Best Hookup Apps: Guide to Free and Premium Apps that Make Hooking Up Easy

Top Hookup Apps by Type

1. Best chance for a hookup tonight – AdultFriendFinder
2. Best hookup app for guys – AshleyMadison
3. Best hookup app for women – Bumble
4. Good for dirty talk and local hookups – SexMessenger
5. New app for NSA sex – Pure
6. Best for sugar arrangements – Seeking
7. Best personality matching system – Hinge
8. Best for queer women – HER 
9. Best for gay men – Grindr
10. Good for paid hookups – Whats Your Price
11. The original casual dating app – Tinder
12. Best for BDSM and fetish hookups – Alt.com 
13. Best for newbies – HUD 
14. Best app for threesomes – Feeld
15. Hookup matchmaker – WellHello
16. Best for sexting – SnapSext 

1. AdultFriendFinder — Largest Hookup App for One Night Stands

Pros:

• Caters to any fetish or interest
• Large user base
• Good for one night stands
• Can send and receive nudes

Cons:

• May be overwhelming for vanilla users
• Mobile site used instead of standalone app

With many hookup apps, you have to beat around the bush and at least pretend you’re after something more than a one night stand— even if you both know that’s what you’re looking for.

That’s not the case with AdultFriendFinder. Everyone on AFF knows exactly what they’re there for — and no matter what that is, the app has something for you.

You can arrange in-person hookups, find a sexting partner, set up a room for video chatting…everything you could possibly want is here.

It’s all unfiltered, too, so you don’t have to wade through a ton of blurred-out photos (but you will get inundated with dick pics, though, so be prepared).

There are over 20 million users on the app every month, and they have rooms dedicated to even the most niche kinks. Even better, the service does a good job of asking you questions to try to find partners you’d be compatible with.

AdultFriendFinder is perfect for anyone whose tastes venture off the beaten path. You’ll find swingers, BDSM practitioners, and anything else you could possibly want.

If your tastes are pretty vanilla, though, it may be overwhelming to you.

For everyone else, AdultFriendFinder is the best way to find exactly what you want in a hookup partner.

2. Ashley Madison — Easiest Hookup App for Guys

Pros:

• Women want NSA fun
• Good for younger guys looking for MILFs
• Not likely to get bogged down in a relationship
• Good female to male ratio

Cons:

• Some may have moral issues with it
• Could potentially run into jealous husbands

If you’re a young guy who’s willing to set your morals aside for a bit of action, it doesn’t get any better than Ashley Madison.

The female to male ratio is better than most sex apps, and the women who are on there are definitely on the prowl for young studs. They already have a relationship, after all — they just want fun, games, and lots of torrid sex.

You don’t have to jump through very many hoops, either — these women don’t have a lot of time to spare. They just want a hot young guy who can give them the passion that’s missing in their relationships.

Of course, beyond the moral issue, you could be playing with fire on this app. You never know when your fun little hookup could be interrupted by a jealous husband.

If you’re willing to take the chance, though, there aren’t many options that are better for young guys who just want to have fun with as little effort as possible.

3. Bumble — Best Hookup App for Women

Pros:

• Women have to message men first
• Can link Instagram and Spotify accounts
• Inclusive of a variety of genders and preferences

Cons:

• May harvest your information 
• Ability to make business contacts gets in the way of hooking up

Like BeNaughty, Bumble puts all the power in women’s hands. Men can’t contact a woman unless she’s first shown interest in him, which majorly limits the creep factor.

There’s plenty of ways to personalize your profile on the app, allowing both men and women to stand out for more than just their looks. You can also link your Instagram and Spotify accounts to your profile to give prospective dates an even better idea of who you are.

You can add a lot of your information through Facebook (which the app will endlessly prod you to do), so you may have some concerns about the safety of your information. It’s undoubtedly convenient, though.

It’s extremely inclusive of a variety of genders and preferences, which is nice, but it also offers the ability to make business contacts on the app. That may be good if you’re looking for a job, but it just gets in the way if you’re looking for some fun.

