How to Get More Matches on Hinge (Real Data From a Controlled Experiment)

If you feel like Hinge suddenly stopped working, you are not alone. A lot of guys experience the same thing. Plenty of likes, little to no matches, or matches that never respond.

One of the guys in my mastermind recently ran a very detailed Hinge experiment to figure out what actually gets you more matches on Hinge. (The full write-up of his original experiment can be found here)

Not opinions. Not theory. Actual data. He tested things most guys argue about endlessly:

• Should you send a message with your Hinge likes?

• Does having a Hinge subscription actually help?

• What opener really performs best?

What he found surprised me. And a lot of this applies to every major dating app, not just Hinge.

Why Most Guys Don’t Get Matches on Hinge?

Most men assume that if they are not getting matches on Hinge, something must be wrong with their looks or that the algorithm is secretly working against them. In reality, most guys struggle because they misunderstand how match rate actually works.

Yes, photos matter. If your photos are low quality, outdated, or unflattering, that alone can tank your results. I break that down in detail my dating app photo guide

But even guys with solid photos still struggle because of how they use the app. Low-effort likes, not sending messages, and relying entirely on a free account all dramatically reduce your visibility. Over time, this leads to the common complaint of having Hinge likes but no matches.

This experiment helped isolate which of those factors actually matter most, and which ones most guys overthink.

Messaging With Your Like Matters Way More Than You Think

Hinge lets you send a message with your like. Most guys either do not send one at all, or they overthink it and freeze.

According to this experiment, sending any message with your Hinge like nearly doubled the match rate.

Let that sink in. If you are liking profiles without a message, you are leaving a huge number of matches on the table. This is one of the biggest reasons guys end up with no matches on Hinge.

You do not need a clever opener. You do not need to impress her. Simply sending something already puts you ahead of the majority of men on the app. Later in this article, we will stack on even more gains when we talk about which messages work best.

This is not just a Hinge-specific effect either.

• Tinder Platinum lets you message with every like

• Bumble Premium lets you do this via Compliments, with a weekly cap

Across all major dating apps, the takeaway is the same.

Guys who put in even minimal effort outperform guys who don’t.

Does Paying for Hinge Actually Get You More Matches?

This was the next major finding. Having a Hinge subscription roughly doubled match rates compared to the free version. I always assumed paid users got some boost. I did not expect it to be this significant.

If you are serious about dating apps, this alone makes paying for Hinge worth it for most guys. This also explains why many men feel like Hinge is not working when they are on a free account.

I am more cautious about directly applying this to Tinder or Bumble, since their algorithms work differently. But the pattern is obvious. Dating apps reward paying users. From a business standpoint, this makes perfect sense.

Do Custom Hinge Openers Actually Work Better?

This part genuinely surprised me. I have always believed that custom openers tailored to the girl would outperform copy-paste lines. Intuitively, that feels obvious. However, according to this experiment, custom openers did not produce a meaningful increase in results.

This is the one section I am slightly skeptical of. It is entirely possible that:

• The custom openers were not optimized

• Or the execution simply was not strong enough

Unfortunately, we do not have visibility into the exact messages that were used. Because of that, I would treat this as a data point, not a final verdict. I still encourage you to test custom openers yourself and see how they affect your own Hinge match rate.

Best Hinge Openers That Actually Get Matches

If custom openers did not dominate, which lines actually worked best?

Here is the interesting part. The top-performing Hinge openers all shared a common trait. They sparked curiosity. And they were very simple

Here are the best-performing openers, ranked in order.

First place “Should I be jealous?”

Second place: “Your pics caught my attention… this kept it.”
Note: this line usually references one of her prompts.

Third place: “You may be just my type 🙂” and “Can I be honest?”

Notice something. These lines are not funny. They are not clever. They are not trying to impress. They make her think, “Wait… what does he mean by that?”

Once curiosity is triggered, she is far more likely to match and engage. These are not magic lines. They are proof that curiosity beats everything else when it comes to getting more matches on Hinge. For more examples of curiosity-based lines, you can read my best dating app openers guide.

What to Do If You’re Still Getting No Matches on Hinge?

If you are still struggling with no matches on Hinge after applying this, there are a few things to check. First, make sure you are consistently sending messages with your likes. Second, understand that free accounts are at a real disadvantage. Third, your photos and prompts need to be on point.

In some cases, extremely low visibility is not about effort at all, but about algorithmic suppression across dating apps. I explain how this works in my How to Get Unbanned on Dating Apps guide

Final Thoughts on Getting More Matches on Hinge

Most men struggle on Hinge because they focus on the wrong things. They overthink messages. They avoid sending comments with likes. They assume effort won’t matter much.

This experiment showed the opposite. Small changes create big leverage. When you understand how the app actually works, you stop guessing and start getting consistent results. And that difference is what separates guys who struggle for months from guys who fix their results in weeks.

If you want a deeper breakdown of this experiment, you can watch the full video on it below.