We asked Tinder for details about their Australian membership numbers, but they could only provide a global figure of 5

RSVP Platinum: From $49–89 per month, depending on the length of membership. This option gives you the same features as Premium membership plus ten stamps per month and the ability to send a super wink every day. A super wink allows the receiver to reply to you for free.

Privacy

Signing up to an RSVP account and agreeing to its privacy terms and conditions grants permission for your personal information, including photos and email addresses, to be used for advertising or transmission to a third party.

Security

RSVP says their customer support team personally monitors and checks all profiles and photos that are submitted to the site.

Tinder

Unique features: Tinder is an app-based online dating service. It has the simplest format of all the apps and sites we looked at.

Matching: You pick the gender or genders you’re interested in, the age range you’re looking for and how close in distance you’d like a potential match to be. Tinder then uses the GPS on your mobile phone to search for nearby Tinder users. Once it locates them, it shows you their first name, age, a profile picture and brief blurb. You tap their name to read a little more about them and see more pictures, swipe right if you’d like to be matched with them, or left if you’re not interested. If both parties swipe right, you’re a match, meaning you can start interacting with them.

Free: Users can see profiles, match with other users and chat with matches. They can send one Super Like each day, which shows someone that you’re really interested in them.

Tinder Plus: This in-app subscription gives you access to features like Rewind (which allows you to review people you accidentally passed on) and Passport (which allows you to match with people in different locations), as well as five Super Likes per day and unlimited ‘right swipes’ or likes. It also gives you additional Boosts (which increase profile visibility). Tinder’s pricing varies depending on a number of undisclosed factors.

Tinder Gold: Offers the same features as Tinder Plus, as well as access to the Likes You feature, which shows you who likes you before you swipe.

Super Like: You can send a Super Like to let someone know you’re really interested in them. Prices range from around $1–2 depending on how many you buy.

Boost: This makes you one of the top profiles in your area for 30 minutes. Prices range from around $5–7 depending on how many you buy.

Pricing issues

Tinder was ordered to pay a settlement of $US17.3 million to its Californian users in 2019, after a class action lawsuit was filed against the company regarding its discriminatory pricing. The app was charging users over 30 $US for a subscription, while users aged 29 and younger were paying only $US9.99 per month.

Tinder’s pricing policy in Australia is ambiguous and the company did not provide specific information in response to our request for pricing information. According to a Tinder spokesperson, Tinder has “a dynamic pricing structure that offers multiple price points, which may vary by region, length of subscription, recent in-app promotions and more.”

We did a mystery shop of Tinder Plus to find out more about the app’s prices in Australia, setting quotas based on gender, sexuality, location and age group (18–29, 30–49 and 50+).

The price difference between the lowest and the highest price was huge: $6.99 for a queer female under 30 in a metropolitan area and $ for a straight male over 50 in a metropolitan area, for one month. On average, people who were over the age of 30 were offered prices that were more than double the prices given to those who were under 30, like in the US.