| 11 million members | 11,000 active/weekly |
| 4/5 hookup chance | High Sex Chance |
| low fraud risk | Verification phone number, Faceboo |
| $8.99 - $79.98 subscription price |
As the creators of the platform put it, Bumble is not just an app but a movement. After experimenting with the app for a while, I figured that they do have a point. The service is available on the web and as a mobile app for iOS and Android and comes in three variations: Biz for business networking, BFF for finding new friends, and Bumble Date for serious relationships and casual hookups. Although I did play with the first two services too, my Bumble review is about dating.
One thing that makes Bumble stand out the most is that only women can initiate the conversations. It uses the same swipe left or right concept as many other dating apps, but with a woman empowering approach. As a woman, you get to choose who you want to chat with right from the start, while men can finally relax and take the pressure off their shoulders. No more worrying about making the first move and impressing the lady!
But not everyone agrees that Bumble is a good place for a woman to find her prince charming. Philip Wegmann, a staff writer at The Federalist, criticizes the service:
“Bumble promises women empowerment and an emotional connection. Instead, it provides an avenue for objectification and emotional apathy. Basically, it’s the worst.”
Also, although the app is LGBT-friendly, I was not impressed with the amount of potential same-sex matches.
If we’re talking about the Bumble vs Tinder battle, I will personally give Bumble one extra point for the cool and modern approach to dating that encourages women to be more active. And unless you are an ardent supporter of the old-fashioned values or you are the man who prefers to be in control all the time, chances are that you will love the Bumble concept too. At least, it’s worth checking out.
Affordability
★★★☆☆
Frankly speaking, Bumble’s subscription is a bit expensive but the good news is that you can enjoy all the essential features of the service without paying for it. In my opinion, the premium features are not always worth paying for. The dating platform has two types of paid services: subscription to activate Bumble Boost and Bumble Coins that you can use to pay for the Super Swipe and Spotlight features. As for the subscriptions, you may also choose to pay just once and use the paid benefits for a lifetime.
Free Services
In my opinion, you can enjoy the flawless use of Bumble without paying anything. As a woman, you will be able to swipe, like, match, and initiate conversations with men. As a guy, you can do the same (except for messaging first) and answer back to the girls that wrote you. Video and voice chats are also available for free.
Paid Services
There are two paid services in Bumble: Bumble Boost and Bumble Coins.
By enabling Bumble Boost you can:
- See who liked you.
- Extend your matches and have extra 24 hours to come up with a good pick-up line.
- Rematch with any of your expired matches.
You can use Bumble Coins to SuperSwipe your match and make sure they know you’re into them or make your profile more visible.
So what about the prices? As for the Bumble Boost, prepare to pay $9.99 per week, $19.99 per month, $45 for 3 months, or $129.99 for the lifetime. 5 Bumble Coins will cost you $7.99, 10 Coins are $19.99, and you can buy 20 coins for $34.99. When you buy some coins for the first time, you get 2 more Coins for free. You can pay for all the services with your credit card, Google Wallet or PayPal.
I believe there’s just one occasion that is worth paying for. When you miss your chance to get in touch with the person (you only have twenty-four hours to initiate the conversation from the moment you match), with the Bumble Boost premium feature you can extend your match and fix the situation.
Audience quality
★★★★☆
When it comes to rating dating apps, the audience is probably the most important criteria. I have to say that I really enjoyed chatting with people on Bumble and quickly got several date invitations in just a few days of communicating. Both girls and guys are generally easy-going, funny and ready to hit it up offline. Plus, the majority of users have verified profiles.
Of course, it is possible to use Bumble to find a sex date. While it is clearly not a problem to hook up with somebody and end up having a hot one night stand using Bumble, this is not a promise. The app positions itself as a service that promotes serious relationships, but since it is still based on the swiping concept, finding a fling is also possible — just be honest about it and don’t mislead the other users. However, if you’re looking for sex exclusively I suggest you read the Fling.com reviews to find a hookup-focused dating service.
Age distribution
Just like on the other non-thematic dating platforms, the audience on Bumble is mainly on the younger side. But not too young: the majority of the users are between twenty and thirty-ish.
Fakes and scammers
I haven’t come across a single fake or scam profile on Bumble — or I just haven’t noticed them. The service offers a really fast and easy verification procedure, so most of the people go through with it. Additionally, in the Settings section, you can choose to only show verified profiles or urge the person to undergo the verification procedure in just one click.
Interface
★★★★☆
Bumble’s interface is simple and intuitive: you won’t find too many confusing settings, everything is cut to the chase. Signing up will take you less than five minutes and user profiles are equipped with all the basic info that allows you to get an impression of the person. You can only use two filters and see the matches from the country that you’re in at the moment.
The mobile app and the web version are almost identical but the mobile one is more convenient to use.
Signing up
Bumble registration is fast and easy and you can use either your phone or Facebook account to sign up. If you choose to use your phone number, you’ll get a message and the app will automatically detect it and log in by itself (magic!). If you wish to use your Facebook page, don’t worry that your friends will know everything about your secret dating plans, the app will not post anything on your page. Your profile pictures will be imported automatically. When you sign up with the phone number, you will need to add photos manually.
