Upward Review 2026: Is It Legit? What We Found
Upward is the largest Christian dating app in America among younger users, and it is a Match Group product wearing a faith-based label. It released on iOS in March 2020, originally under the name FTH, short for Faith, and rebranded to Upward in 2022. It now carries 159,571 US App Store ratings.
The ownership is the fact most reviews skip. The App Store seller is Affinity Apps, LLC, which is the same entity behind BLK and Chispa, and which sits under Match Group alongside Tinder and Hinge. Upward, BLK and Chispa are the same machine pointed at three different communities.
We should be straight about why this page exists. Upward is a marriage-minded Christian dating app. It is not a hookup app, it is not adjacent to one, and we are not going to recommend it for casual on any city page. It is here because it is one of the biggest US dating apps we had no page for, and because our readers deserve to know it is a Match Group product before they sign up believing otherwise.
Below is how it works, what it costs, and what others made of it. Cast your vote and add your own experience at the bottom.
Have You Used Upward? Vote Now
Here’s what others are saying about the Upward platform.
If you landed here looking for something casual, this is not the app for it. Here is our current shortlist of hookup sites and apps with real, active members.
Information
URL: upward-app.com
Year of Establishment: iOS release 4 March 2020 as FTH, rebranded Upward in 2022
Adult material on the lander: No
Mobile App: Yes, iOS and Android
Whitelabel: No, but it shares its operator with BLK and Chispa
Target Group: Christian singles, broadly 18 to 35, relationship and marriage minded
Operator: Affinity Apps, LLC, part of Match Group
Age rating: 17+
Traffic Statistics
US App Store ratings: 159,571 (Apple data, pulled 30 July 2026)
Chart position: number 59 in the US App Store Social Networking chart at time of writing
Platform: iOS and Android, overwhelmingly United States
Source: Apple’s US App Store data
We are not quoting a monthly-visits figure, because this is an app rather than a website and web-traffic estimates for app-first products are not meaningful.
How Upward actually works
Mechanically, Upward is a swipe app and will feel immediately familiar to anybody who has used Tinder or Hinge, which is unsurprising given the shared parent. You build a profile, set filters, swipe, and a mutual like opens a chat.
The differences are the faith layer. Profiles include prompts about denomination, church attendance, how central faith is to your life, and what you are looking for, and you can filter on those. That filtering is the entire value proposition: it saves the conversation where you find out three dates in that your priorities do not line up.
The framing throughout is relationship and marriage oriented. Prompts, copy and community guidelines all push that way, and the culture on the app follows. People do use it casually, as they use every app, but they are working against the grain of the product.
Practically: it is dense in the US, particularly in the South and Midwest, and thin elsewhere. It is not an international product.
Is Upward safe?
Upward is legitimate, and having a corporate parent that answers to regulators and shareholders is a meaningfully lower risk profile than an anonymous operator. Billing runs through Apple and Google, so cancellation is in your phone settings rather than dependent on the company. Photo verification, blocking and reporting are all standard.
The realistic risk is other users, and there is a specific pattern worth flagging. Faith-based dating apps are heavily targeted by romance scammers, because a stated shared value system is an efficient trust shortcut for somebody running a script. Reviewers report fake profiles and scam approaches, and the mechanics are always the same: an unusually well-suited match, a fast push to move to WhatsApp or Telegram, an emotional escalation, then a financial emergency.
The rules that work: keep it in the app until you have video-called, be suspicious of anybody who cannot video-call, never send money or crypto or gift cards to somebody you have not met, and be aware that a shared faith is not evidence of anything about who you are talking to.
Package Costs
Upward is free to download and use at a basic level. It is the most expensive app in this batch on paper.
Reported tiers have run around $14.99 a month for Premium and $29.99 a month for Elite, with multi-month terms cutting the rate substantially, something like three months near $22.49 and six months near $35.99 in total rather than per month. Pricing shifts by market and promotion, so treat these as indicative and check the purchase screen.
What you get is the familiar Match Group ladder: unlimited likes, seeing who liked you, boosts and advanced filters. Nothing is needed to match and message. Cancellation is in your Apple or Google settings.
Upward pros and cons
Pros
- The largest Christian dating app in the US among under-35s
- Faith filters do real work if that is your priority
- Backed by a major operator, conventional billing and safety tooling
- Free tier is usable
- Cancellation runs through Apple or Google, not the company
Cons
- Not a hookup app, and using it as one works against the whole product
- The most expensive tiers in this batch
- Match Group ownership is not disclosed in the branding
- Faith-based apps are a favoured target for romance scammers
- Essentially US-only
- Reviewers report fake profiles
Upward vs the alternatives
Against Christian Mingle, Upward is younger, cheaper and app-native. Christian Mingle is the older brand with an older base, and its US App Store presence is now tiny by comparison, a few hundred ratings against Upward’s 159,571.
Against Hinge, Upward is essentially Hinge with faith filters and a smaller pool, which is close to literally true given the shared parent. If faith compatibility is not a filter you need, Hinge is the better app.
Against BLK and Chispa, the three are siblings from the same operator, built on the same mechanics for different communities. If you fit more than one, expect near-identical experiences.
For casual, none of the above. Upward is the wrong app for it and we will not pretend otherwise.
Upward FAQ
Is Upward free?
Free to download, match and message at a basic level. Premium has been around $14.99 a month and Elite around $29.99, with longer terms much cheaper per month. Check the purchase screen, since pricing moves.
Who owns Upward?
Affinity Apps, LLC, which sits under Match Group, the same parent as Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid, and the same operator as BLK and Chispa. The branding does not mention it; the App Store seller record does.
Was Upward called something else?
Yes. It launched in 2020 as FTH, short for Faith, and rebranded to Upward in 2022.
Is Upward a hookup app?
No. It is built for relationships and marriage among Christian singles, and the prompts, copy and culture all push that way. Using it for casual works against the product.
Is Upward safe?
The platform is legitimate and billing runs through Apple and Google. The specific risk is romance scams, which target faith-based apps heavily because a shared value system is an easy trust shortcut. Video-call before meeting and never send money.
Is Upward better than Christian Mingle?
It is far larger among younger users and cheaper, with 159,571 US App Store ratings against Christian Mingle’s few hundred. Christian Mingle has the older brand and an older base.
We are not calling it either way. Weigh genuine faith filtering and a large young base against the price and the scam exposure, read what others below have said, and add your own experience.
If you’ve used Upward, help the rest of the community out by leaving a comment below describing your experience.