DateUp Review 2026: Real Profiles or Scam?
The DateUp dating app is real and its profiles look like real people, not a scam, but in October 2026 it is a very small app: 101 ratings on the App Store and 274 on Google Play, with reviewers reporting only a handful of profiles within 50 to 100 miles. DateUp is built for tall women (5'8"+) and tall men (6'0"+), plus shorter people who want to date up. Download it free and look around, but don't pay for a week of Premium until you've seen how many people are near you.
What is DateUp, and who runs it?
DateUp is a height-focused dating app whose stated mission, on its press and FAQ page, is "to provide the best dating experience for tall women". Everyone is welcome, but tall users are treated as the VIPs. In the post Why We Built DateUp (2021, updated 2024), the founder, a tall man from a "very, very tall family", explains that he interviewed tall women. They kept describing the same problems: it's hard to find tall men, and men lie about their height and then accuse the woman of lying about hers.
The company is DateUp, Inc. Its Google Play listing gives an address in Reno, Nevada, and its terms are governed by Delaware law. DateUp is on iPhone and Android, and it's US-focused for now: its international page is a waitlist where people in other countries can vote for where it launches next. You can find it at dateup.co.
Don't confuse it with Dateup the AI photo tool
If you search "dateup dating app", one of the top results is dateup.in, a different product that has nothing to do with height. It's an AI tool that touches up your dating photos and writes openers for Tinder, Bumble or Hinge, sold as one-time packs. If you want the tall dating app, you need dateup.co or the "DateUp - Tall Dating Made Easy" app from DateUp, Inc. in the app stores.
Who DateUp is for
- Tall women who are tired of matching with men who are shorter than they said, or who mind their heels. The whole app is built around them.
- Tall men who want a tall partner.
- Shorter people of any gender who prefer taller partners and are comfortable dating up. They join as Guests.
- Gay and lesbian daters: the FAQ says matching "works identically for gay and straight matchmaking", and a 2022 update added more gender preferences.
It's not for you if you live far from a big city and want a lot of choice, or if two people of average height want to meet each other: Guests can't match with Guests.
How DateUp matching works: Members and Guests
The rules, from DateUp's FAQ:
- Members are women 5'8" and taller and men 6'0" and taller.
- Guests are anyone shorter who wants to date up.
- A Member can match with other Members (tall seeking tall) or with Guests (shorter seeking tall).
- Guests can't match with other Guests. DateUp's reasoning is that people of average height already make up most matches on every other app.
Day to day, it works like a swipe app. You see one profile at a time, with height shown up front and a "height-verified" badge if the person did the check. You like or pass, you match when the like is mutual, and you get a limited number of daily likes. The Google Play screenshots also show a Teleport mode, which lets you set your location to another city before a trip or a move. According to the App Store release notes, February 2026 added "DateUp Select", a subscription that lets you send a message request before matching and see the profiles you passed. Subscribers also get read receipts.
Is DateUp free? Prices and plans
DateUp is free to download, build a profile, swipe and match. Everything else is in-app purchases. DateUp doesn't publish its prices on its website, so the table below comes from the App Store listing. The App Store shows the price and length of each purchase, but not which plan it belongs to. Two prices for every length suggest two tiers, probably a basic plan and DateUp Select, but that's my reading, not something DateUp says. On Google Play, the in-app range is $7.99 to $129.99 per item.
| Length | App Store prices (US) | Per week, roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 1 week | $9.99 or $14.99 | $9.99 to $14.99 |
| 1 month | $19.99, $24.99 or $34.99 | $4.60 to $8.10 |
| 3 months | $44.99 or $79.99 | $3.45 to $6.15 |
| 6 months | $59.99 or $99.99 | $2.30 to $3.85 |
Prices checked October 2026, App Store US. Per-week figures are my own math, based on 4.33 weeks per month (13 weeks for 3 months, 26 for 6).
What's free and what isn't isn't spelled out anywhere official, so here is what reviewers report. Two Google Play reviewers (May and July 2026) say the app pushed them toward a $10-a-week upgrade to talk to people. A June 2026 App Store reviewer says you can't filter to Members only (tall people only) without Premium, which undercuts the whole point for tall daters. That same reviewer quotes "$10/day", but the store lists no daily plan, only weekly ones from $9.99, so it's almost certainly $10 a week.
The cheapest way in: stay free until you know how many profiles there are near you. If you do pay, a one-month plan costs about half as much per week as the weekly one, and in a tiny local pool, six months is a gamble.
Auto-renewal, refunds and how to cancel
DateUp's terms of use say a subscription "will automatically continue for an additional equivalent period" until you cancel. Charges are "nonrefundable" as a rule, but DateUp "may make an exception if a refund for a subscription offering is requested within fourteen days of the transaction date". If you paid through Apple, refunds go through Apple, not DateUp. Residents of some states, including California, New York and Illinois, can also cancel without penalty until midnight on the third business day after subscribing.
Most important: according to the terms, deleting your DateUp account or the app "does not cancel your subscription". Cancel where you paid:
- iPhone: open Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions, choose DateUp and tap Cancel (Apple's steps).
- Android: open your subscriptions in Google Play, choose DateUp, tap Cancel and follow the prompts. Google notes that uninstalling the app does not cancel it (Google Play's steps).
- Then delete the account from Settings in the app. The privacy policy says DateUp keeps your data for a three-month "safety retention window", then deletes or anonymizes it.
Safety and height verification
Height verification is DateUp's signature feature, and it's optional. The FAQ says it "only takes a few seconds, and generally leads to more matches". The privacy policy explains how it works: you scan your driver's license, and the app reads the height and date of birth and compares them with your profile. The license is "parsed, but not saved". Your height only changes if you accept the scanned value. If the scan fails and you choose to send the data in for a fix, DateUp keeps it until it figures out the problem.
