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Coffee Meets Bagel

Is This Your Business?
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2.2

Overall Score

LAST UPDATED: September 4th, 2023

Coffee Meets Bagel (CMB) launched out of New York on April 17, 2012, by three sisters seeking to find quality men in the Big Apple. The dating site claims to match people up with quality partners using a unique algorithm. This allows “bagels” (also known as users) to find dates without putting in much effort. The service today is now heavily centered on its mobile CMB app with over 10 million users. CMB is known for helping singles find long-term relationships and promoting an anti-hookup dating environment. 

As of June 2015, Coffee Meets Bagel became completely mobile and retired its website platform. According to ABC News, Coffee Meets Bagel raised $7.8 million before appearing on Shark Tank in 2015. After that, the company nearly doubled its external funding. While on the show, the founders of Coffee Meets Bagel rejected Shark Tank investor Mark Cuban's $30 million to buy out the company. 

Keep reading for our in-depth Coffee Meets Bagel review featuring the pros and cons of joining this online dating app, or skip to the Coffee Meets Bagel reviews.

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The Good

  • Easy Sign Up 
  • Gender Preference Options
  • Free Profile
  • Virtual Dating
  • New Twist on the Typical Dating App
  • Free Gifts
  • Smart Users
  • Private Messaging System
  • Protection Against Scammers
  • Account Hold Options

Easy Sign Up 

All you need to sign up is a smartphone. From there, the app can be downloaded in the Apple App Store for iPhone (IOS) users or the Google Play Store for Android users.

Once you download the Coffee Meets Bagel app, you can sign up using your Facebook account or mobile phone number for verification. Easily integrate your account by uploading photos from Instagram or Facebook. 

Your birthdate and email are also needed to help set up your profile. Once your account is set up, you are immediately able to start reviewing your matches. The whole process takes just a couple of minutes.

Gender Preference Options

In the sign-up process, you will be asked to select a gender preference for your matches. You can select men, women, or both. The option to select both is not often seen in the online dating industry. Many sites make you select just one gender to match with. People who don't have a gender preference will appreciate this feature.

Free Profile

This dating platform is completely free if users do not purchase in-app "coffee beans" or purchase a subscription. Coffee beans are the virtual currency that Coffee Meets Bagel uses. However, you do not need to spend money to find success on this app. 

With the free dating app, users can like or pass on suggested “bagels” and chat with them through the app once a mutual connection has been made. You do not have to pay to message with your matches. Many dating sites draw the paywall between matching and being able to have a conversation. That isn't the case with CMB, where most things are free. 

Virtual Dating 

In June 2020, Coffee Meets Bagel introduced a new virtual dating feature. The “Virtual Date Nudge” helps users connect safely during the global pandemic. If you connect and start messaging another user, the “Virtual Date Nudge” will prompt you to select a virtual date out of six options. Dates include recipe swaps, virtual museum tours, game nights, and other activities. The other person will be notified if you select “I’m open to it” on one of the six options.  

New Twist on the Typical Dating App

Using Facebook information to pair up matches, participants of Coffee Meets Bagel receive one or more quality matches or "bagels" every day at noon. Users can then either "like" or "pass" on the potential match based on their personal preference.

Coffee Meets Bagel aims to create something for each one of its participants to look forward to every day with its daily bagel. Coffee Meets Bagel makes sure that everything is private, and nothing is shared publicly on users' Facebook pages. What makes Coffee Meets Bagel different is that it pairs users with a limited number of matches each day and does not send a flood of emails of unknown user profiles for you to "shop" through. 

Another thing that differentiates Coffee Meets Bagel is that the site encourages mutual matches to meet face to face.

Free Gifts

When logging into the app, users receive daily rewards, which consist of different amounts of "coffee beans." Coffee beans allow users to unlock special features.