4. SexMessenger – Best App for Instant Dirty Talk 

Pros:

• Has both chatrooms and cam broadcasts
• Some features available for free
• Great for chatting

Cons:

• Difficult to hook up in person
• Have to pay to use best features

SexMessenger bills itself as an “adult dating community,” so you know exactly what you’re getting into as soon as you sign up.

It’s geared more towards chatting than hooking up, although you can certainly get together with one of the members if things work out that way.

They have both chatrooms and cam broadcasts, so you can find all sorts of ways to entertain yourself. Some of their features can be accessed for free, while others require a premium membership.

You’ll have to pay to use the best parts, of course, but it’s well worth it if you want some remote fun. You can certainly make in-person hookups happen as well, but it’s a lot harder than with some other apps.

5. Pure — Best New Casual Sex App

Pros:

• Great for anonymous hookups
• Leaves no digital footprint behind
• Free for women

Cons:

• May need to use another app if you want more time
• Lots of fake profiles to weed through

Pure is designed for one thing only: meeting people instantly for casual sex.

All it takes is a selfie, and any profile you make self-destructs in an hour. That gives you 60 minutes to find someone to hook up with, or else you have to start from scratch.

If you match with someone, you’ll have another hour to chat with them — then, like your profile, the chat will disappear. 

Pure is great for not leaving a digital footprint behind, but you may need to take the conversation to another app if you need more time to seal the deal. Then again, if you all you want is sex (and you want it now), the ticking time bomb certainly makes both parties motivated.

Women can use the app for free, but men have to pay. Even so, there are plenty of cam girls and other fake profiles on there, so it will take some trial and error to find success.

6. SeekingArrangement — Best for App Sugar Daddies and Gold Diggers

Pros:

• Great for rich guys
• Excellent chances of success
• Users are up-front about what they want

Cons:

• You need to be wealthy, or at least pretend like you are
• May make you feel sleazy

SeekingArrangement pairs sugar babies with sugar daddies — meaning, it sets up attractive young women with rich men who are willing to give them financial gifts in exchange for their companionship.

It’s not prostitution, although the line may be a bit blurry. These can be full-blown relationships, just with one side giving the other some monetary support along the way.

If you’re a well-off guy who wants a sure thing with a beautiful woman, though, it’s pretty hard to beat.

For their part, women use the app to get help with rent, college tuition, and even to find a (rich) husband. 

It may make you feel skeezy, but on the other hand, it’s not all that different from many regular relationships — SeekingArrangement is just more up-front about it.

Of course, if you’re a guy who doesn’t bring home serious cash, don’t even waste your time. Women who aren’t conventionally attractive may struggle to find a sugar daddy as well.

If you’ve got the money or the looks, though, SeekingArrangement will make sure you get plenty of bangs for your bucks.

7. Hinge — Best Hook up App Matchmaking Features

Pros:

• No endless amounts of swiping
• Can video chat with matches
• Algorithm does good job pairing you with compatible people

Cons:

• Geared towards serious relationships
• Limited number of people you can contact

Hinge was actually designed to be the perfect long-term dating app for millennials, but as always happens, many people figured out a way to use it for short-term hookups instead.

Instead of endlessly swiping like you would on Tinder, Hinge suggests a small number of matches for you. 

You can even “date from home” by having a video chat with prospective matches, letting you get to know them in record time.

While this can no doubt lead to lasting romance, it’s also a great way to cut to the chase with people who have a high likelihood of being interested in you. (We assume we don’t need to tell you about all the fun you can have with the video chat feature.)

Their algorithm really seems to work, too. Hinge claims that you’re eight times more likely to go on a date with one of their top matches for you than any other member. That greatly reduces flaking.

If you’re using Hinge just for casual sex, you may end up misleading some potential partners. However, if you can set up a date with someone you’re incredibly compatible with, it shouldn’t take too much effort to get them in the sack.

