HUD Review: Is The Hookup Dating App Legit?
by John Santana
Within seven years, HUD has become a top-tier casual dating app. Online dating has become the most popular way to meet people. Among all the choices available, some apps offer significantly more benefits in the same price range.
Are you considering joining the HUD fandom but are skeptical about its features and pricing plans? Then, this is the article for you as we dissect everything about this trending matchmaking app.
HUD at a Glance
First Impression: 8/10
Signup and search: 2/10
Profile quality: 5/10
Features: 6/10
Pricing: 5/10
Overall: 5.2/10
Verdict: Not interested in reading the full report? That’s fine because this is the brief verdict you want to know anyway! HUD is brilliantly designed to find hookups and casual dates when you are bored or just not interested in commitments.
The app makes it perfectly clear that you should not expect to find your future partner here.
That being said, the app does show limitations. The app serves young adults the best. Members are keener on meeting younger members. Professional workers are not a big selling point as members prefer the free-spirited nomads. If you are more mature with a professional job, you are not as charming to others.
All in all, there are better online dating platforms on the market like Adult FriendFinder, Ashley Madison, and Bang Locals that will truly transform the experience.
About HUD
First released in 2015, HUD unapologetically markets itself as the hookup app every modern youngster needs. By 2022, it already has over 10 million members around the world.
The entire platform glorifies the freedom of being able to love and date as you want. No one has to be a prude on the site. You can be as horny as you want.
Throughout the years, HUD has dedicated its effort to improving its system for user experience. It is prevalent among adults between 20 to 35 as a platform to find casual sex. Members can quickly meet somewhere in town and get laid.
First Impression
If you are all about the visual impact, then HUD will blow you away with its modern design and seamless flow. The developers have done an outstanding job of connecting the dots. Each feature transitions smoothly. The user interface is organized and clean.
HUD is available on both Android and iOS devices. Users can sign into their accounts on multiple devices at the same time, giving greater flexibility. There is no steep learning curve as the app is easy to use. The simple, yet sophisticated design, leaves a superb first impression on the new users.
You don’t get many previews without signing up. But the professional landing page is already captivating enough to make you want to be part of the community. It has over 150,000 reviews on Apple and Google Play, consolidating its reputation in the dating field. It certainly gives users the confidence that HUD is reliable and will deliver its promises.
The first impression of HUD is pleasant and trustworthy. Users will want to sign up immediately with its professional outlook and modern design. The layout also targets the millennials with its cool visual effects.
First Impression: 8/10
Signup and search
The signup process on HUD is fairly standardized. It takes around 10 minutes to complete the registration and complete your profile. There is not much difficulty in the signup process that prevents users from getting on board.
Since you can log into the same account on multiple devices, you can keep your chats synchronized, keep track of your matches, and get notifications promptly.
However, once you sign up, the search feature is rather off-putting. We have discovered HUD to be quite LGBT-unfriendly and discriminatory. In the past, users have complained about HUD not being inclusive enough. To this day, the problem persists.
Not only will it be difficult for LGBT members to find a match, but it also divides members by race as there is a race filter option. It is weird and inappropriate to promote this kind of search behavior.
It is not the first time HUD to be blasted for endorsing racial separation, and unfortunately, the claim seems to have its stance. It is disappointing to see a trending dating app in the 21st century have these features included.
Given its discriminatory nature, HUD fails to provide a safe place for everyone and even creates a hostile attitude toward some groups of users. It is unacceptable in this day and age. Unless HUD takes radical measures to rectify it, the app is not suitable for the majority of people.
Signup and search: 2/10
Profile Quality
Since HUD runs a thorough check on each new registration request, the number of fake profiles remains low. Hence, most profiles on the app are authentic and genuine. It raises the profile quality. You know you are interacting with a real user looking for a date and not a scammer looking for cash.
Members are mostly young and free-spirited. It pools together students and those working nomadically. Perhaps due to its casual vibe, HUD is not popular among professionals.
Members are usually open-minded and active in locking down their target. They are not shy to initiate a conversation or ask you out. It is an immersive environment to meet a date.
HUD members are selective about who gets picked. If your profile fits the community standards, you will be bagging home the hottest babes online. But, if you do not fall into the main group, you will be sitting on the bench on the side of the courtyard for weeks.
Judging the profile quality is hard. The dating scene is hardly diverse. It feels like a dating circle bred for a small group of people only. Members need to carefully check if they are considered “attractive” before joining the platform so they do not miss thousands of opportunities.
Profile quality: 5/10
Features
Casual hookup apps are notoriously for their sloppiness. This is not the case with HUD. It offers a variety of interesting features that you won’t find elsewhere. For example, its flagship SAFELY badges allow members that have conducted STD/STI examinations in the clinic to display on their profiles.
Clean members can choose to only match with other certified STD-free members as well.
Advocating for safe sex is not usually on the agenda for hookup apps. HUD takes the step to promote that shows a lot of potential and capacity for this rising star. Furthermore, the platform normalizes kinks and fetishes with its BEDROOM feature. Users get a glimpse of what the potential date is into in bed and how compatible you will be.
Everything is strictly sex-related. HUD has done quite an exceptional job in introducing new features to enhance the user experience. Although these features are pioneering, most of them do come with bugs that sometimes interrupt the flow.
For example, the BEDROOM feature is not calculated accurately as users often get matched with others that do not share any similar kinks. Besides, the video calls with filters drop out unexpectedly, revealing the user from an unpleasant angle.
Most of the issues are minor but do damage the app’s reputation. Overall, the creativity involved is on point. HUD tries its best to deliver the most unforgettable experience but it needs to work harder to make the twist perfect.
Pricing
Pricing is easily the most important category for users. After all, you don’t want to be overpaying for an inferior dating app. To begin with, HUD’s free features are pathetically limited. It feels like the only reason HUD introduced the free features is to trick people into signing up and upgrading their plans.
You can only browse the profiles without any interaction with the free plan. The worst part is members don’t even get unlimited browsing in this limited action they have. The free membership plan shouldn’t be labeled as a “plan” at all.
Thankfully, upgrading to the premium plan to unlock its features won’t cost you a leg and an arm. Its one-month plan costs $25, while its 12-month plan costs $17 per month. The price range sits a little below the average of premium dating apps of the same tier. For the price that you are paying, you are more or less getting what it is worth.
HUD reduces its reach by largely limiting the mobility of free members. The app does not reveal the number of paying members and free members. Therefore, you could be spending your money messaging a free member that can never reply
Pricing: 5/10
Summary
If you are a young, fun-loving spirit with no intention of settling down, HUD is a high-quality dating app that will get you hundreds of new matches. However, there are limitations, making the app far from perfect. It is not inclusive and some features are not well-maintained.
HUD only works for its specific audience so if you don’t belong to the category, you are better off with other more inclusive platforms like Adult FriendFinder, Ashley Madison, and Bang Locals.
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