Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: At The First Glance

The world is getting smaller each day to fit in our palms. So what way can be better to benefit from it than dating online using the palm-sized phone in your hand? However, the excitement may die down soon with the too many options on the app store, all claiming to be the best with the most extensive user base. But don’t you worry, because here is the comparison of the two most popular dating apps battling to be the best.

Coffee Meets Bagel

Launched in 2012, Coffee Meets Bagel has managed to get some favoritism for its intellectual user base looking for long-term relationships, especially women. Despite its limited international reach, the success stories have made Coffee Meets Bagel globally attractive.

Tinder

Launched around the same time in 2012, Tinder became a worldwide phenomenon in a short time, with its presence in over 190 countries and 34 languages. With youngsters going crazy about its geosocial networking feature, the dating app has managed to be the center of new friendships, hookups, casual dating, and even eternal love.

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Features (Similarities & Differences)

These two apps are quite different despite having a few similarities.

Similarities

The first similarity that comes to mind is that you can have a free account and start finding dates online. Although both have paid features, it works fine without them as well. Secondly, since photo uploading is an essential task on a dating profile, both let you import your photo from a gallery or selected pictures from your social media account. Another common factor is that the two people wanting to date need to like each other to start chatting on the platforms. And lastly, both Tinder and Coffee Meets Bagel can be downloaded on iOS and Android devices for free.

Could you notice the desperate attempt to find similarities between the two? That’s because, despite the similar rage about them with a single goal, they are very different when it comes to their features.

Differences

One significant difference is that Coffee Meets Bagel requires a Facebook account for signing up. Tinder, on the other hand, requires you to insert your mobile number instead. The matching algorithm is different, and thus the quality of matches. While Coffee Meets Bagel gives women control, Tinder has no such thing and instead believes in equality.

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Pros

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Cons

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Interface

With a strong user base, both platforms have a good user interface to enjoy that kind of popularity. Here is a look at what both the dating apps have to offer regarding their user interface.

Coffee Meets Bagel

The dating platform takes a little more time on the registration. However, the primary login requires only a Facebook account. Users can easily import photos from their Facebook account. The interface from the very beginning shows integration and intuitiveness. It is user-friendly. Considering that there are many features, one needs to explore a bit to understand and know about all of them. However, navigation is easy, and the interface overall is straightforward and smooth to operate.

Tinder

The interface of the dating app is the ultimate definition of user-friendly. The app is designed in a way that everything seems simple and obvious. From quick registration using mobile numbers, photo import using Instagram to swiping left and right for approval and disapproval.

Winner: It’s a tie.

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Design & Aesthetics

Coffee Meets Bagel

The dating platform has more features than its competitor. It means navigation is an essential component of the app. The design isn’t bad but more complex than Tinder since it has much more to offer. Even though the design is sleek, the features, when compared, may look crowded visually.

Tinder

Lack of information, details, and features may be a drawback for the dating platform. It works aesthetically for Tinder. The design of the platform is clean and very stylish. Everything about Tinder screams fast. Besides the quick swiping culture, based on the photograph, the lack of details forces you to make quicker decisions. Also, the importance given to photos with more space makes it more eye-grabbing.

Winner: Tinder

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Availability

Besides creating a website version recently for browser users, the platform is also available in close to 200 countries and over 30 languages. So in terms of availability, it’s a clear winner.

Winner: Tinder

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: User Popularity

Coffee Meets Bagel

The dating platform in concern enjoys a comparatively smaller audience. Based on statistics last year, the app crossed 10 million registered users. However, Coffee Meets Bagel is not for everyone. The audience is mainly between the late ’20s and ’30s. Also, the user base is concentrated in the big cities of a few specific countries like America, Canada, the UK, etc.

Tinder

Tinder, on the other hand, boasts of over 66 million users across the world. While the percentage of young users is more falling under the age group of 25 and below, you will find variety. The number of users in the late ’20s and ’30s has considerably grown, although still very small in comparison. The app, as of 2024, continues to thrive across the globe, including small and big towns.

Winner: Tinder

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Gender Proportion

Coffee Meets Bagel

Coffee Meets Bagel is a little more women-centric as it gives the women users the absolute power to have the final say. The men: women ratio proves the point and blatant favoritism, with 40% men users and 60% women in the user base.

Tinder

Tinder follows the standard dating rule, giving men and women equal rights and importance on its platform. Therefore, the ratio shows the expected trend, with men dominating the dating platform with 70% coverage and women only 30%. However, since the dating app works on geolocation, the importance goes to the men and women ratio location wise which shows tremendous variations from time to time.

Winner: Coffee Meets Bagel

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Profiles

Coffee Meets Bagel

Coffee Meets Bagel gives quality more priority than quantity, and that shows in the profile details. While a Facebook account is a compulsory requirement, it allows you to import regular information from your profile to make the process easy and fast. However, some fields need your special attention as not everything on your profile is auto-generated. You will come across spaces that might give you the old slambook feels, but that’s the fun of using dating apps. Smart people don’t avoid the fields and show creativity because not only these little statements show your personality and interest, but they also spark conversations. And of course, you can’t forget about the photo uploads that are the soul and heart of all the dating platforms.

Tinder

Tinder is the fastest dating app globally, or at least that is what it seems like. The profiles hardly need any information, your age, location(that your phone can find), and a bio. Since this is the only place you get to use actual words, people take it seriously. The bio is a short space where you can write anything about yourself and what you are looking for in your partner. However, that is the only setup required for profile details apart from the compulsory photo uploads. Also, Tinder allows you to link your Instagram account to import the best photos quickly.