Coffee Meets Bagel is sometimes called the Groupon of dating apps, because when two people decide to meet up face to face, Coffee Meets Bagel will provide fun incentives like a free appetizer or coffee for the pair at a nearby restaurant. 

Smart Users

Coffee Meets Bagel boasts that it includes the smartest profile users, with 96 percent of users holding at least a Bachelor's degree. Not only that, but over 25 percent of all profile users hold a Master's degree, with many graduate alumni from NYU, Columbia, UPenn, Harvard, Michigan, Berkeley, Boston University, Stanford, Cornell, and UCLA. The company primarily targets young business professionals who are too busy to focus on their dating lives, but still want to find decent people in an easy, fun, and mostly effortless way.

Private Messaging System

Coffee Meets Bagel makes it easy to communicate without having to give out any personal information. If two matches mutually select "like" within the 24 hours, Coffee Meets Bagel gives the two a private phone line. The couple can then use this phone line to communicate and set up a meeting time. This allows the two people to connect without sharing personal contact information before they are ready to.

Connections have a set expiration date of about seven days, but you can re-open a conversation by paying for beans. 

Protection Against Scammers

To help protect against scammers, people can't update some things without filling out a customer service request. This includes basic personal details like your name and your age.

This makes sense, as this information is often directly imported from your Facebook account or your phone's autofill if you don't update it. Fudging one's age is sadly a common online dating practice that some people try to use to change the type of matches they are presented with. This is a great feature to keep people truthful. 

Profile photos also have to be of YOURSELF, not a stranger. CMB's policy states, "At a minimum, we require one photo of your face clearly visible." This is interesting because some apps don’t even require you to add a picture to get started. The policy prevents a user from creating a fake profile. 

Account Hold Options

In this app, you can easily set your account to hold. This means that you don't lose current connections, but you aren't presented or given daily matches. You will still get new Discover bagels refreshed in your account every day, but your profile isn't floating around. 

It doesn't erase the work you have done, so you won't have to start over. When you put your account on hold, your history of likes, passes, and connections are saved, and your matches get notified that you are on hold. 

You can also easily delete your account from the settings section.

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The Bad

  • Valentine's Day Data Breach
  • Only Paired with Mutual Likes
  • Can Go Weeks Without a Match
  • In-App Purchases and Subscriptions
  • Account On-Hold Confusion

Valentine's Day Data Breach

On February 14, 2019, the Coffee Meets Bagel dating app announced that three days earlier the company had suffered a data breach. The online dating site did not specify how many accounts were affected by the breach, but Coffee Meets Bagel did send out an email to its members warning them that some of their personal information might have been stolen. Although the company ensured users that it never stores any financial information or passwords, the information that was exposed includes "member names and email addresses prior to May 2018."

Only Paired with Mutual Likes

The process starts when you log in. Coffee Meets Bagel will provide you with your daily bagel or match for the day, and provides a few pictures to look through. From there, there are two options: to "like" or to "pass." If the user does not like the match, they can always customize their profile to reflect more of what they are looking for. 

The profiles allow users to customize what they are looking for by preferences of religion, ethnicity, distance, height, age, and gender. Coffee Meets Bagel will only put two people in contact with each other if both matches "like" each other. If a profile user decides to pass the bagel, the other person will never know. People are only notified when the mutual "like" is shared. However, users must act fast because the matched bagels are only valid for 24 hours. This feature adds a level of security for some users, but also causes frustration for other users who did not match with a potential love interest.

Can Go Weeks Without a Match

Since users only receive a limited number of suggested bagels per day, they have limited opportunities to find a match each day; people can go a long time before finding someone they like. Unlike other dating sites, Coffee Meets Bagel does not have a feature that allows users to browse through other users' profiles. Also, if a user accidentally presses "pass" on a bagel they meant to press "like" on, there is no way to undo it without having to use their coffee bean currency to buy a second chance with their missed bagel.