8. HER — Best App for Lesbian and Queer Hookups

Pros:

• Solely for queer women
• Free to use
• Suitable for finding any sort of relationship

Cons:

• Requires a Facebook account
• Can be hard to find women looking for same thing you are

Women who want to hook up with other women won’t have any pesky dudes to deal with on HER. The app is solely designed for the ladies.

It caters to every situation, so regardless of whether you want someone for a night or the rest of your life, there are members in the same boat. You can also use it to find platonic LGBTQ+ friendships.

There are over four million users, so it’s not exactly a ghost town. Still, unless you live in a large urban area, it can be a chore to find someone who’s looking for the same thing you are.

Like many of the other dating apps on here, HER requires a Facebook account. However, that should also give you reassurance that many of the other members are real.

It’s free to use as well, so there’s little reason to avoid at least giving it a shot.

9. Tinder — The Original Casual Dating App

Pros:

• Extremely popular
• Good for traveling
• Easy to use

Cons:

• Some people are looking for love
• Can take forever to find a match

Everyone has heard of Tinder. It’s the punchline for many a late-night joke, and it seems like every single person under the age of 80 has a Tinder account set up.

There’s a good reason for that, though: it’s one of the best and easiest ways to find strangers near you.

The massive customer base ensures that there will always be more potential matches out there for you, so you won’t have to keep swiping through the same old faces. 

That also makes it easy for you to find a little action when you’re on the road. Since many people use it for hookups anyway, no one will bat an eye if you say you’re just looking for someone for a night or two.

However, there are still quite a few people on there looking for their soulmates, so you may occasionally get more than you bargained for if all you want is one night of fun. 

Also, all the users can work against you, too. Sometimes it feels like you’re swiping for hours before you get a nibble.

Ultimately, Tinder is the biggest fish in the hookup pond, so regardless of what other hook up apps you sign up for, you should probably have an account here, too.

10. Grindr — Best Gay Hookup App

Pros:

• Very easy to hook up
• Uses geotargeting to find guys near you
• Profiles can be very in-depth

Cons:

• Ripe for catfishing
• Can get flooded with messages

It’s not exactly a well-kept secret — but that’s part of what makes Grindr the best hookup app for gay guys.

It’s incredibly easy to find a hookup with Grindr. It uses geotargeting, so you simply log on and it’ll tell you who’s DTF in your vicinity. The rest is up to you.

You can use it to find love as well, since it allows you to build your profile with social media accounts and the like, but most users are on it for quick hookups.

Signing up and getting started is incredibly easy, but that also makes it a popular target for catfishing. If you’re still in the closet, be very careful about who you exchange information with.

You can add as little or as much info to your profile as you like, including your type, preferred sexual position, and HIV status. It’s very easy to edit your profile, and knowing more about the guys you’re hooking up with makes it more fun for everyone.

Be aware that you could possibly get flooded with messages, though, so it can be cumbersome if you’re choosy.  If you want to learn about more apps like this check out our gay hookup sites post.

11. HUD — Best for Newbies

Pros:

• Interface is clean and easy to use
• Useful picture messaging system
• Can be very specific about your preferences

Cons:

• Women will get lots of dick pics
• May be harder to find success if you don’t have a perfect body

“HUD” stands for “Hook-Up Dating,” so it’s a natural fit for this list. It also makes it easier for virtual dating newbies to get their feet wet in the online hookup world.

The interface is clean and easy to use, and all the features seem geared towards short-term flings. You can filter preferences by body type, for instance, so you don’t even have to pretend you’re interested in someone’s mind.

Of course, that can work both ways, so if you’re not someone who has a perfect body, you may get eliminated before you ever even had a chance to prove yourself.

Their photo messaging feature is both good and bad, as it’s an easy way to share your world (and your looks) with a potential match. Then again, if you’re a woman, you know what kind of pictures you’re going to get.

HUD is a great way to learn how the modern hookup culture works, but you may want to find something more laser-focused on your particular turn-ons once you get acclimated to it.

