Review Insights · App Store
Grindr - Gay Dating & Chat
Grindr LLC · 383,323 ratings · ★ 4.5
4.5
★★★★★
383,323 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 85 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"grindr"
22 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Money talks I guess. This app has gotten so bad forcing you to pay to avoid an ad every 30 seconds and even then still show you Grindr sponsored ads. Honestly you can tell corporate is desperate for money. It’s so sad being that low and desperate" - Happy Guy lol
2
"bots"
15 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Prices keep rising, value continues to decline. They have turned this app into garbage. The bots are epidemic. Between the catfish and closeted cowards, there is nothing here." - Chaos867
3
"every"
14 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Money talks I guess. This app has gotten so bad forcing you to pay to avoid an ad every 30 seconds and even then still show you Grindr sponsored ads. Honestly you can tell corporate is desperate for money. It’s so sad being that low and desperate" - Happy Guy lol
4
"people"
14 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "HOPE ThE CeO READ IT!. I’ve been a long-time user of Grindr, and it’s disappointing to see how much the app has shifted from serving the LGBTQ+ community to maximizing revenue at every opportunity. Over the years, more and more essential features have been locke…" - Documentarypol
5
"subscription"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "HOPE ThE CeO READ IT!. I’ve been a long-time user of Grindr, and it’s disappointing to see how much the app has shifted from serving the LGBTQ+ community to maximizing revenue at every opportunity. Over the years, more and more essential features have been locke…" - Documentarypol
6
"messages"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "If you want to meet people don’t use this app. Been trying to meet someone for fun I’ve tried this app every couple months nobody wants to me up to have fun they just wanna sit and share pics and do nothing else it’s a complete joke and a waste of time if you want to meet people advoid …" - datefright
7
"trash"
11 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "$33 month. Just to use the app without being spammed to death? Can’t even view profiles without paying. Trash!" - Mike2705
8
"money"
10 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Money talks I guess. This app has gotten so bad forcing you to pay to avoid an ad every 30 seconds and even then still show you Grindr sponsored ads. Honestly you can tell corporate is desperate for money. It’s so sad being that low and desperate" - Happy Guy lol
9
"better"
10 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Utterly Useless Free Version-Download Scruff Instead. This app has consistently gotten worse over the last few years. Do yourself a favor and download scruff instead. (also I promise this isn’t a paid ad for scruff I just also use it and it has a way better free version, at least for now) Now…" - godwin125
10
"madonna"
10 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Get outed by Madonna. Great idea having Madonna say "Hi Grindr" as soon as you open the app for everyone to hear. Nothing like getting embarrassed or even outed by a washed up celebrity for some ad dollars. But then again, Grindr is always coming up with stupid …" - WK2026
11
"nothing"
9 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Prices keep rising, value continues to decline. They have turned this app into garbage. The bots are epidemic. Between the catfish and closeted cowards, there is nothing here." - Chaos867
12
"profiles"
9 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Utterly Useless Free Version-Download Scruff Instead. This app has consistently gotten worse over the last few years. Do yourself a favor and download scruff instead. (also I promise this isn’t a paid ad for scruff I just also use it and it has a way better free version, at least for now) Now…" - godwin125
📋 All 85 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
600MB for this app is incredibly lazy
The size of this app is ridiculous.
Prices keep rising, value continues to decline
They have turned this app into garbage. The bots are epidemic. Between the catfish and closeted cowards, there is nothing here.
HOPE ThE CeO READ IT!
I’ve been a long-time user of Grindr, and it’s disappointing to see how much the app has shifted from serving the LGBTQ+ community to maximizing revenue at every opportunity.
Over the years, more and more essential features have been locked behind expensive paywalls. It feels like almost every action now requires a subscription, making the experience frustrating for users who can’t afford premium plans. The app constantly promotes features that many people will never be able to access unless they pay increasingly high prices.
What made Grindr successful wasn’t its technology.. it was the community. Millions of LGBTQ+ people helped build this platform, supported it, recommended it, and made it the go-to app for connection. Unfortunately, it now feels like that community has become secondary to monetization.