In-App Purchases and Subscriptions

Like many other dating apps, CMB offers premium features for purchase. You can access premium features through coffee beans and monthly subscriptions. Some user reviews point out that coffee beans are overpriced for their value. The subscription prices are also expensive compared to other dating sites. This may be a roadblock for individuals looking for an affordable online dating service. 

Coffee Bean Purchases

While creating a profile is free, there are in-app purchases that have the potential to add up. The top in-app purchases on iTunes include the following:

  • 100 coffee beans for $1.99
  • 2,000 beans for $23.99
  • 3,000 beans for $24.99

New users that sign up get 1,000 free beans. You can also earn them for different things such as referring friends (500 beans if they sign up) or following on social media (100 beans for Twitter and 200 for Instagram). You can also earn beans by signing into the app daily. This helps users learn about the coffee bean system before making a purchase. 

Premium Subscription Upgrade

You can also subscribe to get ongoing access to premium features: 

  • 1 month — $35
  • 3 months — $25 per month
  • 6 months — $20 per month 

Account On-Hold Confusion

Premium subscribers need to know that putting your account on hold through the app settings will not cancel your subscription. This has to be done directly in the App Store or through Google Play subscriptions. 

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The Bottom Line

The three sisters like to call Coffee Meets Bagel the "anti-Tinder." According to ABC news, unlike Tinder that has 58 percent male users, Coffee Meets Bagel boasts a majority of female users. Coffee Meets Bagel uses an algorithm closely linked with the user's Facebook page to provide a quality match, leaving those busy with their careers needing to exert little effort to find a partner. Rather than just hooking up, Coffee Meets Bagel aims to match users with a lasting relationship.

The bottom line is that this dating mobile app requires very little effort and is said to have a high response rate for users. Coffee Meets Bagel is relatively low risk and inarguably "spices up one's lunch hour" by bringing users one match every day at noon. The numbers speak for themselves — Coffee Meets Bagel has matched up over 10,000 relationships.

Have you tried Coffee Meets Bagel? Would you recommend it to a friend? Let us know about your experience with a quick review below. 

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1.4

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24 Reviews

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Nelson

Do not pay for anything on this app!!! I made that mistake and soon after they were down for the whole week of Aug 27th to today Sept 2nd (it even made BBC news if you need confirmation). Even now their service is spotty. And they won't even consider refunds for their failure to provide a minimal service during that time, just canned excuses and useless freebies that mean nothing now with the already poor experience I've had with their crappy app.

6 months ago

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Eileen Santa Clara, CA

The customer service group is really not doing their job. My profile was banned for no clear reason. When you try to reach out to them for assistance, they would not disclose the reason behind nor even tries to help, this is after submitting pictures for verifications. Think about why would this app place bans on phone numbers? and not even disclose the reason behind it? After a month of trying to get my number unbanned, I was so frustrated that I emailed the sister founders at Linkedin to take a look at how many tickets I have created, each ticket number. However, I received 0 response. Nobody likes to bad word a business unless it is really below normal people's expectation. The way they treat customers is just very ignorant and sometimes very hard not to think that they are discriminating users. I do not recommend this app, now that I think of it, I encountered very sketchy profiles that should be banned and yet they are not. This app DOES not do facial verifications and allow users to post non-human pictures. Very low tech company, as anyone can be behind the pictures (including their employees). I cannot think of a reason why a business would just randomly ban profiles without disclosing the reason. Other than maybe they couldn't come up with a reason! Or the app was created solely for the owners or specific people. Very ridiculous, 0 support, 0 response from the founders. Does not worth your money! People please at least spend your time on a fair portal that is an actual business. Currently, they are not BBB accredited so you can't place formal complaints and demand responses, but people please check again, I have seen numerous attempted complaints already, including the ones on this website. Very unfortunate to this business. People just be careful and be aware who you spend your money on!