12. Feeld — Best Hookup App for Threesomes

Pros:

• Great for finding threesome partners
• Most real members are extremely responsive
• Takes privacy seriously

Cons:

• Requires a Facebook account
• Lots of fake profiles 

There are few things more difficult than finding a “unicorn” — meaning, the perfect partner(s) for a threesome. 

Feeld is aiming to change that. Roughly 60% of their members are couples looking to add a third person to their love lives.

It definitely encourages users to get kinky — but it’s also a safe space for people who like to keep their naughtiness behind closed doors. You can’t post explicit photos, and they take member privacy extremely seriously.

Despite their focus on privacy, they handle everything through Facebook, so you can’t sign up unless you have an account.

Feeld has a lot of fake accounts as well, but when you come across a real person, they tend to be extremely responsive. We assume the lure of a threesome is enough to keep anyone hooked.

13. BeNaughty – Popular app for hooking up

Pros:

• Free for women to message first
• More women than men
• Offers ability to report bad behavior

Cons:

• No free trial
• Have to pay to see pics

Safety for women is a big issue with hookup apps, as many women are afraid of meeting up with a stranger (and rightfully so). BeNaughty attempts to make things as safe as possible by giving women a few extra advantages in the early stages.

For one thing, women can message men for free, whereas guys will have to pay for the privilege of reaching out first. 

The app also requires you to upgrade to a paid account to see other users’ pics, which should help weed out catfish. However, there’s no free trial, so you’ll have to risk some money to see how it works.

You have the option of reporting anyone who gets out of line, which helps crack down on bad behavior. 

Of course, as any bar owner will tell you, the better you make a place for the ladies, the better it will be for the guys as well. BeNaughty tends to have more women than men, so that makes it worth jumping through all their hoops if you’re a single dude.

14. SnapSext — Best for Sexting

Pros:

• Perfect for sexting
• Can chat with multiple people at once
• Cam shows, pic swaps, and videos also available

Cons:

• Dominated by men
• Have to pay to talk to people

If you just want to find someone to talk dirty to, without the pressure of meeting up for real, then it doesn’t get any better than SnapSext.

You don’t have to limit yourself to the written word, though. The service also supports sharing pictures, videos, or camming. You can even earn money selling media if you like.

The sexting is the biggest draw, though. They even have large chat rooms where you can interact with multiple members simultaneously.

The service does a good job of weeding out fake accounts, so you can be relatively sure you’re talking to real people. However, you’ll have to pay to reach out to them, so get your wallet out.

The app is dominated by men, and many of the women who are on it are being paid to do so. If you’re just sexting, though, you can imagine you’re talking to whomever you want, right?

15. WellHello – Top app for local sex now

Pros:

• Very attractive user base
• Mostly younger crowd

Cons:

• Lots of fake profiles
• Not much personal information is shared

There’s nothing all that special about WellHello’s business model, as it doesn’t offer any special features that other hookup sites can’t match.

Instead, its primary claim to fame is the attractiveness of its members.

You’ll find some incredibly hot people on the app, and the demographic skews younger. There are more men than women, but not by much.

Whether all those hotties are real or not is another question, however. Many people claim the app creates fake profiles to make themselves look better.

The information in each profile is sparse, so don’t expect to learn very much about the person you hope to have sex with. WellHello is very much geared towards sleeping with someone just because you liked their picture.

If you’re willing to weed through fake profiles for the chance to bang someone gorgeous, WellHello is worth a shot.

16. 99 Flavors — Best Hookup App for Swingers

Pros:

• Great for swingers
• 95 million+ users in many countries
• Tries hard to match you with compatible partners

Cons:

• Software is glitchy
• Difficult to navigate

If you’re looking to hook up with more than one person at a time, then 99 Flavors is the fuck app for you.

It’s open for users of any persuasion, but it primarily caters to swingers. Anyone looking to open up their marriage —or be a part of someone else’s — will feel right at home here.

The app claims it has over 95 million users, and most of them seem to be in the 25-34 age range. They’re also geographically diverse, as you can find members in just about any country.

It’s not that easy to find a partner, though — but it’s not for a lack of willing people. The software is extremely glitchy, but it’s well worth slogging through if you can find your unicorn.