I completely understand that businesses need to generate revenue, but there should be a balance between profitability and accessibility. Right now, that balance feels lost.
Honestly, this trend makes me wonder if it’s time for a new generation of apps.. platforms that focus on connection first and revenue second. Apps where people can actually communicate, meet, and build relationships without feeling like every feature is locked behind another paywall. A platform that remembers that its users are people, not just subscription opportunities.
Competition has a way of reminding companies why people loved them in the first place. I hope Grindr listens to its community before users start looking elsewhere for a more open, accessible, and user-focused experience.
Over the years, more and more essential features have been locked behind expensive paywalls. It feels like almost every action now requires a subscription, making the experience frustrating for users who can’t afford premium plans. The app constantly promotes features that many people will never be able to access unless they pay increasingly high prices.
What made Grindr successful wasn’t its technology.. it was the community. Millions of LGBTQ+ people helped build this platform, supported it, recommended it, and made it the go-to app for connection. Unfortunately, it now feels like that community has become secondary to monetization.
I completely understand that businesses need to generate revenue, but there should be a balance between profitability and accessibility. Right now, that balance feels lost.
Honestly, this trend makes me wonder if it’s time for a new generation of apps.. platforms that focus on connection first and revenue second. Apps where people can actually communicate, meet, and build relationships without feeling like every feature is locked behind another paywall. A platform that remembers that its users are people, not just subscription opportunities.
Competition has a way of reminding companies why people loved them in the first place. I hope Grindr listens to its community before users start looking elsewhere for a more open, accessible, and user-focused experience.
TransGrindr
This app has turned into a trans app and a bot app instead of a gay app. Disappointing. Give me my money back.
Utterly Useless Free Version-Download Scruff Instead
This app has consistently gotten worse over the last few years. Do yourself a favor and download scruff instead. (also I promise this isn’t a paid ad for scruff I just also use it and it has a way better free version, at least for now)
Now with the free version you can only see the same 30 people around you if you don’t use any filters. The filter functions used to be actually useful, but now when you try to filter people around you in any way, the amount of profiles you can actually look at is significantly fewer. And don’t even bother trying to filter by tags because you’ll be lucky if you get 3 results to look at.
Taps are also completely useless now because if you don’t look at it within 3 hours, you can’t even look at the profile of the person who tapped you. Which is not the worst thing because I pretty much only get taps from female bot accounts or accounts that are advertising their only fans, which I think are also bots. Then there are the bot accounts that send a message every time you open the app to go to some definitely virus ridden website for sex.
You can no longer block accounts unless they message you, which is a safety hazard. The app has started to be more open to allowing different genders of people using the app, but has no filter for gender (like as a gay man I can’t filter out women) and even if they did it probably would be useless anyways. The app also used to occasionally let everyone use a paid feature for free for a weekend or something but it hasn’t done that in years.
And lastly, what prompted me to write this review is that the ads are out of control. Now not only do you see an ad every time you open the app and after every 5th profile you view and they are on the bottom line at all times and when you scroll there’s a banner every 5th line, they have started including them in the grid. So they have now added little square ads that look like profiles so that you accidentally click on them, as if I didn’t accidentally click on all the other ads enough.
You’d be better off going back to using hanky code than downloading this app.
Editing to add: also a great place to have someone threaten to release your private photos to your family members!
Now with the free version you can only see the same 30 people around you if you don’t use any filters. The filter functions used to be actually useful, but now when you try to filter people around you in any way, the amount of profiles you can actually look at is significantly fewer. And don’t even bother trying to filter by tags because you’ll be lucky if you get 3 results to look at.
Taps are also completely useless now because if you don’t look at it within 3 hours, you can’t even look at the profile of the person who tapped you. Which is not the worst thing because I pretty much only get taps from female bot accounts or accounts that are advertising their only fans, which I think are also bots. Then there are the bot accounts that send a message every time you open the app to go to some definitely virus ridden website for sex.
You can no longer block accounts unless they message you, which is a safety hazard. The app has started to be more open to allowing different genders of people using the app, but has no filter for gender (like as a gay man I can’t filter out women) and even if they did it probably would be useless anyways. The app also used to occasionally let everyone use a paid feature for free for a weekend or something but it hasn’t done that in years.