After you’re done with pictures, you can specify how you identify yourself. You understand that the app takes your gender identity seriously when they offer seventy-six (seventy-six, Carl!) gender terms to choose from: Agender to Cisgender Woman (honestly, I had no idea that half of them exist) and you can even suggest adding another option. Also, you can choose to hide your gender whatsoever.
When you have solved this gender riddle, you need to fill in your birth date and first name. In case you login with Facebook, Bumble will find this info automatically. The next step is to fill in your recovery email and decide if you wish to receive Bumble updates. And don’t forget to check your inbox to confirm the email. Then create a strong password, repeat it and you’re signed up.
Before you start using the service, you are required to choose which one you’re after: BFF or Date. Don’t sweat it out, you can change the direction later in the settings. We’re obviously going with the dating experience and you can choose who you are interested in: men, women, or everyone. By the way, if you’re looking for a threesome, you’ll have more luck with this on the Threesome app.
The last part before your Bumble dating begins is to confirm you’re ready to be kind, tolerant and respectful. While all this is nice for the community, some might find it a bit tiring to fill in all these forms and answer questions. If you’re one of them, you might want to take a look at Pure, an app which does not require long registration and lets you find a partner to have some good time asap.
Profile
The profiles in Bumble are well-organized: not too many useless lines to fill in. You’ll have your photo section and can add pictures manually or via your Facebook page. If you send a selfie with a thumb up gesture, they will verify your identity in seconds. This is not mandatory, but Bumble is definitely not the kind of service that is popular with fakes and scammers like Adult friend finder.
Then you can choose to answer three questions that will give other people some idea about your personality. For example, these profile prompts include “We’ll get along if…”, “Nightclub or Netflix” and “Two truth and a lie”.
The profile has a traditional “About me” field where you can write a few sentences to catch people’s attention. In my experience, this always increases your chances to match with people as you’re showing some efforts and not just using the app because you’re bored to death.
You can also specify your work, education, and basic info such as height, religion, star sign, smoking and drinking habits. You can specify where you live at the moment and where you are from originally, and change your gender but you’re only allowed to do it twice, so choose from all those 76 options carefully.
Also, you can connect your Instagram and Spotify accounts, and then your profile will show a selection of your IG photos and favorite music artists.
Searching
There is no classic search option, instead you can browse through the profiles that the app offers you based on the filters that you’ve set. Then you can swipe right if you like what you see, or swipe left when you’re not that interested.
In the Settings menu you can filter people based on gender, age and location. You can add up to two advanced filters like height, exercise habits, star sign, political view. If you’ve got no matches on Bumble, try changing the search settings.
One of my Bumble tips is to turn on the snooze mode if you’re tired of the whole dating thing. Your matches will not disappear and you can get back to them after the break. Dating can be exhausting, and sometimes we all need some time to restart the system.
Chat
Once you match with someone, you’ll have 24 hours to get in touch, and they will have 24 hours to answer back. You can check all the people who liked you back in the Bumble match queue. There you will see all the matches including those that have expired.
Apart from the regular text chats, Bumble offers video and voice calls. Also, you can always double-check if you’re being catfished. Or receive an unwanted dickpick — but oh well, that happens even to the best of us. Remember, you can always unmatch or block the user if you don’t feel like talking to them anymore.
Mobile App
The mobile app is available for both iOS and Android platforms and has all the important features of the web version including:
- Editing the profile.
- Adding pictures.
- Verifying the profile.
- Sending messages.
- Backtracking in case you swiped left when you didn’t mean it (just shake your phone).
- Checking out Beeline.
- SuperSwipe.
- Using Bumble Boost, Spotlight and Bumble Coins.
I personally prefer using the mobile app as it is just more convenient and common.
Special Features
There are a few interesting premium features on Bumble that you can pay for. Although they are a bit pricey, some people might find them beneficial.
Beeline
Beeline is where Bumble gathers people who liked you but haven’t got a positive response from you just yet. In the free version you will only see you how many admirers you have at the moment, and the pictures of them will be blurred. However, if you pay for the subscription, you’ll get to see who they are.
Super Swipe
SuperSwipe is a paid feature you can use to notify a person that you are very much interested in having a chat with them. In theory, it increases your chances to get a mutual like.
Spotlight
The Spotlight feature will make your profile visible to more people for 30 minutes, and they will have no idea that you paid for it. Your profile will be shown more often even if they swiped left before. I have to admit, it may be a bit annoying when you have to swipe them left over and over again, so be careful with this feature.
Backtrack
In case you swiped left when you didn’t mean it, you can shake your mobile phone to Backtrack on your last swipe. In the web version, you can tap the two arrows icon. They are limited, though: you have only three Backtracks for every three hours, then they are restored. You can also get additional Backtracks if you share the info about Bumble on your social media accounts.
Security and privacy
★★★★☆
Bumble is serious about its security and privacy measures and I haven’t found any alarming information about it. Plus, you can always check the Bumble Reddit community for more reviews.
