Hinge tests a cheaper plan as users become more fed up paying for dating apps
- ID
- 42245
- Status
- summarized
- Published
- 03 Nov 2026, 8:14 AM
- Fetched
- 03 Nov 2026, 8:48 AM
- Provider
- TechCrunch
- Category
- technology
- Original URL
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/02/hinge-tests-a-cheaper-plan-as-users-become-more-fed-up-paying-for-dating-apps/
- Source URL
- https://techcrunch.com/feed/
Summary
- Score
- 2.5
- Created
- 03 Nov 2026, 8:48 AM
- Tags
- Audience
- saas_founders
What happened
On Match Group's Q3 2026 earnings call, CFO Steve Bailey said Hinge is testing a cheaper subscription tier that adds extra filters and custom location boundaries, aimed at "women in particular, but also price-sensitive users." Hinge's revenue per payer is around $30 — almost twice Tinder's — while its payer penetration is only slightly more than half of Tinder's; no price for the new tier was disclosed. Hinge still grew in the quarter: MAU up 12% YoY, direct revenue up 19% to $221M, paying users up 23% to 2.3M, versus Tinder's $480M direct revenue (down 2% YoY).
Why it matters
The concrete lesson for SaaS founders is the metric pair, not the dating app: Hinge charges roughly 2x Tinder per payer yet converts at about half the rate, and it is responding by adding a lower-priced entry tier rather than cutting the top price. If your own ARPP is high and payer penetration is flat, this is a worked example of attacking the entry tier instead of discounting your main plan — but nothing here changes what a developer ships this week.
Discussion angle
Hinge's ~$30 revenue per payer with roughly half of Tinder's payer penetration: would you add a cheaper entry tier or work on converting existing free users first, and what would you measure to know which worked?