2 years ago Edited March 8, 2022

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Neil F New York, NY

Cancel Culture Meets Discriminatory This app is very quick to ban men ( i had not even had a conversation yet - but apparently my profile was flagged). Without any explanation whatsoever, they6 simply said they reviewed y account and cannot let me join. Since I am s minority, I assume they practice racist guidelines, and that they are too timid to address why they actually banned men With so many other sites to choose, I recommend that MEN get together and boycott this app (we are 90% of their subscription revenue) until their discriminatory practices change And while we are there, you re not giving men any credit to know that the extra bagels (which they have yto buy in order to contact) are mostly phishing accounts, and they will never reply to you This is a very scammy site, created by women to work AGAINST the very men who keep them in business

2 years ago

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Ry408 Union City, CA

I am a member of CMB. They asked me to delete one account and send a picture with holding 3 fingers to verity my account because I have two accounts. Then I sent verification pic and deleted one account. After that I met someone and deleted the account I used. Then we are not work and I back to CMB again and create a new account. CMB still asked my verification picture and ID to verify my account, the reason is I have two accounts. How come I have two accounts? I only have one account. The old account they did not delete from their system and made the trouble for me and said I have two account? CMB made the mistake and ask customers to pay for it?! When I emailed them and they avoid to answer my questions and no solution for their mistake. What the service is! CMB only care about money!

3 years ago

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bbman Los Angeles, CA

This dating app has several problems. First, when you subscribe to their premium package, you might think that allows you to send "likes" to profiles you like and try to start a conversation, as advertised. WRONG. They give you only 8 likes, meaning, you can send a "like" to 8 profiles, and that's it. Once you run out of likes, you must buy their in-app currency, "beans," so you can send more likes by spending beans. It costs between $2.78 to $6.67 to send ONE LIKE to ONE PROFILE. That is ridiculous! You might send 10 or 20 likes or more, and not get any response. Who would knowingly sign up and pay for a monthly subscription, only to find out you have to pay $3 or more just to wave at someone? And, of course, the subscription is non-refundable. The other problem is that while they match you up with 21 "suggested" profiles each day (and you can "like" any of those for free), there is no adequate way of setting preferences and filters. So you get suggestions of totally unattractive profiles that can be way older or otherwise not compatible. Very disappointing.

3 years ago

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Dan Salem, MA

Match quality - terrible. Every day you get one potential match you can choose to like or not. I've had the app for upwards of two months, and out of the 60 or so days I've gotten about 50 very unattractive, particularly large or visually unappetizing bagels. The 8 of the remaining 10 were a more common kind of unattractive, and 2 out of the 60 were legitimately not bad. Customer Support - so bad it makes Comcast look like Disney. There's a bot with preprogrammed generic responses that demonstrate 0 listening, and of the multiple requests for assistance I received not a single response. Not one. No emails, no texts, phone calls, in-app messages, nothing. It's worse than no support because this misleads you into eating up your time explaining your problem to the equivalent of a vending machine. Psychological benefit - damaging The app insults me by referring to my matches as "curated," as in intentionally selected for me specifically. I know on the one hand I shouldn't care what other people think of me, on a high level, on the other hand when you're told every day that you're as attractive as someone who needs multiple seats on a bus or train, it gets psychologically damaging, and has an impact on my self esteem. There are no filters, or ways to indicate preferences on matches on what's important to most people, like religion, body type, values, physical distance, etc. Transparency - LOL Instead of advertising a certain amount of matches for a certain price, it distorts quantifiable value of matches into a point system called "beans," of which come out to 15 likes, or "takes" per month! At about 30 days in a month, 385 beans per like, (which by the way, is that easy for most people to do mental math on - 385?) 6000 beans for $35, you're paying over $2 for a like. Not a match, not a conversation, literally the equivalent of a right swipe on any competitor's app, for two dollars every single time. To summarize, the match quality is disgusting, the straightforwardness of what you actually are paying for is nonexistent, as the customer support is a garbage can.

