Bumble
Shares rank 3 of 5 dating apps by recommenders
A dating app that some say is less bad than other Match Group apps, though critics cite pay-to-match, fake profiles and a poor user experience.
A dating app that some say is less bad than other Match Group apps, though critics cite pay-to-match, fake profiles and a poor user experience.
17 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 11
- approval share
- 35%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Less bad than Match Group's other apps
“almost all of them, except for Bumble, are owned by the same company, Match Group”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “US report details extent of 'devastating' dating-app scams” “Bumble seems to be the slightly less evil one”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “How Singapore's government-run dating service works”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Fake and AI profiles not removed
“was never flagged by the platform, even after we updated the bio to say it was AI”
Comment from 30 Apr 2026 on Hacker News “creating loads of good-looking fake women profiles to attract male users”
Comment from 30 Mar 2026 in “FTC Action Against Match and OkCupid for Deceiving Users, Sharing Personal Data” Poor overall user experience
“Bumble as a whole went downhill before this”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Bumble gives up on women making the first move” “It's near impossible to do anything with anyone at that point”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “Bumble gives up on women making the first move” “that sounds like a horrible user experience”
Comment from 12 Aug 2026 in “Bumble gives up on women making the first move”
Other dating apps people recommend
The four most recommended other dating apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OkCupid | 29 | 25 | 54% | 7 | 12 yrs3 owners | — |
| Tinder | 7 | 25 | 22% | 5 | — | — |
| BumbleThis page | 6 | 11 | 35% | 4 | — | — |
| Singapore government dating service | 6 | 2 | 75% | 1 | — | — |
| Facebook Dating | 5 | 2 | 71% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
16 of the 17 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“almost all of them, except for Bumble, are owned by the same company, Match Group”
“Bumble seems to be the slightly less evil one”
“scrolling profile after profile without even the tiniest bit of information”
“I still don't understand why they'd stop this.”
“that sounds like a horrible user experience”
“Surprised it took them this long. I gave up on that years ago.”
“It's near impossible to do anything with anyone at that point”
“Bumble as a whole went downhill before this”
“The bigger news on bumble would have been if they weren't doing pay to match”
“It works well enough for bumble web, just make sure you have rate limiting..”
“everyone despises Tinder and Bumble, at least that's what I'm hearing left and right”
“was never flagged by the platform, even after we updated the bio to say it was AI”
“creating loads of good-looking fake women profiles to attract male users”
“she did not respond on Bumble because it forced her to send the first message”
“so much less and so much more fun than the footing the subscription on the other platforms”
“Both seem to have admitted defeat now and moved to the usual model.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.