And lastly, what prompted me to write this review is that the ads are out of control. Now not only do you see an ad every time you open the app and after every 5th profile you view and they are on the bottom line at all times and when you scroll there’s a banner every 5th line, they have started including them in the grid. So they have now added little square ads that look like profiles so that you accidentally click on them, as if I didn’t accidentally click on all the other ads enough.
You’d be better off going back to using hanky code than downloading this app.
Editing to add: also a great place to have someone threaten to release your private photos to your family members!
If you want to meet people don’t use this app
Been trying to meet someone for fun I’ve tried this app every couple months nobody wants to me up to have fun they just wanna sit and share pics and do nothing else it’s a complete joke and a waste of time if you want to meet people advoid this app there needs to be no pic sharing in messages
Frustrating actually
The app won’t allow me to block someone until they contact me…???!!! What if I don’t want my neighbor or the creep at the gym to message me? I want to have the ability to block someone prior to having any interaction with the person. Am I not seeing the block button???
Ads
Sooooooooo many ads. Can’t even talk to someone without an ad popping up.
No control
Terrible interruption from your company I can never recommend you to anyone
Unskippable Malware Ads
Not only can you not skip or close the ads, I just got one designed to look like the app had crashed and then displayed a virus alert popup. Really scummy business practice
Your subscription is too expensive Netflix is cheaper
If you had more reasonable rates/ an app that isn’t so glitchy, and one after another barriers to actually meet anyone…. Then I’d pay for it. But you’re clueless on your place in gay culture and the need for easier relationship building. There’s so much you can do with your platform but the bare minimum is what you offer. It’s backwards mentality
Beyond Disappointed.
This app has gone so far downhill that is ridiculous to have it on your phone. You CANNOT use the app for a minute without being bombarded with the most stupid adds. NO feature is usable there is always a charge or an upgrade for something. Customer service is practically NON EXISTENT. What was once a cool meet up app, now is a greedy cash grab for the community.
Genuinely Awful
Grindr is the epitome of en(blank)ification. The app offers little value, is bombarded with ads, and functionality is constantly hindered. On top of all that, the user base is toxic.
GO ELSEWHERE
I live in Las Vegas, NV… you cannot use this PATHETIC app if you don’t pay $60-$75 a month just to see an additional 15-20 profiles! Join the movement to END GRINDR!!!! Again if you live in a tourist type city, DO NOT USE GRINDR! They block every possible thing for locals!
ADS N BOTS
It saddens me. To think how far the standards of fallen with Grindr. When it first opened, it was fun to use exciting to meet new people, and you didn’t have to worry about paying half of your rent in order to see more than 10 profiles. It turned into nothing more than a garbage ad generating clusterfrack of bots and self propagating ads that pop up worse than an older version of Windows did. There has to be a better option out there cause this is just unsalvageable.
$33 month
Just to use the app without being spammed to death? Can’t even view profiles without paying. Trash!
Worst gay app out there
Used to be the best until it got sold to a bunch of villains. Nothing but ads and extremely overpriced to get rid of them. 90% is ads, 4% is chats, and 6% is avoiding. Everyone is leaving the app for better options like Sniffies and Jack’d and Scruff. Grindr management can go F their poor business strategy.
Too many Ads! Sell out
Unfortunately this app got too greedy & expensive. Definitely leaving to 'the blowers' website!
Grindr
The app give you people that don’t wanna link and they make you pay for the ones who do wanna link
Very bad costume service
I email multiple times ask for help no response yet from 2020
Wrongly banned
So I know this guy he has unsafe relations with people even tho he has herpes I blocked him then him and his friends made several accounts to mass report me so now I’m permanently banned I did nothing wrong
Not what it use to be.
Grindr purposely puts the profiles your algorithm likes into the extra so you have to purposely pay for the extra. None of the apps are what they use to be since all they care about is nickel and dimming the community.