5 years ago

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Mike Tustin, CA

Coffee Meets Bagel is untruthful. They will give you the bottom of the barrel in terms of matches. You will have 20 new people in your inbox at noon. That part is true. The problem is none are attractive. The other BS algorithm they use is this: they know which profiles are liked the most, so they put them on discovered so you will put them on your “they are perfect for me list” - problem is, you only can do that so many times, but sure enough you can buy their BS beans (points) and “like” that group of hotties just to inform them that you think they’re hott. If you call a spade, a spade, you will soon realize that you spent $24.99 for 5 swipes and you will wait for a message that isn’t coming. MOST BS APP EVER.

5 years ago

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David Bellevue, WA

Beans are so expensive. I have used CMB for quite a while and I now only get to see 5-6 profile per day which is annoying and so inefficient. To use the "discover" feature you need to use beans which if you simply purchase it will be $3-4 for a like - just a like! Not even a match. Chat is only open for 7 days leaving too small of a window for conversation and again you need to spend more $$ extend them. I would say tinder is probably still the best given the "premium" features are much more reasonable.

4 years ago

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Christine Beverly Hills, CA

This site is the worst! I am 56 years old and paired with 24 year olds. I would say that 90% of the matches are fake facebook profile. I have written to CMB many times and they do not care about your safety as they do nothing. It's true women over 50 are targets, but the amount of fakes is scary. There should be warnings, more screening or a Q & A before they are allowed to join. Horrible so beware, Ladies. This site makes being single a joy. Stay safe.

5 years ago

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Kazuki Kon Notting Hill Gate, KEC

The most expensive dating app to the point of ridiculous and non usable, even if you paid to do anything you would get no results. Even if it did work would still be ridiculous as it's not even popular, dead app, not comparable to the best ones and charging triple of the tinder cost monthly. I don't know how anyone would fall for this

2 years ago

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Justin Pumilia , NJ

I had this app for a while and got nothing from it. It looks nice and the idea is great but I think it was unfortunately not well executed. Maybe with some work there where be good substance there but as of now I can not recommend. Lack of users also does not help.

3 years ago Edited September 14, 2021

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Nishita McLean, VA

Extremely upset. the filters for age are 25 - 30 I still receive profiles of 45 and 53-year-old men. Disgusting, I chose South Asian and the profiles I receive do not match the criteria. very disappointed.

5 years ago

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Ind Brier Stow, MA

I agree. Many of the photos are clearly professional modeling photos, yet you will NEVER receive any of them as potential matches. A complete waste of time at best, or perhaps just a scam.

5 years ago

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Frank McKinney, TX

This site has been mainly designed to make money for the owners . You get 20 profiles of the most unattractive people while they they ask you 4.99 just to like someone. Don’t waste away your money .

6 years ago

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Lead d Los Angeles, CA

Fraud and crime app. This app does not deserve to be paid a penny! On top of that, staff is extremely rude and doesn’t know their business. They will treat you like trash.

2 years ago

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pencraftco Portland, OR

Three of the people suggested were using fake profiles. If you use this app, be sure you know how to do a reverse photo lookup and check every profile carefully!

2 years ago

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brian Santa Clara, CA

Don't be fooled, this is a data collection company disguised as a dating app. They data-mine your Facebook data and that of your friends. Read their terms very carefully!

7 years ago

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Sam

I was sexually assaulted by a man I met on CMB and when I reported it to the company, they didn't even bother to respond.

2 years ago

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Dmbsmile Mcdonough, GA

Very deceptive profiles. Chatted with 3 different catfishers (who were clearly foreign, unlike what their profile said or pictures indicated). Scary!

6 years ago

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Patrick Irving, TX

The use of coffee beans to like anyone restricts the numbers of likes. It becomes very expensive to like anyone since you need to buy more beans.

6 years ago

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Teri Jensen Jacksonville, FL

Too many fake profiles. Too many shady characters. No way to report concerns or problems.

8 years ago