Winner: Coffee Meets Bagel.

Even though Tinder is faster to set up, Coffee Meets Bagel offers more exciting and detailed profiles without going overboard like the traditional dating sites. However, Tinder creates a perfect setting for casual dating and hookups.

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Matchmaking

Coffee Meets Bagel

CMB lets you find a date in two ways. One is through daily bagels, and the second, through a feature called discover. So while Bagels are algorithm-induced matches sent to you every day in limited numbers, Discover allows you to browse through additional profiles. Men on CMB get close to 20 Bagels each day, but women only 5-6. However, women only see the profiles of users in their bagels who have liked them, making the communication process faster. Also, the bagels or the suggestions are based on your Facebook mutual friends. Besides, a potential couple, after mutually liking each other’s profile, gets only one day to start talking and a week to set a date. The rush adds excitement to the dating game and removes stalling.

Tinder

Tinder is a geolocation-based networking site that uses your location to find nearby singles. It could be a problem for the people living in bigger cities since neighboring areas could be involved. However, the situation gets sorted with a paid feature where one can choose a different locality and select a foreign country for dating. While there is no limitation on the suggestions from Tinder, a person can swipe right only 100 times. Now, because the number is set so high, it does not count as a limitation. It means all you have to do is swipe right(like) or left(dislike) a profile suggested by Tinder. The app notifies when it’s a match so that you may start live chatting and set up a date quickly.

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Best For Serious Relationships

Coffee Meets Bagel: Good.

The app’s user age group and design are more optimized for finding long-term relationships than casual dating.

Tinder: Bad.

Even though many people are finding their soulmates from this app, the percentage is significantly less.

Winner: Coffee Meets Bagel

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Best For Hookups

Coffee Meets Bagel: Bad.

There can be exceptions, but the women-centricity makes it difficult for the hookup culture to popularize on CMB.

Tinder: Good.

Tinder is perfectly designed for youngsters looking for experimentation and casual dating. The lack of profile details, importance given to the photos, and the swiping culture push the userbase towards quick hookups than relationships. However, exceptional cases happen everywhere.

Winner: Tinder

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Safety

Coffee Meets Bagel

No dating app is free from fake profiles. However, the algorithm makes it difficult for fake profiles to use CMB. The safety of the dating app is comparably higher than Tinder due to the preference given to mutual friends as matching criteria.

Tinder

The number of fake profiles is much more than on CMB. Also, because of its massive popularity across the globe, Tinder, unfortunately, becomes the center of attraction to scammers. Also, it has suffered from security breaches twice, leading to massive loss of user data. However, it continues to work towards user safety, and the lack of user profile information on the site works in its favor in this scenario.

Winner: Coffee Meets Bagel

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Verification

Coffee Meets Bagel

CMB uses mandatory Facebook login as a part of its verification process to keep the scammers at bay. Also, the algorithm only suggests users with Bagels who share mutual friends taking another step towards verification and safety.

Tinder

Tinder uses compulsory phone number verification as part of the registration process.

Winner: Coffee Meets Bagel

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Moderation Process

Coffee Meets Bagel

If a user faces a problem with a Bagel, they can tap on the flag to report the profile. However, if the user finds a potential fake profile on Discover, they need to write to the team regarding the information.

Tinder

Tinder allows users to report fake profiles or scammers as well. However, the option to report a profile is available on the person’s profile options.

Winner: It’s a Tie.

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Paid Memberships & Upgrades

Coffee Meets Bagel

CMB offers Beans that users can purchase for paid features. However, recently similar to Tinder, it announced a monthly subscription membership as well. While 100 beans come at the cost of $1.99, the monthly subscription charges $35.99.

Upgrades

• Woos (Paid likes)
• Access to the user activity report
• Rematch with the expired matches
• Unlock mutual friends identity
• Express message delivery
• Self rank visibility on CMB

Tinder

Tinder offers three types of paid memberships – Tinder Plus, Tinder Gold, and Tinder Platinum. While Tinder Plus starts at $19.99, the Gold and Platinum memberships cost $29.99 and $39.99, respectively. However, some locations also have special pricing for people below and above the age of 30.

Upgrades

• Ad-free version
• Unlimited likes & rewinds (undo)
• Passport feature – change location
• See your fans
• 1 profile boost (monthly)
• Top picks
• Super likes
• Priority likes
• Message without match
• See the list of your likes

But you should remember, that not all features are available with all memberships.

Winner: Tinder

More number of memberships and upgrades.

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: Free Features

Coffee Meets Bagel:

• Registration
• Bagels
• Discovery
• Give (Play Cupid)
• Message
• Likes

Tinder:

• Registration
• Swipes
• Matches
• Messages

Winner: Coffee Meets Bagel

Even though both platforms are equally good with a free account, CMB gives more features than Tinder for free.

Coffee Meets Bagel VS Tinder: The Final Verdict

After a neck-to-neck battle, the prize goes to both as it is a tie.

Both of these apps have a different fan base. If you are looking for a serious relationship, and belong to a big city, and in the age group above 25, then Coffee Meets Bagel should be your choice.

On the other hand, if quickies and casuals are your things, Tinder is where you find your Bae.

Read Full Review: Coffee Meets Bagel
Read Full Review: Tinder