Worst type of men lives here
Too many bots too many ads to many old farts
Get outed by Madonna
Great idea having Madonna say "Hi Grindr" as soon as you open the app for everyone to hear. Nothing like getting embarrassed or even outed by a washed up celebrity for some ad dollars. But then again, Grindr is always coming up with stupid new advertising schemes instead of simply affordable pricing. Users beware.
BOOOO!!!!
This app is trash now. Unskippable ads, bots, bugs, zero functionality unless you pay hundreds of dollars for premium…. Gross.
Edit: grindr responded about the cost… missed the point entirely. This app is UNUSABLE !! FIX IT!!!
Edit: grindr responded about the cost… missed the point entirely. This app is UNUSABLE !! FIX IT!!!
Sell outs.
The ads… it’s too much. And the subscription is way over priced. Look elsewhere.
Major Downgrade
Within the last week, the app has changed in a majorly negative way for me. I can’t see more than about 20 people now. I can’t see any photo albums even when they’re unlocked. Also can’t see any taps now at all.
Worst app for scams
Yall took my money for a subscription then banned my email. Then when I go through the steps to “appeal” it says my email is in good standing. I try to log in and get banned notification again. I emailed when it happened. Never received any update. This was weeks ago. Is your company legitimate or just here to scam everyone?
How do we block this Madonna spam yall are pushing on us?
Unlike most apps that make security improvements. Grindr goes backwards. Every time there is a major update they’ve made it easier for scammers and liars to use and feel protected. If you’re gonna use Grindr. Stay strapped or get clapped
How do we block this Madonna spam yall are pushing on us?
Unlike most apps that make security improvements. Grindr goes backwards. Every time there is a major update they’ve made it easier for scammers and liars to use and feel protected. If you’re gonna use Grindr. Stay strapped or get clapped
lol
I’m not willing to pay to pay just to look at messages lol Y’all will lose subscribers! Yall lost your mind if you think ppl paying for that. Sniffies here I come!!
Location issues
It’s often that I have issues with my location on the app. Even though my locations settings are on with precise location. It says…
“We are unable to refresh your grid due to your device location accuracy”.
Tried refreshing the app etc. if I go to “explore more profiles” it has me near Kansas or in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean towards Africa. what’s going on Grindr?!
“We are unable to refresh your grid due to your device location accuracy”.
Tried refreshing the app etc. if I go to “explore more profiles” it has me near Kansas or in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean towards Africa. what’s going on Grindr?!
I should not be blocked from this app
I jot got block from the app for no reason. I just know that I was been blocked some guys from app because I wasn’t interesting in then they made the account Again and continue messaging me and I got mad. I just told them I was not interested and I told them to the truth And somehow I got blocked from the app.. That’s is stupid.
Bad to worst
Truly speaking, the app was much better before. Its simply terrible now. Guessing the greed has kicked in. Now they charge on top of a subscription. sorry bro, but thats totally unfair. I am sure they might read this and go like “meh…..” but honestly, a huge number of subscribers have fallen and switched to other apps like sniffies and tinder, bcaz yall raised prices. Users are tired of these hidden costs. Take a hike and gather your thoughts again to bring back those users back you lost.
Painful
Navigating this app in 2026 as a free user is practically impossible, 30 second ads for simply moving from one window to the next, a tiny search radius and extremely high prices like $30 for one WEEK of “premium” use (premium being simply what being a free user was about 4 years ago), this app has gone totally off the rails and consumed itself in the name of greed. Ads, pop ups, sponsors pretending to be messages, it’s highly predatory. Avoid like the plague.
Not how it used to be
This app is trash now it traps you in adds to where you gotta close out of the app completely and restart it to get out of them then restart it go to check your messages after u check one your trapped back in an add again not how Grindr used to be…. Sell outs
Money Grab
Ridiculous money grab
Falsely banned
This app sucks i don’t use it for 1-2 years and before that I just get on to see if anyone I’m interested in is in the area but since covid started in 2019 I only logged on and had not sent any messages and have not used this app in over a year only to find out I’m banned is it because I’m not using said app for over a year… and even then I made an appeal over a month ago and still haven’t received any response good or bad i don’t recommend this app to anyone
Location
For some reason this app will only show you people hundreds of miles away. It will not let you choose your own city where u live you have to choose a major city around you. This app is about as useful as a message in a bottle. Someones gonna see it but they gonna be across the world.
