Tinder Gold lets you pay to see who likes you, here’s how it compares to Tinder Plus in the UK

Announced at the end of August last year, Tinder Gold shows you who has swiped right on your profile before you’ve even seen them pop up in your potential match list for £7.49 a month. Previously you’d both have to swipe right, in secret, before a match would be made and you could start messaging each other. UK users can also buy Tinder Gold for £4.66 a month on a six-month basis or £3.50 a month when bought in advance on a 12-month basis.

While some have criticised Tinder for adding subscription models to its service, the app reached the top of the charts at the start of September and its CPO, Brian Norgard tweeted: “Today Tinder is the top grossing app in the world — I told you subscriptions might be a thing one day.” 

 For the monthly fee, Tinder Gold users a head start on matches, allowing them to pick and choose from people who like the look of them. In a blog post, Tinder said Tinder Gold offers the app’s “most exclusive” features, including Passport, Rewind, Unlimited Likes, five Super Likes per day and one Boost a month, in addition to the Likes You feature. Many of these features are already available on Tinder Plus.  

“Think of [Tinder Gold] as your personal Swipe Right concierge—available 24/7—bringing all of your pending matches to you. Now you can sit back, enjoy a fine cocktail, and browse through profiles at your leisure,” Tinder, somewhat sickeningly, explains.

Tinder Gold was originally trialled in Argentina, Australia, Canada and Mexico and has now rolled out globally on iOS. Tinder Gold on Android is rumoured to be launching next month. But how does Tinder Gold compare to Tinder Plus, and is it worth paying for?

Tinder Gold vs Tinder Plus

Tinder, generally, is a free app. You don’t have to pay to swipe and message other users.

Tinder Plus

In 2015, Tinder launched Tinder Plus which was priced depending on your age and location and ranged from £3.99 a month in the UK for users aged between 18 and 27, to £14.99 a month for anyone 28 or over. In the US, the corresponding figures for the same ages are $9.99 and $19.99, making the cheaper option more expensive like-for-like than in the UK.

As a result of a recent legal ruling in California, Tinder must stop charging older users more money per month to use Tinder Plus.

Tinder was criticised by user Allan Candelore who alleged that Tinder engaged in illegal age discrimination by charging its 30-and-older users more each month.  

In an earlier trial, Tinder’s defense argued the pricing was based on market testing, but the appeal court ruled against Tinder stating that while California state law does allow for certain business-led discrimination, Tinder’s pricing model doesn’t fall under this. This ruling doesn’t impact other regions, and other state laws, so it’s not clear how it will affect the UK or it Tinder will even reconsider its strategy.

In “emerging economies”, Tinder charges an average of $2.99 a month for Tinder Plus features, which include:

Unlimited Likes: On the free version of the app you can only Like a limited number of people (around 100 within a 12-hour window) but with Tinder Plus, this limit is removed. You can Like as many people as you want for as long as you want.

Extra Super Likes: In addition to unlimited Likes, with Tinder Plus you get five so-called Super Likes. These Super Likes tell matches you don’t just like them, you really like them, and this means you’re pushed up their potential matches list and given more visibility.  

Rewind: As the name suggests, Tinder Rewind lets you undo a swipe in case you make a mistake and dismiss someone by accident, or swipe on someone you don’t actually want to match with.

Passport: Tinder’s potential matches list is based on your current location but the Passport feature on Tinder Plus lets you virtually teleport somewhere else and see what the matches are like in another town or country.  

Tinder Gold

Tinder Gold offers all of Tinder Plus’ features, for a seemingly cheaper price (if you’re over 28), plus:

Boost: A Boost makes you more visible on the app and Tinder Gold gives you one Boost a month, pushing you to the front of other users’ apps for 30 minutes.

Likes You: The most significant extra on Tinder Gold lets you see who has swiped right on your profile before you’ve swiped right on them.