Fact Checked by: Debbie Gutfreund, MA
Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) launched in 2012 and became a household name after appearing on “Shark Tank” in 2015. Still, what does it mean by coffee, and what’s the deal with the bagel? And more importantly, will it help you find a partner ready for a long-term relationship?
We’re going to share all those answers and more in our Coffee Meets Bagel review. Well, actually not all. We never could figure out what coffee means, but we did get tons of info after using the app for a week. Ready for the real tea (or, um… coffee?). Take a look through our Coffee Meets Bagel review to see if this app is right for you.
Can we save you some time? If you continue reading our full CMB review you’ll find that CMB isn’t a “bad dating app”. Sure there are some things people may not like (for example, chats expiring after 7 days which quickly forces you off the app and into in-person meeting). But here’s the thing, it’s also definitely not the best serious dating app.
As far as we’re concerned that title is held by eharmony and honestly without much contest. Eharmony has been in the game longer than CMB (12 years longer), has lead to far more relationships, and in the court of public opinion is more trusted to get the job done. In short, if you’re serious about finding a lasting relationship then why settle? Click here to claim your free trial now!
Is Coffee Meets Bagel worth trying?
As a serious dating app, Coffee Meets Bagel uses an advanced matching algorithm and technology to provide high-quality matches. At first, it matches you with members in your nearby area who meet your preferences. However, the algorithm improves as you interact with members, and quickly begins incorporating your interests, education, social circles, and more.
From what we saw, the matching algorithm works, and you have a pretty good chance of moving things into the real world when using the app.
When you sign up, you can choose a basic or paid account. Surprisingly, you can use Coffee Meets Bagel’s core functions with a free account, meaning you can like, pass, and chat with matches. Based on our experience, that’s all you need to have success on this dating app.
Still, you have the option to increase your exposure and double your matches with a Mini or Premium membership. As the name implies, the Mini membership has fewer features than the Premium membership does.
All members receive a limited number of “Bagels” each day at noon. Your Bagels are your matches, and you can like or pass on them. While some people don’t like the limits, we actually do. You can’t help but spend more time reviewing profiles when you can only look at a handful.
Oh, and don’t worry if your match count is low at first. Even free members can see which of their Bagels like them, making it easy to get mutual matches. In fact, we ended up with a dozen matches using this strategy. It’s no wonder that Coffee Meets Bagel has created over 50 million matches.
Once you match with someone, you can start chatting, even if you have a free account. Beware, though – chats expire after seven days. This is Coffee Meets Bagel’s way to push matches into the real world. Again, we really like this since it improves the quality of the chats.
The members we chatted with were engaging and responsive, and we can see how this app can lead to serious relationships and even marriage. But as much as we like Coffee Meets Bagel, we know it’s not for everyone.
We recommend checking CMB out if you:
- Want to start a serious relationship
- Prefer quality over quantity
- Want to take things into the real world soon
However, CMB is not for you if you:
- Prefer casual dating
- Love to swipe through hundreds of profiles
- Like to chat on dating apps for weeks before taking things into the real world
What we like, and what we don’t…
CMB Pros
- Algorithm improves match quality the more you use the app.
- Profile viewing limits help members focus on forming genuine connections.
- Most profiles are detailed and complete.
- You are able to chat with matches without upgrading
- You will only receive messages from profiles you’ve liked, so your inbox doesn’t become a pit of unwelcome photos and cheesy pickup lines.
- You can earn in app currency through activities.
CMB Cons
- Coffee Meets Bagel Premium subscription is expensive.
- You only get 5 matches per day, which can make the process feel a little slow.
- The gender split isn’t even, with around 60% of users identifying as female.