Worst app ever don’t waste your time
This is app is horrible constant bots and scammers that the developers do nothing to try to stop meanwhile my account gets banned for terms and conditions violations when I haven’t even used the app in weeks completely unacceptable wouldn’t recommend at all plenty of better apps don’t even waste your time all they care about is money l
If Only…
If Grindr put half of their efforts into their product and customer service instead of only focusing on marketing and ripping off subscribers with their bait n’switch multi tiered membership subscriptions, they’d be worth it.
Absolute garbage!!
Absolute garbage!!
Expensive
It says $27.99/week for unlimited… do you realize that’s $1,456 per year?
Ads when free are impossible to skip
Polymarket Ads over and over… and then once you wait 30-60 seconds it’s a game of find the “X”
This kind of advertising should be illegal and feels like I’m doing a bad job of living in the matrix.
This kind of advertising should be illegal and feels like I’m doing a bad job of living in the matrix.
Feedback Regarding Excessive Ads on Grindr
⭐☆☆☆☆ (1 Star)
I am giving Grindr one star because the number of ads has become excessive. The app is difficult to use when ads constantly interrupt the experience. It feels like there are more ads than actual time spent browsing or chatting.
The frequent advertisements make the app frustrating and less enjoyable to use. While I understand that free apps need advertising, the current amount feels overwhelming and negatively impacts the user experience.
I would like to see fewer ads or a better balance between advertisements and the app’s core features. Until then, I cannot recommend the free version of this app.
I am giving Grindr one star because the number of ads has become excessive. The app is difficult to use when ads constantly interrupt the experience. It feels like there are more ads than actual time spent browsing or chatting.
The frequent advertisements make the app frustrating and less enjoyable to use. While I understand that free apps need advertising, the current amount feels overwhelming and negatively impacts the user experience.
I would like to see fewer ads or a better balance between advertisements and the app’s core features. Until then, I cannot recommend the free version of this app.
What ever
I don’t know what’s going on with the app right now. Every time I open it, it says I changed my icon. I’ve never once changed my icon. It changed my icon to some annoying pink thing. Then there’s Madonna. What??!?!? How on earth any company including grinder, would align itself with the single most un-American human being alive. Very disappointing. But more disappointing than that is I cannot get her off my feed. IDK. Unfortunately for what it is for it is ok. But my eyes are open for something new. And would it kill you guys to offer a less well known alert sound?!?!?!?!
Non stop ads
Everytime I open the app I get at least 7 ads in the first 5 minutes of opening the app and it never stops. It’s the most annoying thing ever and it’s not even worth paying for
MADONNA
No one cares about Madonna 😂
RIP
The incessant bots, scammers, onlyfans bots and the ads. The fact that I can’t even open the app without an add popping up, being tapped and messages in the same breath by a bot or scammer really makes the experience feel like trash. Even if you paid for no ads, the bots and scammers will still message you without stop.
GARBAGE!!!
Glitchy and buggy in every way and now the garbage app won’t login from iPad but will from iPhone. Drown yourselves in sewage you worthless roaches!
Why has this app gone from adventurous to obnoxious
With all of the other apps that offer the same service, why, for the love of god, do they have to make this one so annoying to use for those of us who don’t care to pay for a membership. I don’t care if you’ve got Madonna smackin your rear end. I DONT PLAY MODLE GAMES AND ITS HOMOPHOBIC TO ASSUME I DO.
Hacking your account
Grindr facilitates advertiser to hack your device and force ads to open your browser to redirect you to doggy websites. They also allow your account to be use to push ads to other users without your knowledge. These ads look like they are chat messages from other but they are actually ads promoting porn sites.
What happened?
I hate how they intentionally made the free version trash so that you feel compelled to pay for the premium features starting at $15 a WEEK. That’s like $60 a month which is insane. It’s obviously exploitative, but what frustrates me is that it actually used to be a decent app. Shame
+ 35 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
86%
Positive (4-5★)
5%
Neutral (3★)
9%
Negative (1-2★)