It also has a steep learning curve, so it may take awhile before you figure out how to reach out to other users.

While the meat market exists on 99 Flavors as much as any other app, they try to make sure you match with people you’ll truly be compatible with. You can take the Myers-Briggs personality test, purity tests, and all sorts of other tests to give them a better idea of who you’d mesh with.

17. FetLife — Best for BDSM Hookups

Pros:

• Caters to all sorts of kinks and fetishes
• Mostly free to use
• Aims to educate as well as facilitate hookups

Cons:

• Can be overwhelming at first
• User base is predominantly male

If your sexual interests are a little “out there,” don’t worry — there are a lot of people who are into the exact same thing. You can find many of them on FetLife.

Most of the dating is separated by fetishes and kinks, so you can let them know what you like and they’ll find like-minded people in your area.

The website is generally free to use, although they do accept “donations” that will unlock a few additional privileges. However, you can definitely find a hookup without spending a dime.

You’ll find everything from newbies exploring their kinks to hardcore fetishists looking to push their limits on FetLife. There’s a lot of discussion about how to safely partake in the various fetishes as well, so it’s not just a hookup website.

Nevertheless, it can be overwhelming and intimidating at first. Even the color scheme is dark and foreboding, so some newcomes may log in once and then run off screaming.

It does skew male, but there’s a healthy number of women to be found.

Anyone looking for something off the beaten path should check out FetLife first — and don’t be surprised if you learn something new about yourself along the way.

How to Get the Most Out of a Hookup App

While hookup apps may sound like a great deal, they can be frustrating if you can’t get any nibbles on your profile. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to increase your chances of getting lucky.

• Have fun: many people get too caught up in playing the game, and what should be fun ends up being incredibly stressful. If you’re having fun, you’ll be more attractive, and if you’re more attractive…well, you know what happens then.
• Cast a wide net: if you’re only looking for a perfect 10, you’re going to have a hard time. Be willing to lower your standards a little bit for a hookup — besides, you never know what kind of fun you’ve been missing out on all these years.
• Be upfront about what you want: if you just want sex, say that. That may weed out a lot of potential partners, but the ones that remain will give you a much better chance of getting what you want.
• Most importantly, get the best profile pic you can: at the end of the day, your picture will be the most important part of your profile. Do whatever it takes to get a good one, including paying a professional photographer if you need to.

What’s the Best Free Hookup App?

The best free hookup app will depend in large part on what you’re looking for. 

For example, gay guys should go with Grindr, as it will give them much better results than just about any of the sex apps out there. Gay women should start with HER.

For straight folks who want one-on-one hookups, though, it gets a little dicier. Tinder is still probably the king, simply because it has the biggest user base, but if you’ve struck out there you can try other places like HUD and Bumble.

Ultimately, you should ask yourself where your perfect hookup is likely to be, and then sign up for that service.

Hookup Apps vs. Sites, What’s Better?

There’s very rarely a difference between a hookup app and a hookup site; many times, the best hookup sites also have apps that they support.

However, many times the app is free (as it’s supported by advertising) while the site requires a membership. Even the paid apps tend to charge you for in-app purchases (like for messaging someone) rather than for use of the app itself.

As for what’s better, that will ultimately depend on you and what you’re looking for. If you’re permanently glued to your phone, then an app is likely to be more convenient.

However, if you don’t have a smartphone or if you’re really willing to put in some serious work chasing down a one night stand, using a website may be a better choice.

Ultimately, there’s no wrong answer — you should use whichever one gets you laid more often.

Final Takeaway on the Best Hookup Apps

If you want some NSA fun as soon as possible, there’s no better way to find it than by using a hookup app. They make it quick and easy to find like-minded people in your area, so you can say goodbye to the bar scene once and for all.

Even better, there’s seemingly an app for every preference, so you’re sure to find one that’s perfect for you. The ones listed above are our favorites, but you may find one you prefer that’s not shown here.

Of course, if you do…send us a message. We may just want to meet up with you.

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