You are not required to add your Social Media platforms, but you can connect your Facebook, Instagram and Spotify accounts if you wish. If you choose to sign up with a phone number, prepare to confirm that it belongs to you. And you’ll have to verify a recovery email in case you lose access to your phone.
You can block users who bother you and unblock them if you change your mind. Also, you are allowed to unmatch with people if you feel like it just by swiping left on their chat window.
Odds of success
★★★★☆
Although the service doesn’t have a huge audience, I’ve met a bunch of interesting people over the weekend of casual swiping. Most importantly, I’ve got several date invitations and one of them was pretty hot, cute and considerate. In my experience, Bumble is also an awesome tool for networking, as I’ve managed to rent a new apartment thanks to it. I’ve mentioned to one of my matches that I was considering moving into the area he was currently residing in, and he offered to rent a spare room that he’s leasing. Now, I don’t promise that you’ll figure out your housing problem on Bumble, but the app is definitely good for making useful connections, as long as you stay open.
I wouldn’t recommend Bumble for people who look specifically for sex-oriented experiences as you might end up wasting your time. I believe it is easier to go straight for sex apps like Down dating instead.
Matching Algorithm
The service will not provide you with a wide selection of the search filters so if you know exactly who you want to meet, you will be disappointed. I am open-minded and that didn’t bother me at all.
Alternatives
As much as I enjoyed playing with the Bumble app, I cannot guarantee that guys will quickly find a sex partner via the service, if that’s what they’re after. It would make more sense to look for the alternative services that are focused on sex and hookups.
| 11 millions members | 300k per months |
| 4/5 hookup chance | High Sex Chance |
| low fraud risk | Verification email, phone, photo |
| $0.95 – $45.95 subscription price |
People you see on Pure are online right now
Our users are making it clear: they want to hookup within one hour.
Unlike most sex websites, we do not have awkward questionnaires. The service works as a local sex app based on your location: the first thing you need to get a match is your registration.
After your sign-up, you will see lots of people in your district with the distance between you shown. To try your fate, you can like, dislike or super like other members to come together. The last step is a flirty conversation, which starts if your chemistry is mutual.
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FAQ
Is Bumble free?
All the essential features in Bumble are free. You can browse through the members, swipe left and right, initiate conversations, and use video and audio chats. Premium features are available at a price.
How much Bumble cost?
Bumble Boost costs $9.99 weekly, $19.99 monthly, and $45 per 3 months. You can also pay $129.99 for the lifetime. As for the coins, 5 of them are $7.99, 10 Coins — $19.99, and 20 coins cost $34.99. You need to pay 2 coins for the Spotlight feature.
Is it worth paying for Bumble?
All the essential functions are free but if you fail to get in touch with somebody who you really like during the first 24 hours, you can pay for the Bumble Boost to bring your match back.
What kind of dating site is Bumble?
Bumble Date is a service that promotes equality. Just like in Tinder, users can swipe left or right depending on their first impression. What’s different with Bumble is that only women can initiate conversations with the people they’ve matched with. This website is popular among people who look for serious relationships as well as casual hookups. Bumble is available on the web and as a mobile app.
Is there a mobile application for Bumble?
You can use the Bumble application on iOS and Android devices. The app has all the features of the web version, so you won’t miss out on anything.
Can you have two Bumble accounts?
As long as your accounts are genuine, it is possible to create two Bumble accounts and connect one of them to your Facebook page and the other to your phone number.
Can Bumble delete my account?
If Bumble suspects that your account is a scam or fake, it can be suspended. Also, in order to use the service, you need to agree on being kind and respectful towards others. Users may report offensive behavior and the offender’s accounts can be deleted.
How do I delete my Bumble account?
Deleting your Bumble account is easier than on other platforms. Go to the Settings menu in the app or the web version. Scroll down to the end of the page and click “Delete account” button. Then specify the reason why you want to do so and type “Delete” to confirm your decision.
Is Bumble for serious relationships?
Bumble Date is equally popular with people who look for serious relationships and those who want to find a quick hookup. Bumble BFF is good for finding friends when moving into the new city or when you feel lonely.
Is Bumble a good dating app?
It depends on what you’re looking for. Some people say that Bumble is not the best place to look for the love of your life because the swipe concept is superficial. Bumble’s success stories, however, prove others wrong. Casual hookups, on the other hand, are always easily accessible. Usually, it all comes down to your personal experience.
Is Bumble better than Tinder?
The two apps are very similar, but a lot of people say that Bumble is better than Tinder because of the way it works. First of all, only women are allowed to start the conversation and that protects them from unwanted attention. Secondly, the fact that the matches expire in twenty-four hours usually encourages people to actually reach out.
How does Bumble work?
Once you match with someone, you will have 24 hours to get in touch, and they will have 24 hours to answer back. You can check all the people who liked you in the Bumble match queue. There you will see all the matches including those that have expired. If you missed a chance to get in touch and your match has expired, you can pay for the Bumble Boost and extend the match for the other 24 hours. Only women are allowed to initiate the first conversation.