TransDate (8.6/10) comes out ahead of Hinge (7.4/10) overall, mainly on discretion and safety. Go TransDate if you want discretion and safety; pick Hinge if a smooth, easy experience matters more to you.
TransDate is a solid, honestly middle-of-the-pack pick for what it is: a casual trans-focused hookup site with a free browse and a paid wall for messaging. Its real strength is the targeted audience, which beats hunting on a general app if you're a trans woman, an admirer, or a couple in one of the supported countries. Its real weaknesses are narrow geo coverage, a pushy upsell funnel, and a PPS offer that rebills, so read the terms before you pay. Use the free tier as a scouting run: if it shows real activity near you in BE, AU, CA, SE or UK, the paid step is a reasonable bet. If the free browse looks thin, or you want something serious or card-free, skip it. I rate it a decent option in a repetitive category, not a category leader.
+Genuinely trans-focused audience, not a mainstream site with a trans filter bolted on
+Free account lets you build a profile and browse before paying, so you can scout the local pool first
+Clear casual/hookup positioning, no romance-app bait-and-switch
Hinge's real strength is intent. It's built relationship-first, 'Designed to be deleted', and the prompt-plus-comment model genuinely pulls in a crowd that's there to date rather than to swipe, which is why it scores well on ease and members. The trade-offs are honest: the free tier caps your likes, the prompts ask more effort than a swipe app, and, like any big open platform under Match Group, it carries fake profiles and the occasional scammer. I can't independently verify its live member numbers, so the members score reflects a well-supported estimate of a real, young, urban crowd rather than a measured headcount. The one thing I'll be blunt about, and it's the most useful line here: if you're purely after casual hookups, Hinge is the wrong app and you'll be fighting its whole design, a location grid or hookup-first app will serve you better. But if you actually want to date, Hinge is one of the best-built options going, and the free tier is enough to test your area before paying. This listing isn't a paid placement, its position here is my own editorial read.
+Genuinely relationship-first, the crowd is there to date, not just to hook up
+Prompt-based profiles and like-with-comment start conversations from something specific, not a blank 'hey'
+Free tier is a real product, you can date on it without paying