Two limits are worth knowing. First, as a June 2026 App Store reviewer points out, a license height is self-reported in most states, so "verified" means the profile matches the license, not that anyone measured the person. Second, the checks on DateUp's public pages are about height, not identity: nothing there describes a selfie or photo identity check.
The community guidelines require a real first name (no handles), ban impersonation, multiple accounts and soliciting, and state "a zero-tolerance policy on predatory behavior of any kind". Users who post PayPal or Venmo details to collect money can be banned. The terms ban asking other users for money and tell you not to share financial information. You report problems inside the app or through DateUp's contact form. You must be 18 or older to join.
The usual rules apply: chat in the app until you've met, video call first, meet in a public place, and never send money to someone you met online, whatever the story.
Is the DateUp dating app legit? Real profiles, complaints and ratings
Yes, DateUp is a real, maintained app from a registered US company. It's still being updated (version 4.1 on the App Store in May 2026, and a Google Play update on April 29, 2026). Nothing in the listings or reviews points to fake profiles planted by the company. The complaints are about size and price, not fraud:
- App Store: 3.6 out of 5 from 101 ratings (October 2026), rated 16+. Positive reviews love the idea and say the distance setting is accurate. Critical ones mention "only two profiles within 100 miles", a buggy interface, and a license scan that wouldn't read.
- Google Play: 3.9 out of 5 from 274 ratings, 100K+ downloads, rated Mature 17+ (October 2026). The most-read reviews describe "literally 10 women in a 50 mile radius", search errors, no likes in weeks, and $10-a-week upgrade prompts. One reviewer calls it a scam because of the paywall, but that's a complaint about value, not about fake members.
The paperwork is less polished. The terms say they were "last revised on June 21, 2019", and the company address and court venue fields still read "Address" and "City, State" placeholders. The privacy policy is dated July 21, 2019. That doesn't make DateUp unsafe, but it tells you this is a small team.
Pros and cons
Pros
- A clear niche: tall women first, tall men and shorter daters who want to date up welcome.
- Optional driver's license height check, and per the privacy policy, the license isn't stored.
- Guests can't match each other, so tall users mostly see people looking for them.
- Free to download, build a profile and match. Supports gay and straight matching.
- Teleport mode for checking out another city before a trip or move.
Cons
- A very small user base: hundreds of store ratings, and reviewers count single-digit profiles nearby.
- Weekly plans at $9.99 to $14.99, with prices only visible inside the stores.
- Reviewers say filtering to tall Members only and messaging freely need a paid plan.
- Height verification relies on a self-reported license height, and there's no identity check described.
- Terms and privacy policy from 2019, with placeholder fields.
DateUp alternatives for tall daters
So, should you delete Hinge for DateUp? No. There's no single "number one" dating app, but the big apps are where the numbers are, and two of them let you filter by height, for a price:
- If you want serious dating and lots of profiles, pick Hinge. Hinge says on its how we connect daters page that "paid subscribers can set additional preferences around height". I rate it 4.5 out of 5 in my Hinge review.
- If you're a woman who wants to make the first move, pick Bumble. Bumble lists height among its Advanced Filters, which come with its paid plans, and you can only filter on fields you've filled in yourself. See my Bumble review.
- If you live in a big city and want people who care about height as much as you do, add DateUp for free next to one of those, and only pay once you see real activity near you.
For more relationship-focused options, see my list of serious dating apps.
How I rate it
I give DateUp 2.5 out of 5. This rating is based on public information checked in October 2026: DateUp's own FAQ, terms and privacy policy, its App Store and Google Play listings, prices and reviews. It's not based on hands-on use. Each criterion is scored 1 to 5. Value for money gets 2: weekly plans of $10 to $15 for a small pool, with key filters reportedly paywalled. Safety and verification gets 2.5: a useful optional height check that doesn't store your license, clear rules against scams, but no identity check described. Evidence of an active user base gets 1.5: 100K+ Android downloads, but only a few hundred ratings and repeated reports of tiny local pools. Features for its audience get 3.5: the Members and Guests system, height badges and Teleport fit tall daters well. Transparency gets 2: auto-renewal and refunds are spelled out, but prices aren't on the website and the legal pages date from 2019 with placeholder fields. The average is 2.3, which rounds to 2.5.
Frequently asked questions
Is the DateUp dating app free?
You can download DateUp, build a profile, swipe and match for free. Subscriptions on the US App Store run from $9.99 a week to $99.99 for six months (October 2026), and reviewers say messaging freely and filtering to tall Members only need a paid plan.
Is DateUp legit or a scam?
DateUp is a legit app from DateUp, Inc., updated in 2026, with 100K+ downloads on Google Play. Complaints are about how few people use it and the weekly price, not about fake profiles planted by the company. Still follow the usual rules: never send money to someone you met online.
How tall do you have to be for DateUp?
Women 5'8" and taller and men 6'0" and taller join as Members. Anyone shorter can join as a Guest and match with Members, but Guests cannot match with other Guests.
How does DateUp height verification work?
It is optional. You scan your driver's license, the app reads the height and date of birth and compares them with your profile, and DateUp's privacy policy says the license is parsed but not saved. A license height is self-reported in most places, so the badge confirms the license, not a measurement.
Is DateUp available on Android?
Yes. DateUp - Tall Dating Made Easy is on Google Play and on the iPhone App Store, both from DateUp, Inc. Make sure you are not downloading Dateup from dateup.in, an unrelated AI photo tool with the same name.