- Smallish membership base, so you might run out of profiles if you upgrade
In This Review
Testing | Features | Profile | Free Trial | Pricing | Complaints
The Testing of CMB – 7.21
Based on over 70 data points across 8 categories, our team has determined that Coffee Meets Bagel earned an overall score of 7.21. Here are the results of that testing with notes at how we arrived at our scoring.
| Factor | Results (out of 10) | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safety and Security | 7.5 | 20% | Good photo requirements (face photos mandatory). No video verification, but decent reporting tools. Privacy policy clear. Not much cross-sharing with other apps. |
| Profile Engagement | 8.0 | 15% | Profiles are well-filled, thanks to curated prompts. Users generally serious and motivated. Chats expire after 7 days, which pushes real-life meetings but can feel rushed for some. |
| Feature Effectiveness | 7.0 | 15% | Features serve purpose of serious dating well. “Bagels” limit over-swiping. Discover and Activity Reports are helpful. The Beans system is a bit clunky and can become expensive. |
| Pricing | 6.5 | 15% | Basic functionality is free, but premium pricing is high compared to alternatives. Beans add unpredictability to total costs. |
| UX and Usability | 8.5 | 10% | App is clean, intuitive, and visually appealing. Some complaints about finding features like history. Mobile-only. |
| Popularity | 7.0 | 10% | Good brand recognition, but user pool is modest, especially outside urban centers. Female-majority base (approx. 60%). |
| External Reviews | 7.0 | 10% | Generally positive. Negative comments mainly about small pool of users and beans costs. Scams exist but seem lower than on more casual apps. |
| Feature Growth | 5.0 | 5% | App is fairly stable, but not innovating much lately. Core system hasn’t changed significantly. |
| Overall | 7.21 | ~ | ~ |
Learn more about how we test and score here.
Security Features Tested (9 point checklist) – 7.5
Below, you’ll find how our team arrived at the score of 7.5 based on our extensive testing for safety and security at Coffee Meets Bagel.
| Factor | Score (0-10) | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Privacy Policy Protections | 8.0 | 15% | Clear policy, minimal cross-sharing, no forced social media logins. |
| Third-Party Data Usage | 7.0 | 15% | Minimal marketing partnerships. Not overly monetized like Match Group apps. |
| App and Data Encryption | 8.0 | 15% | Standard encryption practices. No data breaches reported. |
| Block and Report Options | 7.5 | 15% | Simple to block/report. Response from support varies, sometimes slow. |
| Account Verification Options | 5.5 | 10% | Requires face photo, but no video or government ID verification. Could improve. |
| Data Minimization Practices | 7.0 | 10% | Good but does collect some behavioral data for matching and monetization. |
| 2FA Available | 3.0 | 10% | No optional 2FA security for logins. |
| TOS Acknowledges Safety | 8.0 | 5% | Clear community guidelines and safety disclaimers. |
| Strong Password Requirements | 8.0 | 5% | Good standards, but no forced complex passwords. |
| Overall | 7.5 | ~ | ~ |
UX and UI Testing – 8.5
The app itself (once you get in) is quite visually appealing and fairly easy to use. However, in this last round of testing we had a pretty strange annoyance that we didn’t dock a lot of points for but we did want to bring to your attention.
When we opened the app, it told us that we were using the wrong version. Apparently. CMB has now segmented the app into separate apps for different geos. While this in itself isn’t really that big of a deal, we were annoyed that the button to get the right app does not work. We ended up having to go to the app store to search and hopefully find the right version for us.
Again, maybe not a bad thing (though it does raise some questions), but we were annoyed enough by the button not working to share it here.
Here are a few more videos showing the UX (without showing actual profiles for privacy reasons).
Popularity Analysis of CMB – 7.0
The greatest source of popularity for CMB came when it was on Shark Tank (several years ago), but there is still activity and interest in the platform. We’ve included the results of our popularity analysis below that equated to a score of 7.0 out of 10. We’ve also included a screenshot of the Google search activity and popularity over the past 5 years for the app, which you can see has been lower but quite steady.
| Factor | Testing Score | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search Trends | 6.9 | 25% | Has held steady interest over the years, though growth has slowed. Searches are strongest in cities with a young professional base. |
| Internal Testing | 7.1 | 25% | Familiar name among daters, especially women. Not seen as top-tier in scale, but often mentioned in conversations about slower-paced dating. |
| Search Volume | 6.8 | 15% | Branded queries occur regularly but at lower volume compared to other long-established apps. Most searches appear from repeat or referred users. |
| Traffic | 7.3 | 15% | Daily usage is decent in major cities but noticeably tapers off in smaller markets. Female-majority user base contributes to higher engagement quality. |
| News Coverage | 7.2 | 10% | Has received fair coverage over the years, particularly for its unique “slow dating” model and Shark Tank appearance, but less press lately. |
| Social Reach | 6.7 | 10% | Present on key platforms with lifestyle-themed content, but not highly viral or widely shared. Engagement is steady, not standout. |
| Total | 7.00 | ~ | ~ |
Looking at CMB features and fancy terms…
Coffee Meets Bagel isn’t as feature-rich as a lot of sites out there, but that’s OK. If you’ve been following our Coffee Meets Bagel review, you know the app’s main focus is creating genuine connections, and that’s more important than cool features. Still, it uses some unique language and has a few features we’d like to discuss.
