge
they have a Premium plan their plan
includes the ability to see who liked
you unlimited likes super swipes and
free boosts interestingly the prices of
this plan vary a lot According to some
Bumble prices depend on regions age sex
and more now I don't know if this is
entirely true but when I purchased it
was a different price than what it is
right now and even some articles and
Reddit users all have different sets of
prices they could just be constantly
changing their prices but who knows so I
can't tell you the exact current price
for everybody but I can tell you how
much I spent and if it was worth the
bang for your buck so how much did I
spend
$250 you absolutely suck I know
ridiculous but I got a lifetime
subscription to Bumble and when I
purchased this I calculated that if I
was single for more than a year it would
essentially pay for itself so who's
laughing now
you absolutely suck jackass because of
this I have a lot of experience with
Bumble premium however we ran into a
slight problem Bumble is taking forever
to provide me with my data hinge and
you'll see later Tinder just took a few
days to get me my data and I've been
waiting weeks for Bumble so we're going
to circle back to this hopefully in a
few
[Music]
days hi I'm Ken Swizz ever need a time
machine it's real something crazy is
laughing okay me from the future here
after 20 days Bumble has finally sent me
my data I don't know why it took that
long but we finally have it so let's dig
into the numbers so during my time on
Bumble I swiped a total of
58,5 184 times saying yes to
2,857 people and no to
36726 people on the flip side side 373
people swiped yes on me while
15,23 swiped no ouch that means that
just 2.39% of people who encountered my
profile chose to swipe right also
according to bumbles data I've only had
seven matches but that seems to be
incorrect because I currently have 26
matches in the system right now and I'm
confident that over the time I've used
Bumble I've had significantly more
hypothetically though if we use that 26
as a number to find my overall match
rate my overall match rate would just be
0.044% of all the swipes I made a
shockingly low number without a question
Bumble has been the least successful
dating app for me compared to others now
having said that and seeing that low
percentage point you might think what's
the point well I really don't think that
these numbers paint the whole picture
for Bumble I've had a lot of quality
conversations connections dates
friendships come from Bumble so even
though the numbers aren't necessarily on
my side in this equation I definitely do
think that I've gotten my fair share of
use out of it and I've had some really
good connections now unfortunately
Bumble doesn't provide as much detailed
data as other apps like hinge and Tinder
so I can't really establish a clear
Baseline to compare my results before
upgrading to premium that said I can
confidently say I've experienced more
success with with Bumble premium than
without it despite my overall low
results I pretty much always noticed a
significant spike in likes whenever I
used my weekly boost included with
premium in fact if I had to put a number
on it around 90% of my likes during my
time with premium came directly from
that Weekly boost with all that being
said Bumble premium feels a lot like
Hing X to me you do get an increase
invisibility though I'm not sure that
that increase is significant enough to
justify the cost
however I do think that it's really nice
that Bumble offers that onetime purchase
to own it outright if you're projecting
you're going to be single for a bit or
maybe you just want to like play the
field for the time being then that
onetime purchase is definitely an easier
pill to swallow than shelling out a
monthly fee but that's everything about
Bumble let's try another
app Tinder is by far the largest and
most popular dating app and to me the
most interesting to research Tinder has
four sl5 tiers free plus gold platinum
and select free is free the app has ads
you get capped out on how many times you
can swipe you can't see who swiped you
have limited preferences you can select
and it's the basic version of Tinder now
after that it gets a little complicated
essentially plus lets you swipe an
unlimited amount of times gold lets you
see who swiped you Platinum does all
that gives you free boost priority likes
and more finally Tinder select is that
$500 a month plan that is absolutely
insane it's invite only plus you have to
fill out an application to get approved
after the invite now Tinder does claim
that this package offers users perks
Beyond those granted to the average
swiper but I'm sorry unless this plan
comes with a guarantee that Modern
Baseball will get back together I'm
never paying $500 a month for a dating
app God damn it so I'm not kidding I
actually had Tinder reach out to me this
summer and invite me to Tinder select
and for science I went ahead and tried
to see if I can get approved I wanted to
see if I could just get approved
honestly I never intended to pay $500 a
month for it but I wanted to have that
ability in my pocket as I was in the
early stages of ideation for this video
so I had to apply and I actually got
approved now interestingly I never
realized I received this email until I
sat down and started working on this
video and now unfortunately when I went
to use my approval and try out this
ridiculous subscription they said they
were no longer accept applications so I
guess I missed out but don't worry I
have a lot of other data on tinder's
most popular subscriptions back in the
day me and my single Frugal Pier would
use this one trick that Tinder hated
essentially Tinder would offer Tinder
gold for a massive discount for the
first month something like 50% off so
instead of paying $40 to see who liked
your profile you could just pay 20 what
I and many others would do is subscribe
to this and then instantly cancel Tinder
would then send you the same offer a
couple days later so essentially you can
get access to real full Tinder at a 50%
discount if you were on the ball for
those rolling their eyes come on paying
full price for dating apps in this
economy ridiculous anyways over the last
year or so I and many others have done
this on and off until Tinder seemingly
caught on and changed the deal to Tinder
Platinum so you still get a discount but
now you're spending an extra $5 and you
get platinum instead of gold now
originally this annoyed me but this is
actually where I got the idea for this
video with Tinder adjust their
discounted package I now have a boatload
of data of me using Tinder gold platinum
and the free version huh take that
Tinder so I asked for my data it only
took a few days to get and to analyze it
I used a website called swipe stats and
the findings were pretty fascinating in
January and February I used free Tinder
and average three matches a month from
March to may I upgraded to Tinder gold
which bumped my average to 4.6 matches a
month then from June to October I
subscribed to Tinder platinum and saw a
significant jump averaging 14.6 matches
a month statistically Tinder Platinum
actually got me more matches like a lot
more matches and this really shocked me
now looking at the rest of my data
because I've been on Tinder for a while
I also saw some other interesting things
two jues ago I experienced a similar
surge in matches but it still didn't
compare to the recent Spike during my
Platinum subscription another intriguing
detail is that even though I had more
matches during this Platinum period i
swiped on on fewer people overall was
Tinder showing me better quality matches
because I was paying for platinum maybe
I can't say for certain but the data is
definitely interesting to see now for
the sake of transparency there were a
few days during those months where I
didn't have an active premium
subscription I would occasionally cancel
and wait for them to offer that discount
but this was only like 2 or 4 days at a
time so I still got 95% of the month in
with a premium subscription and honestly
I think that's enough data to find a
good representation of if these
subscriptions are actually worth it or
not additionally in January and February
I did use a gold pass for 7 days which
essentially just let me look at who
liked me during that time but
predominantly during that time it was
all Tinder free another thing I noticed
during my time on Tinder was the number
of matches I got from Bots or people
promoting their side hustles at first
glance it may seem obvious if you
carefully examin a profile but let's be
real we've all been there you're in the
middle of a swiping session you see
someone attracts and you just swipe
without thinking too much into it then a
few days later you get a match only to
realize it's not a real person also I
have no problem with people to do the
side hustles I just think it's a little
bit unethical to promote that on Tinder
where people are trying to find
relationships or actual hookups just
saying this happened to me so many times
no matter which level of Tinder I was
using it's also worth noting that both
Tinder platinum and gold included one
free monthly boost and honestly that's
when I got a majority of my likes and
matches for example just the other day
in preparation for this video I used a
boost and got 14 likes in a single
session these boosts really skew the
results which does raise the question is
it better to just buy boosts instead of
a subscription regular boosts might
actually be a decent investment if you
use them strategically during Peak
activity times buying five boosts for
$34.99 might deliver more value than
paying full price for platinum but
that's just one piece of the puzzle so
what are my overall conclusions about
paying for these apps and these premium
services are dating apps PID to win well
I'd say sort of I wish I could tell you
that the free versions of these apps are
just as effective as the premium
versions but they're not in most cases
hinge Bumble and Tinder I did notice
better results with a premium
subscription sometimes it would be more
likes sometimes it would be more matches
sometimes it was just an overall better
user experience however I still don't
think the premium subscriptions for any
of these apps are truly worth the price
tag so let me be clear this is far from
an endorsement for any of these premium
service dating apps if anything it's the
opposite these apps are expensive and
frankly they overpromise on a lot it's
clear that many of these algorithms are
designed more to get you to keep paying
than actually help you find matches so
it's no surprise then that some of these
companies are being sued and labeled as
predatory they target Lonely People
convincing them that paying for a
subscription will dramatically improve
their chances of finding a connection
but here's the darker truth most people
who have success with dating apps are
probably going to have success whether
they pay for them or not and the same
can be said for people that aren't
having luck there might be an issue with
their pictures prompts or maybe they
just come across better in person
personally I feel like I come across
better in video or in person than I do
in photos some people just don't take
great pictures and paying hundreds of
dollars for these Services isn't going
to fix that I've had success with both
the free and premium versions of these
apps and honestly based on the data I've
gathered despite better results I don't
think there's enough significant
difference that justifies paying for
these apps of course there are a few
exceptions if you're in a new city for a
weekend and don't want to waste days or
weeks waiting for matches paying to skip
the process could be beneficial the same
logic applies if you're looking for a
really specific type of partner still
this entire industry feels very
questionable a lot of the marketing used
by these apps is outright misleading and
it's no wonder they're often in the news
and facing scrutiny personally I think
these apps would be better if they were
all free with ads with an option for an
adree version and let's say boost on the
side blocking basic features behind a
pay wall hiding certain profiles and
claiming you'll have more success if you
pay is the definition of pay to win that
said this is worse on some apps more
than others despite Bumble taking
forever to get my data and the fact I
had an incredibly low match rate
percentage I like that Bumble offers
lifetime access to its premium version
and I think all apps should have that
option to me I think Bumble is actually
the best bang for your buck they seem
upfront about things while hinge and
Tinder really seem to oversell how much
their premium subscriptions will help
your odds of success finally I think
this highlights the need to explore
dating app Alternatives I know I know
this might seem off the table for some
people in today's world but if love is
the endgame for most then maybe it's
worth stepping out of your comfort zone
and trying to do something different F
your shot you never know I'm just some
dude on the internet I'm not going to
give relationship advice but I will say
this the happiest I've ever felt in my
life was when I was taking risks even
the small ones whether going on stage to
do karaoke joining a new club or
striking up a random conversation with a
stranger you never know where it's going
to lead who knows it might even lead to
finding your soulmate or at the very
least someone to spend the night with as
always thank you so much for watching a
special thanks to sbird for sponsoring
this video don't forget to get 55% off
your first month use code Zachary or
click the link down below again that's
Zachary or click the link down below and
a special thanks to my patreon
supporters without you none of this
would be possible I very much appreciate
it you have no idea again as always
thank you so much for watching and I
will see you all next time
[Music]