“Bagels”
Matches are called “Bagels” on Coffee Meets Bagel. You can review and like your Bagels via the “Suggestions” tab starting at noon each day. While the Bagels are limited in number, they’re highly curated, so you can expect to see one solid match after the next.
Activity Report
Earlier in our Coffee Meets Bagel review, we said you don’t really need to upgrade to a paid membership. However, there is a premium feature we love – the Activity Report.
If you upgrade, you can get some info before liking or passing on profiles. Info like their last login and how fast they reply can help you improve your success rate. But even without the Activity Report, we didn’t have any issues finding members ready to chat. Only six of our likes went unanswered, and we chatted with all of our matches.
“What’s Your Type” CMB Match Filters
Since most apps have filters, you might find yourself wanting to skip past this part of our review of Coffee Meets Bagel. Stick around, though, because this is important. See, while you can set your search preferences, they can work against you here.
Coffee Meets Bagel takes search filters very seriously. Instead of recommendations, they are dealbreakers.
For example, if you say you’re looking for men between 25-35, the app won’t show you compatible Bagels (matches) who are 36.
That being said, this is a much bigger issue for premium members since they have more specific filters. Check out the free and premium filters to see what we mean.
Discover
If the suggested matches aren’t doing it for you, or you just want to see what else Coffee Meets Bagel has to offer, you can check out the Discover section. Here, you will see other singles in your area that didn’t match with your personality and needs, but were pretty close (runners up if you will).
Free members don’t get many Discover matches, so some CMB users upgrade for this alone. Still, we had ample matches on the Coffee Meets Bagel app without paying anything.
Beans
If you have some extra money and want more exposure, you can buy Beans to use on Coffee Meets Bagel. You can use Beans to get more Bagels and extend chats past the seven-day limit. Also, you’ll be able to see more profiles and send extra likes on the Discover tab. All members can buy Beans, but premium subscribers get a discount.
How Do I Buy Beans?
Beans can be purchased in the app’s “Bean Shop.” You can buy a set of 100 beans for as little as $1.99. If you are buying Beans frequently, you may save some money by signing up for a monthly membership.
Can I Get Beans for Free?
You can! You earn free beans by consistently using the CMB app. You can also earn 500 free beans by inviting friends to join the app.
History
Recently, some members have complained that Coffee Meets Bagel has done away with members’ histories. We poked around and it’s still there (just not very easy to find). Click on the symbol on the top right-hand screen to open your history. Then, you can see all the likes you’ve sent and your mutual matches.
Reviewing user profiles and quality…
According to Coffee Meets Bagel, 91% of its members want serious relationships, and that checks out based on their profiles and engagement rates. Let’s start with the profiles. Members just need to add a bit of info to sign up, but most go the extra mile by answering prompts and adding their values.
Also, all the members have pictures! Members have to add a photo that shows their faces to get approved on Coffee Meets Bagel, and we definitely appreciated that. Here’s an example of what a typical profile might look like:
As with most serious dating apps, the members here are a little older than you’ll find on casual sites. The majority are between 30-49, but you’ll also find people outside of that demographic. Also, since the app limits the number of Bagels you see, you don’t have to worry about running out of matches, unless you upgrade to premium.
Also, the members here seem very motivated to find partners. Check out our stats after using Coffee Meets Bagel for a week:
- We received 99 likes (the app stops counting at 99)
- We liked 39 profiles
- Received 33 mutual matches
- We had 32 conversations (25 of them ongoing)
We encountered one mildly rude person out of all of that. The member was upset when we didn’t respond for a couple of days. We’ve seen much worse on dating apps, so we certainly aren’t going to ding Coffee Meets Bagel for that.
Options for signup – how to get started…
You can create your Coffee Meets Bagel account using your phone number or Facebook. We personally recommend not connecting dating apps with your social media, but we’ll give you a breakdown of the steps for both ways just in case you need them!
Signing Up for CMB With Your Phone
- Visit the Apple Store if you’re an iPhone user or Google Play for Android.
- Download the app, open it, and choose “continue with phone number.”
- Provide your phone number.
- Wait for your SMS verification to pop up and complete.
- Fill in your profile and choose your dating preferences.
Signing Up for CMB With Facebook
- Download the app from the Apple Store or Google Play.
- Open the app and choose “continue with Facebook.”
- The app will direct your through connecting to your Facebook.
- Approve the permissions as the app requests them.
- Complete your CMB profile and match preferences.
Is It Safe to Connect my CMB Dating App to Facebook?
Facebook has had issues in the recent past with leaking personal data from theirs and connected apps. For that reason, we always recommend not connecting your Coffee Meets Bagel account to Facebook. However, there are thousands of singles who do and have not had their data compromised. Ultimately, it is up to personal preference.
What You Get with a Coffee Meets Bagel Free Trial
Let’s start with what you do and don’t get with a CMB free trial. This handy chart breaks it all down.
| Feature | Coffee Meets Bagel Free Trial | Mini Membership (Paid) | Premium Membership (Paid) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create and Edit a Profile | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Add Up to Nine Profile Photos | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Use the Google Play or App Store App | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Receive Suggested “Bagels” at Noon Each Day | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Like and Pass on Bagels | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| View Discover Matches | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Discover Search | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 8 Discover Likes a Month | ❌* | ❌* | Yes |
| Send a Message with a Like | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Chat with Matches | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| See Everyone Who Likes You | ❌ | ❌ | Yes |
| Premium Preferences | ❌ | Yes | Yes |
| 3 Boosts a Month | ❌ | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited Rewinds | ❌ | Yes | Yes |
| Activity Reports | ❌ | Yes | Yes |
| Read Receipts | ❌ | Yes | Yes |
| Unlimited Skip the Line | ❌ | ❌ | Yes |
*Both CMB free trial and CMB Mini members will have to use beans to send discover likes. (This can really be a pain if you don’t live in a bigger area where Coffee Meets Bagel is popular)
Coffee Meets Bagel might not have many features, but there’s still a learning curve when using the app. First, you have to understand the language. Bagels are potential matches, while Beans are the in-app currency. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s look at some of the things you can do with your free trial to Coffee Meets Bagel.
View Curated Matches Each Day
The “Suggested” tab contains profiles of “Bagels” for you to like or pass on. You’ll get new Bagels every day at noon, and they’ll disappear 24 hours later. That means you need to like or pass on your Bagels quickly before they go away.
As a free member, you can also send a message with your like. According to CMB, you’re 25% more likely to get a match if you send a message.
If you’re a guy, the app will send you up to 21 Bagels each day. But ladies, we have some bad news. You’ll only receive up to six Bagels. This is likely because over 60% of CMB’s membership base is male.
Chat with Matches
You can use your CMB free trial to chat with your matches. CMB is focused on helping people move into the real world, so chats expire in a week. However, you have the option of spending some Beans to extend the chat.
Are you worried that CMB will push you and your match into the real world too fast? Get our thoughts on when to meet your online match in person.
Find Singles Outside Your Match Criteria via the Discover Tab
You can expand your options by using CMB’s Discover tab. You’ll find folks who don’t quite meet your criteria, but still might be worth a shot. But while you can browse for free, you’ll need to spend Beans to send a Discover Like, so consider it “kinda” part of the free trial.
What You Don’t Get with a Coffee Meets Bagel Free Trial
You can use the CMB free trial to connect with members, but it doesn’t include premium features. But are those premium features worth it? Get our thoughts on some of the extras.
- Premium Preferences – All members can set basic preferences to find the perfect Bagel. As a free member, you can set up to six preferences. Premium members receive eight additional preferences, but that’s not as helpful as it sounds. See, there are so few members outside of large cities that you’ll end up without any Bagels if you get too picky about your preferences.
- Activity Reports – Premium members can view their Bagels’ Activity Reports before deciding to like, pass, or message them. The reports contain vital info, including how often members message their matches and their average reply time.
That’s just a snippet of what you’ll get if you upgrade. Check out the screenshot below to see what’s included with both premium plans.
CMB Pricing
| Membership Type | Membership Length | Monthly Cost | Total Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | Ongoing | $0 | $0 |
| Mini | 1 month | $15 | $15 |
| Mini | 3 months | $10 | $30 |
| Mini | 6 months | $8.33 | $50 |
| Premium | 1 month | $35 | $35 |
| Premium | 3 months | $25.00 | $75 |
| Premium | 6 months | $20.00 | $120 |
Pricing is a mix of monthly subscriptions and add-ons called ‘beans’
CMB pricing is a hybrid of subscription-based and a la carte purchasing. With subscriptions, the Mini level of service is available at $8.33 per month, $10 per month, or $15 per month. The Premium level of service is available for either $15 per month, $20 per month, $25 per month, or $34.99 per month, depending on how long of a subscription term you sign up for. As is standard in the industry, the longer of a term you commit to, the more you’ll save per month (even though the total purchase cost is higher).
In short, you can expect to pay between $8.33 and $25 per month for Coffee Meets Bagel (Beans not included).
All CMB subscriptions are purchased upfront as a one-time lump sum payment, and can be purchased via any of the payment options offered through the iOS store or the Google Play store. As there is no desktop version of Coffee Meets Bagel, you’re limited to the available payment options through these app marketplaces (which are usually fairly robust).
With a premium or mini CMB membership, you get access to a lot of features like activity reports, read receipts, monthly boosts, and additional avenues to create matches. Premium users also get access to see which members have selected that they like them and also the ability to give other users a virtual bouquet of flowers to bring special attention to the match.
On top of purchasing a membership, you have the option to purchase additional “CMB currency” known as beans. Think of beans as digital tokens or credits that you can redeem for things like more likes, more daily matches, or to temporarily unlock premium features if you haven’t paid to upgrade yet.
Here are the prices for beans on CMB:
- 100 beans – $1.99
- 2,000 beans – $23.99
- 3,000 beans – $24.99
- *You may also see random specials. For example, enough beans for a “Discover Like” (385 beans) for $0.99 (discounted from $8).
The app can spend beans very quickly (as you saw in the screenshot above), and a lot of users seem to feel that using beans “just complicates things for the users”, and ultimately is not worth it.
That said, if you do purchase a premium CMB membership, you’ll receive 6,000 beans for free with your initial purchase. You’ll also get a lot of the perks purchased with beans for free with the premium upgrade, so the need to continually purchase these is lowered.
You can also earn beans for free within the app from daily logins, swiping, and inviting friends (Though in much smaller quantities).
Do Coffee Meets Bagel Memberships Auto-Renew?
Much like you see with most apps, Coffee Meets Bagel is set up to auto-renew automatically at the same rate and term you selected and in accordance with Google or Apple’s guidance. Cancelling the auto-renewal is the same process as it is with any other app, though, so you don’t have to worry about jumping through a lot of hoops to complete the cancellation.
Source: CMB Terms of Service, Section 8
But, while the cost of Coffee Meets Bagel is automatically renewed depending on your plan, you don’t have to jump through too many hoops to stop it whenever you want. You could even make your payment and stop future debits from the Google Play or App Store. That’s handy if you wish to give the app a try for a month or take advantage of the multi-month discount but avoid future charges.
Over 200K reviews, here’s what users complain about…
Even though our review of Coffee Meets Bagel is positive, we want to share some user complaints. The site has mainly positive reviews on the App Store and Google Play, but we found some negative reviews on Trustpilot and other sites.
- Premium Members Run Out of Profiles – Unlimited likes is a big selling point for the premium membership, but it can be a waste of money if you want to see lots of profiles. The membership base is on the smaller side, so you can run out quickly if you go wild with likes.
- Scammers – We didn’t run into anyone trying to scam us when using Coffee Meets Bagel. Still, we read complaints from members who have. Some of the scammers want to sell sexual services, according to users. You can report members who break the Community Guidelines on Coffee Meets Bagel, which helps keep the apps safe.
- Unhelpful Customer Support – Coffee Meets Bagel’s Help Center has a lot of great info, so you should find the answers to most of your questions there. Still, those who had to reach out to customer support said they didn’t receive much help.